Meditations from the heart

-40 Once a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to be a guest for a meal.Picture this:Just as Jesus enters the man’s home and takes His place at the table, a woman from the city—notorious as a woman of ill repute—follows Him in. She has heard that Jesus will be at the Pharisee’s home, so she comes in and approaches Him, carrying an alabaster flask of perfumed oil. Then she begins to cry, she kneels down so her tears fall on Jesus’ feet, and she starts wiping His feet with her own hair. Then she actually kisses His feet, and she pours the perfumed oil on them.Simon (thinking): Now I know this guy is a fraud. If He were a real prophet, He would have known this woman is a sinner and He would never let her get near Him, much less touch Him . . . or kiss Him!Jesus (knowing what the Pharisee is thinking): Simon, I want to tell you a story.Simon: Tell me, Teacher.Jesus: 41 Two men owed a certain lender a lot of money. One owed 100 weeks’ wages, and the other owed 10 weeks’ wages. 42 Both men defaulted on their loans, but the lender forgave them both. Here’s a question for you: which man will love the lender more?Simon: 43 Well, I guess it would be the one who was forgiven more.Jesus: Good answer.44-46 Now Jesus turns around so He’s facing the woman, although He’s still speaking to Simon.Jesus: Do you see this woman here? It’s kind of funny. I entered your home, and you didn’t provide a basin of water so I could wash the road dust from My feet. You didn’t give Me a customary kiss of greeting and welcome. You didn’t offer Me the common courtesy of providing oil to brighten My face. But this woman has wet My feet with her own tears and washed them with her own hair. She hasn’t stopped kissing My feet since I came in. And she has applied perfumed oil to My feet. 47 This woman has been forgiven much, and she is showing much love. But the person who has shown little love shows how little forgiveness he has received.48 (to the woman) Your sins are forgiven.Simon and Friends (muttering among themselves): 49 Who does this guy think He is? He has the audacity to claim the authority to forgive sins?Jesus (to the woman): 50 your faith has liberated you. Go in peace.~ Luke 7:36-50

We all come to Jesus in different ways but the same thing leads us to him: our sin. In our minds we love to compare our sins. We feel better about ourselves if our sin isn’t as big as someone else’s. We judge those who steal, kill and cheat and yet we gossip, lie and judge others. We may categorize sins but God doesn’t. Sin is sin. We may think we are better because the sins that lead us to Jesus are small sins but maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe it’s the ones we look down on with the big sins that are actually more blessed. Who’s more blessed the one who invited Jesus or the one who followed Him? Which one are you?Who is Simon? Simon was a Pharisee. He was a religious man who was outwardly pious and religiously hypocritical. He prided himself on separation from anything unclean and sinful. I can relate to Simon. I grew up in the church and always tried my best to set the bar high. I was the good girl. I knew all the rules and I made sure I stayed within the lines. I also set these expectations onto others too. This made me judgmental, critical and sinful. Growing up in the church I was constantly aware that I was a sinner and needed to constantly ask for forgiveness. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I walked down to the alter and asked Jesus into my heart once again. I was the one who invited Jesus but was I really blessed. Like Simon I sat at the table that I had invited Jesus too and in my comfy chair I sat in judgement of the one at His feet.Who is this woman? This women who followed Him in. The one who wasn’t invited. The one Simon judged as unclean. This woman who came undone. The one who was a hot mess. I think we can relate to her in some way. We’ve all had moments in our life where we laid down in surrender to our tears. Moments of hitting a bottom. The question is what we do in these moments. Are we like the woman who followed Jesus? Do we follow Him into the places we haven’t been invited? Do we fall to our knees in full abandon? Do we kiss his feet with our tears? Do we wipe our tears with our hair? Can you feel the love in this moment? The intimacy and the vulnerability. Could this be what forgiveness truly feels like?Who is this man Jesus? Who was invited and followed. This man fully God and fully human. This is a remarkable moment we have been invited into. The moment when Jesus who is fully God and without sin lets a woman who is full of sin kiss his feet. It is Jesus who anoints us but in this moment it is the woman who anoints Jesus. Could it be that our brokenness actually brings forth the blessing. It is a true paradox. For it is this brokenness of spirit that brings us to His feet. It is this brokenness that pours out of us in tears and brings healing anointment to our spirits. And what does Jesus have to say. To Simon the one who invited him yet never welcomed Him in. Simon sat at the end of the table with judgmental frigidness that distanced him from Jesus heart. He was calm and in control. Sure he had prepared a lovely meal for Jesus but he never washed His feet which was customary to all guests who were invited to a meal. When Jesus knocked on the door he didn’t greet Jesus with a kiss or offer oil to brighten his face. Instead he sat in his chair and watched as a woman followed Jesus in and washed His feet with her tears and kissed His feet and then poured perfume on His feet to anoint Him. He sat and he judged her. He distanced himself from her sin while ignoring his own sins. He disqualified her. In his mind someone like her should never touch anyone like Jesus. Have you ever been there? Have you ever let someone disqualify you from being forgiven? Or have you disqualified yourself?And what does Jesus say to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” To you He says the same. Whether you’ve been forgiven little or much. Sin is sin but to those who are broken by their sin. Those who follow Jesus into unwelcomed places you love Him more.