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Morning Meditation
October 8, 2026
Meditation by Peter Vanderveen
For today, it’s probably best for the meditation to precede the reading. The appointed Scriptural text is a bit lengthy, and my initial inclination was to shorten it – dramatically – to just one phrase. For this single declaration deserves a lifetime of thought: “one who is forgiven little, loves little.” It’s a statement that, when pondered, can illumine what love truly is, and how it is unimaginable apart from the grace of having been forgiven, and how it isn’t sustainable if we ourselves don’t forgive others. Though we often conflate love with affection, love operates on a completely different plane. It’s more like an infinite generosity, most profoundly shown in forgiveness. One would do well to keep Luke’s statement posted in a very visible location.
We are used to reading texts, quickly scanning them, in search of whatever might be the culminating idea. It’s a very utilitarian practice: here’s the point, or the moral, or the rule. It’s a habit that makes the text itself secondary: a story, for example, becomes a decidedly inefficient delivery system. We don’t need the parables themselves; their summaries alone will do.
But in actually reading this passage from Luke – closely and with patience – what becomes apparent is that the story itself takes priority. It’s astonishingly intimate, especially for Scripture: feet, tears, hair, kisses, wetness, ointment. What is described can almost feel uncomfortable and prurient. Certainly Jesus’ host felt this. There was too much humanness in the room. And this gave Jesus’ question such great effect. He asked one thing: “Do you see this woman?”... Do you see her? Do you see who she truly is? The Pharisee only saw her through the lens of laws that discounted her. She should have been judged as unworthy, as no one. Jesus upended the rule so that her person might become visible, as a grace.
There’s no set of laws that can insure or enforce seeing someone else. But the story leads us, powerfully, in this direction. Read the text for its beauty. You’ll look on others differently.
Reading: Luke 7:36-50
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house, and took his place at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “What is it, Teacher?” “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Prayer
Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us to forget. Help us turn their sorrow into joy. Amen.
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