Harvey Cox is his name. Harvey Cox has a really famous name among me and my fellow pastors of my generation. While I was at the seminary, all of us young seminarians studied the books of Harvey Cox. His most famous book was named THE SECULAR CITY.

In this book, we discover that Harvey Cox’s first call was to Seoul, Korea. My first call or job as a pastor was to a church in Eugene, Oregon, and like all young pastors, I was enthusiastic to do my job. And so it was with Harvey Cox. He too was an enthusiastic young pastor and he was enthusiastic about his first job at a church in  Seoul, Korea. Harvey Cox was going to be a missionary in Seoul, Korea, but he was going to have a very specialized ministry in that he was going to minister to the street prostitutes of Seoul. So he went to work with these prostitutes in Seoul and he worked for seven years and he did not have one conversion. Can you imagine working in a garden for seven years and not having anything grow? Can you imagine working with your plants for seven years and none of them bear fruit?

And after seven years, it finally happened, and God got through to the heart of…Harvey Cox. You see, Harvey had been working with the prostitutes but he felt that he was one, two, or three cuts above them. He felt that he was a little spiritually superior. Harvey had this quality where he maximized everybody else’s faults and minimized his own. He would bring other people’s sins into focus with his giant microscope but he would blur and minimize his own sins. He had clarity about every body else’s problems but he was blind to his own. And so God finally got through to Harvey Cox’s heart and eyes and Harvey Cox started to see these people not so much as sinners but as people sinned against. These young prostitutes were young girls who had been sold into slavery by their fathers.

Did you happen to see the TV special on prostitution in Thailand recently? This TV special had pictures of men going to pick up these little girls, and they had pictures of these little girls being sold into slavery. Talk about being sinned against. These young Thai girls had been grossly sinned against by their fathers who had sold them into the meat markets of Bangkok.

Or I think of the Webber’s opera, LES MISERABLES, and the story of a character of Fontaine. Fontaine had this child, and she couldn’t support her child and so she went to sell her hair for ten bobs but she could only get five bobs for her hair. It was not enough money to pay for her daughter’s care, so Fontaine had to sell her body to make enough money to pay for her daughter’s upkeep. Fontaine then sang this moving song about the hell that she was living in.

So Harvey Cox went through a transformation inside. God got inside of Harvey Cox’s heart and he began looking at his own sinfulness rather than others. His heart changed and became full of the compassion of Jesus.

It is with these stories that we approach the gospel story for today. The story for today is a classic story but a story that does not get told too often in church. It is a story, although found in all of our gospels in various forms, is for some reason, not a common story. The story is like a drama; it is like a play; there are so many colorful details in the story. As I have been living inside of this story for this past week, I have come to enjoy it, and I would like to share what I have learned about this story and from this story, having been immersing myself in it. The story is juicy and we need to squeeze the juices from the story. The juices are so spicy.

In the text that was read for today, it does not give you the situation. To understand the story better, you need to understand the Bible verse, immediately prior to the story for today. The prior Bible verse comments, “And Jesus said to the Pharisees that prostitutes and tax collectors will go into the kingdom of God before you Pharisees.” So Jesus had this running conflict with the Pharisees. The Pharisees and their self righteous attitudes were always running into conflict with Jesus on several occasions, and in the story for today, we discover that Jesus was invited to the home of none other than Simon the Pharisee. Jesus was invited to the home of a Pharisee, the Pharisees whom he had recently insulted and told that sinners and prostitutes would enter the Kingdom of heaven before they would. In other words, the scene is set for a further confrontation.

Jesus was invited into the home of Simon the Pharisee for a banquet. Now, let’s pause for a moment. Jesus would have been invited into Simon’s home which means he would have been invited into a large open courtyard of the house. The people there were not merely having a dinner; they were having a banquet. A banquet meant that the table and home were filled with people. Jesus was a well known big shot by then. It would be like having Billy Graham come to dinner, and that would have been very special. To have the most famous rabbi in the country come to dinner was very special and everyone would have been excited…and nervous at the same time, because of the earlier conflicts that Jesus had had with many of guests whom we assume were Pharisees.

The Pharisees. Let us look at the word, Pharisees. The Pharisees were self righteous people with blown up moral and spiritual feelings of superiority. They were not pastors. They were not priests. They were lay leaders who were stuffy with self religious pride. They had this fundamental problem that they maximized every body else’s faults and minimized their own. Could they focus on your sins. Look at your sins. They were experts at looking at everybody else’s sins. They, too, felt that they were one, two or three cuts above everybody else in the world.

Jesus knew who he was dealing with as he approached the house of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus came into the courtyard of Simon the Pharisee and Simon greeted him, but did not give Jesus some of the common expected courtesies. Normally, when a guest arrived in your home, you would embrace them, hug them, touch them in a friendly way. But Simon did none of these. That was strange. That was cool. When Jesus came in, he normally would have offered Jesus water with which to bath his feet or have a servant girl wash his feet. Simon did not offer water or a servant girl to wash Jesus’ feet. No water for him. And normally, Simon would have offered olive oil to soothe his hands and feet, but Simon did not offer him olive oil either. So there was a coolness from Simon towards Jesus.

Jesus came in and the text says that Jesus reclined at table. So imagine Jesus sitting here on a pillow on the floor, his body stretched out on the pillows on the floor. A low table was set in front of him, a low table with short legs.

In that scene, a prostitute comes in behind Jesus and she kneels at his feet. She kneels at his feet and she begins crying, crying not a little bit. She cries so much that her tears actually wet Jesus’ feet. She then takes her hair which would have been braided around her head, long dark brown hair, and she unbraids it and lets it down and starts to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair. People were stunned. People were speechless. No one knew what to say. The woman was doing something which was very improper, letting down her hair like that in public, crying her tears over Jesus’ feet. It was all improper. It violated the rules of civil etiquette. And then this woman starts kissing his feet. How strange. But not so strange to people who understood in Jewish custom that if somebody have saved your life, you would come to that person and kiss their feet. So that she was kissing Jesus’ feet implies and reveals that Jesus may have rescued her earlier. If someone has saved you, a way to acknowledge that is to come and kiss their feet. Perhaps, Jesus had saved her from prostitution. All are perplexed and speechless at her behavior.

The text then says, “Simon said to himself, If Jesus was truly a prophet, he would realize what kind of woman this was. He would know what was inside her heart. He would know what a terrible sinner she was and Jesus would have nothing to do with her.

And Jesus, being a prophet and reading Simons’s heart, Jesus knew that Simon’s heart was filled with self righteousness. Simon was looking down at this woman for Simon felt that he was several cuts above this woman. Jesus, knowing what was in Simon’s heart, then said to Simon. “Simon, I need to tell you a story.  There once was two men and they were both in debt to a money lender, a banker. The one was in debt five hundred denarii or five hundred days of wages and that is being deeply in debt, to owe someone almost two years of wages. The second man was in debt for fifty denarii or fifty days of wages, less than two months of wages. The money lender forgave both people their debts. Now, which of the two would be more appreciative to the money lender?” Simon the Pharisee said, “The one who was forgiven the most, I suppose.” I love the intonation of the words, “I suppose.”

The Biblical text continues. Jesus, looking at the woman, said to Simon, “Simon, I came into your house and you gave me no water for my feet but she has been bathing my feet with her tears.  I came into your house and you did not welcome me with a warm embrace but she has been kissing my feet. I came into your house and you did not give me oil to anoint my hands and feet, but she has been anointing my feet with precious oil.” Jesus then added these profound words, “The person who has been forgiven much, loves much. A person who has been forgiven much, has much compassion in their heart.” Whoever is forgiven much, loves much. Whoever is forgiven little, loves little.” Jesus said to the woman, “Go in peace. Your sins are forgiven..”

What a story. What an incredible story.

In this story, whom do you identify with? Who are you in the story? In this story for today, you are one of two characters. Are you more like Simon the Pharisee who basically magnifies the faults of others, magnifies the faults of your husband or wife, your son or daughter, your in-laws, your friends, that certain person at work, that someone who disagrees with you. Do you look across the congregation and see a room full of hypocrites?  Is there an arrogance in your heart where you magnify the faults of others and minimize your own? Is that who you are? That down deep in your heart, you are judgmental to other people and their sins?

Or are you like this woman who knows her sinfulness and comes to Jesus and says, “Lord, I have these problems inside, this sinfulness. Would you forgive me? Would you help to change me?.” This woman had a worshipful appreciation for Jesus because he forgave her and healed her, and God wants us to have a similar worshipful appreciation to Jesus for all the forgiveness that Jesus has given us and for his inner healing that he has given to us.

Who are you like in the story? Are you more like Simon the Pharisee or are you more like the woman who had this worshipful appreciation towards Jesus for all he had done for her?

For me, the key to the story is one line. If you read the story carefully in the Bible, you notice that Jesus had been talking to Simon but he had been looking at the woman. Jesus turns to Simon and saying, revealing his key spiritual genius, “Her sins are many and they have been forgiven therefore she has great compassion.” You see, there is a connection when you realize your many sins have been forgiven and compassion. When you realize that about yourself, you then have great compassion. Great compassion for all imperfect people like your husband, your wife, your children, your in-laws, your friends, for gays, for lesbians and for every other kind of group in society that you are prejudiced against. Jesus says that there is a connection when you realize the degree of your own sinfulness, the magnitude of your own sinfulness, the size of your own imperfections inside your soul; there is a connection with such an attitude and your degree of compassion for others.

Two concluding comments: We find a similar situation in the Gospel of John 8:1-11 and the story of the woman caught in adultery. Again, Jesus was in conflict and confrontation with the Pharisees who had a need to minimize their own sinfulness and a need to maximize other people’s sinfulness. The Pharisees brought in a woman to Jesus, threw her on the floor and said that this woman was caught in the very act of adultery and what was Jesus going to do about it. Jesus did not look into the eyes of the Pharisees but kept looking at the ground on which he was drawing or doodling with a stick. Jesus, his eyes fixed on the ground, said to the Pharisees, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” He did not look up. When he finally did, everyone was gone. Jesus then said to the woman,  “Go, your sins have been forgiven.”

This feels like a similar situation. Some people suggest that this woman caught in adultery, recorded in John 8, is the same person in our story for today. Jesus saved her life; she could have been stoned to death. In deep appreciation for saving her life, she showed up at Simon, the Pharisee’s house, and began weeping and kissing Jesus’ feet. This would be consistent with the detail in our story today, that a Jewish person, kissing another person’s feet, is showing deep appreciation to that person for saving their life. Was this woman from John 8 the same woman we find in Luke 7? I don’t know but I do know the stories are similar and so are the spiritual conclusions.

A second comment. In my life as a pastor, I have known a few girls who have grown up to be prostitutes. Of the ones I know, their lives have been totally tragic. I weep when I think of them and all the pain and misery that they have brought on themselves and their families. I know that deep inside the hearts of these young women’s parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters, there is immense sorrow. There is also embarrassment that one of their own family members has become a prostitute, and they don’t want anyone to know about it. The shame is so great for them in their hearts. For some parents of prostitutes, there is even an implication that they have done something wrong in their parenting that contributed to this immoral behavior of their daughter. These parents wonder what went wrong? Why their other children are doing well? What happened to this particular daughter? All I know as a pastor is that my heart needs to be filled with the loving compassion of Jesus in order to be their pastor and friend.

So it is back to the beginning with Harvey Cox. Harvey Cox was in Seoul, Korea for his first missionary assignment and he had a specialized ministry for seven years with the prostitutes. There were seven years and no conversions, and then God finally go through and a miracle happened. God got through to Harvey Cox and healed his heart of self righteousness and judgmental ness, and thereby he became a fine missionary for the Lord. Amen.

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