Luke 7:36-39 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and 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. 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."
I thought of something when I read this passage. Why was the "woman who had lived a sinful life" in the Pharisee's house? Was she there to "set-up" Jesus? Did the Pharisee have her there so that he could see how Jesus would react? I don't know. It doesn't really make any difference today.
The lesson from this passage isn't whether the Pharisee was trying to trap Jesus. The lesson is the way that Jesus reacted to this "woman who had lived a sinful life", how she treated Jesus, and how the Pharisee reacted to the scene. You can almost see the Pharisee grimace when he witnesses this sinful woman touch Jesus.
I can almost grimace with him. See, I know that sometimes I am less than charitable with people. I sometimes prejudge people. It might be because of some physical handicap, or less than perfect feature, or some manner of dress that speaks volumes about the type of person wearing it (or does it?), or perhaps how they talk, or their size, or who they are with, or, or, or....I have lots of things that prompt certain responses, some of which are similar to the pharisee's response. I am not proud of it. And not all of the spontaneous responses are negative but no matter, they should not exist. I need to make more effort to restrain them. I have many times been proven wrong in my initial thoughts of a person.
I remember when I worked at a local department store when I was in high school. Some biker can in the store. The other sales people (all much older than me) scattered. I was the only one left to assist the guy. He had a leather jacket covered in patches, some of which indicated he was a member of a rather scary (at least to me) biker gang. He had long stringy hair - the way most guys wore it at the time. He had tattoos - long before "respectable" people wore them. I was scared to wait on him. I was probably 16 and just knew I should be scared - based entirely on his appearance.
I asked if I could help him. He wanted to see our selection of patches. He said he'd heard we had a great selection. We did have a bunch of them, I must admit. He searched through them. Talking as he looked. He talked about the weather, where he was going to use the patches, where he'd purchased other patches, where else he'd looked for patches. Commented even that he liked our selection. He thanked me for my help. Paid for the patches he'd chosen and said he'd tell others where to find a good selection. He could not have been nicer. I could not have been more shocked.
I tried to learn a lesson from that. I try not to judge, or when I do, not to hold to that judgment without some evidence that my evaluation is correct. Fortunately, Jesus is able to see in our hearts. He sees past our stains of sin, of prejudice, of stubbornness, of all those things where we fall short of the standard that is Jesus. He loves us anyway. He allows us to worship Him in the ways we do, even with our tears. Like the woman, we need to share more with Jesus. We need to give Him our all. And that includes our biases so He can get rid of them.
Thank you, Jesus! Amen.
The lesson from this passage isn't whether the Pharisee was trying to trap Jesus. The lesson is the way that Jesus reacted to this "woman who had lived a sinful life", how she treated Jesus, and how the Pharisee reacted to the scene. You can almost see the Pharisee grimace when he witnesses this sinful woman touch Jesus.
I can almost grimace with him. See, I know that sometimes I am less than charitable with people. I sometimes prejudge people. It might be because of some physical handicap, or less than perfect feature, or some manner of dress that speaks volumes about the type of person wearing it (or does it?), or perhaps how they talk, or their size, or who they are with, or, or, or....I have lots of things that prompt certain responses, some of which are similar to the pharisee's response. I am not proud of it. And not all of the spontaneous responses are negative but no matter, they should not exist. I need to make more effort to restrain them. I have many times been proven wrong in my initial thoughts of a person.
I remember when I worked at a local department store when I was in high school. Some biker can in the store. The other sales people (all much older than me) scattered. I was the only one left to assist the guy. He had a leather jacket covered in patches, some of which indicated he was a member of a rather scary (at least to me) biker gang. He had long stringy hair - the way most guys wore it at the time. He had tattoos - long before "respectable" people wore them. I was scared to wait on him. I was probably 16 and just knew I should be scared - based entirely on his appearance.
I asked if I could help him. He wanted to see our selection of patches. He said he'd heard we had a great selection. We did have a bunch of them, I must admit. He searched through them. Talking as he looked. He talked about the weather, where he was going to use the patches, where he'd purchased other patches, where else he'd looked for patches. Commented even that he liked our selection. He thanked me for my help. Paid for the patches he'd chosen and said he'd tell others where to find a good selection. He could not have been nicer. I could not have been more shocked.
I tried to learn a lesson from that. I try not to judge, or when I do, not to hold to that judgment without some evidence that my evaluation is correct. Fortunately, Jesus is able to see in our hearts. He sees past our stains of sin, of prejudice, of stubbornness, of all those things where we fall short of the standard that is Jesus. He loves us anyway. He allows us to worship Him in the ways we do, even with our tears. Like the woman, we need to share more with Jesus. We need to give Him our all. And that includes our biases so He can get rid of them.
Thank you, Jesus! Amen.
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