Spiritual Perspective:
Faith Born in Brokenness

By Sanjay Choudhrie
Special to The Independent

Is faith the same as belief? Like most people I sometimes confuse faith with belief. And I find myself intrigued by what Jesus describes as faith in the following stories. Saving faith no less!

In the Gospel of Luke there is the story of a Pharisee who invites Jesus to eat with him. A woman comes and washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and rubs an expensive perfumed ointment into his feet and kisses his feet. Apparently she just walks in and starts crying and washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair. Then she breaks out the alabaster jar (read very expensive perfume in lotion form) and then proceeds to massage Jesus’ feet while he is lying on the floor on his stomach eating food with Mr. Righteous. This story ends with Jesus telling her that her faith has made her whole (Luke 7:36-49).

This story raises several questions, and the first question I have is, what is this sinful woman doing in a Pharisee’s home? I ask because we have been conditioned by history to automatically think of Pharisees as bad (thank you St. Matthew). One argument could be that we say he’s a sinner which is why Jesus is having dinner with him. Yes, very true. However, Matthew points out in lengthy detail the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who practiced good works without love. Pharisees were the other large denomination of Jews — they were the righteous and did not kowtow, at least openly, to the Romans as did the other religious political power, the Sadducees. If it was anything that distinguished the Pharisees from the other denomination, it was the projecting of their righteousness. And here we have a sinner woman in the house of the righteous.

The second question is what sin did she commit? Jesus alludes to the fact that she has loved a lot and therefore is forgiven a lot. And we know that the term sinner had to do with purity and in the case of women this meant that she had loved more than one man or had been divorced or both, or it could even mean prostitute, or loose woman.

The third unanswered question is, what does she ask for? Apparently all she does is cry, wipe feet with hair, massage expensive perfume/lotion into Jesus’ feet, and kiss his feet. And her faith made her whole? Jesus called what she did faith! What does crying and washing feet have to do with faith?

Similarly, in the story of Jesus and Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28) a woman breaks through the crowd, the cordon of disciples guarding Jesus, and starts shouting at him, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.” His disciples, being the kind hearted people who wish to avoid embarrassment by this public spectacle of despair, urge him to send her away. Jesus tells her that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and she talks back. First she asks for help. And then he says, “I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In other words, his ministry was not to the Samaritans. And then the conversation ends with the now familiar “….great is your faith. Let it be done to her as you wish.”

In both of these stories one sees these women, a sinner in the first story and an indigenous woman in the second, overcoming their fears and the barriers placed upon them by society to reach out to Jesus. One wept and the other argued. One didn’t say anything and other was desperate for healing for her daughter. So desperate that she asked an outsider to heal her child.

Can you see that small native woman, in her traditional clothing? She was so desperate for the healing of her child, probably bankrupt by medical fees for treatments that obviously didn’t work, she was so desperate that she breaks through that cordon of burly fisherman and carpenters to ask that outsider to help.

The beauty of these stories is that Jesus calls both of these women faithful. He does not directly answer the question, “What is faith?” However, it seems to me that he is showing us that faith is about tears, love, washing feet, seeking healing for our loved ones, and humility.

Both of these women acknowledge brokenness, in words or in tears. I have often experienced that we become aware of God when things are not right — when we are sick and hurting from what life has brought our way. And it is in these moments when we acknowledge our lack of power, our lack of control, our tears, and our regret for everything that has gone wrong that should have gone right.

When we acknowledge our own brokenness (which includes the choices we have made, and the things we have done and not done), all we have left is desperate tears for ourselves and desperate words to save our loved ones. And so it would seem that faith is born in tragedy and sorrow. And until the time that they will come to visit we must strengthen our faith by eating with the Pharisees, visiting those in jail, feeding the sick, healing the hurt and taking care of the least among us. Faith is not belief. Faith is our acknowledgement of surrender and our response, to tragedy, loss, and illness. May we all be blessed with faith!

Sanjay Choudhrie is the executive director of CARE 66 in Gallup. He can be contacted at sanjay@care66.org or (505) 722-0066.

This column is written by area residents, representing different faith communities, who share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues. For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at The Independent: (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.