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In Luke 7:36 you will find
the story of a Pharisee asking Jesus to eat with him. They went together to the
Pharisee’s house and sat down to eat. A woman from the city who was a sinner,
heard that Jesus was there. She came to see Him and brought an alabaster flask
of fragrant oil.
She sat at the feet of Jesus
and began to wash His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. She kissed
His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
The Pharisee was upset and
told himself if Jesus was a prophet He would know who this woman was and know
she was a sinner.
Jesus responded to the
Pharisee and said, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
The Pharisee listened as
Jesus told him, “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed
five hundred denarii and the other owed fifty. And when they had nothing with
which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them
will love him more?”
The Pharisee said it would be
the one he forgave more.
Jesus then pointed out that
he was correct, and that when Jesus had come into the Pharisee’s house, he gave
Jesus no water to wash His feet, but she had washed His feet with her tears and
dried them with the hair of her head. Simon gave Him no kiss, but she had not
stopped kissing His feet. Neither did Simon anoint His head, but she anointed
His feet with her fragrant oil.
He told him that her sins
which were many were forgiven, and for that she loved Him very much. But, to
whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.
Too often people who grew up
in church and never fell into deep sin tend to look down on those who were lost
in very sinful lives. They also might not love Him as deeply as those who were
brought up out of the depth of sin.
The people who were rescued
from drugs or prostitution, for example, are often the people who fall so
deeply in love with Jesus they can’t stop praising Him. Many times they are the
ones God can use the most to preach or witness. They become pastors, counselors,
and prayer warriors because they know the tremendous change in their hearts and
lives.
Those who never fell into
that depth of sin sometimes don’t appreciate what they have because they haven’t
experience as big a change in themselves.
What category do you fall
into? Do you really understand what you have, or do you tend to think you are
better than the “sinners” out in the world who Jesus has rescued?
Whether we had the privilege
of growing up on a church bench, or were lifted up out of a horrible life, we
need to truly understand that we are all alike. Every one of us is a sinner
saved by grace. We cannot ever look down on others because “we have never done
what they did. God never had to do as much for us as He had to do for them.”
The reality is He had to sacrifice
the same blood and suffer the same pain for each person no matter what their circumstance.
After all, sin is sin, and we are all born into it. We all have to come to
Jesus and be saved.
If you have ever thought you
weren’t that bad, you need to think again. When you truly understand that He
had to do the same for each one of us, then maybe we will start to love him
more.
Maybe we will start washing
His feet with our tears, drying them with our hair, and anointing them with
fragrant oil. After all, we all owe him that and much more.
Think about it.
I’ve sinned so much that if you spell my name backwards it spells sinned. I love the Lord!
ReplyDeleteDennis - "sinned" was before the Lord got ahold of you and turned you back around forward again. He is a God of miracles. I love the Lord too.
ReplyDelete