The story that took place in the house of the Pharisee, a man who was undoubtedly deeply religious, shows us once again how paradoxical the Kingdom and its life must have seemed to the religious mind. For a religious person, sin is something objective and absolute. To him, a sinner is only a sinner, and fellowship with that person is inadvisable for anyone striving to live righteously; sin can be caught like an infectious disease. To the religious mind, sin is a spiritual and moral classification that makes a person unfit for spiritual life as that mind understands it. Following this logic, Jesus should have driven away the sinful woman who approached Him, regardless of any repentance. All the more so because in this case the sin must have been not accidental but entirely deliberate, and its consequences insurmountable even if the sinner repented.

Jesus sees the situation differently. For Him, sin is not a person's spiritual and moral classification but his ordinary condition after the Fall. The issue is not whether a person is worthy to enter the Kingdom. Here everything is obvious: after the Fall no one can be worthy. The only question is whether a particular person can be saved, whether a particular sinner can be brought into the life of the Kingdom.

Naturally, to do this the sinner will have to cease being a sinner, and he will be able to enter the life of the Kingdom only to the extent that he can accomplish this task. Yet in principle it can be accomplished, if only the person himself wants it. The sole question is whether someone seeking the Kingdom resolves to enter a relationship with Jesus, who brought the Kingdom into the world. The woman who wept as she embraced Jesus' feet clearly had such a relationship. The Pharisee... it is hard to say with certainty. But he is plainly not drawn to Jesus as the woman in the evangelist's account is. After all, he thinks that everything is generally in order with him, not yet knowing that he is mistaken. The woman no longer thinks so; her sins are more obvious to her. She has something to ask of the Teacher.

And so, paradoxically, the one who has sinned more proves closer to the Kingdom than the one who has sinned less. Not because sin brings a person closer to the Kingdom, of course. It is simply that an evident and serious sin, once recognized, forces a person to think seriously about his destiny and to hold more tightly to the One who can help him. This really does bring a person closer to the Kingdom, despite the sins he has committed.

At first glance the situation can appear questionable: is it really the case that in order to deserve forgiveness, one need only "show love" to Christ, or, as we would say today, "pamper" Him? This would be understandable in the case of a boss at work or some official in a government office, but Christ... Does He really demand an "advance payment" for His forgiveness?

The parable of the two debtors can clarify this question: love is not payment for forgiveness; love is the natural expression of gratitude. Jesus compares the expressions of love shown by the Pharisee, a devout and respected man, and by the "sinner," probably a public woman, not in order to reproach him for callousness. He is simply illustrating His own words: "he who is forgiven little, loves little." In this light, the woman's unusual gesture means that she is already no longer a sinner: her love testifies that she has been forgiven. This allows us to read Jesus' words about her differently, as most modern translations do: "Her many sins are forgiven, as can be seen from how greatly she loves." And can this be seen in us?

All the biblical books tell us about two spiritual paths: the path of righteousness, leading to life, and the path of sin, leading to death. And now, when the Messiah has come, it suddenly turns out that the situation is not so unambiguous, that not every sinner is walking the path of sin and not every righteous person stands on the path of righteousness as firmly as he thinks.

Yet if we think about it, there is nothing surprising here: after all, there are no absolute righteous people in the world, completely untouched by sin, except Christ. Therefore righteousness by definition is only a relative state, one that depends on the fullness and intensity of communion with God available to the righteous person. Righteousness is like breathing: it is not static; if communion with God ceases, it disappears, just as breath disappears from someone who has stopped breathing.

And then it turns out that a repentant sinner is closer to righteousness than an imaginary righteous person who contemplates his own righteousness and judges others. Indeed, in order to repent, in order to ask forgiveness for the sin committed, one must at least turn to God, and therefore establish with Him those very relationships without which there is no righteousness. And then one can consider the matter done, for God needs only to establish relationships with us; after that He will find the way and the possibility to solve all our problems. It is enough for Him simply to enter our heart, and here it no longer matters what becomes the reason for our openness to Him. Even if the reason was regret over a sin committed and repentance for it, He will find how to do in our heart the spiritual work that we need for our salvation.