Sensing My Own Sinfulness Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

If you ever need an auto mechanic, I can highly recommend that you take your car to Chris Terzan in Catalina. From everything I’ve seen, Chris, his son Teddy, and Jason, the other mechanic there, are competent mechanics. But even more important than that, I am confident that I can trust them to do only the work that is needed at a fair price. But I know that there are certainly other places you can take your care and get the same kind of honest, competent service.

But the one thing that you will get for sure at Terzan’s that you won’t get anywhere else you take your car is that you’re going to hear about Jesus from Chris.

TENSION

To tell you the truth, I’m a bit jealous of Chris and other people like him who just so naturally want to tell everyone they meet about Jesus. That is something that is just not as natural for me, and my guess is that the same thing is probably true of many of you.

There is a reason for Chris’ enthusiasm for Jesus and I’m going to share part of his story with you a little later in the message that will help you understand why his love for Jesus just overflows like that.

But before I do that, we’re going to look at another of Jesus’ conversations that will not only help us to better understand Chris’ story, but which will hopefully help us to understand our own story better, too. I’m convinced that is one of the keys that will help all of us to have the kind of enthusiasm for sharing Jesus that I think we all long for.

TRUTH

This morning’s message is the third in our current series titled “Conversations with Jesus”. We’re exploring some of the conversations that Jesus had during His earthly ministry to help us rekindle an appreciation for the simplicity of the gospel.

So far, we’ve taken a look at Jesus’ conversation with the very religious Nicodemus and an unnamed woman at a well in Samaria. Today, we’ll examine an encounter that Jesus has at the home of a Pharisee named Simon somewhere in Galilee, probably near the middle of Jesus’ three-year earthly ministry.

So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 7. The last two weeks we were in John’s gospel account and you’ll find the book of Luke right before that. Or if you’re using your digital device, you can just type in the reference. The account we’ll be reading today begins in verse 36. And since we need to get a sense of the entire conversation before we begin to talk about it, I’ll read through the end of the chapter.

[Read Luke 7:36-50]

Although there is another similar event recorded in the other three gospels, this is not merely another account of that event, which took place shortly before Jesus’s crucifixion. That event took place in the house of Simon the Leper, not Simon the Pharisee. And it took place in Bethany, which is near Jerusalem, and not somewhere in Galilee.

Before we can fully understand fully the significance of everything that happens here, we need some historical and cultural background.

As a Pharisee, Simon was likely well-to-do and had a nice house with an open courtyard in the middle. When the weather was nice, meals were often eaten there. The table was usually in the middle of that courtyard and the custom was that when a Rabbi came to dinner all kinds of people would be allowed to gather around the outside of the courtyard to listen as he taught. And the poor would often be part of that gathering, hoping to be able to pick up some of the scraps from the table once the meal was over. This explains how the woman was able to be present here.

When a guest entered a house for such an occasion, it was customary to do three things:

1) The host gave the guest the “kiss of peace”

2) Cool water was poured over the guest’s feet to wash and comfort them, and

3) Since they didn’t have deodorant, some kind of incense or perfume was placed on the guest’s head.

We see in this story that Simon failed to do any of those things.

During the meal, the people did not sit but instead reclined around a low table, usually leaning on the left elbow, leaving the right arm free, with their feet as far away from the table as possible, for good reason. Nobody really wanted to eat with someone else’s feet in their face. This explains how the woman was able to have access to Jesus’ feet.