Good Friday

Dear Christa—

Today is Good Friday, and I have just read the story in Luke 7 about the woman who, because her sin was great, sat at the feet of Jesus, anointing and kissing his feet. What was is about Jesus that compelled her to go there? She was not sick. She had nothing to be healed of as so many who clamored to Him.

But Jesus had been about doing things other than healing the sick and raising the dead. He’d told the lame man that his sins were forgiven. This as much as anything else had drawn the attention of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. It apparently had drawn this woman as well.

So, Jesus inquires of Simon the Pharisee the logical question of who loves more—the one who is forgiven little or the one who is forgiven much? Then, he relates the comparison to Simon and the sinful woman. He ends by telling the woman her sins are forgiven and that her faith has saved her. Simon, apparently, had no such faith.

To forgive sins was no simple task. It demanded God’s greatest sacrifice, His death on the cross.

Today we commemorate that act, when God Himself completed the deed He’d come to do.

And, we as the woman can do little other than to love the One Who has forgiven much.

We should all see ourselves in this woman.

On Sunday we will celebrate the glorious resurrection by the power of the most high God, the power that we beseech to fight the strongholds of Satan. But today, I ponder the question: Who do I identify with most, the Pharisee or the woman?

—the parishioner who doesn’t do anything