One Table, Two Encounters

Gospel: Luke 7: 36-50

A Pharisee invites Jesus dine at his house; Jesus accepts and enters, but does not receive the customary washbowl as is customary and required by the laws of hospitality.  Despite this, Jesus sits at table with the Pharisee, whereupon a woman of ill-repute comes along to wash Jesus' feet with perfume and dry them with her hair.  This goes beyond the customs of hospitality; it is generous good-will.  Jesus overlooks her sins and even forgives them because she showed great hospitality and love.

The Pharisee had objected to the woman's presence, though one might wonder of her presence in his house in the first place, but that is exactly the point.  The Pharisee's objection is hypocritical, and his invitation to Jesus was insincere.  In spite of all that Jesus enters a house full of sin in order to share a meal so that an encounter of transformation can take place, one that occurs within the woman, but not in the Pharisee.

Our houses of worship are full of sin - our own individual souls and our communal gatherings of church.  In spite of this fact, Jesus comes into our dwelling places in order to dine with us, in spite of our inhospitable welcome, in spite of the presence of sin - in the hopes that his presence might transform us in some way as it does for this woman.  In every encounter we can be the woman or we can be the Pharisee in our response to Jesus' presence at our table within our house.