Encounters with Jesus. Ben Witherington III

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      If there’s one thing I despise, it’s hypocrisy. Men come to me with their needs and wants, their desires to be pleasured in the dark of the night, but of course discreetly, as they don’t want to be shamed. It’s the married men who are the worst. They sneak around, they enjoy themselves, and then in public they condemn harlotry! Simon the Pharisee was one of those sorts of men. Oh yes, he knew me alright, knew what kind of person I was, by personal experience. While he never visited me, he knew his brother did and he said not a word. Nothing!

      Yeshua, on the other hand, was a very different sort of man. He never came to me wanting something like that. He came to me because I was broken, ashamed, needing help and healing. And he even offered forgiveness. I was so very grateful. I broke into tears when he told me I could be forgiven. I wanted to do something, an act of gratitude, the next time he passed through town. And I did. This is how a later storyteller told my tale . . .

      “When one of the Pharisees invited Yeshua to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Yeshua was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

      “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

      “Yeshua answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’

      ‘Tell me, teacher,’ he said.

      ‘Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?’

      Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.’

      ‘You have judged correctly,’ Yeshua said.

      “Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.’

      “Then Yeshua said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’

      “The other guests began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’

      “Yeshua said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’” [Luke 7]

      It was summer time. The heat was extreme, and when someone comes off those hot dusty roads, the normal custom is to have a servant or a member of the household not merely welcome a guest, but have their feet washed, and their scalp anointed to prevent cracking and pain. Simon apparently had done neither of these things when Yeshua arrived at his house. If you are wondering how I gained entrance, in the summer the houses are wide open during the day to allow for ventilation. You can see in, you can hear, you can walk right in because none of the doors are shut. And so I did. I walked right into the house. The dining area was in the big family living area that was in the front of the house, so as to get the breeze. Yeshua and Simon were deep in conversation, reclining on couches and at first Simon did not see me. I stooped down at the end of the couch where Yeshua was and began anointing his feet with my best perfume. I also began to cry. I had been so moved, so grateful, so relieved after my previous conversation with Yeshua. In fact, I had been so strongly motivated, I had become determined to give up my lucrative profession, and start afresh in life. I had enough resources to move to another town where my reputation would not have preceded me. But I waited until this day to make the move, because I was afraid I would miss Yeshua’s coming, since he passed through this seaside village regularly.

      I am still amazed at the way Yeshua handled the critique of Simon. He didn’t rebut Simon’s mutterings about Yeshua being spiritually obtuse and not knowing what kind of person I was. Instead, as was his habit, he told a story, a story about debt and forgiveness. And he is right. A person who has been forgiven more, is more grateful, is likely to show more love. Yeshua implied I had indeed been forgiven more, and therefore was responding to the grace with more gratitude than Simon had. But I did notice that Yeshua was implying Simon had a need for forgiveness as well. Oh yes, he was a community leader, and yet he was prepared to be silent and overlook the sins of his brother with me while condemning me. That’s just sheer hypocrisy and Yeshua didn’t like it any better than I did.

      “G-d is no respecter of persons,” he once said. G-d couldn’t care less about a person’s honor or status in a community. He does not dole out justice or mercy on the basis of СКАЧАТЬ