3rd Sunday of Easter: Scandalous Worship

This Sunday's Scripture Readings

See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children… 1 John 3:1a (NRSV)

John could boldly make this claim because of Jesus. The religious elite of Jesus’ day had constructed elaborate walls that excluded those deemed outsiders, unclean, or unworthy from access to God. They were excluded from both Synagogue and Temple worship. They were excluded from upstanding society. But Jesus came along and started busting down those walls. Jesus welcomed outcasts (sinners) and ate with them. (Luke 15:2) Scandalous!

There is a powerful story of scandalous worship offered by a sinful woman found in Luke 7:36-50.

36 A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him, and Jesus went to his house and sat down to eat. 37 In that town was a woman who lived a sinful life. She heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee's house, so she brought an alabaster jar full of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus, by his feet, crying and wetting his feet with her tears. Then she dried his feet with her hair, kissed them, and poured the perfume on them. Luke 7:36-38 (GNT)

It would have been common in those days for people to enter a home to hear a well known rabbi. The woman had heard that Jesus was going to be at this Pharisee’s house and was no doubt drawn there by Jesus’ reputation for accepting people like her. Although the Pharisee was probably bothered by her presence in his home, he did not prevent her or anyone else from coming in to hear Jesus. However, he surely kept a close eye on her to make sure that she was kept in her place as an outsider. Probably as she listened to Jesus speak, she was overcome by His openness and acceptance. She, for once, did not feel hostility, but hospitality. As a result, as she stood by Jesus she began to weep and I imagine big tears fell creating small blotches of mud on Jesus’ dusty feet. Her heart swelling with love and gratitude, she then dried His feet, kissed them, and poured perfume on them. Kissing of the feet was, in no way an erotic act but an expression of reverence.

But this woman was most likely a prostitute and as such an outcast. “Respectable” people would not associate with her, let alone allow themselves to be touched by her. She was unclean and to be touched by her would make the person touched unclean as well. Notice the Pharisee’s reaction.

When the Pharisee saw this, he said to himself, "If this man really were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him; he would know what kind of sinful life she lives!" Luke 7:39 (GNT)

Of course Jesus knew what kind of woman she was. Jesus would have also known the kind of bad news injustice that trapped this woman in her “sin.” Perhaps she, like most prostitutes of her day, were faced with the choice of selling their bodies or starving (and watching their children starve). It would not be surprising if there were upstanding men in that same room who might have been secret customers of this woman. Yes, Jesus knew what kind of a woman she was. In fact He knew what kind of people everyone in the room were. Yet there was one person in the room who showed great love and worship. It wasn’t the “saints” in the room. It was the “sinner” who offered worthy worship as scandalous as it might have been to the onlookers.

How do we feel about scandalous acts of worship in our own houses of worship? I wonder if we are ever like the Pharisee, who in the presence of Christ, offers little but is scandalized by the “sinner” who dares to pour out his or her best effort to express Him honest love. I’m talking raised eyebrows when someone who doesn’t fit the perception of a worthy worshiper attempts to offer or even lead others in offering honest worship. Thoughts start rushing through the heads of Pharisees. “Wait, but that person is living in sin. How could they possibly lead me in worship?” But in that Pharisee's house that day, the sinful woman was the example of worthy worship. She was the worship leader.

The fact of the matter is that none of us are “worthy worship leaders.” In that Pharisee's home that day was assembled a group of sinners. One of them was a well known sinner. Some were secret sinners whose sins were only known to themselves. Some were sinners but had forgotten it. Jesus knew the heart of each one and told a story to remind everyone of what is most important in worship.

40 Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Yes, Teacher," he said, "tell me." 41 "There were two men who owed money to a moneylender," Jesus began. "One owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other owed him fifty. 42 Neither of them could pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Which one, then, will love him more?" 43 "I suppose," answered Simon, "that it would be the one who was forgiven more." "You are right," said Jesus. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You did not welcome me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I came. 46 You provided no olive oil for my head, but she has covered my feet with perfume. 47 I tell you, then, the great love she has shown proves that her many sins have been forgiven. But whoever has been forgiven little shows only a little love." 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven.” Luke 7:40-48 (GNT)

Two words come to mind here; hospitality and gratitude. Simon, the Pharisee failed to show proper hospitality because he failed to comprehend the hospitality that was offered by his most important guest that day. After all, he did not need acceptance from Jesus. He was a respectable religious elite. He had spent so long showing everyone how perfect he was that he began to believe it himself. He had no need for forgiveness and thus had no gratitude for the grace extended. The woman, on the other hand, was accepted and forgiven by no one except by Jesus, and as a result she realized for the first time in her life that she was accepted by God. She experienced the Good News and she was overcome with gratitude.

How do we approach worship? Do we approach it as religious elites who have got the rules and rituals all figured out and thus possess the status of worthy worshipers? Or do we approach the worship setting as sinners overwhelmed with gratitude for the hospitality given us? The real scandal of worship is not when people who don’t have their lives all together offer God their hearts in the best and most honest way that they can. It is when those of us who know the acceptable rules and rituals of church worship fail to appreciate the hospitality of God given to us through Jesus Christ. When we fail in this area, we will always fail to be hospitable to others. We will find ourselves judging the worthiness of other worshipers rather than focusing on the worthiness of the One Who is worthy.