What is the main teaching of the Christian Church? I think it is Forgiveness. That is the message of the cross: the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. The cross is the symbol of the Christian Church, and so forgiveness is the center of Christian teaching and Christian life. Sure, love is very close to the center, because it is love that forgives. In forgiveness, the sins and offences that cause the lack of love are broken down and so love can happen. Jesus has many parables about forgiveness, and there are many incidents in his ministry where forgiveness is the topic. Today�fs Gospel lesson is one such incident.

In today�fs story there are three people, Jesus, Simon who is a Pharisee, and an unnamed Woman who is called a sinner. I think I would probably like Simon and enjoy talking to him about the Bible and such. He was a religious man. As a good Pharisee, he tried to live in accordance with the teachings of the Bible. He tried to live a holy life without sin. He was interested in the Kingdom of God, so he invited Jesus to have dinner with him. He had thought Jesus might be a prophet of God, but when the woman came in and anointed the feet of Jesus, Simon began to have doubts. �gIf this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is ? that she is a sinner.�h Of course Jesus did know what sort of a woman she was, and he knew what sort of a man Simon was.

In Bible times, washing the feet of a guest was an act of hospitality. After a hot, dust walk, it would feel great! The closest thing we have in modern society might be the hot napkin or oshibori. Whereas we might greet someone with a handshake, there are many places that greet visitors with a hug and a kiss. I do not know what the modern equivalent to anointing the head with oil would be; maybe a chance to comb or brush your hair? These were common courtesies, but Simon didn�ft perform them for Jesus, but the woman did, in a superlative way. She wet Jesus�f feet with her tears and wiped his feet with her hair. She kissed his feet. Then she anointed, not his head, but his feet with expensive perfume. This was a sign of hospitality, of love, of adoration.

Simon called the woman a �gsinner.�h We aren�ft told exactly what her sin was, but the word �gsinner�h was applied by the strict Pharisees to anyone who did not keep the Law of Moses as strictly as they did. Perhaps she didn�ft keep the dietary regulations. Perhaps she or her husband did business with the Romans, who were religiously unclean, and so any contact with such foreigners would make a Jew religiously unclean, and therefore a �gsinner.�h She may have been a prostitute, but the text doesn�ft necessarily mean that. But to Simon, she was an unclean sinner. He did not want to touch her or be touched by her, either. If Jesus was a prophet of God, Simon could not understand why Jesus would let her touch him (his holy body), even his feet!

As we read this story, we automatically associate ourselves with one of the characters. Which one is most like yourself? Are you more like Simon or like the Woman? Do you see yourself as one who is self-controlled and who keeps the Law of God most of the time? Or do you see yourself as the one who has committed a lot of shameful sin and need to confess and be forgiven? Like Simon, do you look down on people who live sinful lives? Like the Woman, are you overjoyed at being forgiven and saved by Jesus?

Perhaps a trap that Christians who come to church every Sunday have is that they confess their sins weekly and are forgiven every week, so they don�ft have a big pile of unforgiven sins hanging on their heart and conscience. I call it a trap because we might forget to be as thankful as the Women in the Gospel story. We might become like Simon and feel smug in our salvation. We might feel that we need to be forgiven only a little, and so our joy at being forgiven is only a little, also.

It is not just a matter of joy, it is a matter of love. Jesus told Simon, �gBut he who has been forgiven little loves little.�h The Woman, however, had been forgiven much and she loved much. Forgiveness produces the joy of salvation, and the love of God. This is the love that filled that woman.

This love is for everyone who has faith. �gYour faith has saved you; go in peace,�h Jesus said. In faith we know that we have been forgiven much. We have been forgiven both small and great sins, sins of commission and omission, sins we know about and sins that we are unconscious of doing. We have been forgiven sins that would condemn us to the devil. If our sins were just trivial things, then Jesus would not have had to come to earth and die on the cross. Our sins, the sins of each one of us, were so great that Jesus had to die on the cross to forgive us. He loved us, therefore he forgave us. We are forgiven, and so now we have this love of God which we express in our lives.

Yes, Jesus was a prophet. He knew the heart of both the Woman and Simon; and he knows our hearts, too. The woman wet his feet with here tears, and Jesus wept tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. His feet which she kissed were pierced with nails. He arose on the third day and he commanded his disciples saying, Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." He does not wash our feet, but he gives us the washing of Baptism, that washes away our sin and gives us the promise of eternal salvation. �gYour faith has saved you; go in peace.�h

Amen.