Today I am going to talk a bit about The Life of Jesus. Let’s read a simple but emotional story that is found only in Luke 7:36-50
This is a good Valentines story It’s got all the qualities
of a great love story: passion, overcoming obstacles, standing up for the
other, other people trying to interfere, forgiveness. It’s a great tale about
great love, one for another. I like this letter I am about to read….it is not
at all like our Bible passage today, it is a letter that a young man wrote to
his girlfriend. It said, “Sweetheart, if this world was as hot as the Sahara
desert, I would crawl on my knees through the burning sand to come to you. If
the world would be like the Atlantic Ocean, I would swim through shark infested
waters to come to you. I would fight the most fiercest dragon to be by your
side. I will see you on Thursday if it does not rain.”
Ah, the stuff that love is made of. Well, let’s pick this
story apart. Now, I don’t want to over-analyze it, because at its core it is a
love story. But there are some elements I’d like to look at. So Jesus was
invited out for lunch. A Pharisee named Simon asked if Jesus would like to eat
at his place, and Jesus accepted. Now, it seems that news got out that Jesus
would be eating at Simon’s house, and a sinful woman waited for Jesus to show
up there.
There are similar stories in the other Gospels describing
when Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus with oil. Catholic theology says this is the
same story, at least the same woman. While the stories are similar, they have
several notable differences too, enough to say that it’s nor fair to assume
this sinful woman is Mary Magdalene. The text says “a certain woman”,
apparently wanting not to name her, so we won’t either.
So at Simon’s house the woman cried on Jesus’ feet, wiped
them off with her own hair, kissed them and poured expensive perfume on them.
This all sounds very odd today but back then and there, since everyone wore
sandals, cleaning someone else’s feet was a sign of respect and honor. It was
customary.But Simon did not react well to it all. In fact, he used it as proof that Jesus was not who people said he was: a prophet. He said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.”
And Jesus, actually proving He was a prophet, responded to Simon’s unspoken thoughts. Jesus told a story of 2 people who owed their creditor some money. One owed a small amount, and the other owed 10 times as much. The creditor forgave them both of their debts. And Jesus asked who would be more thankful for it. Simon said that the one who owed more and was forgiven of more would love more. Which was exactly Jesus’ point. Jesus then connected it to Simon and the sinful woman and said that the woman showed Jesus much more love. He declared that her sins were forgiven and sent her off, much to the dismay of the other guests, likely Pharisees, who were annoyed at the whole thing.
Well, let’s look at the 2 people in the story besides Jesus.
First, there was Simon the Pharisee. He had invited Jesus to his home but had
not performed the customary foot washing. Even though Simon was the host, he
really hadn’t treated his guest with much courtesy. Now, why would that be?
Well, it seems that maybe he was just trying to find an
excuse to dismiss Jesus. Maybe he was looking for some reason that he did not
have to listen to what Jesus was saying. Still the same today. If a person can
find hypocrites, then they think that just throw out what the hypocrite is
saying.
Simon was thinking something like this. OK – If Jesus were a
prophet, he would know people’s character. And if Jesus knew this woman was a
sinner, He would have nothing to do with her. Since Jesus has accepted this
woman, He does not know her character. And since Jesus does not know this woman
is a sinner, He cannot be a prophet. Therefore, since Jesus is not a prophet, I
can reject Him. I can reject His message, and I can reject His ministry. Case
closed.
People do that today. They say, “Well, obviously, Jesus
would not go to dances…if he was a Baptist…. or Jesus would not go to the
liquor store or Jesus would not be out and around where sinners are or Jesus
would not vote Liberal or Jesus would not vote at all or Jesus would hate gays
or Jesus would be against gay marriage or Jesus would leave liberal churches
or…” Well, maybe some of that is true and maybe some of it isn’t, but the point
is, we assume we know what Jesus would do. We quote scriptures backing our
positions up. Well, I must say, Simon backed himself up with scriptures too. He
would have been able to quote the passages that say that holy people should
stay away from unholy things.
And what happens is that we make Jesus against the same
things we’re against. We make Him in our own images. We call it looking more
and more like Him, and really we make Him more and more like us.
Now, there was nothing wrong with Simon’s logic, but it was
based on a faulty premise. He assumed that holiness was primarily a matter of
separation. Holiness was achieved by keeping yourself separate from sin and
from sinners. According to this view, Jesus would have to shun this sinful
woman in order to remain holy. Simon concluded that either (1) Jesus didn’t
know this woman’s character, or (2) that whether or not He knew about her
sinfulness, He was physically contaminated by her, and thus could not be holy.
Well, like all bad theology, this view emphasizes one aspect
of truth while ignoring others. This view emphasizes God’s holiness, and His
high standards of what is good and right, but minimizes His compassion, and His
love and concern for people, not just what they do to mess up their lives.
In fact, Jesus answers both views here. He says that 2
people owe the creditor. One is obviously the woman, and she owes more. But
Simon is the other. He probably thought he didn’t owe anything. He probably
thought he was doing pretty good anyway. He didn’t need forgiveness. He didn’t
need to love this man. He and God were buddy-buddy. This man was clearly wrong,
and he was clearly right.But the truth is, he did owe something. He was not perfect, though his life was cleaner than the woman’s. He did not realize that he was a debtor as well. And the irony of the whole thing is this: the one with the more sins is the one who gets forgiveness. The woman was forgiven, but he was not. You see, the woman may have been sinful but she was still seeking the Lord. She probably wasn’t a faithful Jew. She probably didn’t attend synagogue weekly. But she loved the Lord more than the not-so-sinful person did. Her actions were sinful but her heart was loving. Her actions and her heart did not line up, but it seems that’s OK with Jesus, because He saw her heart. The sinful one was more in touch with Jesus than the righteous one.
What’s more, the woman loved Jesus before she was forgiven
by Him – v48. But, the previous verse seems to say that her sins were already
forgiven – v47. Even before Jesus told her she was forgiven, before she heard
the words, she was forgiven. Clearly, it’s impossible to decide if someone else
is a Christian or not. Here was a sinful woman who had been forgiven by Jesus.
Her reputation worked against her. Even her actions worked against her. But Jesus
saw her heart, which no one else saw. And Jesus knew that was good enough.
Again I say, it’s not up to you to decide if someone is a Christian or not. You
can’t tell by church attendance or by political stripes or by reputation or
even by actions. Only Jesus sees the heart, and that’s where it’s all decided.
So where does that leave us? What does this story mean for
us? Well, Simon’s part tells us not to judge another person’s spiritual health
by their actions. But the story isn’t really about Simon. It’s about the sinful
woman and the love that she showed towards the Lord. This is a story about
worship.
And the point is not, “Who’s been forgiven of more things?”
The point is, “Who realizes all that they’ve been forgiven of?” It didn’t
matter how good the woman was, compared to someone else. All that mattered is
that she loved the Lord. She realized how little she deserved to be with the
Lord, and she was just grateful for what she had. She loved much because she
was forgiven much.
That’s what worship is. Worship is for sinful people. Jesus
didn’t deny or minimize the fact that the woman was sinful. You don’t have to
be perfect to come to church, which is the image believers have given off over
the years. That is, you have to be living right if you want to be here. It’s
not the image we want to project, but when someone else’s lifestyle disgusts
us, it’s hard to hide it, and they see it.
But as Jesus said, when we are aware of our own sinfulness, and when we
are also aware of His perfection, that’s when worship happens. When we know how
little we deserve, and yet God is good to us anyway, that’s when worship
happens.
You see, worship isn’t about us. It’s not about making us
happy. It’s not about singing the songs we like. Worship is about Jesus. The
woman was preoccupied with Jesus. She didn’t care that there were others there
who looked down on her. She cared only about what her Lord thought about her.
He didn’t care how many hypocrites were around – her worship was focused on
Jesus.
And for her, worship is not about receiving something from
God as much as it was giving something to Him. Jesus was approached by many
people, most of whom wanted something from Him. I do not wish to minimize this
or to condemn it. If I lived in Jesus’ day and were blind, I would want to come
to Jesus for Him to restore my sight. But this woman’s worship was expressed by
her giving to Jesus, not getting from Him. Too often, our prayers are like a
wish list for Santa. Too seldom, our prayers are praise and adoration alone,
without any request, where our only desire is to be in His presence. So this morning I am telling us to be
thankful for the Lord’s love. Be grateful to Him for allowing you to know Him.
And love Him back. Sometimes it’s hard. There were reasons why this woman could
have stayed away from Jesus and not worshipped Him. She wasn’t invited, she
wasn’t wanted, she might be kicked out, she would be scorned, and there would
be hypocrites there. But she worshipped Jesus anyway. We should love Him. Honor Him. Respect Him. Obey Him. Spend time with Him. Get to know Him better. Remember all that we’ve been forgiven of. Don’t forget all His goodness to us. That will spur on our worship.
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