“Heart Tears”
It’s not difficult to understand how she felt, this woman of the city with the bad reputation who had dared to enter the home of a strict Pharisee like Simon. She had come to anoint Jesus with the precious perfume, (Lk. 7:37 -50) and the tears which spilt upon the feet of the Master were the fruit of sorrow and gratitude – sorrow for past sins and gratitude for the gift of forgiveness. Luther calls them “heart tears.” Sadly, poor blind Simon was a stranger to heart tears – and it showed.
When Simon looked at the humiliated and broken figure before him, he looked through eyes which were blind to his own failures and frailties. He sifted the scene through a self-satisfied, smug mind which always placed the worst possible interpretation upon the actions of others. He did not see a suffering, sorrowing, repentant supplicant – he saw a woman who was guilty of sins that he would never, never have committed in a thousand years. He did not rejoice that a sister who had been dead was now alive again (Lk 15:32) – he was too busy passing judgment upon Jesus for letting her touch him. Perhaps when he looked at her, he thought to himself “Lord, I thank Thee that I am not like other men: swindlers, unjust, adulterers” (Lk 18:11) or even like this woman of the city who is making a fool of herself over this false prophet.
Maybe there’s a bit of Simon in all of us. Yes, of course we are to oppose error, rebuke sin and ensure that the church is protected from evil influences, but let’s keep in mind that we may know nothing of another’s agonizing self-doubts or battles with ghosts from the past. Let’s not magnify a brother’s failures and overlook his hard-won victories while at the same time excusing our own
shortcomings as understandable or inconsequential. Let’s keep praying “Lord be merciful to ME the sinner,” (Lk 18:13) looking to our own lives all the while (Gal 6:1).
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