Our Sins, Which Are Many, Are Forgiven

   One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house, and took his place at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 

    Now when the Pharisee saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner." And Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "What is it, Teacher?" "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "The one to whom he forgave more." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss 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 are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little."  And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"  And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Gospel of Luke 7:36-50

In the Gospel passage above we experience the great love and compassion of Jesus Christ. Deep in our hearts, we all know that we ARE the woman at Jesus’ feet. Our sins are many. We have long been weighted-down by them. Every sin, every pang of self-hatred, every mean-spirited thought has been etched into our souls.

Crack upon crack our souls have been made fragile by our own doing and by the brokenness of others as well. At times, our souls feel as if they have shattered into thousands of pieces, and we have no hope of ever being reconciled to ourselves; of ever being whole again.

Then we remember the love and compassion of Jesus, which are healing salve for our souls. We realize that the God can take all the broken pieces of our hearts and souls and heal them. His love and compassion are the glue and he is the Master of mosaic! But we must be willing to allow him to piece us back together in a portrait of wholeness and health.

We must surrender and we must work with God to ensure the success of our healing process. This means we need to learn from his example of love and compassion, and we must be able to treat ourselves with love and compassion as well. We can start by forgiving ourselves for the past. It is all washed away. Then we need to work on forgiving others who have hurt us. We must have compassion on them in the same way that Jesus had compassion on the woman in the Gospel, and with us.

We then need to learn how to practice kindness toward ourselves. Certainly, no one in this world has been so extremely unkind to us as we have been to ourselves. Let’s work on replacing harsh words for ourselves with gentle words. Let’s work on accepting our foibles. Everyone makes mistakes. We can learn to rejoice in our mistakes instead of demeaning ourselves over them. We can also learn to be patient with ourselves and to gradually rejoice in the fact that we are more than merely good enough; we are wonderfully made.

Those of us who have many issues to work on, many sins to be forgiven and many pieces to be made whole are first and foremost important in the eyes of Jesus. Like the woman in this Gospel story, all we have to do is take the time to approach Jesus with honest and open hearts. Take the time. Each and every new day will bring the miracles of recovery alive to mend your brokenness into wholeness.