Preacher: Rev. Joel Beyer
Series: Lectionary Series C
Category: Forgiveness, Mercy, Sin, Humility
Keywords: forgiveness , sin , sinners , tears
Detail:
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! At least it is in my home. My son has started counting down the days. By the way, it’s 196. Recently we even started reading through Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer as he picked it out for his bed time story, and in his cute little way, the first thing he asked me was why is Rudolph’s nose red? And I said, “Well it’s because.., wait, why is his nose red?” After he went to bed, I spent the next hour trying to come up with the most logical and scientifically acceptable reason why that nose glows. But as we were reading through it, there was one part that stood out to me more than it had in the past: that creepy island of misfit toys. Those toys that for one reason or another have been banished and tossed aside because they aren’t good enough for kids to be played with. They don’t fit in. You know what I’m talking about? Jack in the box whose name is Charlie. A cowboy who rides an ostrich, which is actually an incredible feat. A train with square wheels. A water pistol that shoots jelly? They don’t fit the picture of a good toy. In fact, there are a number of defective toys in my own house that my son won’t play with because they’re not good enough, broken, but ever since I saw Toy Story, I somehow imagine that they have little souls so I can’t throw them away.
But here’s why that story got me: Have you ever felt like a misfit toy? Like you weren’t good enough? Maybe you didn’t measure up to a group of friends growing up that you wanted to fit in with. Or maybe you haven’t gotten the love and affection you needed from your family. Have you ever done something to mess up a relationship to the point where you thought, “There’s no way this person is ever going to forgive me?” It happens all the time, either to us or to people we know. We’re all misfits in one way or another. We all have defective parts of our personalities or past that make us unlovable to someone at some point. And it’s in the church of Jesus, where we should all be able to come and confess that reality and be met with a chorus of, “You’re worthy! You’re accepted! You are loved! You are good enough to bring meaning and joy to those around you!” Because of Jesus who died for misfit sinners like us, that is the reality. We Lutherans like to talk about it with a Latin phrase, simul justus et peccator , or in English we are simultaneously a saint/sinner combo. At any given moment you are 100% sinful and unworthy, and yet because of Jesus’ sacrificial death for you, you are also 100% justified, completely saved, completely perfect and whole in the eyes of God.
Unfortunately it doesn’t always feel that way for most people. More often than not, even in the church, people feel the need to hide their deepest sins and fears so that they feel we’re on a scale between sinner and saint. Maybe you feel like others seem to have this faith and trust thing together, but it’s all you can do to believe that God really cares about you. Maybe you see and hear mean-spirited attitudes towards people who struggle with depression, greed, lust, and addiction, and all along, you know in your heart, those same accusations can be levied against you. The church should be a safe place where you can be vulnerable, but you don’t always feel safe to show others who you really are.
That's how the woman in our Gospel reading who sat at Jesus lap probably felt. Jesus had been invited over to the home of a religious leader, Simon, the Pharisee, for dinner, and this woman who we don’t know much about other than the fact that her reputation preceded her that she was a “sinner”, a spiritually unclean person, probably a prostitute by trade, that Jesus is there and shows up! She has probably heard that Jesus is someone who, unlike other religious leaders, would actually care about someone like her. She had probably heard that He spoke with authority as one who knew who exactly who God was and what made someone “good enough” to God, and instead of bringing immediate shame and judgment, he was blessing misfits and sinners. He was relieving people of their guilt and illnesses. Might He turn her life around too? She was determined to find out. And so, uninvited, at great risk to herself of public humiliation, this woman comes in, sits right next to Jesus and begins to serve him.
She needs him to bless her, to love her, to tell her she is worthy and so begins to wash his feet. As we talked about last week, in the Ancient Near East, feet get really dirty because all you have is sandals and dirt roads. And so she gets out the best perfumed oil she owns and as she begins to anoint his feet, something unexpected happens. She is overcome with emotion, I believe, from a conscious awareness of her own sinfulness, and Jesus holiness. And she begins to weep uncontrollably, so much so, that her tears are falling on Jesus feet and she feels the need to wipe them off with her hair.
Martin Luther rightly calls these tears “heart water”. These tears come out of her heart. This is cleansing for her soul. This is an act of repentance. This is her publicly acknowledging before the most judgmental, shaming, condemning self-righteous men, and before a perfect Jesus, “Yes, I’m a sinful woman, and I have deep regret for the life I’ve lived.” She is broken, humbled, devastated. She knows who she is. Jesus does too. But Jesus, instead of doing what every other person in her life had ever done, which is cast her aside, looks right at her and gives her the best words she could ever have heard, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The same is true for you and me as it is for her. The closer we get to Jesus, the more sinful we recognize ourselves as being. For some, it’s easy to see. They, like the woman, know our sins. They’re many, they’re public, they’re evident. They are the ones who have ruined marriages because of addictions or infidelity. They are the ones who have lost careers because they cheated with money. They're the ones who have hit rock bottom and everyone knows it. And if that’s you, many ways you’re the lucky ones because you meet Jesus at the point where there’s nothing else to turn to, and you receive forgiveness and acceptance gladly.
For others, I would say for most people, it takes a little more. It takes a clear word from God to confront the sin within us that we might not recognize. Simon, the Pharisee didn’t have a clue. He was trying to impress Jesus with a fancy dinner, with upright standing amongst his peers, with a squeaky clean life and superior religious knowledge, and yet Jesus points out that all of those things were his greatest flaw because they were all about him. He didn’t have love for others, especially for misfits and sinners. Jesus points out, Simon, you didn’t give me any water for my feet, you didn’t anoint me with oil, you didn’t even think to serve me because you don’t think you need what I have to offer - forgiveness.
I’ve been so frustrated this week reading about Brock Turner, the young man who raped the young woman at Stanford University…in his letter, he really doesn’t acknowledge what he’s really done. Yeah he blames it on alcohol and sexually promiscuous party scene in college. But he never blames it on himself. He never says I’m sorry for the way I’ve harmed and damaged this woman. He just says I wish I could go back and erase the externals of that night, and I’d be fine. The reason I’m frustrated because I see this same mentality at play in myself and in others. We make excuses for ourselves and our sins. We blame it on externals or on others, sometimes rightly so, but we can get so focused on other’s sins that we fail to confess our own part… 1 John 1:8-9 — “If you say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but i f we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Just like with Simon, Jesus sees not just what you want him to see, but directly in your heart. He knows every hateful thought you’ve ever had, every selfish motive you’ve ever justified, every unkind word you’ve ever said, every bitter grudge you’ve ever held, every relationship you’ve ever damaged, and instead of condemning you and shaming you for it, He forgives you. He blesses you. He sits down with you, sinner though you are, and calls you “good”, and loving, and pure. What you find when you meet Jesus, is a God loves you so much, that despite whatever you or anyone else thinks that you are, you can be confident in what God thinks about you. God went all the way to the cross and died for you so that you could be sure that your sin is paid for, crushed, and buried. He washed you in Baptism and buried your sin with Christ in the tomb. He gives you His very
I don’t know about you, but that’s what I get when I come to church. I can confess my sins, declare how unworthy I am of God’s affection, and yet boldly sit at his feet and be reminded of His perfect acceptance through my Lord, Jesus. I look around the room and I don’t see people who are better or worse sinners, who are better or worse Christians, what I see is beautifully redeemed and forgiven children of God, who like, me are still struggling in this life, but know where to find mercy and grace.
In the end of the movie, the misfit toys get rescued and redeemed. They are reminded that they are valued and loved and have an incredible purpose to make children happy, or at least to make them laugh. May we be a church where that same reality is evident in how we speak to and treat each other. May we always find freedom in confessing to God and to one another and receiving Jesus’ words of forgiveness. May we give thanks that for our sake, God became a misfit to show His infinite love for misfits like us. Amen.
