by Gloria Marsh
LUKE 7 : 36-48
Could two people be more different?
He was looked up to. She was looked down on.
He was a church leader. She was a
streetwalker. He makes a living promoting standards. She makes a living breaking
them. He’s hosting a party. She is crashing it.
Ask the other residents of Capernaum
to point out the more pious of the two, and they will pick Simon. Why, after all
he is a student of theology, a man of the cloth so to speak. Anyone would pick
him, anyone that is except Jesus. You see Jesus new them both. And Jesus would
pick the woman. And Jesus does pick the woman. And, what’s more, He tells
Simon why.
Not that Simon wants to know his
mind is elsewhere. How did this woman get into my house? He doesn’t
know why the heck to shout at first, the woman or the servant who let her in.
After all this dinner is a formal affair. Invitation only. Upper crust, crème
de la crème of society. And I am sure he would have wanted to yell at somebody
WHO LET THE RIFF RAFF IN!!!
Simon was angry! Just look at her
grovelling at Jesus feet, kissing them, no less! Why if Jesus were who He
say’s He is, He would have nothing to do with this woman!!
One of the lessons Simon learned that day was this: Don’t think thoughts you don’t want Jesus to hear. Because heard them, and when He did, He chose to share a few of His own.
“Simon, look at this woman
kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the
dust of my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her
hair. You didn’t give me a kiss of greeting, but she has kissed my feet again
and again from the time I came in. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to
anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with a rear perfume. I tell you,
her sins, and they are many, have been forgiven, so she has shown me much
love” Luke 7 44-47.
Simon did nothing to make Jesus
welcome. The woman however did everything Simon didn’t. She had no invitation
to this party, can you imagine a party at the manse, and this lady turning up
from the street between clients. Heads would turn, and you can almost see the
look of horror on the people’s faces.
But people’s opinion didn’t stop
her coming. After all it isn’t for them she has come. I was for Him. Her every
move is measured and meaningful. She puts her cheek to His feet, still dusty
from the path. She has no water, but she has tears. She has no towel, but she
has hair. She uses both to bath the feet of Christ. As one translation reads,
“She rained tears” on His feet (v 44 Msg). She opens a vial of perfume,
perhaps her only possession of worth, and massages it into His skin. The aroma
is as inescapable as the irony.
You’d think Simon of all people
would show such love. But he is harsh and distant. You’d think the woman would
avoid Jesus. Is she not a woman of the night, the town hussy? But she can’t
resist Him. Simon’s love is calibrated and stingy. Her love, on the other
hand, is extravagant and risky.
How do we explain the difference
between the two? Training? Education? Money? NO, for Simon would outdistance her
in all three.
But there is one area in which the
woman leaves him eating dust. What one discovery has she made that Simon
hadn’t, what one treasure does she cherish that Simon doesn’t? Simple.
God’s love. We don’t know when she received it. We are not told how she
heard about it. Had she overheard Jesus’ words? Was she nearby when Jesus had
compassion on the widow of Nain. Did someone tell her how Jesus touched lepers
and turned tax collectors into disciples? We
don’t know. But we do know this. She was thirsty. Thirsty from guilt. Thirsty
from regret. Thirsty from countless nights of love making and finding non.
She… came… thirsty!
And when Jesus hands her the goblet
of grace, she drinks. She doesn’t test it. She doesn’t dip her finger in and
lick it or take the cup and sip it. She lifts the cup to her lips and drinks,
gulping and swallowing like the parched pilgrim the she is. She drinks until the
mercy flows down her chin and onto her neck and chest. She drinks until every
inch of her soul is moist and soft. She comes thirsty and she drinks.
Simon, on the other hand, doesn’t
even know he is thirst. People like Simon don’t need grace they analyse it. It
wasn’t that Simon couldn’t be forgiven; he just never asked for it.
So while she drinks up, he puffs up.
While she has ample love to give, he has no love to offer. Why? Luke 7: 47 “ a
person who is forgiven little shows only little love”
In other words we can’t give what
we’ve never received. If we’ve never received love, how can we love others?
But, oh, how we try! Sometimes through gritted teeth, it can be so had can’t
it to forgive someone who hurt you or yours, we’ve all done it. Could it be
that the secret to loving is receiving? You give love by first receiving it,
1John 4:19 says “We love because He first loved us”
Do we long to be more loving? We
must begin by accepting our place as a dearly loved child. Eph 5:1-2 “ Be
imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love,
just as Christ loved us”
Do we want to learn how to forgive?
The consider how we’ve been forgiven (Eph 4:32) “ Be kind and compassionate
to one an other, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”
When Jesus told us to pray for
forgiveness of our debts as we forgive our own debtors, He new who would be the
one to pay the debt. As He would hang on the cross He would say,” it is
finished”… The debt is paid! What a statement!
There are some facts that will never
change. One fact is that we are forgiven. If you are in Christ, when He sees
you, your sins are covered--- He doesn’t see them. He sees us better the we
see ourselves. And that my friends is a glorious fact of our lives.
Our forgiveness of others is a
signal of our awareness of how much God has given us
Isn’t it presumptuous to come to
the throe of grace if we haven’t been gracious with the people in our life?
How can we approach a God of mercy if we ourselves have hearts full of
bitterness and anger? We must take care of our relationship problems…. make up
with a spouse. Get along with fellow church members; love our neighbour’s,
Then we will be fully united in prayer with the Father.
Can we love like this? Not without
God’s help we can’t. Oh we may try, we like Simon may open a door. But our
relationships need more than a social gesture. Some people need some foot
washing. A few of our friends need a flood of tears. Our children need to be
covered with the oil of love. But if we haven’t received these things
ourselves, how can we give them to others?
1 John 4:9-10 say’s “God showed
how much He loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might
have eternal life through Him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God,
but that He sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” He alone is our
power source.
Many people tell us to love. Only
God gives us the power to do so.
We know what God wants us to do. He
tells us in 1 John 3:23. “This is what I command. That you love each other”
But how can we? How can we be kind to the vow breakers? To those who are unkind
to us? How can we be patient with people who have the warmth of a vulture and
the tenderness of a porcupine? How can we forgive the money grabbers and back
stabbers we meet. How can we love as God loves? We want to! We long to! But how
can we.
More than one person has hailed 1
Corinthians 13: as the finest in the bible. No words get to the heart of loving
people like these verses. And no verses get to the heart of the chapter live
verses 4-8.
Love
is patient, love is kind, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It
is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
It
keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth.
It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.
Love
never fails.
I wonder how it would make us feel
if we put our name where love is!
Rather than let this scripture
remind us of a love we cannot produce, let it remind us of a love we cannot
resist…….Gods love.
Some of us are so thirsty for this
type of love. Those who should have loved you didn’t. those who could have
loved you didn’t. You were let at the hospital. left at the alter. Left with
an empty bed. Left with a broken heart. Left asking the question “does anyone
love me?” Please listen to heavens answer. God loves you. Personally.
Powerfully. Passionately. Others have promised and failed. But God has promised
and succeeded. He loves you with an unfailing love. And His love….if we will
let it…. Can fill you and leave you with a love worth giving.
So come. All who are thirsty and
drink until every inch of your soul is refreshed.
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