Monday, May 2, 2016

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what short of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

Luke 7:36-40

In 19 days, I will enter into the holy covenant of marriage with my best friend. My future husband, Matt, is a gift from God in my life, and our friends and family celebrate the Lord’s sovereign hand in bringing us together! When we first announced that we were dating, however, we were met with expressions of shock and surprise.

As a professional punk rocker signed to Capitol Records in Hollywood, Matt came from a life of alcohol and drug addiction. He mocked Christians and far preferred the party scene to a pious religious life.

I came from a strongly evangelical Christian home. We went to church weekly, prayed daily, read and memorized Scripture, evangelized frequently, and faithfully followed a list of “dos and don’ts.” The only “rocking out” we did in my home was to the Gaither Vocal Band.

Our backgrounds are polar opposite, to say the least. But Matt and I have the most important thing in common: Jesus saved us from ourselves. Matt was gloriously saved from a life of licentiousness (see his gospel story here) and I was gloriously saved from a life of legalism. We both needed a Savior, and neither of us had the power to save ourselves. In His grace and mercy, God called us to Himself and clothed us in new garments of His righteousness.

In this passage from the book of Luke, there are two characters much like Matt and me. There is “a woman of the city.” She was “one of them.” You know. Them. A sinner. The kind of sinner that Jesus should not be associating with if He was such a good prophet. Because surely the other character in the story would never associate with a prostitute. After all, he was a Pharisee—a teacher of the Law, a religiously and morally upright man. In fact, he was so focused on dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every ‘t’ of the Law that he strictly obeyed the additional oral traditions that his ancestors had passed down.

So when the Pharisee saw this “woman of the city” crash his dinner party with Jesus, he was irate. In our modern sensibilities, it might seem strange that anyone would crash the party in the first place, but meals of these types were not private affairs in Jesus’ time. It was common for strangers to hear word of a dinner gathering, enter the home, and observe what was going on inside. The problem was not that someone came uninvited; the problem was that she came.

The Pharisee grumbles to himself that if Jesus were some great prophet, He would have known both who and what sort of woman was touching Him. After all, she was a sinner! And what prophet would want to be defiled by a sinner?

Notice Jesus’ response. It is truly masterful! Jesus, who knows all things, proves that He is a prophet (the Prophet) by responding to the accusatory and unvoiced questions on this man’s heart. The Pharisee accuses Jesus of not knowing the identity or character of this woman. And yet Jesus knows both, and He addresses the Pharisee himself in a personal way. First, Jesus calls him by name. “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Next, he relates a parable that proves He knows the character of both “the woman of the city” and Simon too. Both will find themselves in the story.

We have a God who dines with sinners—both the licentious sinner and the pharisaical sinner. And precisely because Jesus is more than just a prophet—because He is the holy and righteous Son of God—He does not become defiled by their sin. Instead, sin becomes defiled by His righteousness. He is willing and able to make clean all who come to Him in repentance and faith. Praise God that there is hope for a sinner like me too!

Jenny Schulenburg, Guest Blogger