The readings that we have heard today have something to teach us about God's forgiveness, as well as about our response to that forgiveness. But first, they teach us about the consequences of sin - especially the first reading that we heard from 2 Samuel. In this reading, the sin is obvious. David has committed adultery with another man's wife, and then has her husband, Uriah, killed. As soon as Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, has finished her period of mourning, David marries her, since she is already pregnant with David's child. This is the sin that God addresses through Nathan, the prophet.

There is at least one commentary on 2 Samuel that points out how there are two main consequences to sin (Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 2). The first is that sin separates us from God. The second consequence is the evil effects in the world. The separation from God is removed only by God's forgiveness, which is given to David following his admission of guilt and his repentance. Otherwise, David would have been cut off from God and put to death. However, there are also the evil effects in the world associated with his sin, which are often pictured as a burden that needs to be borne. In David's case, as in many other instances, he is not the only one who will bear the burden of his sin. The child will die, and all of the members of the family will share in this grief - a grief which is probably already a burden for Bathsheba!

It is a concept that might seem to many of us to be totally unfair, and yet, the burden of sin is often borne by others. If you think of somebody who steals cars, it is an action that results in a financial burden for all those who pay for auto insurance. The same goes for those who deface city property or steal from businesses. The cost shows up in higher prices for everybody or in higher taxes to pay for the damage. In similar fashion, if one person in a family is convicted of a crime and ends up in jail or under some other kind of restrictions, the whole family is affected, and not just that one person. The same could be said of addictions to alcohol or drugs. It is not just that person doing damage to their own body, but doing damage to family relationships and inflicting a burden upon their spouse or children or other family members.

The burden of sin is rarely, if ever, borne only by the person who has sinned. Sin always affects other people, as well as our relationship with God. And so, in David's case, part of the burden of his sin was borne by his child, who got sick and died (2 Sam. 12:14-23). Yet, for those who believe in Jesus, it doesn't work like this any more. There are many passages in the Bible that talk about how the burden of human sin was taken and placed upon Jesus and taken with him to the cross (e.g. Isa. 53; 1 Pet. 2:24). And so now, if we sin like David did and come to God seeking forgiveness and truly repenting of our sin and clinging to Jesus as our Saviour, we won't get a response that says, "You are forgiven, but your child must die." Instead, we get a response that says, "You are forgiven and my Son, Jesus, has borne the burden for you. Go in peace and sin no more."

There is absolutely nothing fair about it, and yet Jesus' love for us is so great that he willingly took the burden of our sin upon himself, in order that we might have life. He did this for all of us - not just for those sinners over there - but for you and for me. Sinfulness is not limited to "bad deeds" like David's sins of adultery and murder. Our inner attitudes, desires and motives can be just as sinful, and also result in separation from God and in evil effects in the world. Thus, one of the major messages of the Scriptures is that we recognize our own sinfulness that harms our relationships with God and with others, and that we recognize at the same time the gracious gift of forgiveness and new life that is ours through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the good news that God proclaims to us in Baptism. This is the good news that is proclaimed at the Lord's Supper. This is the good news that is proclaimed through the Scriptures.

The question is what we are going to do with God's gracious announcement to us of forgiveness and peace. At least three possibilities are suggested in our readings for today. First of all, there is David, who spends a week in prayer and in fasting, pleading with God for the life of his child. Then, when the child dies, David acknowledges that the Lord is God and goes to God's house in order to worship. Although he mourns the loss of his child, David knows what a gift he has been given in God's forgiveness. He goes to worship God and to dedicate himself to following a new and better path from now on.

The second response to forgiveness that we hear about today is the woman who shows great love to Jesus by washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair (Lk. 7:36-50). Luke implies that this woman has already had a previous encounter with Jesus, for she is showing great love in response to God's forgiveness of her many sins (Lk. 7:47). Jesus must have already announced this forgiveness to her, and she has come into the Pharisee's house in order to show her love and gratitude to Jesus. She does this by voluntarily making herself Jesus' slave, for only a slave would wash the feet of another person. And so she uses her tears of gratitude and her long hair and her alabaster jar of ointment in order to serve Jesus and to show her love for him.

Finally, the third response to forgiveness is made by the group of women who are named in today's gospel. Although Luke focuses on their healing rather than on their forgiveness, forgiveness and healing always go hand in hand in the gospels. Jesus has healed them and has announced God's forgiveness to them. In response, they have given themselves and all that they have to Jesus and his disciples - an act which no doubt would have turned some heads and irked their families! For women to travel around with a teacher in those days would have been considered deviant and would have aroused suspicions of illicit sexual conduct. It was also unheard of for women to leave their homes and families in order to travel around with and provide for a rabbi and his disciples. Yet, these women had received so much from Jesus that they wanted to respond with no less than their "whole selves." And so, in spite of what anybody else might think, they travel with Jesus and his disciples and provide for them out of their resources (Lk. 8:1-3). This is how they respond to Jesus and to his gift to them of healing and forgiveness.

Of course, the question of our response to Jesus still remains. One commentator suggests the following:

Is this, in fact, true? Are we afraid of truly receiving God's forgiveness and opening our hearts to allow the Spirit of Christ to come in? It is true that if we truly accept God's gift of healing and forgiveness by believing in and following Jesus Christ, then we will be changed. Our lives will not be driven by what other people think, or what our relatives expect of us, or what "society" tells us, or even by what makes us feel good, but by our love and gratitude to Jesus Christ and our desire to follow him.

Then, we will be able to say with Paul:

Yes - this life is different from what "everybody else" is doing. But to respond with great love and with our whole selves to Jesus is infinitely worth it! Amen.

Proper 6(C) Luke 7:36-8:3 2 Sam. 11:26-12:10, 13-15 Galatians 2:15-21 June 13, 2004 St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church Pastor Lynne Hutchison

? 2004 Lynn Hutchison All Rights Reserved