Should we look for someone else?
February 12, 2025
Reading: Luke 7:36-50
Maybe the inner critic is like a tape on repeat in your mind, of shaming statements from childhood authority figures.
Perhaps the inner critic is about a memory that you just can’t shake of the moment something went wrong that you can’t undo.
Likely, the inner critic is offering words of criticism about others, that are actually connected with criticizing yourself.
The inner critic is powerful, and this monologue we have with ourselves can easily lead us to places of shame. It’s the reality we rarely acknowledge because the Christian way of life is to accept Jesus’ forgiveness, as well as to forgive others. But how can you accept Jesus’ forgiveness and give forgiveness to others, when you are continually criticizing yourself and others?
Today we hear Simon the Pharisee’s inner dialogue. Simon wonders “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.” This literary technique is unique to the gospel of Luke, as a way of helping us hear the inner critic of those who struggle to believe in Jesus’ identity. In this passage, Jesus is the one who forgives, but like so many of us, Simon’s inner critic leads him to places of doubting forgiveness. Who is worthy to be forgiven and who isn’t? Simon compares his sin to hers, he as a Pharisee of religious purity and her as a “sinner.” And yet her extravagant act of washing Jesus feet with her tears is a display of wanting forgiveness, while Simon is unaware even of his need for forgiveness.
I have empathy for Simon when I imagine what must be his very strong inner critic – the critic of Jesus who is beating himself up so much he must judge others to avoid even thinking about his own need for forgiveness. And perhaps, like Simon, we too need to learn how to manage those inner critics a bit better. Perhaps we too need to realize that our judgement of others is more about judgement of self. Perhaps we too will realize that the voice of criticizing another person’s worthiness is related to our own struggles of feeling worthy. Perhaps we too can listen to our own inner critic long enough to realize that Jesus wants to heal our self criticism too. Jesus wants to forgive even our own inability to forgive ourselves or our inability to forgive others - as an extravagant gift given to us all. For only when we are aware of how abundant our need is for Jesus forgiveness, can we accept this abundant forgiveness.
It is my prayer in this gift of abundant forgiveness, all of our inner critics will be calmed by the voice of Jesus saying: “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you, go in peace.”
