Looking at ourselves thru the prism of a character study from Luke 7
Looking at Ourselves thru the
Prism of a Character Study” Luke 7:36---
Some of us would
probably confess to people watching.
Whether you are at a shopping mall, or an airport or watching beach
volleyball we have all people watched.
You learn a lot about people and human nature by watching others. In this incident in the Gospel of the woman “
a sinner”---so called and of Simon the “ Pharisee” we see opportunities for
spiritual growth and love as we people watch but some unfulfilled.
The woman may have
heard of Jesus when he talked about eternal life and said, “ Come unto me all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” She followed the Lord to the house of a
Pharisee who had invited Jesus to dinner.
Simon did invite
Jesus. At least he checked the block out
of curiosity perhaps in allowing Jesus into his home. But he failed to show any of the proper
customs of the day in welcoming a visitor.
No greeting with a kiss, no oil for the head, and no water to wash his feet. How many of us do this? A formal nod to the church, a nod to Jesus
but what is behind that? Moralism is not
Christianity. In our little book by
Joseph Alleine in the evenings, A Sure Guide to Heaven we learned that
conversion “ does not lie in moral righeousness” In other words an outward conformity to rules
is not true grace in the heart necessarily .
Certainly rules are important. We can have a form of godliness without
the power. 2 Timothy 3:5
Simon “ could not see her as she was because he was
looking at her as she used to be. That is a common trouble with Christian
people.” G Campbell
What is at the
heart of this story? We read how Jesus
talked with Simon and asked him about forgiveness. In other words, Simon you are not judging
correctly. He got the point of the story
though ---the one who owed the most and had his debt forgiven loves the
most. Jesus forgives sin. He forgives our sin every day and some of us
have come from further places than others.
We owe more to God in that sense.
We can never repay the debt that has been cancelled. W. E. Sangster, the English Methodist said it
this way about sin, “ It is a recurrent
tragedy of our race that we do not realize the sinfulness of sin. We call our sins ‘mistakes’ , ‘ weaknesses ‘
, ‘ slips’ and even when we use the right word----‘ sin’ we use it
lightly. What is sin? This is sin!
It is sin that takes the holy God----incarnate here on earth---and
treats him as no beast should be treated.
….You have been guilty of the same sins which nailed him to the cross…gossip,
greed, bigotry, fear, slander…they added up to this. It took the Cross to make you realize what
sin really was.”
We do people
watch. That is what we started out
talking about today. It would be better
to do that with the heart of Jesus knowing that some are coming from different
places and need our compassion. Some
know better and need our gentle admonition.
All of us need to learn what it means to love with the love of
Jesus. We have been forgiven much. We have been loved by our Lord in His calling
of us to serve. Let us do God’s will
with His love and service, and not our own.
That does not give spiritual results as we know. But with the crucified Savior we can show
people there is new opportunity and a new way to live under a risen Savior.
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