Stroll through Scripture for February 23, 2025

Based on Luke 7:36–50

This is the third week in a row that the lectionary has us encounter Jesus in unexpected ways — all in the confines of Luke 7. At the beginning of chapter 7 Jesus healed a Centurion’s slave (a Centurion would have been considered unclean) and raises a dead man (again unclean). Then John sends his people to find out if Jesus is the One and Jesus tells them to share what they are seeing — many of the miracles that Jesus is doing would be Jesus touching those considered “unclean.” And now at the end of chapter 7, we have Jesus touching and forgiving another unclean woman.

In this pericope we Luke sets the stage right off the bat — It’s a Pharisee who invites Jesus to a meal versus a woman who we are told “was a sinner.” (vs. 36). You can almost visualize the scene. Jesus is sitting at the dining room table in a house that is nicely clean and orderly with everything in its place where you would expect it to be. I’m wondering what the seating arrangement was — who would be sitting at the head of the table?

So often expectations serve as a way to reinforce the status quo — to keep things the way they are. In some sense, they are way to maintain control. Control has been a problem for humans since the beginning. We are addicted to having a sense of control over our lives and surroundings. The reality is we have very little power to control. But the façade of control is enough of a hit of the drug of control to usually keep us believing that we have control.