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.
As she approached, everyone saw she was carrying a little perfume bottle. It was in a little bottle that would have looked a bit like this one. In it was expensive perfume. You would normally only ever put a little bit on you at a time, because it was so expensive. I brought along some of Mrs Elvery’s perfume this morning. Does anyone want to smell it? … See you don’t need much do you As she approached Jesus, you could see that she was crying and as she cried, her tears rolled down her cheeks and fell onto Jesus’ feet. She knew that she was living a bad life and she was so sorry for it. The more she cried the wetter his feet got until they were wet enough to wash and then she took her hair and she dried his feet. She kissed his feet all over and then she took the perfume bottle then and emptied it on his feet – all of it. Mrs Elvery wouldn’t like it if I poured out all her perfume, because that would be such a waste - but that is what this woman did.
Okay boys and girls – it’s your turn to draw a picture for me – of this bad woman. I want to see Jesus lying at a table with food. The woman coming in crying. Don’t forget her perfume bottle and her long hair.
Grownups, this woman was a prostitute and in the Jewish culture she was despised. Can you imagine the audacity of this woman. Here she was gate crashing a private party of one of the most religious guys in town. You couldn’t have got 2 more opposite people. Simon would have had nothing to do with this woman in his normal life yet Jesus knew who she was and allowed her to approach him.
Both Jesus and Simon would have DISAPPROVED of her lifestyle and her sins. There is no doubt about that, but the contrast between how Jesus and Simon treated her is huge. Simon refused to accept this woman – he REJECTED her, while Jesus ACCEPTED this woman. This woman was crying because she was sorry for the way she was living her life. We know this because later in vs 47-48 Jesus forgives her based on her actions and response to him. Even given this remorse and repentance. Simon JUDGED AND CONDEMNED where as Jesus WELCOMED AND LOVED.
Too often, we are like Simon. We don’t approve of people’s behaviour or lifestyle or looks and therefore we judge, condemn and REJECT them – we would never develop a relationship with them. And as a consequence of this, we are essentially saying that these people are not worthy of experiencing GOD’S LOVE – certainly not from us anyway. When we refuse to accept them and show them love, we are basically refusing to share with them the good news that Jesus cares for them and more importantly that JESUS DIED FOR THEM.
Some of you are thinking - But didn’t Jesus accept this woman because she was obviously remorseful? The answer is no. Jesus didn’t expect people to respond to him before he approached them. He usually approached them first and asked for a response. If you read through the gospels you will see that Jesus approached many other unlovely people before they repented. Luke 5 - He went up to Levi, the tax collector, and asked him to follow him and become his disciple – Matthew would have hardly have known anything about Jesus when Jesus called him. Jesus similarly called out to Zacchaeus in a tree, another tax collector and invited himself home for dinner. It was only at the end of the meal that Zacchaeus repented of his sins. Jesus approached the adulterous woman at the well and challenged her to repent. Repeatedly we see Jesus accepting and expressing love to those that the rest of our society had rejected. And I think that in doing so, his actions speak so much louder than words. I believe that Jesus calls us to accept and love others before they repent. If Jesus didn’t love us before we repented, he would never had died for us.
Boys and Girls have you finished you pictures …
I need someone else to read another passage from my bible …
Vs 39 When 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.”
40 Jesus 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, a and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
When Simon saw what had happened, his jaw hit the ground a second time. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing …
1) If Jesus was from God, he would know that this was a bad woman.
2) If he knew she was a bad woman, he wouldn’t let her touch him.
3) And what about the waste of perfume – what’s going on there…
Jesus did know who this woman was – you could tell by her dress that she was disliked by everyone. But it didn’t stop him welcoming her as a friend. Boys and girls, Jesus was willing to be a FRIEND to anyone – it doesn’t matter who they were or how bad or nasty they’d been, it doesn’t matter that everyone else picks on them or thinks they are stupid or dumb. Jesus is always willing to be someone’s friend if they WANT to be friends . Does that mean that he thinks the bad things we do are okay? … Of course not. Jesus isn’t happy when we do wrong things, but that doesn’t mean that he stops loving us.
Simon couldn’t quite understand this and so Jesus tells him a story … Imagine there were 2 men (get 2 volunteers) – we’ll call them Ted and Fred. Both of these guys were broke – they needed money and so they went to another guy who loaned out money – we’ll call him Mr Moneybags. Ted was loaned $500 dollars and Fred was loaned $50 dollars. Both were happy, but before long they spent all their money. (get Ted & Fred to give all their money away to the other children). Then one day, Mr Moneybags paid them a visit to collect back his money … (Get Mr Moneybags to come and demand his money back. Get him to get agitated and a bit upset – even threatening to throw Ted and Fred into Jail).
What is Ted & Fred going to do. They are in a pickle. They had lost all of the money.
(Mr Moneybags then had a change of heart and agreed to cancel the debts).
Wow – that was lucky – Ted and Fred had their debts cancelled. Boys and Girls, tell me this. Who do you think would have been most thankful that Mr Moneybags cancelled their debt - Ted or Fred? Right – Ted – because he owed the biggest amount.
Jesus told Simon this story to show him that just as when people who owe lots of money are very thankful when their debt is paid, so too, people who have done a lot of things wrong are very thankful when their sins are forgiven.
You know, just as Jesus is willing to be a friend to anyone who wants to be friends with Him, He is also willing to FORGIVE anyone who is SORRY and wants to be forgiven. It doesn’t matter how bad a person is, Jesus is willing to be their friend and is willing to forgive them for the bad things they’d done wrong, if only they would ask.
This bad woman had done lots of things wrong in her life, but she was sorry for the things she had done wrong.
- She was so sorry that she was willing to face rejection. It is entirely possible that when she entered the room, Simon could have kicked her out and told never to come back.
- She was so sorry that she was willing to be humiliated in public. Everyone saw her cry. Everyone saw her kissing Jesus’ dirty feet. Everyone saw her use her hair to dry his feet – do you know that in those days, women had to keep their hair tied up - it was not right to let your hair down in public. But this woman didn’t care.
- She was so sorry that she gave Jesus an expensive gift – perfume poured out over his feet.
This woman was so sorry and her actions showed it. She was a bit like Ted, you know. She had done so many things wrong that needed to be forgiven. She needed Jesus’ forgiveness
Can you draw me a picture of Ted and Fred with the pile of money that they both owed – remember both were happy to be forgiven, but Ted would have been the most happy and so you need to draw the biggest smile on Ted’s face …
Grownups … Jesus told this story to confront Simon about his response to God’s message as presented through his own life. He wanted to contrast the response of Simon with the response of the prostitute.
Simon was in the eyes of society a religious and good man. Simon whole-heartedly concurred with this viewpoint. He was a Pharisee and like most Pharisees would have been proud of his holy and upright life. He didn’t see his need of forgiveness as a great need at all. His debt was INSIGNIFICANT in his eyes. Often this is how we view ourselves also. Good people with little sin.
Compare him to the prostitute. She knew she lived an bad life which was against God’s laws. She knew that she was evil in God’s eyes and that she had a huge need of forgiveness. Her DEBT WAS HUGE in her eyes and in the eyes of everyone around her.
But how did Jesus see their debts … We read in Rom 6:23 that “The wages of sin is death.” Paul doesn’t make a distinction between big and little sins – all sin leads to death. The prostitute had sinned – there is no doubt. But Simon had also sinned. Everyone is guilty of living their life for themselves instead of for God – that is sin. And God doesn’t measure sin in degrees – it is not slightly bad, bad and bad-er, God sees sin as black and white. In God’s eyes you have either sinned or you haven’t and we all have. Therefore when Jesus looked, he saw both were SINNERS and both had a DEBT. We all need forgiveness and Jesus is willing to forgive us if we ask for it.
Some of the people we dislike are people who we think are too bad for God to accept. We rationalize that they are too far gone to be even interested in Christianity and so we justify that rejecting them is okay because they would not want to repent. But often quite the opposite is true. Jesus showed us that when we accept and love a person without judging them, it provides them with a clear picture of God’s grace and this is perhaps the greatest gift we can give them. Accepting others opens up the way for us to share Christ’s love and forgiveness and offers them the chance to have their huge debts cancelled. Have you considered that by rejecting unlovely people, you may well be depriving them of the opportunity to accept Christ.
Boys and Girls, have you finished your drawings?
I need one more person to read for me …
44 Then 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. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Jesus said to Simon. “You don’t think you need forgiveness do you. You don’t appreciate the gift of forgiveness I am offering you. When I came in here today – You didn’t wash the dirt off my feet. They were dirty and dusty from the dirt roads and paths. Any good host usually washes his visitor’s feet, but you didn’t – you were really quite rude. You weren’t really pleased to see me either – because you didn’t greet me with a kiss on the cheek. That is how people greet each other – but you didn’t offer me friendship today. And you didn’t put oil on my head. If I am an honored guest in your house, isn’t it a custom for you to take some perfumed oil and dab a bit on my hair? But you didn’t do any of those things. You don’t appreciate the forgiveness that I offer you and you don’t appreciate who I am.
“But look at this woman. She washed my dirty feet with her tears. How sorry for her mistakes is she? Instead of kissing me on the cheek – she kissed me all over the feet – not once, but many times. How much does she love me? Instead of a dab of perfumed oil on my head, she has poured pure perfume on my feet. How much does she value me?”
The woman was so sorry for the things she had done wrong and Jesus saw that in her actions. He didn’t hesitate in forgiving her sins. Just like Ted, she was in huge trouble, but Jesus forgave her huge debt.
Boys and Girls, I want you to look at the first picture I got you to draw … It was the picture of someone you disliked. You know, if Jesus was here today, he would be more than happy to accept that person and be their friend. And he would also be willing to offer them forgiveness.
You know, Jesus wants us to accept people as they are and show them friendship and love. We do that because we are grateful for what Jesus has done for us. How can we show friendship to other kids practically …
I want you to draw one last picture for me. I want you to draw another picture of the person no-one likes, but this time I want you to draw a picture of them with you on one side and Jesus on the other with your hands around each other’s shoulders. That is what Jesus wants us to do – to accept unlovely people. Can you draw that picture for me know???
Grownups – let’s wrap up. I think there are 2 lessons here for us. Firstly We all OSTRACISE people in society either consciously or unconsciously and in so doing, we are essentially depriving them of the opportunity of experiencing God’s love and God’s grace. When we put up walls, we are unconsciously refusing to share God’s gospel with them and therefore choosing an eternal destiny apart from God for them.
Rom 10:14 says How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
God calls us to share his good news with everyone – not just those with small debts. In God’s eyes a small debt is just as big as a big debt and he desires to forgive all. Are we willing to accept the unlovely as they are now? That’s the first lesson.
The second lesson for us is about our gratitude. We all take Jesus’ sacrifice for granted. Jesus contrasts the love and actions of Simon with the Prostitute. Simon did not show any love or honor or gratitude to Jesus. His attitude was one of pride in his own righteousness. But the prostitute humbled herself to the point of public humiliation. She gave sacrificially in order to show her sorrow and just like Ted, her joy at forgiveness would have been great. Who do you most resemble. Do we show remorse for our sins? Are you grateful to God for the forgiveness you have received. Does it lead you to extravagant expressions of love and service to God? Or are you like Simon – cold, ungrateful and rude.
Boys & Girls Our time is up. I want you to remember today that Jesus wants us show love to and be friends with those that others dislike. That doesn’t mean we copy them and do the wrong things they might do, but it does mean that we be friends with them and be willing to tell them about our friend Jesus who wants to be everyone’s friend.
Pray
