Your sins are Forgiven

If you were telling the following story as a Hollywood movie, whom would you get to write the screenplay? Whom would you choose to play Jesus, the pharisee, the “woman in that town who lived a sinful life?”

Luke 7: 36-39; 44-48
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

     A fascinating story—some would say bizarre. Where’s the motivation for the pharisee to invite Jesus to dinner? Is that a story on its own? What’s the motivation for the sinful woman to pour perfume on Jesus’ feet, bathe them with her tears? What’s the connection between her love and Jesus’ forgiving of her sins?            
     Would you explain the meaning of the event as Jesus does: “Her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown,” or would you let the viewer arrive at his own conclusions? Would you make of it a period piece with costumes faithful to Jesus time; or would you set it in, for instance, a Tim Horton’s in Toronto?
     And what about style? Would it be a spectacle as so many successful Hollywood movies seem to be? Or would it create a softer, more contemplative atmosphere as if the BBC had produced it? Would you do it with actors or animation—avatars, possibly?
Or would you have doubts about the story’s relevance today? Might you for that reason abandon the project before you’d started?
     I think I’d set it in a meeting of the General Council of a church denomination, or a similar, august body. I think Jesus would be one of that company, possibly the director of Indigenous Relations, who would also be a pastor of a church congregation that had befriended the woman in an accidental encounter when she was discovered sleeping in a pew on a Sunday morning. The pastor would have driven her home and the congregation taken her on as a "project," providing her with help in gaining access to her young daughter and finding her a decent place to live.
     She would be wearing leather and denim, a short skirt and high boots. She would be heavily tattooed, would have multiple rings in her ears, nose and lips. Her head would be shaved except for a purple swatch hanging over one ear.
     The pharisee would be the chairperson of the meeting, the one who would protest the loudest when the woman would barge into the room weeping hysterically, make her way to the IR director and throw herself at his feet.
     Eventually, the IR director would raise her up off the floor and lead her from the room and the “If this man were a [proper pastor,] he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner” discussion would take place in his absence.
     Fade to the pastor’s house and the woman seated like a lost child in the cavern of his sofa . . ..
     Does love imply forgiveness? Why would the pastor need to forgive her; none of her sins were committed against him or his loved ones, were they? What exactly has this extraordinary tale have to teach us post-moderns? What act of today would be similarly symbolic to the woman’s pouring of perfume on Jesus’ feet?
     Writing screenplays is hard work.
     How am I going to end this movie? How would you?