A sinner like me, conclusion

Yesterday we watched; we were spectators as Simon disrespected Jesus by not being a good host: he didn't wash Jesus' feet, nor did he anoint His head with oil, nor did he kiss Jesus' cheek.

We saw an uninvited a woman as she was overwhelmed by the nearness of Jesus and the sinfulness of her own life, and she wept. Her tears fell on His feet, so she wiped His feet with her hair, anointed them with her perfume, and kissed them.

Simon was taking all of this in, and thought he had a "Gotcha!" on Jesus. All he had to do was expose the fact that this woman was a prostitute, and the teacher's influence would be destroyed. Simon and the rest of the Pharisees would be bothered by Him no longer.

At least, that is what Simon thought.
In his self-righteousness, he underestimated his foe. Because his eyes were blinded by foolish pride, he had no clue Who Jesus was, nor what He was all about.
Oh, self-righteousness is a very ugly thing. It's like having a log in one's eye, so that the speck in someone else's eye is hard to see. Or you could say it's like having goggles on that prevent you from seeing clearly. These goggles make it impossible for the self-righteous person to see the value in other people.  These are the people who will scorn tears, and laugh at people who show repentance. They are like bullies in the schoolyard; they think they are better than everyone else, and they will take every opportunity to remind all of the kids around.
I bet that as he watched the woman kneel at Jesus' feet, Simon was thinking up some mean, spiteful comment that would embarrass her, and embarrass Jesus, too.

Well, Jesus is not worried about insults against Himself. But He isn't going to put up with Simon's arrogant attack against this woman, sorrowing over her sins.
The Great Physician used His surgical skills, and He proceeded to cut Simon precisely as needed to expose the hypocrisy within him.
He tells him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
That should have given Simon pause, but remember, he has those goggles on. (Grin)
"What is it you want to tell me, teacher?"
Jesus tells a parable.

 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. (Luke 7:41-43)

Then Jesus turned His back on Simon and faced the woman. Symbolic of His turning away from the self-righteous, judgmental man, and turning to face the simple repentance of the prostitute.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:44-50)

Looking down at the woman, he delivers his message to Simon with surgical precision: he who has been forgiven little, loves little.
Simon was someone who probably had never felt the need for forgiveness. He thought himself miles and miles removed from people who needed forgiveness, and so he felt little compassion for anyone who did. Jesus said "her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much."
We know that she loved "much" because she was perfectly willing to kneel before Him; she kissed His feet; she repented. The woman knew she was sinful, and He was righteous. She loved Him. She was a sinner like me.
Well, Simon didn't want to humble himself. He didn't want to kiss Jesus' cheek. We can see that Jesus wasn't important to Him. Of course, there are some folks today who are willing to kiss Him, but it's more as if they are equals. Not that He is their God -- more like He is an acquaintance, and they can listen to Him if they feel like it, but they can also ignore Him if they like.

But those of us who realize that we've sinned and fallen short, are ready to kiss Him in the way the sinful woman did. We know in our hearts that the only way to approach Christ is to kneel before Him and give Him the love He deserves, because He has forgiven so much in us.

Simon just loved himself, I think. He didn't think he needed a Savior. He didn't have any love or compassion for others; he didn't understand the God of his people. Those goggles kept him from loving and knowing God, and that made it so he couldn't love people:

 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (I John 4:7-8)

When he looked at the woman, Simon saw a prostitute. Nothing more.
When Jesus looked on the woman, He saw her as she could be. To Jesus, sin is just something that hides the true beauty underneath. It is something that needs to be stripped away to reveal the image of God that has been muddied and soiled. When we humble ourselves at his feet, we are acknowledging our sinfulness and the emptiness of our souls. It is then that He can remake us as God intended.

I don't know about you, but I read this story with a mixture of joy and tears. I'm confronted with the fact that I'm a sinner, like this woman, but then I'm rescued from that, by a forgiving and loving Savior! Praise Him!

A sinner like me, continued

I'm glad you have joined us today! We're studying the woman whom three of the gospels don't name, but her deed and Jesus' words to her have resonated through history. . .
Let's dive in!

Jesus had been preaching in Galilee for almost a year when this happened, according to Luke. Jesus had become an extremely popular teacher, especially among the common people, the everyday Joes like you and me. Look at his record so far -- He has healed a leprous man, a paralyzed man, and lots of other folks. He has cast out demons and even raise a widow's son from the dead. Everybody loves Him.
Well, almost everyone.
Actually, the scribes and the Pharisees couldn't stand Him. He didn't defer to them, and that hurt their egos. And He said things that challenged all of their man-made rules that they had added to God's rules. Boy, that didn't set well with them, as you can imagine!

They have tried different strategies: they tried ignoring Him, but that didn't work. They tried opposing Him openly, but that failed, too.  They've even tried to trap Him in theological questions and disputes, but He deftly turns their questions and leaves them embarrassed, and the people who are supposed to be their followers are left smiling.
This Simon that Luke mentions, though, as "Simon the Pharisee," thinks he has found a way to remove Jesus as an influence on the people. He thinks he can humiliate Him and then he and the other pompous religious leaders won't have to be bothered any more.
What does Simon do?
Well, he invites Him to a meal at his home, and then he snubs Him.
How?
Scholars tell us that a good host in that time would make certain that when a guest arrived, one of the servants washed his feet. All of the dust and dirt, mud and grime, would be washed away, and the guest would be welcomed -- the next welcoming act would be that the servant would also anoint the visitor's head with oil.  Think just the servant had responsibilities? Not so. The host would (if he were adhering to the etiquette of the day) greet his guest with a kiss on the cheek; this was a special honor. It kinda said, "hey, you're like one of the family. Sit deep. Be comfy. Enjoy."
So when Simon did NOT do these things, it was obvious to all that he held Jesus in contempt. . .
And Simon didn't care who knew it, either.
Maybe he thought that Jesus would react by making a statement or behaving in a way that would embarrass His disciples. That He would respond to being slighted in a negative way. Perhaps Simon thought that if he treated Jesus rudely, He would become angry, and give the Pharisees something to point to.
We have all been treated rudely at one time or another in our lives. Maybe we've said something in response that wasn't very nice, or maybe we've been less than gracious in our actions. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was tempted just as we are, but without sin. He responded to this pettiness by . . .

By ignoring it.
Seriously. The Jesus Who had walked the streets of heaven, and Who could call on angels to assist Him, didn't worry about it. He didn't need Simon's approval, nor his acceptance. (Grin) Whoa, there's a lesson for us there, right? We can rise above the pettiness of this world if we stay focused on who we really are . . . we're the children of God! We have an inheritance in heaven that some will never see, and we have a hope that keeps us going in the midst of strife or sadness. Compared to those promises, who really cares if the world approves of us!
So, let's remember this example of how to handle situations like this. Jesus shows us how to live our lives -- He simply ignored Simon's bad behavior, and didn't give him the satisfaction he wanted.

Ahh, but then something changed. A woman walked into the room. Um, how shall I say this? Scholars have looked at the translations here and well, she wasn't the kind of woman that you would think Simon would have invited to this party. She was a prostitute. She may have been dressed in a way similar to other women, but perhaps more expensively. And she would have smelled nice. Let's face it, in a culture where bathing didn't happen frequently, a vial of perfume around her neck would have truly set her apart! So she is here, though she wasn't invited. Verse 37 of Luke's chapter 7 says that she "learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house."
Perhaps she was invited by a friend, or perhaps she slipped in with no invitation at all....after all, this would be like one of us entertaining some celebrity in our home. Maybe the perfume was to be a gift, so she might have stood quietly, hoping to catch His attention.
But then she started to cry.
Probably was not a part of her plan.
Probably just welled up within her and spilled out.
I think that if I had been that close to Jesus, I would have been overwhelmed, and wept, too. I think being that close to Jesus "gets to" a person. Suddenly we realize how shabby and sinful our lives are, and how empty. Something broke within this woman, and her tears begin to flow.

She's a sinner like me.
And like you.
And her tears literally fall on Jesus' unwashed feet. They would have left streaks in the dirt and the grime that Simon neglected to wash away.
How embarrassing!
She falls to her knees and begins to wipe His feet with her hair. Then she pours the perfume from her vial onto His feet, and the aroma begins to waft about the room. And she kisses His feet. She is so humbled that she doesn't care who sees her, or what they say about her actions.

Simon probably thinks this is a "Gotcha!" moment. He thinks Jesus doesn't know who this woman is. That He is unaware of her occupation. All Simon has to do, is reveal the woman, and he will destroy the teacher. So he thinks.

Join us tomorrow for our conclusion.....

A sinner like me

Our studies this week are fraught with peril. (Cue the dramatic music.)

Oh, yes, we tackle some difficult subjects here on the study blog.

But this one is surrounded by controversy. The peril is that we will allow ourselves to be pulled into some chases down rabbit trails. You know what I mean. Sometimes we can get distracted by a side issue, instead of focusing on the "main thing."

This week we will study an incident that is recorded in all four gospels. That in itself makes it a little extraordinary . . . some stories are only mentioned in one or even two of the gospel accounts in our New Testament. For this to appear in all four is remarkable.
Scholars tell us that the gospels were written by four different people. Their choice of words, their focus audience, and even the happenings that they chose to include were all very different. That makes sense, no? Matthew was a Jewish man, and he wrote his gospel to "persuade" his people -- Luke was a Greek, and a physician, so his gospel of Christ's life is different in many ways from Matthew's account.

Well, as someone dear to me always encourages me to do, I'm going to "cut to the chase" here and we'll peruse the four accounts . . . (hang in there, I know this is going to be lengthy, but we are studying God's Word, and our investment in time and attention will be good for us, don't ya know?)

Here it is in Matthew 26:

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Here is Mark's telling of the story:

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Luke's gospel (chapter 7) includes a parable from Jesus:

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, 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.”40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”“Tell me, teacher,” he said.41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

And finally, John's account of an incident:

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him,objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Alrighty. We can see there are some differences here, and some similarities. The woman is named; the woman isn't named. The response is from all the disciples, or it's from Judas, or it's not even voiced - just the thoughts of a Pharisee. This happened in Bethany, or it happened elsewhere. Even the timing of the event along the span of Christ's ministry has been debated.
No rabbit trails for us, though. You with me, here? I think that we can learn much from this story, even without pinning down the who, what, where, when, and why . . .

Join me next time, won't you?

(And yes, I will divulge my humble opinion. I find myself agreeing with the commentators who use the clues to say perhaps this was two separate but similar incidents. But I think the important things to learn here have little to do with my opinion!)