Monday 07 May 2012

Background

I am very fortunate that I have had opportunity to meet and mixwith many types of people from those with severe learning andphysical difficulties to those who have their names in the popularpress and earn financial rewards to match their fame. And from eachone I have been able to learn more about being human and aboutattitudes and behaviour.

Today's passage brings us face to face with a whole series ofsocial attitudes, behavior, expectations and with prejudice.

Simon, we are told, is a Pharisee,: a man committed to knowing andunderstanding the Law and living his life to those rules andregulations set down in the Law. (The Law as given to Moses by Godin the ten commandments on Mount Sinai (Exodus20:1-17) and all the plethora of little rules and regulationsattached to the larger, broad sweep of this Law by teachers andleaders along the way down to even what food could be eatentogether and how a basin should be washed.)

He would have been seen as a respected man in the local town andthe right person to invite Jesus to dine with him. Custom dictatedthat a guest would be greeted with clean water to wash the dustfrom the roads off their feet and hands before eating and sometimesointment was also offered for the comfort of the guest. This storytells us that Simon omits to offer such a welcome.

Dining was undertaken in a semi-reclined style on chaise longuetype seating around a low table. And frequently the space around adining area would be filled with curious onlookers keen to listento the conversation,especially if the guests were people ofnote.

So Jesus is served and conversation is underway when a womanarrives. Kneeling she washes his feet with her tears, anoints themwith scented oil and wipes them with her hair.

Respectable is not a word that would have been used to describeher! A woman with loose hair, as hers appears to be, without beingheld by a veil or covering would have marked her out as a woman oflow morals. Luke even suggests that this woman has been working asa prostitute. Such a woman would not have been welcome in the homeof a respectable man like Simon!

Simon's thinking gives him away as he condemns her on sight andcriticises Jesus into the bargain! He clearly feels that Jesusshould send her away - and the sooner the better! But Jesus hasother plans. He speaks of those who have experienced a life ofdebt, of those who can imprison the debtors or release them to afresh start - debt free.

His intimation is that Simon does not see himself as a debtor inneed of freedom. But the woman has understood her own life in sucha way that she knows herself to be a debtor in need ofrelease.

Jesus offers the release.

Consider the people around you: the elderly who feel that theyhave nothing more to give; the harassed family with no time to domore than work to put food on the table; the person coping withdepression or other health problems and those who care for them;the young child with physical and learning difficulties and theirfamily.

There are so many people around that society would be very quickto send to the rubbish tip and condemn out of hand and yet they arehuman beings, loved by God and worthy of our support and caringcompassion.

We are the ones who can offer release through acceptance and anopenness to learning from them - but how willing (or unwilling) arewe to spend the time and effort such a manner of livingrequires?

To Ponder

• What people do you encounter in your everyday life that you seewithout noticing or paying any regard to?
   
• How do you think you are seen by others and how do you assessothers and create your opinion of them?
   
• Who are the people you meet who offer you the opportunity tolearn about acceptance simply as you are?