The Secret of a Loving Heart
Luke 7:36-50
# A man walks into a small antique shop in San Francisco. It’s mostly cluttered with knickknacks and junk. The man notices on the floor what looks like an ancient Chinese vase. On closer inspection it turns out to be a priceless relic from the Ming dynasty whose value is beyond calculating. It is worth everything else in the store put together. The owner clearly has no idea bout the value of this possession, because it’s filled with milk and the cat’s drinking out of it.
The man sees the opportunity for the deal of a lifetime. He cleverly strategizes a method to obtain the vase for a fraction of its worth. “That’s an extraordinary cat you have, how much would your sell her for?”
“Oh, the cat’s not really for sale,” said the owner. “She keeps the store free of mice.” “I really must have her,” the man countered. “Tell you what – I’ll give you a hundred dollars for her.”
“She’s not really worth it,” laughed the owner, “but if you want her that badly, she’s yours.” “I need something to feed her from as well,” continued the man. “Let me throw in another ten dollars for the saucer she’s drinking out of.”
“Oh, I could never do that. The saucer is actually an ancient Chinese vase from the Ming dynasty. It is my prized possession, whose worth is beyond calculation. Funny thing, though; since we’ve had it, I’ve sold seventeen cats.”
A material object may have great material value, but what value can you put on a person. Jesus placed great value on everyone regardless of their socio economic standing in the community.
In Luke chapter 7:36-50 Luke tells the secret of a loving heart. Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee. While Jesus was reclining at the table a sinful woman living in the town heart that Jesus was at the Pharisee’s home and crashed the party and brought a bottle of perfume and stood at the feet of Jesus weeping. She used her tears to wet the feet of Jesus and dried his feet with her hair and then poured the perfume on the feet of Jesus.
When the Pharisee saw who Jesus was allowing to wash his feet he said to his company: “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.”
In understanding this story it’s helpful to understand the etiquette and culture of that day, just as it is important for us to know the etiquette of today.
Today would you know what to do in these situations?
1. At a formal dinner, when should one start eating the main course?
a. After the hostess is served?
b. After the hostess lifts her fork?
c. After three or four people have their food?
d. ASAP, with urgency and passion?
2. What does one do at a formal dinner if one is still hungry after the main course?
a. Request a second helping.
b. Ask in a plaintive voice, “Is that all there is?”
c. Yell, “Look out the window!” and take food form your neighbor’s plate while he’s distracted.
d. Secretly call Domino’s Pizza.
3. What is the correct response if one’s cell phone goes off in church?
a. Quickly slide it forward and point disgustedly at the person in front of you.
b. Shout “hallelujah” until it stops ringing
c. Give a larger than usual offering
d. Answer the phone, yell, “My baby!” and run out of the room.
Hospitality and Culture in New Testament times
Kenneth Bailey writes about the hospitality and culture in Jesus’ day in his book, Through Peasant Eyes, a commentary on the gospel of Luke.
When the Pharisee invited Jesus to his house he knew that Jesus a rabbi should be recognized as a guest of honor. The customary greeting was a kiss not as an expression of affection, simply a polite acknowledgement of the guest’s arrival. If the guest was a person of equal social rank, the host would kiss him on the cheek. If child were greeting a parent or a student of a rabbi, a kiss on the hand was in order. (When Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss on the cheek, as a disciple of Jesus he should have kissed him on the hand.)
The Pharisee did not greet Jesus with a kiss. In effect to not give this greeting was to ignore Jesus. It would be like being invited to someone’s home for dinner. The door is open, so you assume they intend for you to come in, but the family members are busy watching television and never rise from the La-Z-boy, to acknowledge you or say “hello.”
The washing of feet was mandatory before a meal. If the guest was of high status, the host would perform this duty himself. If not, he might have his servant do it. To not carry out his task would be like requiring a guest to wash dishes following the meal.
A thoughtful host would give his guests some olive oil for anointing, though this was somewhat optional. With a very warm climate, and a scarcity of deodorant, such as a gesture was particularly refreshing.
Jesus arrived at the Pharisees’ home and receives nothing. Simon does not give him a greeting, no water for his feet and no anointing for his head. Everyone present knows that Jesus is being treated rudely as if a deliberate slap in the face.
Imagine going to a party and extending your hand to someone, only to have them subtly refuse to extend their hand in return…They may even smile as they refuse, but you know – and they know – it’s intended as an insult. It’s meant to offend.
A sinful woman, a prostitute, heard about Jesus being in the home. She must have had a longing to have a changed life. She gathers all her courage and slips into the house. She sees how Jesus is treated and is overwhelmed by the idea of God’s love. She took on the role of the host and washes Jesus’ feet and anoints them with her oil of perfume.
To the complaint of Simon the Pharisee Jesus tells a story of a Loan Shark and two Bookies. Two men owed money to a moneylender. Neither could pay it back. They both faced the same fate – to lose all they had and go to prison. The only difference, one owed fifty thousands dollars and the other 5 thousand dollars. The loan shark calls them in and forgives their debts.
Jesus looked straight at Simon and asked: “Which one will be filled with relief and gratitude and joy and love for the one who has set him free from his debt and jail sentence? Little-debt or big-debt? Simon answers: “I suppose it would be Big-debt.”
Jesus speaks directly to Simon, “Do you see this woman?” Simon doesn’t see her as Jesus does. Jesus sees her heart turned toward heaven and her repentance and her humility. “You gave me no water for my feet. You did not give me a kiss. You did not put oil on my head.” She washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. She kissed my feet and poured perfume on them. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Yours sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you go in peace.”
Gratitude – the Secret of a Loving Heart
This woman demonstrated the secret of a loving heart – gratitude. She was grateful for God’s love and forgiveness.
Too often we are like the Pharisee filled with self-righteousness we are ungrateful for all that God has provided.
If there is one sin that most prevalent today, it is the sin of ingratitude. God has done so much for us. Our indebtedness to him is enormous and yet we rarely or at least infrequently offer thanks for what he has done. In fact, most professing Christians don’t even offer thanks over their meals much less offer thanks for all that God does in their lives.
We are much like the little boy who was given an orange by a man. The boy’s mother asked, “What do you say to the nice man?”
The little boy thought and handed the orange back and said, “Peel it.”
Expressing gratitude to others can make a positive impact on their lives.
One Christian leader told of an experience she had when she took her two daughters out to eat at a restaurant. Her girls pointed out a schoolteacher they both had in school also eating at the same place. The teacher had come in and sat down with her husband. As the mother and her daughters were getting ready to leave she felt an urge to go over and thank the teacher for the contribution she had made to her children’s lives. All the way to the exit the urge continued. As she reached the door, the mom turned around and went back to the teacher’s table, introduced herself, and delivered her sentence or two of gratitude. The teacher almost burst into tears: “I was just telling my husband that I don’t know if I can teach any longer. I’ve had the worst day I’ve had in twenty years of teaching.”
The mother’s words of gratitude came at just the right time in the life of this teacher.
An attitude of gratitude looks for something good in every situation.
The story is told of identical twins who were opposites. One had the personality of the eternal optimist. Everything was always working out; it was going to be great. Everything was very hopeful. His brother, however, saw everything in its worst possible light. Worst case scenario. The parents were worried about this. They went to a psychologist and he offered up a simple plan to try to blend the two personalities to get a little more balance there.
He said that on their next birthday, you give the optimist a box of manure and stick him in one room by himself. To the pessimist, you put him in a room by himself and give him all the best toys you can possibly afford. So the next birthday rolled around and that is what they did. They peeked in the room. The pessimist looked at the computer and said, "This thing is too slow. My friends have a faster one. I know this calculator will break. My friends have a race car that is bigger than this one." Everything was just bad.
They tiptoed across the hallway to the optimist. He was gleefully throwing the manure up in the air and had a big smile on his face. He said, "You can’t fool me. I know that if there is this much manure, there has got to be a pony in here somewhere." All depends on how you look at things.
Thanksgiving is a reminder to live with a heart of gratitude.
Thanksgiving is one of those times when we are supposed to stop and be thankful for what we have. We always want just a little bit more. If our jobs were a little different… If our houses looked differently… If our neighborhood was different… If our spouses, if our families, if our careers, if whatever. It is the athlete who wants a higher salary or to play for a different team. The child who wants more toys. Or the teenager who wants more popularity. The executive who wants more perks or just the rest of us who want more leisure or more pay or just some of the stuff we want that we think will make us happy.
Some of us live in one of two tents. Contentment or discontentment. It seems as if very few of us live in the tent of contentment. We need to says with David in Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd and I shall lack nothing."
A heart of gratitude focuses on the important things in life.
Even in the worst of situations we can find something to be thankful for.
The story is told of two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!" John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life." "But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us." "All right," panted John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ’O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.’"
Thankful heart enjoy better health.
Rollin McCraty and his colleagues at the HeartMath Institute in Boulder Creek, California reference the famous "nun study," where "University of Kentucky researchers analyzed the emotional content in autobiographies from 180 Roman Catholic nuns at age 22. Six decades later, the ones most likely to still be alive were the ones who expressed the most positive emotions (gratitude, contentment, hope, etc.). In fact, they found a nearly seven-year difference in longevity between the happiest and the least happy nuns." —As referenced by David Steindl-Rast, "Giving Thanks," Spirituality & Health, 4(Winter 2002), 38.
Counting your blessings is good therapy. Start a daily gratitude journal. Studies have shown that those who do this report fewer physical symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and are more optimistic about the upcoming week than those who didn’t keep any journal, or those who kept a journal that recorded their daily struggles and hassles.
Action Plan:
1. Look for ways you can give praise to others you meet in your daily routine.
2. Practice living with an attitude of gratitude
3. Refuse to become a person with a critical spirit or a judgmental attitude.
4. Practice Ephesians 5:19-20: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
