Holy Monday (2026)

Luke 7:36-50

Holy Monday (2026)

St. Matthew’s Lutheran, Cornwall

Luke 7:36-50: As Hookers Wed by God

6th Station of the cross

On Holy Monday, the church meditates on Mary, anointing Jesus for burial. We know the stor,y - Form John 12, Matthew 26, Mark 14, - yes, Mary, the sister of Lazarus and martha comes to Jesus when they are at the house of Somon the Leper (who ytou are not supposed to hangout with btw, - ) and she pours a very costly fragrant oil upon His head.

Judsas Get’s mad, - how dare you waste that extrmeely expensive oil, that should have been given to the poor. The voice of judas - ironically one i hear often, when people complain about the church buying icons, vestments, candles, - buildings, - for Jeuss. But that isn’t what i want to meditate on today wiht you. I want to look ,actualyl, at this, really, almost identical story, in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 7 – 36-50. Here, in Luke 7, Jesus had been, at this point, accused of being the opposite problem as His cousin John was. For John ,they said, - He came neither eithring nor drinking and so they said he had a demon. The demon of austerity, and of being bizare and eaitng bugs and livign in caves i nthe desertt . But Jesus - well, He has a different DEMON THEY SAID - He is a glutton, a winebibber, ad runk, a friend of tax collectors and hookers and sinners !

and so, - then this: one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil

This is like so many other stories. This is like Jesus at the dinner party which He ruins by making it about rbeuking their seating arrangements and healing some obese sick dude wiht dropsy. This is like when He’s on His way to heal a little girl the daughter of an important leader in the commnuinity and stops along the way to speak to a totlaly forgotten about adult woman plagued with endless menstrual bblood. This is like Jesus revealing His brith first, thorguh the angles to shepherds in the desert, to be born of a poor insignficinat village girl, - this is like the magnificant ,this is the choosing of the unchosen and the loving of the unlovable this is like so many stories.

And what happesn here? Well, - Jesus goes to the house of a respectable pharisee and ruins it by letting a prostitute pour out a luxrious and enticing perfume that she boguht at an exhorbitant price with the proceeds gianed from her ancient onlyfans career (to look between John 12 and Luke 7). For who else would have oil , perfume, oil worth, THREE HUNDRED DENARII? An oil,- A PERFUME worth an entire years wages? The text says (in Luke 7) a sinner. A prostitute. Andf so, Pope gregory says: Seethis woman, beholding the spots of her shame, ran to wash them at the fountain of mercy. Pours out the fruit of her shame on the Lamb who takes away every stain! As a Lepper or a woman with flowing blood TOUCH the font of life and are healed, so this woman pours out the wayward oil of her lifes toil on Him, that the burning wound it left in her soul might be healed.

And so the fathers of the church have taught us. Yes. - this , is a woman of the night. Both of them, it seems. And yet here comes the King of the Universe, stepping into the lowest place of the world to make a prostitute His. His queen. To forgive her. Eat with her, heal her. These He does with the woman in Luke 7. this He does with the leppers He finds along the way. This He does with barabbas the murderer. This He does with you and I. He comes to the disgusting, unworhty, decrepit, sinful refuse of the world and claims it as His and calls it beuatiufl. And He loves it, in the midst of it’s unloveliness.

And that loving , is transformative. For so it is that one finds it is an easy thing to love a loveable person. It is an easy thing to honor an honorable person. It is NOTHING to give a gift to someone who will give one back in return. Why? Because it doesn't cost. Whatever you spend, you get meeted back in kind. Whatever it costs, you will be refunded. You take no losses. You bear no offenses. It has no effect.

But of those who have hurt you? Who disgust you? Who repulse you? – That takes something else. It takes love. Love, - I mean here, not in the secular sense of the world, in which things are APPRECIATED for the good that they very obviously, visibly, tangibly have and all can see and perceive. no. But the Christian sense of love, - which isfound in the world or drawn out of us by things in the world. Not an appreciation of that which is, or the giving of gifts to those who deserve it, or payment to those who’ve earned it or honor to those who are owed it, but – A KIND OF SACRTIFICE. Yes, - a sacrifice. To give OF oneself, - and take NOTHING BACK IN RETURN. Why? FOR THE OTHER. Not because of the other. But FOR THE OTHER. The WHY, THE BECAUSE OF – that, comes from within. –its uncreated. It is… - GOD. And so it TAKES God. For thislove, - IS God. For God is love.

Think here of that 1 John text from 4 and 5. - let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For this is His command , as He says on Maundy Thursday, a new command I give you (and as John says, - and not a new command, but a command that is from before the beginning) that you love one another, even as I have loved you. That is, unto death. That is, into eternity, that is, at the cost of the self, that is, - by the power of the God who does not find but creates that which is pleasing.

And just so, from that love, He makes those He loves, into little vessels of love. Pouring, as you will, - His love into us as water into a cup, - to the pooint of the brim, to the pooint of flowing out, and overflowing and spilling all over and out and into the world with the love of God and the love of sacrifice and the life that comes from His divine blood. – making us into those who love Him, - and love those loved by Him. Not because of them, - not erven because of us, but because of Him, alive in us.

For though No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. And so also, who ever eats of my flesh (that is, given in sacrifice, at the cost of myself, AND THIS IS LOVE) – I abide in Him and He in me. That is to say, He who drinks of my blood, is filled with my love. AND that love will move them into loving as they have been loved, in the way of the cross.

And so it was with this prostitute or whatever she was, loved by Jesus throguh her unloveliness. She would say her ctions were conservative. Not extravagant. If we speak to those who have been turned radically in repentnace toward Christ, - coming to churhc 7 days a row in holy week, is conservative. Fasting until 3pm, conservative, - blacking out the windows wiht garbage bags on GF - conservative. Staying up late for the easter vigil? conservative. and it is.You can be here 7 days a week year roudn and It will be conservative. Give all you have and it will be concservative. You can be mother theresa for all I care, feed orphoans give of your flesh to feed the huingry, and you still will not be giving as much as has been given to you. See how much He loved you.

This is something for us to understand at a deep level. Whoever is forgiven much loves much.

What does this mean? The love of God is kindled in those loved by God when they are inflamed with the fire of God’s initiatory love burning within them. They are the darkness, overcome and turned into the light by the presence of a candle lit wihtin them. They are the snow melted in spring, turned to living water by the heat of the Sun rising upon them. They are those loved into loving. For we love, becuase He first loved us. We love, not becuse we have determined that He is loveable, but becuase even when we were not, He determined to love us - STILL.

and so, Abelard, the medieval theologian wrote in HIs, ill say, really MISUNDERSTOOD COMMENTARY ON rOMANS, in what became known as his moral infleunce theory, of the atonement. THe idea, its often said, that the cross did not actually EFFECT anything , but that it showed us how much God loived us, -expressly, - showedc us, how to love, and tha tthat this inspiring loved moved us into being loving, as it is transformative , in its effect upon those who witneessa and receive it. BUt really, what is He getting at? - the love of Jesus Christ does not do something legally as idea. To say, my guilt is coverd the end. No. the love of Jeuss effects reality. it MOVES US, from within all the way to wihtout. As old wineskins, loosened , weakened and dried out by the dehydrating weight of our sin and shame - we cannot hold the new wine of God’s Divine love that He pours into us. We cannot contain it and so it breaks us. It breaks our bonds asunder, - and frees us from ourselves just as it free itself from our own natural boundaries, and flows out onto everyhitgn. – pouring out of the holes that its ripped open in our lives, in our flesh, in our souls- and onto everything that surroudns us. Our friends, - our families, our broken relationships, our hopleessness and despair, our hatred and sin and shame – AND IT GIVES LIFE to the desrert, and light to the darkness. Water for a weary land, is the love of God’s blood in us.

And so we drink it up, - and it spills out of us. And so we eat of it, and we become partakers of it . And so we receive the sacraments, - and then we live them out in the world. And this is what it means, to be light, to bne life, to be salt , - to be confirmed to the image of the invisible God, - to walk like ,talk like, act like, Christ… TO FOLLOW HIM. All of this, it means to partake of this forigvenenssa an to attmept (as best we can) to wealk in this forgiveness. It means to partake of the sacrtifice, and then to live as icons of the sacrifice. It mmeans to receive Christ, - and then show forth Christ. It means to be the reality behind the mythical stigmata.

Not a miracle of a bleeding hole in your hands and feet. But the miracle of the meaning of the holes in Christ’s hand and feet. – to do as Isaiah said, and feed your bread with the huingry, to pour yourself out as a drink for the thirsty. To imprison yourself in compassion for the lonely. And to enslave yourself for the cause of liberating those bound in sin and despair. And to hold nothing back.

What, was it too extreme that she poured the oil? Too extreme that St. Francis sold all that he had and went naked before the Bishop to renoucne his life and become a monk dedicaded to starving himself in order to gain money to build churches for God? Too extreme that Luther surrendered his life at the point of a sword to insist that forgiveness was free for all in the blood of Christ Jesus? Too extreme that St. Ignatius went PURPOSELY toward martyrdom for the sake of Christ’s honor? TO DIE with other Christians for their comfort and suportt? WAS THAT TOO EXTRME? Is it too extrme for Christians to die in nigeria, knowing that showing up on Sunday morning means a death sentenc when they could easily stay home and watch an America church service online? Too extreme? No. none of it is too extreme. Nothing is too extreme. It is all too little. All not enough. Not at all anything. We are far too conserrvative in our loving. For we have not yet found how much we have been loved. We have not yet felt the infdinitude of Divine grace. For when we do our service, our love, our sacriifce – IS OPENED UP. And made boundless. So, - look at who you are. And who He is. What He has done and become for you. How He has ripped open His flesh and offered His heart to you. Pour out His blood to sate and quench you. – let it fill you up. Let it rip your open, let it pour out of you. and give life to the desert SANDS of this city.

Like hookers wed by God – LET US LOVE TO THE EXTENT THAT WE HAVE BEEN LOVED IN SPITE OF OURSELVES.

like the man who finds trasure buried in a field, sells all that she has, POURS IT ALL out , and buys that field. What od we see? We see a call to repent into the Lord. To tuirn away form all that we have and are and turn deeply into Him. To pour it all out, Just as He pours it all our for us, in His blood. To spill the oil of our sins purchase upon His head, and to wash His feet with our tears, just as He anoints us with the oil of His blessing and washes us with the tears that spill out of His heart upon the cross. It is to give to Him all that we have and are, - to empty our hands and make room to receive all He is and gives. It is to enter into the great exchange. To leave it all to find it all. To forsake it all to gain it all.

For what does Jesus say? Whoever keeps His life will lose it. But whoever gives up His life, - for my sake, will never die, but gain eternal life. Give up all you have, - and let yourself BE HAD.

I say to you, her sins, which aremany, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the sameloves little.”48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Let us pray: I am not moved to love you, O my God, that I might hope in promised heaven to dwell; nor am I moved by fear of pain in hell. To turn from sin and follow where you trod. You move me, Lord, broken beneath the rod, Or stretched out on the cross, as nails compel. Your hand to twitch. It moves me that we sell , to mockery and death, your precious blood. It is, O Christ, your love which moves me so, that my love rests not on a promised Prize, nor holy fear n threat of endless woe, it is not milk and honey but the flow of blood from blessed wounds before my eyes that waters my buried soul and make it grow. Lord, let me distrust myself and put my trust in you. Let me cling to nothing, save only you. Let me be poor because of you. look upon me that I may love you. call me that I may see you. Let me forever enjoy you. Let me die, that I might live in you.