Peace Through Weeping

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on October 15, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Luke 7:36-50.

            Most of you know that I like to have fun.  I like to laugh.  I believe in the old saying that laughter is the best medicine.  That actually comes from the Bible, you know.  Proverbs 17:22 says a cheerful heart is good medicine.  Proverbs 15:15 says a cheerful heart has a continual feast.  There are lots of Bible verses that say that laughter and cheerfulness are good for us.

            The third chapter of Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to laugh.  But it also says there’s a time to weep.  And of course, it says that God has made each of these things beautiful in its time.

            Now, as I said, I have no problem with there being a time to laugh.  And obviously, we all recognize that there are times not to laugh.  We all know people who are dealing with serious things right now.  And we also have to make sure that our laughter is not hurtful.  I’ve had times when people were laughing at me.  I’ll bet you have, too.  That’s not fun at all.  That hurts.  It hurts a lot.  When our laughter is hurtful, it is most definitely not the time to laugh.

            But what about the other side of it.  Why is there a time to weep?  How is weeping beautiful?

            As we answer that question, we need to think about what weeping is.  It’s not the same as crying.  There’s a reason Ecclesiastes says “a time to weep” rather than “a time to cry”.  Crying can be joyful.  We can shed tears of joy.  There’s no sense in which weeping is joyful.  Weeping means to be so overpowered by grief or sorrow or some similar emotion that shedding tears is the only thing we can do.

            When we think about that, we first tend to think of the people we’ve lost in the communities of this parish in the last month or so.  And we think of the people who are dealing with serious illnesses in our communities as well.  But there are other things that cause us to feel grief and sorrow, too.  A relationship that falls apart.  Seeing someone we care about making bad choices and going down the wrong path, and knowing there’s nothing we can do about it.  There are all kinds of things that can cause us to feel grief and sorrow, and sometimes that grief and sorrow can overwhelm us.

            Sometimes we wish God would keep us from feeling those things.  But they’re part of being human.  And since God allows them to happen, we assume there must be a purpose for them, even when we cannot see what it is.  And again, Ecclesiastes tells us they can be beautiful, even when we cannot see how.

            That brings us to our Bible reading for today from the seventh chapter of Luke.  It’s the story of Jesus going to a Pharisee’s house for dinner.  A woman finds out that Jesus is there, so she goes there, too.

Now, all Luke tells us about this woman is that she has lived a sinful life.  We’re allowed to make any assumptions we want about exactly what they may mean.  But whatever her sins were, apparently everyone in town knew about them.  This woman was not well thought-of.  She was not well-respected.  People looked down on her, and they thought they had good reasons to do so.

            We also don’t know what this woman knew about Jesus.  But she knew enough.  She knew, somehow, that this was a man of God.  And she knew, somehow, that she needed to see him.

            And when she saw him, she immediately began weeping.  She was weeping so much that she was able to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears.  We’re not told why she felt this grief and sorrow, but we can guess.  Again, while we don’t know what her sins were, we’re told that she had lived a sinful life.  And I’m sure she knew she’d lived a sinful life.

            But then, we’ve all lived sinful lives, right?  I mean, the Apostle Paul says that all of us have sinned, that all of us have fallen short.  So, we really should all be able to see ourselves in the place of this woman.  We’re all sinners who’ve lived sinful lives.

            But you know, we say that all the time.  And we mean it.  I’m not saying that we don’t.  But at the same time, there are a lot of times we don’t let it bother us too much.  I’ve said this before, but if there’s one thing we human beings are good at, it’s justifying our own behavior.  We can justify almost anything to ourselves.  Our reasoning may not justify our behavior to others, but we can justify it to ourselves.  

And please don’t think I’m pointing a finger here.  I’m just as good at this as anyone, and probably better than a lot of you.  I can find all kinds of wonderful ways to justify doing what I want to do and to justify not doing what I don’t want to do.

And I’m sure this woman was good at it, too.  She may have known, deep down, that what she was doing was wrong, but she found a way to justify it to herself.  She found a way to not let her sinful behavior bother her too much.

And I suspect she did something else we all do, too.  She looked at herself, and she said, you know, I’m not all that bad.  I’m doing the best I can.  After all, nobody’s perfect.  I’m better than some people.  In fact, I’m better than a lot of people.  Have you ever done that?  I have.  I suspect this woman did, too.

But then.  Then, she came face to face with the divine Son of God, Jesus Christ.  And all of a sudden, the reality of who she was hit her right between the eyes.  For the first time in years, maybe in forever, she saw herself as she truly was.  All the ways she used to justify her behavior fell apart.  All of her thoughts about how she was better than a lot of people fell by the wayside.  Everything about her life was suddenly in full view.  It was right in front of her eyes.  There was no hiding from it.  She was in the presence of perfection, and she suddenly saw how imperfect, how sinful, she really was.

And when that reality hit her, there was only one thing she could do.  The only thing she could do was weep.  She was so overpowered by the grief and sorrow of what she’d done, of all the ways she had fallen short of who God wanted her to be, who God had made her to be, that all she could do was weep.

And I suspect that’s what you and I would do, too.  If the reality of who we really are hit us right between the eyes, if we saw ourselves as we truly are, if we were stripped of all our justifications and all our rationalizations and all the ways we use to make ourselves think we’re okay, if we could no longer hide from who we are and were in the presence of the perfection that is God, I think you and I would probably weep, too.

But look at the rest of the story.  This woman washes Jesus’ feet with her tears.  And Jesus tells her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

            When this woman came into the presence of Jesus, she was overpowered by grief and sorrow at the thought of who she was.  All she could do was weep.  And to Jesus, her weeping was beautiful.  And Jesus forgave her for everything.

            We’re not told what happened to the woman after that.  I assume she felt better.  I also assume, though, that her problems were not all magically solved.  People probably still looked down on her.  She may have resolved to change her life, but we all know that’s not an easy thing to do.  And even if she succeeded and really did change her life, it would’ve taken a long time for her to get people’s respect and trust.  Getting forgiveness from Jesus probably made her feel better, but it did not change anything about her condition, at least not right away.

            But Jesus did not just say “your sins are forgiven”.  Jesus said something else, too.  He said, “Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace”.

            Sometimes we hear a phrase like “go in peace” the way we hear “have a nice day”.  It’s just something people say, without really thinking about it.  But when Jesus said, “go in peace”, I don’t think it was just something to say.  I think Jesus meant every word of it.  And I think Jesus’ words have power.  When Jesus said “go in peace”, I think this woman actually felt a sense of peace.

            And that, really, is one of the greatest gifts we get from our faith in Jesus.  The greatest gift of all, of course, is salvation and eternal life.  But while we’re on earth, one of the greatest gifts we get from our faith in Jesus is to feel a sense of peace.  And we can feel that peace no matter what our circumstances are.

            As I said, meeting Jesus did not magically solve this woman’s problems.  But I think that when Jesus said “go in peace”, she really did.  She went in peace.  She now knew that, no matter what her problems were, she was not alone.  She knew that the Lord was with her.  She knew that the Lord would always be with her, no matter what happened.  And she knew, because of that, that she could handle whatever might happen to her.

            This life on earth gives us many reasons to weep.  We don’t always understand why.  But when we’re overpowered by grief and sorrow, we need to do what this woman did.  We need to go to Jesus.  And if we need to weep, it’s okay.  Because Jesus will see the beauty in our weeping.  And Jesus will offer us forgiveness and salvation.  

And Jesus will tell us to go in peace.  That won’t solve all our problems.  But we’ll know we’re not alone.  We’ll know the Lord is with her and always will be, no matter what happens.  And we’ll know, because of that, that we can handle whatever might happen to us.  And because of that, we will feel peace.