The Pharisee did not
understand. How could Jesus let this
woman touch him? Did he not know who she
was? Jesus seeing his confusion told a parable. In this parable, there are two
people who owe money. The text gives the
debt in terms of the ancient coinage the denarius. I saw one of these the other day. It is a rather small coin. It was what soldiers would have been paid for
a day’s wage. In the terms of today, one
of the men in this parable owed about two months’ worth of wages, and the other
owed about two years’ worth of wages.
Think of this in terms of credit card debt. If one owed two months’ worth of wages in
credit card debt would be difficult to pay off, but it could be done. Imagine what it would be like if someone owed
two years’ worth of wages on a high interest credit card. Imagine the constant calls from
creditors. Imagine trying to pay it off,
but feeling like you are making no progress.
It feels like the debt will always be there and there is nothing that
you can do about it. Imagine if some
corporate raider came to you and said that he is forgiving the debt, no
questions asked. This would be totally
out of character. You would be immensely
grateful.
After telling this story, Jesus
asked which would be more grateful, the one who owed little or the one that
owed a lot. I think that we would agree
with the Pharisee that the one who owed two years wages would be more grateful
for having his debt dismissed. But this
was a trick question.
One of my favorite stories from the
early desert fathers, the very first monks in the 3rd and 4th
centuries is about a group of monks who came to Abbot Moses. Abbot Moses was a great spiritual
teacher. On day, several monks came to
Abbot Moses complaining about the sins of another monk. The monks demanded that the abbot should
punish the wayward brother. The wise
abbot asked for some time to think about this request. He returned to his little room, shut the door
and remained there for a good while.
Finally he cane running out with a long rope tied to is waist and dragging
for many feet behind him. The monks
called out Abbot Moses, what are you doing.
He replied, I am coming to you as fast as I can, but my sins are
trailing behind me.
This reminds me of a popular story
from the life of G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton
was a famous writer who died in the early 20th century. He was immensely popular during his day and
was a huge influence on C. S. Lewis.
According to the story a reporter for the London Times wrote an article
reflecting on some of the problems of his time.
He ended his article with the statement, “What’s wrong with the
world?” Chesterton wrote the editor,
“Dear editor, what’s wrong with the world? I am. Faithfully yours, G.K.
Chesterton.”
What Chesterton and Abbot Moses both
realized is that the real sin problem is with us. The answer to the trick question is that
there are no debtors who only owe a little: in other words there are no little
sinners. St Augustine, commenting on
this passage said, “You love but little, because you really think that you are
only forgiven of a little. It’s not
because little really is forgiven you, but because you think that what you have
been forgiven of is only a little.”[1]We
all have more sin in us than we realize.
In fact, I think that most of us walk around in oblivion to this
fact. C. S. Lewis once wrote that it is
easy to be good when things are going our way.
Augustine continues to say that the reason that we have not committed as
many sins as we could have is that the place and time were just not right to
allow the sin to ripen.
Some may find themselves saying, “I know that I have sins but they are
not really that bad.” Let’s face it; it
is all too easy to grow comfortable with our own sins. This next story is a little embarrassing, but
it illustrates this point well. When I was a young man just out of college, I
lived in the back corner of a large apartment complex. The dumpster for my complex was in the front
nearly a quarter of a mile away. I hated
schlepping the garbage all that way, so I often procrastinated. Occasionally, I
waited a day too long, and my apartment became rather odoriferous. That is a polite way of saying that it
stank. Usually, I would take it out at
that moment, but I often found that if I didn't the next day it didn't smell
anymore. At least not until a friend
walked in. Fortunately, I have learned to become a little better housekeeper. In many ways it is the same with our sins. What may be a minor inconvenience to us may
be intolerable to another. In reality,
it is even our smallest sins that are responsible for the torturous death of
Christ. We all stand guilty of
crucifying Jesus.
To be continued
[1]
Augustine of Hippo. (1888). Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament R.
G. MacMullen, Trans.). In P. Schaff (Ed.), A
Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church,
First Series, Volume VI: Saint Augustin: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the
Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels (P. Schaff, Ed.) (417). New York:
Christian Literature Company.
