Accepting The Unlovely

Accepting the Unlovely - Luke 7:36-50

Gladstone Baptist Church – 14/8/05 am – Children’s Service

Boys and Girls, can you come down the front and as you come down, collect a worksheet and some pens from ______. Hi, everyone. It is good to see you today. I am going to need some helpers today, and so I’m going to be watching you very carefully to see who is behaving themselves.

Well let me ask you a question … Are there any kids at your school that nobody likes? For some reason, everyone dislikes them. When I was a little boy, there were 2 people in my class that no-one liked. The first one was a little girl. Everybody used to tease her and say that she smelled. She didn’t really, that was just what everyone said. They were awfully mean to her and no one wanted to be her friend. The second person that no-one liked was a boy called Jason. Nobody liked Jason because he was a taddle tail. Jason was always running off to the teacher to dob in somebody who had called him a name, or wouldn’t throw the ball to him, or something else and everyone disliked him.

I want you to think of someone that you know that everyone dislikes. It may be because of what they look like, it may be because of what they do or what they say. I want you to think about someone like that and I want you to draw a picture of them and write down why people don’t like them. While you do that I’ll have a quick chat to your Mums & Dads.

Grownups, Are there any people that you can think of that nobody likes? While we grow up and supposedly mature, we can still be as judgmental as when we were kids can’t we. Oh yes we are much more subtle in the way we ostracize people, but we still JUDGE people and isolate them. We base our judgments on things as shallow as looks or background or even our presuppositions. What sort of people am I talking about? I’m talking about the person at work who is always negative and creating trouble for you. I’m talking about the family down the road whose kids are running riot around town and whose yard is unkept and who are always fighting. I’m talking about people who we Christians love to erect big walls around and refuse to associate with – muslims, homosexuals, even loose living, heavy drinking types who frequent pubs and clubs. Can you think of someone or a group of people that you don’t like for some reason? Someone you have judged and found not suitable for a relationship with you?

Boys and Girls, how is your picture going? Have you drawn someone on a piece of paper

Today, I want to tell you all about a woman that no-one liked. Everyone disliked her because she was a BAD person. Mums and Dads, she was a prostitute. She did lots of wrong things and as a result, everyone refused to be her friend and no one loved her.

I need someone who is a good reader to read something out for me …

Luke 7:35-38 (GNB) 36 A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him, and Jesus went to his house and sat down to eat. 37In that town was a woman who lived a sinful life. She heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee’s house, so she brought an alabaster jar full of perfume 38and stood behind Jesus, by his feet, crying and wetting his feet with her tears. Then she dried his feet with her hair, kissed them, and poured the perfume on them.

Jesus was invited to a party by a guy called Simon – he was a really GOOD guy. He was actually a leader in the church - A Pharisee and everyone liked and respected him. One day, Simon decided to invite Jesus to dinner. And he invited all of his other good mates along also.

Now it was the custom in those days that other people could come and look in on such a party. So there was probably a heap of people standing around watching those important people eating at the table. Some would have been poor and hoping to get some of the leftovers to eat.

In the middle of the meal, one of the people in the crowd watching started to come towards Jesus. She wasn’t invited to dinner and so should not have approached those eating, but this person came closer and closer. It was the woman that no one liked. As she approached Jesus – Everyone stopped eating. Simon’s jaw dropped because she was the last person he expected in her house. She was a very bad woman and he was a very good man and he’d been careful not to have anything to do with her in the past.