Spiritual Rorschach Test

by the Rev. Jim Gilman

This sermon is based on Luke 7:36-8:3. Click here to listen to an audio version of this sermon.

Decades ago I was an undergraduate student in college. This was a year or two after the invention of the wheel. Some of you will remember. I majored in psychology. In a course called The Psychology of Personality students were required to both take and administer several standardized tests that measure personality traits. Some of these tests are still standard today. For example, one was the Briggs-Myers test. Many of you probably have taken this test. The results of this test have permanently damaged the self-image of several generations of otherwise perfectly healthy Americans. Another test we had to take and administer was the Rorschach test. Have you taken this test? Sometime it is referred to as the inkblot test. The subject views a formless ink blotch on a piece of paper; and is asked to interpret it; to explain what they see. Trained psychologists then analyze the interpretation and gain insight into the subject’s personality and psychological condition. It sometimes reveals character traits that the subject is reluctant to talk about openly.

            

Our Gospel lesson today presents us with a kind of spiritual Rorschach test. It asks us to view and interpret the actions of a woman who intrudes on a perfectly peaceful man-cave dinner party. How would you view and interpret this woman and how she acts? What would it reveal about your spiritual condition? Luke gives us two interpretations of the same event; and in a sense Luke is recording the results of a spiritual Rorschach test. He records how Simon the Righteous Pharisee sees the woman and Jesus. He also records how Jesus sees the woman and Simon. These two ways of seeing the same event reveal two distinct spiritual personalities, two different underlying psychological conditions. These two ways of seeing, in fact, are windows into the spiritual condition of Simon’s heart and into the spiritual condition of Jesus’ heart.

Luke’s question to us, his readers, is: Which way of seeing do you and I tend toward? When we view people who are different from us, or difficult, or whose lives are somewhat scandalous, how do we view them? How do we interpret their actions? Do we tend toward Simon’s way of seeing, or do we tend toward Jesus’ way of seeing?

            

Simon is a Pharisee, a Righteous and religious man, who invites Jesus to dinner along with friends. Dinner is interrupted by a woman “who is a sinner,” as Luke puts it; a woman who apparently has a reputation. If we take the woman’s actions as a kind of spiritual Rorschach test, Simon reveals more about the spiritual condition of his heart than he does about the woman. He sees her antagonistically and judgmentally; he criticizes and condemns her for her unconventional, disruptive behavior. In doing so he reveals just how selfish and self-righteous his heart really is. In fact, Simon’s eyesight fails him in several ways. First, he sees her only as a sinner; he does not see her as a sinner in need of love and care, as Jesus does. Simon is first and foremost selfish. He has no concern for the well being of the woman, but only for the well being of his dinner party. In doing so, Simon’s eyes fail to see the fact that, just like the woman, he too is a sinner in need of God’s love and care; something his own religious tradition teaches him.

Not only that, Simon also reveals something about his heart by criticizing and misjudging Jesus. He says, “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.” Not only does Simon misunderstand what a prophet is, Simon’s pride is so monstrous that he cannot see in himself what he so easily sees in the woman—that he is a sinner.

Contrast Simon’s with Jesus’ way of seeing this random inkblot event. Jesus sees differently. In fact, he suspects that Simon has not really seen this woman at all. In so many words, Jesus asks Simon, “Look at her, don’t you even see what she is doing?” She is showing to me the kind of hospitality, Simon, that you and any decent host are supposed to show a guest. You, Simon, have neglected the very acts of kindness and hospitality that you expect of others. You’re so busy criticizing and complaining that you fail to see the kind heart of this woman; you’re so busy criticizing and complaining that you fail to show me, a guest, the same care and concern this woman, who you criticize as a sinner, shows me.  So, look first at yourself, Simon, and not at the woman. Examine yourself; see if your heart is right and right with God. You will see that you are as much a sinner as this woman; and that God will forgive both of you, as long as you acknowledge you are sinners. But how can you acknowledge that you are sinner when you are so pre-occupied with criticizing and judging and condemning others?

What lessons can we take away from this story, from this spiritual Rorschach test? Everyday we encounter people; how we react to these random, inkblot events reveals the spiritual condition of our heart. Think of people you interact with regularly: members of your family; friends, neighbors,  people you work with or go to school with: How do you see them? How do you judge them? Do you judge them more critically than you do yourself? Do I, do you, simply judge them, as Simon did? Or do you, as Jesus did, see what it is you can do to care for them, to show compassion and contribute to their well being?  Which way of seeing do you and I tend toward? 

Luke’s gospel is teaching us that what we see or don’t see in others reveals as much about our own spiritual condition as it does the condition of others; it reveals who we are in our heart, in our soul. We can all think right now of someone who we tend to see critically and judgmentally, like Simon did the woman; someone who we quickly and easily condemn and dismiss.  By seeing in this way we reveal not what kind of person the other is but what kind of person we are towards them in our hearts. No doubt we can come up with reasons to see them that way. But for Christians there is another way of seeing, a Christ-like way. That way begins with self-examination, that we are sinners and in need of help, in need of God’s love and care. Secondly, Jesus’ way sees others not just as sinners but as sinners in need of help, in need of God’s love and care. This difference between Simon’s and Jesus’ way of seeing may be a small difference, but it is one that makes all the difference: Simon sees the woman as a sinner; Jesus sees her as a sinner in need of God’s love and care and forgiveness, which it is the business of Christians to deliver. Jesus is not the fool Simon makes him out to be; he is not fooled by the women; he knows who and what she is, a sinner. And yet he also knows her heart, and knows what she needs. He knows that her acts of kindness towards him come from a heart of faith and love. Hence, he declares to her “Your sins are forgiven,” something he also offers to Simon and to all of us.

Luke challenges each of us as Christians first to examine ourselves. What kind of eyes do we have? How do we see others? Judgmentally, like Sinon? Or graciously, like Jesus? When we see other people what does that Rorschach test reveal about our own heart, about our faith? What does it reveal about the spiritual condition of our lives? How do we see and judge family members? How about our boss or fellow employees or neighbors or clergy? Do I, do you see with the eyes of Simon or with the eyes of Jesus? May God help us to see as Jesus sees others: not just as sinners but as sinners in need of forgiveness and compassion. May we see with eyes of healing grace; with eyes of acceptance and forgiveness; with eyes of love and mercy. May we as a community of Christians collectively see with the eyes of Jesus; so that Jesus may say of us as he said to the woman: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”