Scripture

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume.Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

~Luke 7:36-38, NLT

Quote

When we understand our unworthiness and God’s amazing grace, we weep.

~Calvin Miller {Until He Comes, day 98}

I have given a lot of thought to this anonymous woman in Luke seven. Pope Gregory I identified her as Mary Magdalene but he had no scripture to back this assertion up. The Catholic Church, a millennium later reversed its position, but the damage had been done. Most movies and many sermons cast Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. The woman is Luke seven is not Mary Magdalene. Mary came from a wealthy family and she was one of three women who supported Jesus ministry financially {Luke 8:3}. Mary is the one person I think the Chosen has gotten wrong. I don’t think Mary came out of a bar or a tavern. I do think she had a demon problem which could have been an addiction. Although she was wealthy, she was miserable and very unhappy. Jesus saved her from her torment. He gave her what she had always hungered for and she loved Him with all her heart. The Divinci Code and others have made her relationship with Jesus sorted by suggesting it was sensual. The story about proves otherwise. I am hesitant about being totally honest but the truth is, only Jesus would not been embarrassed or aroused by a woman kissing His feet. I promise you, it would have shut me down. If you need proof that Jesus was God, here it is; no mere man would have responded the way he did.

I don’t know who she was. I wish I could give you a name but I can’t and neither can anyone else. I am willing to bet there is a reason for this but again, I don’t know the reason. One thing is certain; this woman was a true worshipper of Jesus. As far as she was concerned, no one else was in the room. Her focus was entirely on Jesus. Obviously something had happened in her life that produced such love, devotion, worship and gratitude. Her tears were tears of gratitude and joy. Repentance always produces joy. The men who filled the room looked upon her with contempt but she didn’t notice or else didn’t care. She let her hair down and used her it for a towel. It was disgraceful for women to let their hair down in public.

I can tell you there is a lot of things wrong about the way we worship. First of all, we live in perpetual disobedience all week long and then come to church on Sunday and asks the LORD to bless us. Disobedience and worship do not go together. King Saul tried it and it was not acceptable to Samuel or the LORD. Secondly, we have too much pride and we worry about what others think. We are not about to let our hair down. We think a lot more of our reputation than we do Jesus. True worship happens when you don’t see anyone else in the room other than Jesus. People make fun of me all the time and I don’t care. I don’t sing to the top of my lungs to please people. As far as I know, my voice has never been pleasant to human ears. I am singing to Jesus. When I sing, I don’t hear anyone else. It may be because I am hard of hearing but it is probably due to the fact that I sing as loud as I can. If someone doesn’t want to hear my voice, they need to sing as loud as they can but no one does. Why is that? They are afraid of what others think!

Henry Scougal says that love {agape} is a voluntary death, where in the lover dies to him or herself in order to gratify the object of their love. It is a reckless love of sorts because it puts us at the mercy of the one we love. What if Jesus had not loved this woman back? She would have been devastated no doubt but the good news is–Jesus did love her. Obviously, this dear lady had a relationship with Jesus that no man in the room understood. What are the odds of Jesus not loving this woman? This woman placed her affection in the ONE who’s nature it is to love; the One who goodness is infinite and mercy everlasting. It is utterly impossible for Jesus to deny His infinite love to one so broken and contrite. Granted, a woman who sleeps with various men for gratuity is a sinner and this particular is hard on body and soul, but is it worse than bowing to the gods of this world and sleeping with greed, lust, pride and envy. You don’t have to be a prostitute to know how this woman felt but you must sense the wretchedness of your own sin. Once we see our sin in light of His holiness, we will not despise this woman or those who are like her.

Extra

It ceases to amaze me; I am speaking of Easter worship attendance. DBC had to bring in chairs. They had 425 in the sanctuary plus pre-school and nursery in the other building. I was totally dumbfounded. Why isn’t it this way every Sunday. East Highland’s parking lot was almost full. I didn’t see more than a half dozen empty spaces. When I got to DBC, they were parked in the grass. I would love to see this at the POINT. I did visit on Saturday and some 30% were in attendance. I just need to make a lot more visits. We did have a good crowd for the sunrise service. I did enjoy the day; especially the kids coming over last night. We sat around the fire pit until about 8:30. It was a perfect night for a fire.

The sunshine feels good today. I hope you have a great Monday and a good week. Thanks for reading the blog.