Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: And today on reading the Gospel. We are studying the event, the anointing at Bethany. This event is found in the four gospels. Matthew, chapter 26, six through 13.
Mark, chapter 14, three through nine. Luke, chapter 736 through 50. And John, chapter twelve, one through nine. Today we will be reading from Luke, chapter seven. Beginning in verse 36 and going through verse 50. Follow along with us.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him.
And he went into the Pharisees house. And reclined at the table.
And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner.
When she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisees house.
Brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet weeping. She began to wet his feet with her tears. And wiped them with a hair of her head. And kissed his feet. And anoint them with the ointment.
Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this.
He said to himself.
If this man were a prophet. He would have known who and what sort of woman this is. Who is touching him. For she is a sinner.
And Jesus answering, said to him.
Simon, I have something to say to you.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: And he say, teacher, a certain moneylendere had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii. And the other 50. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt. And he said to him. You have judged rightly. Then, turning towards the woman. He said to Simon. Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears. And wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But from the time I came in. She has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil. But she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.
And then he said to her, your sins are forgiven.
Then those who were at the table with him. Began to say among themselves. Who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
So this parable here again. It's in the four gospels. And the four gospels, they give different pieces of information. So it's really something where this is good practice. For people who read the Bible all the time. To look at parallels and to go and to study the different ones and see what's different. Again, the point of this podcast is to get its listeners into reading the Bible daily and making it part of their lives, not just reading, but studying.
Here we have this woman, she's not named, however, in John she's named. It's Mary, Martha and Lazarus. They're all here at the supper. And this person who is anointing Jesus feet is named as Mary.
And this story is so powerful that. What does it say at the end of Matthew?
[00:04:25] Speaker A: It says that every time the gospel of Jesus Christ will be preached, this story will be included in the gospel. Yeah, and there is a line there that for the first time stood out for me, says in remembrance of her, she would be remembered in the same way Jesus Christ is remembered, because we take the communion in remembrance of him. That was very interesting for, yeah, that.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: It'S not about Jesus, it's about, this is stories about what she did.
And so we have these which build up and add this story here in the gospel. And this is why we went to Luke. We have this parable that Jesus has this dialogue with Simon that we don't get in other places. So again, Jesus has come to this party, he's at this place, and Simon has not done what he should do. Right.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: It seems that this man had a disease which was healed, and this is Simon's way to express his gratitude.
But some components are missing, and we'd.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Call that basic hospitality in some of these.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Right? And Jesus said, I enter your house, you gave me no water for my feet. I mean, you didn't wash my feet.
You gave me no kiss, no embracing, no special welcome, and you did not anoint my head with oil.
That was a recognition for a special guest, primarily those coming from the upper class, the spiritual leaders of the society.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: That's the anointing.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: That had the anointing, yes, but the.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Washing the feet was a basic. Yes, he threw. It seems that he throws this party in recognition of what Jesus did, but he doesn't then give jesus the honor he deserves. Let's go to this parable, or this point Jesus puts to Simon. A certain money lender has two debtors. One owns 500 denarii, the other 50, when they could not pay, he canceled the debt for both. Now, which of them will love him more? And you know, as we were talking earlier, I said, for me, the analytical, the one who tries to pick things apart wants to say, well, there's not enough information here.
And you pointed out, it seems like Simon might be touching on this, too. And his answer, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled a larger debt.
But it's true, in general, when we've been forgiven a lot, we tend to appreciate or love the forgiver more.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: So, in a very elegant way, Jesus Christ says, look, your disease was removed. But that experience didn't go deep enough, did not touch the heart. The fountain of life was not cleansed compared to this woman who has experienced forgiveness. And now she was returning her gratitude.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Yeah, and there's some christian tradition, you know, we don't know this exactly from the Bible, that this woman was the same woman that Jesus was writing in the sand about. She experienced a lot of sin. Jesus says her sins, which are many, are forgiven.
Does it mean that we need to go and commit more sins so we can experience more grace?
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Not at all. The same question is answered by the apostle Paul. We should not sin more to experience more grace.
We should be thankful that God has forgiven us as much as was necessary.
I want to come back to this story, and this is how people think. So it seems that this woman's life was turned around.
And according to another story in the gospel, seven demons were cast out of her.
We don't know at once or seven times sequentially. But even after she turned around in people's minds, she was still a sinner.
What Jesus Christ is doing here is trying to convince people that as soon as someone is forgiven by God, that person is not a sinner. Consider a sin anymore in the eyes of heaven. And this is why Jesus Christ, talking to the Pharisee, says that her sins are forgiven.
And after that, Jesus Christ looks to the woman, your sins are forgiven.
Your face has saved you. Go in peace.
Sometimes it's easier to be forgiven by God, and it's hard to be forgiven by our conscience or forgiven into the social conscience of the community around us.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
Why is she anointing Jesus?
And why here? Cause Jesus has been to her house. Right?
Jesus would seem good friends with her.
Why here in this party, is she anointing Jesus feet?
[00:10:19] Speaker A: So it seems that around Jesus Christ, among the disciples hearts and minds as well as in the general public, there is a feeling of imminency. Something is going to happen soon.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: And we saw that in the last episode, that as they were coming to Jerusalem, the people were feeling that the kingdom of God was at hand is imminent.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: So remember those two disciples of Jesus who came with their mom and asked, Lord, in your kingdom, please command that or decide that one of my sons will be on the right. The other one on the left.
They felt that something is going to happen.
Jesus Christ attended the annual festivals in Georgia multiple times. But this time everyone was talking about this. It was a conflict between Jesus Christ and the spiritual leaders. They have rejected him publicly, and now they expecting something to happen. And I think that Mary had the same feeling of imminency, and she didn't want to postpone. What is very interesting is that only three categories of people were anointed in the Old Testament was the prophets.
It was the kings and the priests.
And Jesus Christ was a prophet. Moses said, a prophet like me.
Jesus Christ is our high priest. We have the whole book of Hebrews talking about this topic. And Jesus Christ enters Jerusalem as a kingdom. This is most likely on Saturday night, before the triumphant entrance in Jerusalem the next day, on Sunday, when this woman anoints the body of Jesus Christ as a forecast of what is going to happen in Jerusalem the next week.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah. What we see here with her anointing Jesus feet, she feels the urgency, she feels the immediacy, and she's not ashamed. She's not ashamed to do what she feels is right, even though society would say it's not appropriate. And I think that's a question we can ask today.
Are we willing to follow Jesus even if it doesn't fit with societal norms? Are we willing to follow Jesus even if we have to do things others might look down on?
Are we willing to serve him even if other christians are not doing what we feel he's asking us to do?
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Sometimes we don't have to remain silent. We should say, I'm a Christian or a follower of Jesus Christ. Sometimes just by bowing our heads and have a prayer in a public space, in a very discreet way, even that is a way to honor God and to express our gratitude in any circumstance.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Yeah, let's pray.
Father God, we're so thankful for this story, for Mary and her faithfulness. And as Matthew says, where the gospel is talked about, she will be remembered for this anointing, this service of you.
And Father, I pray that we will be willing to stand, even if no one else, that we will serve you, even if others don't, that we won't be ashamed to proclaim that we are a Christ follower.
May it shine through in our lives. May it be evident to the world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
