The Gospel of Luke
Jesus, the Woman, the Pharisee: Lk 7,36-50
The story begins with a invitation from a Pharisee, thereby setting expectations.
The invitation picks up the theme of eating from the Jesus' comments about John the Baptist (7,33-34) though paradoxically the invitation comes from a Pharisee. The last meal we heard about in the Gospel was the great banquet of Levi, the tax collector (5,29). Possibly we can see this scene as an illustration of the evangelist's comments about the Pharisees in 7,29-30.
Telling stories, parables, are effective teaching because they draw forth a response from the listener. In this instance, the message of 7,41-42 is clear and Simon the Pharisee gave the right response. Left open is the question whether he accepts the response for himself.
Taking the woman first, most translations correctly say in verse 47 "her many sins have been forgiven HENCE she has shown great love" (NAB). A more traditional but incorrect rendering would be "...BECAUSE she has shown great love". "Hence" fits the message of Jesus' parable and so his words of forgiveness in verse 48 are a confirmation of what has happened already.
Thus it is an act of love arising from her forgiveness that prompts the woman's actions at the beginning of the incident, 7,37-38. She just does this good deed and Jesus gives her dismissal in verse 50. What we need to consider next is the exchange between Jesus and the Pharisee.
Simon the Pharisee began by inviting Jesus; no reason was given but as the story develops we will see that it is a rather strange invitation. On seeing the woman Simon starts thinking to himself (7,39) but Jesus is able to pick up his thoughts (7,40) and tell his story. To this the Pharisee gives the right response as I noted above. Jesus then in effect gives him (a Pharisee no less) a lecture on his behaviour (7,41-47). To this, there is no response by the Pharisee. Has he learnt the lesson? Luke likes to leave stories open ended.
Jesus once agains shows that he is reaching out to sinners. There are the obvious sinners like the woman but her faith is commended in verse 50. There are the self righteousness sinners like the Pharisee. Jesus is willing to accept an inadequate invitation in order to bring his message to all.
In fact, the main focus and the main lesson of this episode could be attitude of the Pharisee rather than the woman. The traditional title here as with the parable of the Prodigal Son in chapter 15, deflects attention from the main character whose final response is left open. Here it is the Pharisee, later (15,32) it will be the elder Son.
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The inclusion of the first three verses of chapter 8 in the Sunday Gospel could be seen as making the traditional connection between the women who was a sinner and Mary Magdelene which I noted as mistaken.
The story of how David seduced Bathsheba wife of Uriah the Hittite is told in chapter 11 of 2nd Samuel. The two verses omitted (2 Sam 12,11-12) indicate how God is going to raise up trouble against David. Maybe the mention of wives was thought too difficult for a Sunday morning. The result is that David "confession" appears more spontaneous that it is in the Biblical story.
The parallel between Nathan and Jesus is that both use stories to make their point: Nathan with the story of the poor man's ewe and Jesus with the story of the debtor.
The obvious psalm for this reading would be Psalm 51, traditionally the Miserere. The heading given in the Bible links this psalm with David as the confession of his sin on this occasion. Psalm 31 which is actually used for the responsorial is also one of the traditional penitential psalms. Both psalm and reading clearly make the point about taking responsibility for one's sin in order to be forgiven.
We can wonder whether the reading is really the most appropriate for this Sunday's Gospel. It does provide an important balance to a Gospel which has led to a tradition linking women and sin. With King David's adultery, we are reminded that men sin too. Maybe too we can compare King David with the Pharisee as well as the woman.
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