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During the course of the meal, Simon berates this intrusive woman for her lifestyle and questions Jesus’ judgment for engaging her at all. Simon’s story illustrates that it’s easier to focus on someone else’s brokenness. His actions underscore a false piety intended to conceal his own brokenness. If I am to read this story honestly, I have to wrestle with all of the ways in which I am both this sinful woman—and this (falsely) righteous man.
The place to begin is with a woman knocking on a door. She has come because she has been invited. Admittedly, this invitation has taken place somewhere outside the realm of the story and of what we can see as readers. Nevertheless, we know she has been invited because Jesus says elsewhere: “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me…” (Jn.6:44a NRSV)
In the Exodus story, and in our own lives, there is the water that drowns—and drowns out—the voices of the taskmasters. But there is another kind of water—the water that restores and brings rest. The work of God is not just to set free—the work of God is also to transform and to heal. What we find about freedom from taskmasters is that their voices may still linger. What we find about freedom from taskmasters is that their words may make us bitter. Indeed, no sooner has Miriam finished her song—“Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea” (Exod. 15:21)—than the Israelites are faced with bitter waters.
Part of what the wilderness does is teach us to wait. The pillar of cloud and fire will remain where it is as long as God wants it to. But, the pillar does move. We will stay in wilderness forever unless we find ways to be brave, to pick up our stakes, and to follow the cloud, trusting that God’s presence dwells inside it. We are to trust that God knows when we’ve been in our particular wilderness long enough—to ask him to help us be brave to walk forward when the cloud begins to move, because eventually it will move. It will move because God moves in our lives. There is a way forward.
