Today’s
Scripture Reading (December 29, 2018): Joshua 2
Some years ago I sat in a courtroom with a friend waiting for his case to
reach the docket. One of the cases I had the opportunity to watch during our wait involved an
older man trying to get out of a photo radar ticket. And he had a number of reasons for why he should not have
had to pay his fine. First, he blamed the
radar equipment, but that attempt failed. But from there, his defenses went downhill, including an attempt to argue
that speeding was a necessary action in this case because he was a diabetic whose blood sugar level was out
of whack and he had forgotten his medication at home. (Yep, this is exactly
what we need, sick people moments away from passing out speeding down our city
streets in an attempt to get to their medication.) And with every comment from
the judge, I sat a little lower in my seat, wishing that the accused would cut
his losses, end his embarrassing excuses, and just
pay the fine. The fact was that his excuses not only did not get him out of his
ticket, but it actually opened up the
possibility that he could be charged with
more serious allegations. The judge, to his credit, seemed to ignore all of the
crazy stories and eventually just told the man to pay the fine.
I admit that sometimes people can be embarrassing. Some of us have the
innate capability to insert “Too Much Information” into our conversations –
including me. Embarrassing moments dot my life, some because of my own words,
and sometimes there have been cringe-worthy
moments that have been produced by the people I am with, and often I have felt
like I did in that courtroom, just wishing that my friend would stop talking.
Sometimes, the stories we read in our Bible’s can be embarrassing. One of
the embarrassing stories of the Bible is that of Mary Magdalene. I mean, how is
it possible that a prostitute could be so integral to the story of Jesus.
Critics through history have tried to save the reputation of Mary and have said
that there is no direct evidence that Mary was a prostitute (and they are
right). But there is ample superficial evidence that Mary was a prostitute.
And, I believe, the situation might be even worse than that. Pope Gregory I
(Gregory the Great) might have been the first to argue that Mary was a
prostitute in a sermon preached in the late sixth century (500’s). But he
didn’t stop there. He argued that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany, Martha’s
younger sister, were actually the same
person. So if Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, so was Mary of Bethany. And I
think that Pope Gregory just might have been right.
Mary’s counterpart in the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible was Rahab. And we
have the same argument surfacing about her life and profession as we do with
Mary. Maybe it is embarrassing that it is a prostitute that helps Israel to
scout out Jericho. So maybe she was an innkeeper
except that her life as a prostitute might have been the perfect cover
for the spies. The truth is that we are uncomfortable with the story of Rahab, but that does not mean the God sees the story
our way.
I believe that there is something incredibly comforting about the
possibility that Mary and Rahab were prostitutes
because that means that God sees my embarrassing
story and loves me in spite of it. I get to play the role of the accused
standing before the Judge making my embarrassing excuse, and I know that he is on
my side anyway. And sometimes I wonder if our defense of Rahab, and Mary,
reveals more about the limitations we place on God’s forgiveness than it does
about our need to defend these uncomfortable ladies of the Bible.
Maybe we should just be okay with
who they are, knowing that God is okay with who we are.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Joshua 3
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