Tuesday Testimony

You know those commercials where the people are yelling out their home and car windows  “It’s my money and I need it now!”? This may seem so weird, but sometimes when I am driving down the road I just want to yell out “I’ve Got Issues!”  It seems like we’re all expected to put on these faces and act like we’re perfect.  Within certain circles, we’re expected to act a certain way or be a particular person, when we really are not.

It confounds me why some people can’t always be real about things.  Jesus didn’t come so that we would be slaves to having to put on a “face.”  He came so that we could be free from sin and anything that holds us down, and so that we could live our lives to the fullest. None of us are perfect, and I think that we as a community of believers will truly be able to come together in fellowship when we can all reach this understanding. One of the reasons we have so many stories showing the Pharisees as hypocrits, is because we are supposed to realize that they were wrong and thus change our lives accordingly.

I love the story of the sinful woman that annoints Jesus’ feet.  She realizes that she has “issues” and comes to Jesus repentant. But the Pharisee scorns and disdains the woman, and the fact that Jesus has allowed her to touch him.  Let us not have this kind of attitude towards each other, but realize that we are all sinners trying to improve and become more like Jesus.  I leave you with the tale of the sinful woman, and her perfume and tears.

“Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and 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.

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.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,and the other fifty. 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?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

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. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 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, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”  Luke 7:36-50 NIV