by Eric Elnes
I. Who Would Jesus Visit?
If Jesus were alive today and lived in your neighborhood, who do you suppose he would spend his time with? On Sundays would you find him in church pews or soup kitchens? On Tuesdays would he be addressing the church council or the city council?
Such questions bore me to tears. You can answer them a thousand different ways and it changes nothing.
The fact is, Jesus does live in the neighborhood and the person he wants to meet with is you. If you haven’t sensed his spiritual presence lately, then perhaps you’ve been looking in the wrong place. Don’t expect Jesus to show up in a robe and sandals. You are more likely to discover Jesus showing up in the form of those who make you uncomfortable. Like it or not, it is within our interactions with such people that we sense Christ’s presence and power. This series is about developing “eyes to see” Jesus in our world, and “ears to hear” his voice where we least expect it.
Our first story, involving a hooker who crashes a dinner party held in Jesus’ honor, is just such an example. If you pay attention, you may find that this story is not so much about the hooker as it is about you. You and Jesus.
But before we go to dinner with Jesus, let’s first belly up to the bar and play a round of golf …
II. A Rabbi and a Minister Walk Into a Bar
A minister and a rabbi walked into a bar one day. This is not the beginning of a joke, but the beginning of a series of public conversations held recently between Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, of Temple Israel in Omaha, and myself. Each Sunday evening Rabbi Azriel and I would ask questions of each other and respond to questions from the crowd. And a what crowd it was! The bar was packed for four consecutive weeks! Next time, we’ll insist on a tithe of the bar tab …
One Sunday, Rabbi Azriel asked me to explain the Christian concept of sin. “Sin is such a heavy term in your tradition,” he observed. “Christians seem to be always beating themselves up over the fact that they sin – and beating up others in the process.” In Judaism, Rabbi Azriel claimed, sin is a far lighter concept. He pointed out that the Hebrew word for sin, chattah, means simply to ‘miss the mark.’ If you’re in target practice, what do you do if you ‘miss the mark’? Do you beat yourself up? You may be disappointed. You may be embarassed. But you just walk down, grab your arrow, and try again. “That’s what it means ‘to sin’ in Judaism, said Rabbi Azrael. “You know you can’t hit the bullseye without a lot of misses. So you keep trying until you do.”
True enough. Even in the New Testament one of the primary words translated as “sin” – hamartia – also means “to miss the mark.” Yet Christianity seems to be known these days for its obsession with sin, both personal an communal, and heaping on loads of guilt and condemnation in the process. The fierce irony here is that in the early days of Christianity, Christians were accused by both Jews and pagans of taking sin too lightly! Christians were joyfully proclaiming that they had been freed of condemnation, guilt and shame for their sins, and that everyone else could be, too. People kept objecting that their message was ludicrous. In their experience, Christians had no monopoly on righteousness, and certainly Christians appeared to be no strangers to sin. So the whole message of Christianity seemed hypocritical.
III. Paul “Misses the Mark” … By A Long Shot
If the Christian message was about being a more upstanding person than anyone else, it most certainly would be hypocritical – and just plain obnoxious. But Christianity is not about giving you superhuman powers to live a saintly life. Not even the saints lived saintly lives! Consider how successful St. Paul was at overcoming sin, despite his enormous faith and trust in Jesus, for instance. Paul tells us his “success story” in Romans 7, writing:
I realize that I don’t have what it takes [to overcome sin]. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. (Romans 7:18-23 THE MESSSAGE)
If even a spiritual giant like Paul can’t help but miss-the-mark time and again, what hope is there for you and me?
In truth, there is plenty of hope. Says Paul,
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them–living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. (Romans 8:5-7 THE MESSAGE)
The Good News is that life isn’t about our finding perfection and entering sainthood. As any real saint will tell you, it’s about letting perfection find you and entering God’s grace. If you will allow love to find you, and grace to fill you, it will heal you. Heal you because you will find yourself in a relationship with God, not simply a relationship with God’s rules.
IV. The Shot That Chooses You
Consider the game of golf – a game with plenty of rules that, if followed with complete focus, will utterly destroy your game. In The Legend of Baggar Vance, an fading golf pro named Junuh, played by Matt Damon, is given some wise advice by Jesus … er … his caddy, Baggar Vance, played by Will Smith. Junuh is well behind the tournament leader and the weight of the world is upon him as he waits his turn at the tee. As the leader, Bobby Jones, steps up to the tee, Baggar Vance offers some curious advice that may not just be about golf [Actual clip is here.]
Bagger Vance: I think it’s time.
Junuh: Time for what?
Bagger Vance: Time for you to see the field.
Junuh: The field? I see the field, it’s 445 yards long, it’s got a little red flag at the end of it… …it’s 12 strokes ahead. Come on.
Bagger Vance: That ain’t it. ‘Cause if you had seen the field, you wouldn’t be hacking at that ball… like you was chopping weeds out from under your front porch.
Junuh: Just give me the club.
Bagger Vance: Sorry I brung it up. You gonna take that. Hack away.
Junuh: All right, what’s the “field”?
Bagger Vance: Fix your eyes on Bobby Jones. [The scene cuts to Bobby Jones getting ready to tee off.] Look at his practice swing. Almost like he’s searching for something. Then he finds it. Watch how he settle this up, right into the middle. Feel that focus. He’s got a lot of shots to choose from. Duffs and tops and skulls. There’s only one shot that’s in perfect harmony with the field. One shot that’s his… authentic shot. That shot is gonna choose him. There’s a perfect shot out there trying to find every one of us. All we got to do is get ourselves out of its way… and let it choose us. Look at him, he in the field. You can’t see that flag as some dragon you got to slay. You’ve got to look with soft eyes. See the place where the tides, and the seasons… …the turning of the earth… all come together. Where everything that is… becomes one. You’ve got to seek that place, with your soul, Junuh. Seek it with your hands, don’t think about it, feel it. Your hands are wiser than your head’s ever gonna be. I can’t take you there, Junuh… just hopes I can help you find a way. It’s just you… that ball… that flag… and all that you are. Seek it with your hands, don’t think… about it, feel it. There’s only one shot that’s in harmony with the field. The home of your authentic swing. That flag… and all that you are.
What Baggar Vance has to say about hitting the mark in golf, is a reflection of what Paul is saying about hitting the mark in life. “Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God [and plays a miserable game!]. Who would have thought that if the evangelist gig hand’t have worked out, Paul could have been a golf caddy?
Now, at last, we can get to our story – a story in which a hooker does not hit a hole-in-one, but allows a hole-in-one to hit her.
V. What We Can Learn From A Hooker
Reclining at the table of a Pharisee named Simon and Simon’s fellow religious leaders, Jesus is approached by a tearful woman who lets down her hair and anoints his feet. She is identified not by name, but by status: she’s a “sinner.” In Hebrew, she would be called an isshah zonah in Hebrew – a “loose woman,” or hooker. When the Pharisees see that Jesus is not objecting in any way to the fact that he’s letting a hooker crash their party and even touch him – something absolutely forbidden not only in Jewish Law but by common decency, any inkling they may have harbored that Jesus was a spiritual leader evaporate. Sensing their thoughts, Jesus responds with a short parable followed by one of the most profound insights into human relations ever uttered.
“A certain creditor,” Jesus says, “had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty (One denari is about a day’s wage for a laborer). When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” It’s an utterly simple parable, and his host, Simon, readily provides the answer, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.”
One doesn’t need to be an expert in finance to guess the correct answer. But Jesus isn’t discussing finance. He’s talking about what can happen when we stop obsessing on our inability to “hit the mark,” and let the mark hit us instead.
Jesus responds, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing 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 were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.”
Jesus’ remarks were offensive enough to ensure that he wouldn’t be invited back for dinner anytime soon. But it is what he says next – and what he keeps on saying throughout his ministry in one guise or another – that will get him crucified in the end.
Jesus adds: “But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
What?! Did Jesus just say what it sounds like he’s saying? It sounds like Jesus is telling Simon that he can’t be as loving as a prostitute because the prostitute has been forgiven much and he has been forgiven little. It sounds like he is saying that a “loose woman,” who has flaunted God’s law over and over probably for years, serves as a greater role model in being let off the hook for all that sin than those who have been working hardest to “love the Lord their God with heart, soul, and strength” by obeying God’s holy Law.
That’s exactly what Jesus is saying. Now does crucifixion seem so extreme?
But if you think Jesus is advising Simon to go out and commit greater sins in order to be a better role model, think again. Jesus doesn’t say that those who sin a lot love a lot. He says those who have been forgiven a lot love a lot (and those who have been forgiven little love little).
Do you think that Simion really had so little to be forgiven for that he could never love as much as the prostitute? Consider Paul and his struggle with sin. Do you think Paul was any greater sinner than Simon? Yet Paul seems to think that he is completely helpless in the face of sin; that he can’t help but sin again and again even though he loves God’s law.
The point that Jesus is making – and Paul, and Baggar Vance for that matter – is that if you want to get healed, and exhuberantly loving, then you’ve got to shift your focus from yourself to God. You’ve got to quit beating yourself up for what you are doing in this world long enough to focus on what God is doing in this world. You’ve got to quit worrying so much about “hitting the mark,” and allow “the mark” to hit you.
What we are doing in this world is sinning. What God is doing in the world is forgiving. God was not just happy to forgive the prostitute’s sins in exchange for relationship, but Simon’s sins as well. But Simon was too focussed on himself and what he was doing to notice.
Again, as Paul says,
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them–living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God.
Do you want to give and receive more love in your life? Do you want to experience God’s presence as a living reality? Then get forgiven. Trade rule-following for relationship. Quit fussing so much over your failure to “hit the mark.” Stop, and let the mark hit you.
For Further Exploration:
If you would like to explore this theme further, you may watch the 7/3/12 episode of Darkwood Brew, featuring Jana Riess, author of Flunking Saintood as Skype Guest (www.darkwoodbrew.org/episodes). Small groups may wish to use the small group video resource from this episode. You may also wish to consider the following questions:
1. What does the word “sin” mean to you? How does “missing the mark” change your conception (or does it)?
II. Dr. Elnes asserts, “The Good News is that life isn’t about our finding perfection and entering sainthood. As any real saint will tell you, it’s about letting perfection find you and entering God’s grace.” How do you evaluate this statment?
III. Paul asserts, “The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.” (Romans 8:4 THE MESSAGE) How do you find this playing out in your own life? How does this message compare or contrast to the messages you receive in your everyday life?
IV. Simon the Pharisee was undoubtedly offended by Jesus’ observations with respect to the “hooker who showed Jesus ‘great love.'” We miss the drama being played out here if we can’t connect personally with Simon’s offense. Can you find Simon’s voice within you? What’s it saying?
V. Does Baggar Vance’s advice to Junuh clarify or add further nuance to what has been explored in this reflection? If so, what?
