How much love does it take to act so extravagantly, so extremely, so . . . ?
Have I allowed myself to be loved that much?
Read Luke 7:36 - 50
Now read it again. Don’t read what below until you read it again.
As you read, try to feel the love. (Have you read it twice???)
How much love does it take to walk into a party uninvited – into the presence of people who despise me, who mock me, who want to humiliate me?
How much love does it take to cry so hard that I can wash someone’s feet?
How much love does it take to buy some incredibly expensive perfume?
How much love does it take to touch someone who, by all the social mores of the culture, you have absolutely no right touching?
Not her love; Jesus’ love.
Jesus drove her crazy with his over-the-top love. He had to in order to make her act so crazily.
Did they have some sort of interaction before this encounter?
What had he said to her?
How had he treated her?
How had he touched her?
Her extravagant act had to have been a response to a love that she had never experienced in her life? WHAT LOVE HAD SHE BEEN GIVEN?
Whatever that love is – however that love is expressed, she receives it.
She cherishes it.
She embraces that love close to her and it squeezes out in an extravagant way.
That was then; this is now.
As I have pondered this passage in hearing Jesus talk to me through the New Testament Challenge, he says that we have been loved in the same way this woman has been loved.
Not maybe - we have been loved that much. WHAT LOVE WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN!
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Effervescent love. Extreme love. Extravagant love. Embarrassing love. Jesus’ love.
Does Jesus drive me crazy with his over-the-top love?
Whatever that love is – however that love is expressed, am I receiving it?
Am I cherishing it?
Am I embracing that love close to me and is it squeezing out in an extravagant way?
Before she leaves, Jesus tells her, “you are forgiven” and, “go in peace.” Walk through this day in the peace of such amazing love.
Why don’t we read it one more time and soak up the love?
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
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 people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[c] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
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—as her great love has shown. But whoever 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.”
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