“Folks Like Us”
Luke 7:36 – 8:3
A sermon for 7/25/21
Who remembers the old Jerry Springer Show? He would get the craziest of the crazy folks together on stage in front of an audience that would yell, “Fight, fight, fight!” They would cuss and kick. They would cry and throw chairs. The amazing thing was lots and lots of normal folks (that is – just a little crazy) watched that show. It gave rise to something called “The Jerry Springer Effect.” In basic terms – The Jerry Springer Effect was when folks watched the show and felt better about themselves. They thought, “I may have problems, but at least I’m not like those folks!”
This brings me to a more modern-day example that’s a bit of a “hot potato” or more like a land mine that I have to tiptoe around. There is a phrase we use today in the discussion of race relations that we need to reject all together. People talk about the need for us to be “color blind.” Let me ask you a question – as a white person, if I put you in a room of 25 people and you are the only white person, will you notice? Absolutely! I could do the same thing with a person of any race and that person would notice. The proponents of “color blindness” often point to little children that will play with kids of different races. I know something about kids – they will notice what is different – they just don’t care. I notice race – the goal for me is to never place a value judgement on race or skin color.
This week, in Luke’s Gospel, we enter into the back and forth between Jesus and the religious leaders… again. He is at the home of Simon, a Pharisee, eating dinner. Into this setting comes what the Bible describes as “a sinful woman.” We are not told what sin she has committed but her way of living causes Simon to think she has no business with Jesus the Prophet.
Luke 7 “36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”
We are all the debtor
Jesus often uses the example of one who owes money, a debtor, when teaching on forgiveness:
• In Matthew 18, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive. Jesus tells the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant who owes a debt that is far to big to ever repay, but the Master forgives the whole debt. Unfortunately, that servant can’t forgive the small debt of his fellow servant.
• In Luke 15, Jesus tells the Parable of the Prodigal Son. That son becomes a debtor, in his eyes, to the father after wasting 1/3 of his wealth. He comes back seeking forgiveness.
Let’s talk about a basic of the Christian Faith – we are all born into sin. It’s called “Original Sin” and I could give you a big, fancy explanation of how the Church came to understand this OR I can talk to you about 2 year-olds. If you have every had a 2 year-old in your house, you can verify that they do not have to be taught defiance and disrespect and selfishness – all these are hard-wired into the child from birth. We teach them cooperation and respect and sharing which works pretty well until they become teenagers😊
What about us adults? We are pretty good at being nice and keeping the smile on our faces even when we are confronted with the “sinful woman” of this day and this culture. You see, there is a little bit of Pharisee hard-wired into everyone of us, even the preacher, but sin is the great equalizer. We are all tempted. Your temptation is different than mine and my sin is different than yours, but we all come to God to have our debt forgiven. Amen?
So, if we are the debtors that have been forgiven over and over again, what does God owe us? NOTHING! I often hear that today. People complain because they believe God owes them something. God has promised to give us what we need - not paying a debt to us but rather out of His great love for you and me. God gives us mercy without measure… not an easy life… not cars and boats and $1,200 smart phones. Do we still owe God? Yes! We owe God all the love we can give just like that woman who had her sins forgiven by Jesus.
We are all that woman v. 44-50
44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. 45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Maybe you were that woman in the past.
If you sit here this morning as a Follower of Jesus Christ, then at some point in the past you came to Jesus with all your sin, with all your guilt and shame. You came to hear the same words that all Believers for the last 2000 years have wanted to hear, “Your sins are forgiven.” Maybe it is has been so long that those words no longer bring a tear of joy to you eye. Maybe you never came to Jesus – never bowed before His loving gaze – never heard Him say, “Your sins are forgiven.” I’m not going to try to figure out why you waited this long because the reason matters not. Come to Jesus today!
Maybe you are that woman today.
Have you stumbled and fallen since the day you became a believer? We all have done that – we sin by what we do and think and speak. We sin by what we have neglected – the commands in God’s Word that we have left undone. Jesus invites us to confess and repent today. Don’t wait. Don’t delay. Mercy and forgiveness are one prayer away for you and me today.
Maybe you will be that woman in the future.
None of us know what today or tomorrow may bring. Nobody knew in February of 2020 that our whole world could come crashing down because of a tiny virus. I can’t tell you what’s coming this year or next year, but I can promise you with absolute assurance that no matter what happens Jesus will invite you to come and bow down at His feet. He will keep on giving us grace and mercy as long as we travel the valleys and mountains of this life. Is this your view of God? Arms wide open like the father of the prodigal?
I was reminded how much we need to have that view of God – the Loving Father – when I read a recent email. Every day I receive the “Daily Text” from Seedbed Ministries. Right now, Dan Wilt is sharing each morning. He wrote about being at a wedding with his family and how much he enjoyed watching his children having fun.
“My best thoughts are of their good, and my worst thoughts are of them being in pain—especially a pain that would distance us from one another. In fact, to bring the metaphor home, to imagine any of my children ever putting on a front to impress me, performing to secure my love, or forgetting how much I adore them is, to put it bluntly, sickening. But that is exactly what many Christians do when they live unawakened to the love of the Father.”
“We are sons and daughters, children of God in his great and marvelous world. But a dislocating pain is waiting to oust us from our identity as the Father’s beloved every hour of every day that we live. Today the news will emphasize the darkness all around us, and because the brain craves warnings, and warnings equal more views, clicks, and shares, it will suck us in. Truth be told, today God’s good world will remain disorienting at best, and destructive at worst. The enemy has free reign for a season; but then, there is the Spirit.”
“The Spirit reminds us that being a child of God means that we belong to Someone, that we are cared for by Someone. We are not alone in our hours or moments, nor are we to be afraid of being unaccepted, unappreciated, or unloved. But we will forget. We will forget we are accepted, appreciated, loved.”
https://www.seedbed.com/the-holy-spirit-opens-us-to-the-fathers-love/
What a powerful quote! What can I say after that?
God loves you sooooo much! I tell you this over and over. How much?
God sent His only son to the world. Jesus paid the price for our debt of sin.
God sent His Spirit to be with us forever. The Holy Spirit offers us freedom to walk in peace and joy and love with one another.
God also gives us 24 hours every day to serve others with the same love with which He love us. We can be the hands and feet of Christ to the hurting and the lost in this world.
We are called to serve as those transformed v. 8:1-3
Luke 8 “Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, 2 and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, 3 and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance."
This scripture is often used to describe the role of women in the ministry of Jesus. We also see women serving in the Early Church. I want to look at this scripture through a different lens – this is the ministry of the transformed. They had been transformed by being set free from demonic spirits and physical illness. These are a few of the multitudes we have been looking at in Luke’s Gospel that have been touched by the power of God as Jesus ministered to those in need. Now three of them have a name!
They each have a testimony to what God has done for them. There used to be a day when testimonies to the working of God in the life of an ordinary Believer was a standard part of worship – especially in Methodism. Others would hear how God had touched the folks in their community – folks like us – and their faith in God’s Mighty Power was increased. Seems pretty simple, wouldn’t you say? I think we need to go back to what worked before – your pastor challenges you on Sunday and the next week the pastor asks you to give testimony to God helping you, God healing you, God loving you.
What happens then? We all come away with stories of God at work. Then, on the job, or at school, or in your neighborhood, or even in your family there will be someone with a need and into your heart and brain comes that story from testimony time last Sunday. You start to tell that person and conclude with this – “I truly believe that if God did it for that person, then God can do it for you.”
Let me clear at this point what the goal should be – they come to Jesus, not come to church. You see, when we get them to come to church, they have a tendency to withdraw from the world that needs Jesus, maybe more now than ever before. If they come to Jesus – like that woman long ago in the house of Simon or like the women who were set free and healed – then we can encourage them to go out to the world. To the others who are trapped in sin and shame and regret who need to hear a testimony from somebody that is just like them. That’s how the Love of the Father will seek out all the “prodigal sons” and “sinful women” in our world today. Amen.
