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by hessam

Read Time: 10 min
Location: San Francisco, CA

Here is some biblical architecture beautiful from many perspectives. It is truth that leads us to who we really are. Hope you enjoy this devotional not written by a scholar, preacher, evangelist, priest or pope but written by a hard working businessman.

“I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.  [The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul, II Corinthians 12:5, 9, 10

“Ironically it was April Fool’s Day, 1975, 6:30 a.m., and I woke up in the doorway on Commercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  I was thick in an alcoholic fog, sniffing vomit all over my sweater, staring down at my bare feet.  I had been on the street for a year and a half, drunk every day, sleeping on the beach until the cops chased me away.  You could find me in doorways or under the bridge, always clutching my precious little bottle of Tequila.  And it wasn’t just that this good Franciscan priest drank too much.  I broke every one of the Ten Commandments six times Tuesday: adultery, countless acts of fornication, violence to support my addiction, character assassination to anybody who dared to criticize me or remonstrate with me.

The morning I woke up in the alcoholic boozy fog, I looked down the street to see a woman coming to me, maybe twenty-five years old, blonde and attractive.  She had her son in hand, maybe four years old.  The boy broke loose from his mother’s grip, ran to the doorway, and stared down at me.  His mother rushed in behind him, tucked her hand over his eyes, and said, “Don’t look at that filth.  That’s nothing but pure filth.”  Then I felt her shoe.  She broke two of my ribs with that kick.

That filth was Brennan Manning, thirty-two years ago.  And the God I’ve come to know by sheer grace, the Jesus I met in the grounds of my own self, has furiously loved me regardless of my state – grace or disgrace.  And why?  For his love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods – elation or depression.  The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change.  It is reliable.  And always tender.

Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God

Encounter 23:  Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

Luke 7:36-50

³⁶Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷When 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, ³⁸and 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.³⁹When 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.”⁴⁰Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”"Tell me, teacher,” he said.⁴¹“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴²Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”⁴³Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”"You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.⁴⁴Then 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. ⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”⁴⁹The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”⁵⁰Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Some Observations

• We already know that Jesus dines with “sinners and tax collectors.”  Here we see him reclining at the table of one of the self-righteous Pharisees, named Simon.
• Jesus knows that the Pharisees are always trying to catch him doing something they consider blasphemous or in violation of their rules, yet he goes anyway.
• We see that Jesus is comfortable partaking in refreshments and soundtracks at both ends of the spectrum – Bud and rock and roll with the rebels, Evian and Mozart with the pillars of the synagogue – no filters on dining partners here.
• Jesus is willing to engage with anyone and approaches such encounters with confidence and purpose . . . and compassion for even the self-righteous, as we see him gently open Simon’s eyes in this encounter.
• The sinful woman (perhaps a prostitute or adulterer based on the passage’s description) comes into Simon’s house and stands behind Jesus, weeping; she kneels and begins to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and dry them with her hair; she then kisses Jesus’ feet and pours her expensive perfume on his feet.
• What we see is an act of beautiful humility rooted in palpable brokenness.
• The woman does not see herself as worthy of being before Christ – she stands behind him.  Meanwhile, Simon sits before him, presumably sipping his Evian and registering his disgust.
• She then begins serving him, literally washing his feet with her repentant tears, dirtying her hair to dry them, putting her lips to his feet and finally pouring out her precious perfume.
• The woman offers the best she has to serve Jesus in the most lowly way possible, focusing all her attention on his feet, likely dirty and dusty from the day.
• While the woman’s humility is so vivid, she also exhibits great faith.  She believes that Christ has the power to forgive her and, despite her “many sins,” will do so.  She hears Jesus will be at Simon’s house that evening and, uninvited, shows up.  She is a risk-taker.
• We see yet again Jesus’ immediate response when approached in humility and bold faith.  At first glance, this may appear a paradoxical combination, but, in practice, represents the two attributes that Jesus cannot but help respond to.  God’s character is expressed here.
• Predictably, Simon thinks to himself that Jesus would not be allowing this woman to even come near him, and certainly not touch him, if he “knew who she was.”
• Jesus of course knows who the woman is: a repentant, humble, broken sinner coming to him in faith, believing in his ability to forgive.  He also knows who she was: a great [five hundred denarii] sinner.
• In his great mercy, he sees her as she is (broken, humble, repentant) and will be (forgiven much and therefore loving much), not as she was.
• As we come to him in repentance, desperate for his grace, Jesus views us the same way – not as we were, but as we will be under his grace as our hearts and minds are reshaped by the Spirit.  Praise be to God!
• Jesus asks us to see those around us in the same merciful way – as they are and will be, not what they were.
• Jesus previously said, “Learn what it means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”  Here is an object lesson.
• Jesus also sees who Simon is: someone who is outwardly “clean,” upstanding, respected, but broken inside, just as the woman.
• The woman’s brokenness is fully evident in her actions.  She doesn’t care about looking foolish or admitting her great sin; she desperately craves Jesus’ forgiveness.
• Simon’s brokenness, on the other hand, is concealed by the outer trappings he has built up.  He likely believes in his own heart that he is more righteous and deserving than the sinful woman, tax collectors, gluttons, drunkards and other losers Jesus hung out with.
• The elegant logic of Jesus’ metaphor really illustrates his point powerfully to Simon.
• Note that he resists the likely temptation to say something like, “Simon, you blind fool . . . don’t you get it?  You are just as sinful as this woman, yet you feel you have no need for forgiveness.  Your pride is as sinful as prostitution.  Stop deluding yourself!“
• No, Jesus has mercy on Simon.  There is hope and margin for the self-righteous among us to learn from Jesus (thank you, Lord).
• Jesus tells the story about the two men that owed money, one ten times more than the other.  Which one will love the moneylender that forgive his debt more?
• Simon answers correctly.  I suspect he must know he is getting teed up by Jesus by his sheepish answer: “I suppose . . . “
• Jesus then goes on to draw the parallel of Simon – the one who believes that the sum of his sin is perhaps 10 percent that of the horrible woman in his house – and the woman – the one who understands her sin to be 10 times that of Simon’s.  (That is the math of 50/500 denarii from the two perspectives).
• Simon gave Jesus not even water to wash his feet; the woman uses her tears and hair.
• Simon did not greet Jesus with a kiss; the woman has “not stopped kissing my feet.”
• Simon did not put oil on Jesus’ head; the woman pours perfume on his feet.
• Jesus’ punchline: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much.  But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
• I hope Simon gets the point!
• I hope we get the point.  In order to love Jesus and those around us more fully, we must truly appreciate the depth of our own brokenness and desperate need for Jesus’ forgiveness.   As the sinful woman teaches us, we must be humbled by God’s graciousness in forgiving us completely of our utter corruption, represented by both our external actions and the condition of our hearts.
• Our focus should be finding humility in our own brokenness and not condemning the brokenness of those around us, as was the case with Simon.  Once we appreciate how much we have been forgiven, we love much; we ourselves forgive much.
• Jesus says to the woman, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.”  Faith in Jesus is what saves us, not our degree of worthiness or track record of sin or righteousness.
• We take this idea for granted based on all the sermons we have heard, but Jesus’ words here are the “new wineskins” of the kingdom of God he describes.  His message stood in stark contrast to the “my own righteousness is what saves me” attitude of the religious leaders of the day.
• The idea of Jesus’ limitless grace remains shocking today if we can begin to have even the slightest comprehension of it – there is no sin, nor combination of sin, in either depth or volume that exceeds its grace’s capacity.  It is offered freely to all those that will humble themselves, admit their brokenness and reach to Jesus, as is monumentally modeled today by our beautiful sister.
• That is ridiculously good news, literally the best news anyone could ever hear . . .  good news that Jesus asks us to proclaim, as he did, through word and action to those around us.  Let us do so joyfully today.

Wisdom

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.  The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed in their duplicity.  Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”

Proverbs 11:2-4

A Prayer

“To you, O Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy.  Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me; O Lord, be my help.  You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.  O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.”

Psalm 30:8, 10-13

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