Luke 7:36-50
Matthew 25:35-40
“The Good News Is…Great Love for God & Neighbor”
Preached Sunday, March 1, 2026
We are on the second week of our Good News Lent.
Lent is the six weeks before Easter, 40 days plus Sundays, that lead us up to the Resurrection of Christ. In the early church, Lent was a time for converts to Christianity and those who had strayed from the Church, to focus or re-focus on the core tenets of the Gospel message, to be baptized or re-join the Christian community come the celebration of Easter. It was - and is - also a season of fasting, penitence, and prayer.
And this Lent, we are taking a slightly different Lenten journey. We are still preparing for the Celebration of the Resurrection by focusing on the Gospel message. We are focusing on core tenets of our faith. And I am encouraging fasting and prayer for wherever and however it is life-giving for each of you. The difference is, we are breaking from the often somber and serious attitude of Lent, in favor of one that takes literally that the Gospel means Good News and that Good News is as the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus - Good News of great joy for all people!
We live in a world where people are thirsty for good news - both the everyday kind and the Gospel of Jesus Christ kind. Unfortunately what is often packaged and sold as the Good News of Christ Jesus often fails to actually be “good” news - a “Gospel” that is exclusive, limiting, controlling, shaming, hateful is not the Good News of Jesus Christ.
And so this Lent our sermon series is, “Tell Me Something Good: Grounding Ourselves in the Good News this Lent.” And so today’s Good News is one of the core tenets, perhaps THE core tenet of the Gospels: Great love of God & neighbor.
I’ve preached on this many times before. I will preach on this countless times in the future. If I could preach but one sermon in life it would be this - Love of God & neighbor as self is central to the Good News of the Gospel.
And we must all become evangelists of that Gospel. To be clear, I did not just say we should all become evangelicals which is its own branch of Christianity right now. No, no one owns the term evangelist because it means one who brings Good News. The Good News of the Gospel at its core is that God loves us. God loves me. God loves you. God loves all. It is as it says in John 3:16, that God so loved the world that God sent us Jesus to know that love for all eternity. We are all called to carry this Good News of God’s love to all we meet…
But. And. No one will care that a God they can’t see loves them if the people they can see who are the representatives of God on this earth don’t love them first. And if it is not just not-love that Christians share but indifference, disdain or hate - they will run away from our loving God as fast as they can.
And so, we must all be evangelists - bearers of the Good News of God’s love - and that means loving God and loving neighbor. It means we show God’s love with, to, and for others and all when we love them - and when we love others, when we love our neighbors, we too are loving God.
With this in mind, let us look to our Scripture this morning of the unnamed woman washing Jesus’s feet with her hair. A slight caveat, in the Gospel of John this story happens at a different place in the life of Jesus - before his crucifixion and burial - in John that woman is named Mary although not Mary Magdalene as many assume. In Luke, this is smack dab in the middle or even closer to the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. The woman is unnamed and identified solely as a sinner.
And so Jesus is eating at the house of Simon, a Pharisee. Now, although Simon invited Jesus in to eat, it appears he was not a good host of Jesus. A good host would have offered Jesus water to wash his feet - dusty from the roads. A good host would have offered Jesus oil to anoint his head with - relief from the heat of the day. A good host would have offered Jesus the kiss of welcome - as was customary at the time. Simon offers Jesus none of these things.
And then in comes this woman who is marked solely as a sinner. Often when women are named as sinners in the Bible, generations of misogyny cause us to assume they were prostitutes - although, in this case, I do believe that is an inference that Luke wants us to make. And she washes Jesus feet with her tears and hair, anoints him with oil, kisses him. What she does is offer the hospitality, the acts of loving welcome, that Simon himself neglected. Albeit in a different way - a more extravagant, bold, loving way.
And Simon, the text says “he says to himself” - we may take this to mean under his breath but the Greek implies more that he thought this to himself, that “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” It is at this point that Jesus says, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” In a twist of irony, Jesus is a prophet and he knows what Simon is thinking here - and/or perhaps Simon’s judgement was written all over his face.
And so Jesus tells Simon something. He tells Simon that she is the one who showed him great love. The term used for great love here is the same used in Matthew when Jesus gives the second greatest commandment “love your neighbor as yourself.” This woman has shown great love to God who was her neighbor Jesus.
This story may cause us to pause and ask ourselves - who are we often more like? Simon, who neglected to show great love to his guest and judged his neighbor? Or the woman to whom much had been given and showed extravagant bold love without regard for her own self image? And which one was the evangelist - the bearer of the Good News of the Gospel?
Which brings us, briefly, to our second Scripture lesson of the day - the famous, beautiful, and convicting Matthew 25 passage. It is worth repeating: “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’”
Mathew 25 tells us that not only are we to love our neighbors through actions of compassion and mercy, it tells us that when we love our neighbors, we are loving God God’s self. God is the least of these. T. Denise Anderson offers this beautiful commentary on this Scripture: “Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus uses diminutive language to refer to people of importance and describes small, humble things (like sheep, lilies, and sparrows) as precious. He uses a mustard seed in a parable about faith, and tells his disciples to be like children. For Matthew’s Jesus, little is a big deal! For that reason, we should pay attention to Jesus’ use of the word “least” in this text. In a book where Jesus talks about little things being loved, the word “least” here takes on new meaning: most loved. Indeed, God loves everyone, but there are certainly those for whom God has a special affinity.”
Matthew 25 tells us that the two greatest commandments - to love God and to love neighbor as self are indeed inseparable. They are not different items on a to-do list, they are not different boxes we can check, they are one and the same. We love God when we love our neighbors. When we love our neighbors, we are loving God.
And above all - we can do all this because God loves us. God does not look at us and label us purely as sinners. God does not look upon us with cruel judgement. God offers forgiveness, grace, and love to every single one of us - even and especially - the least of these. Even to Simon, I believe Jesus leaves the door open to him - now that Simon’s neighbor has shown him an example of love, forgiveness, and hospitality - will Simon better love his neighbor and in turn better love God?
This is the Good News that we receive and that we are called to be evangelists to bear to others: God loves you and you can know God loves you through my actions of love towards you, my neighbor.
I am going to leave you today with this poem by The Rev. Sarah Speed entitled, “If God Lived Next Door.”
“If God lived next door,
I’d drop off a loaf of bread.
I’d use my mom’s best recipe.
I’d wrap it in parchment and ribbon
and place it on the front stoop.
If God lived next door,
I’d leave a note with my phone number.
Call anytime you need anything!
I’m always happy to help!
If God lived next door,
I’d keep sugar on the shelf,
just in case she needed a cup.
I’d put a picnic table in the front yard
and begin taking my coffee there.
Whenever God passed by with their gaggle of rescue dogs,
I could say, Want to sit for a moment? Want to rest your legs?
I’d keep a jar of dog treats and water by the mailbox
and change my doormat to one that says:
All are welcome here.
I’d invite God over for dinner.
[He’d] bring bread and juice.
I’d host a block party,
so that everyone could meet [him].
I’d start a community garden
so that the kids could run between rows of squash and tomatoes
while we adults put our hands in the dirt.
We’d share stories while we weeded,
and eat harvest meals at the end of the season.
If God lived next door,
I’d want to build something beautiful.
Then again,
who says [God] doesn’t?”
Amen.
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