Judge Not, Lest You be Judged

Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36 – 8:3

Hospitality. Love. Forgiveness. Grace.

Each of these can be found in this story of Simon, Jesus, and the sinful woman. These are all things we need throughout our lives and they are what Jesus offers to us and asks us to offer to others as well.

The story begins with the need to eat. We all need food to survive, and it was a well known practice in ancient times to offer hospitality to the visiting travelers, especially the ones that were well known. Jesus is invited to come for a meal at Simon the Pharisee’s home. This suggests that Simon was not completely against Jesus and his teachings like many of the Pharisees were and it tells us that Simon wanted to get to know Jesus better. What better way than through a nice, civilized dinner?

As Jesus is sitting at Simon’s table, dusty and weary from the long day of walking, healing, and preaching a woman slowly approaches. We only know a little bit about this woman. She heard that Jesus had arrived in town and where he was eating his meal. We know that she is a sinful woman and that everyone in town knows she is sinful. We have no idea what makes her sinful. Some have read this text and suggested she was a prostitute. I disagree. The bible has no trouble calling a woman a prostitute when that is her profession, but the writer does not do that here.

What we do know is that whatever this woman’s sin is; it is public and known by everyone. How awful that must have been! In a society that reveres lawfulness and purity, to be known as an openly sinful person must have been agony. It immediately made her an outcast and despised. No clean person would want to be around her and that would mean she’d have trouble supporting herself. Every day she would have been cursed at, perhaps spit upon, looked on with contempt and superiority by the others that lived in the town. She was unclean. She was unworthy. She was beneath their notice.

Perhaps that is why she was able to successfully get so close to Jesus. No one wants to notice the outcasts, the lowly ones in society in case it brings attention to themselves and their lives. When a person deliberately pays attention to the least among us, they bring unwanted scrutiny and gossip to their own life. They may even be made an outcast themselves and so it was imperative to ignore those people and to treat them harshly when they came near.

Who are the outcasts in our society? Who are the people you think of with utter contempt and disgust? Don’t pretend there isn’t some person or group of people that you cannot stand. Be honest with yourself and with God. Let’s go through the hot topics of our society. Illegal aliens. Welfare users and abusers. Government officials. Muslims. Gay people. Fat people. The Rich. The Poor. Models. Criminals.  Reality tv stars. Wall Street workers. Black people. Latinos and Hispanics. Japanese and Chinese people. The woman that always wins the blue ribbon and you come in second. The man that always gets promoted ahead of you. We have biases toward others. There are people we cannot stand and we treat them as Simon and that town treated the sinful woman – as beneath our notice and deserving of our contempt.

Finally, the sinful woman gets close enough to Jesus that she can actually touch him. She probably meant to take her jar of perfume and anoint his head which is the normal custom. However, she is overcome with tears. No one has ever treated her with kindness and respect, but Jesus does. No one has ever looked past her sins and seen the real woman, and cared. Jesus did. No one had ever forgiven her for her mistakes, no one had ever shown her a different way to be – but Jesus does and did.

Because of the way the tables are low to the floor, Jesus’ feet were the closest thing to her and her tears fell upon his dirty feet. The traditional custom when you invite a person into your home is to offer them water to wash their feet because it is a dusty land and sandals offer little protection. Simon had not seen to Jesus’ comfort. Simon was too busy judging Jesus and the woman to heed such a simple hospitality that shows respect and caring.

Put yourself in that woman’s place. She cannot stop crying, the tears are falling so fast that she literally takes her hair down and is now able to bath Jesus’ feet with her tears of gratitude. Then she kisses his feet, over and over again, before taking the costly jar of perfume and anoints his feet with it. That perfume may have cost her her next week of meals, but she takes it and she pours it upon him. She shows the hospitality and love that Simon had forgotten while he was busy judging everyone around him as inferior.

Who are we forgetting to help and love and accept because we’re so busy judging them as sinful? Who are we to consider another person more sinful than us? Do you never do anything wrong? Have you never done something you’re ashamed of and if anyone found out you’d be humiliated? Are you without sin? Are your sins less than another person’s that you can judge them so completely and without mercy? Would you want the world to know your sins and judge you that way?

Jesus understood what the woman was going through and he allowed her to show her love and appreciation for his mercy. Jesus knew what Simon was thinking and he had a message for him and for all of us that would think to judge other people. He tells Simon that there were two people who were given money by a lender. One had been loaned a little bit of money and the other a lot, but neither of them could pay the man back. The man graciously forgave both loans. Jesus asks, “Who do you think is more grateful?”

“The one who was forgiven a lot.” Simon replied. And Jesus nods his head and tells Simon, “Whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.” In other words, those of us that think we are better than others have not the capacity for love like the ones that know they are sinful and have been forgiven. In other words, those people who constantly forgive others for their waywardness, for their sinfulness know God’s love more than those of us that keep judging people because of what little we know about their lives.

None of us are perfect. We make many mistakes. The biggest one we make is our inability to see that there is no such thing as a saint. The contempt and disgust we bring upon others hurts them. It makes them feel less than they should. It is not love. It is not acceptance. It is not forgiveness. Therefore, it is not being a Christian. Jesus Christ is the only saint this world has ever known. Jesus Christ never judged a person based upon their sins, but on their willingness to change. He showed them a better way to live and he helped them to be better.

Do not judge others. Do not look down upon anyone because you do not want Jesus to look down upon you. What we should be doing is trying to help those people we have kept down. We should be trying to lift them up and show them the love and mercy that Jesus constantly shows us.

You may think you have legitimate reasons for being disgusted with another person or a group of people, but Jesus has just as much reason to be disgusted with you. The beauty of the Gospel is that he isn’t disgusted. Jesus loves you with all of his heart, with all of his soul, and with all of his mind. Jesus loves that person you hate - just as much, whether you like it or not.

The truth is that Jesus died for the whole world. We are called to share that good news and make sure to give everyone as many second chances as they need so that they get to heaven too. Whether we get along with them or not. Whether we agree with them or not. We are called to share that Gospel with them. We are called to share God’s love and forgiveness with them. Do not judge unless you’re willing to be judged yourself.

Amen.