““For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
John 3:16 NRSV
When we read about Pharisees, how many times do we want ignore the Pharisees’ humanity. Isn’t this problematic for our Christian lives, our beliefs.
Yet Pharisees are people. We might know other people who rub us the wrong way that we might try to deny their humanity or their right to be made in God’s image. The majority of us are feeling a little bit uneasy. But Jesus doesn’t completely disregard the Pharisees, he engages with them, as much as everyone else, maybe as much as the poor, sick, lost, and forgotten.
We like to think that the people who should have it all together, have it altogether and understand everything. However sometimes even the best of us need help. In Luke 7:36-50 we have two people that are the focus of the interaction with Jesus. We like to think that we are rooting for the woman because she was the one being put down.by everyone else and we want Jesus to lift her up and forgive her. Deep down we focus on the woman because some of us recognize that we need Jesus to lift us up, to forgive us. But we miss the need of the Pharisee also. Both of them have sins that need to be forgiven. Unfortunately the Pharisee didn’t recognize his need. This is tragic. Yet how many of us are more like the Pharisee hearing that the woman is forgiven and we struggle to be happy for them.
Jesus’ forgiveness is for all those who come to Him for the forgiveness He is offering. Whether we see ourselves in line with the woman or the Pharisee we need to come to Jesus for His live giving forgiveness.