The Heart of God
Luke 7:36-50 (NLT): One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting 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 what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”
Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”
“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.
Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”
“That’s right,” Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.
“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”
And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
In this story, Jesus addresses the issue of judgment. You can keep a smile on your face and still judge someone in your heart, and Jesus will know. He knows what is on your heart. The Pharisee in this tale, Simon, saw the woman and immediately judged her in his heart. Immediately, he closed the door of connection on her, for he felt he was higher than she was. You see, Pharisees were a political class. They were wealthy men who believed that, because they followed the law of God to the letter, they were better than the world. They looked down on the “sinners” and judged them. They wore righteousness like a robe to be flaunted. It was a false righteousness. This same mindset infects the churches today. The church speaks one thing and does another. The world is sick of the words of the church; the world is constantly judging the actions of the church. It is time the church stops speaking and begin acting.
Jesus did not judge the woman who came to Him. He loved her. The moment He saw her, He loved her and had compassion on her. He did not scold her for showing her love for Him. Jesus is all about the heart. He is about changing hearts. He saw that her heart was soft and ready to change; He accepted her with love. The Pharisees had hard hearts; they were not ready to change, thus Jesus had to be harder on them.
People with access to God’s presence don’t always get the heart change. There are things in the heart that, when left unattended, will cause damage to both you and others. There is judgment and anger and other such negative emotions that fester there if the heart remains hard to God’s grace. The longer you follow God, the more grace you require. The further you go in God, the more grace you need. It all comes down to the softness of the heart.
Now, Simon, the Pharisee, had an attitude. He invited Jesus to his home, but he was not ready to engage or to accept the message Jesus was bringing. He had a judgmental attitude; he was cynical. As a rich man, he had servants who would wash people’s feet when they arrived, but Jesus’ feet was not washed. Simon instructed his servants to not wash Jesus’ feet. He was giving Jesus the cold shoulder; he did not truly want Jesus there. He wanted to trap Jesus not accept Him.
The second character in this story is the woman. She was a prostitute. In that time, her dress and the way she carried herself identified her profession. She brings an alabaster box of perfume. This is not perfume that can simply be bought at the store. This perfume costs thousands of dollars. To get the perfume into the box required her to go to the perfumer. She is judged by the perfumer as she has the box filled. And she pours this expensive offering onto Jesus’ feet. The custom of the Middle East in concerns to touching and kissing someone’s feet is to say, “Thank you for saving my life.” She had an encounter with Jesus at some point in His ministry, but she still is of the world. She does not have all her things together. She goes home and takes her jar–a jar of perfume that she would bathe in in order to make the experience of having her body a pleasant one–to be filled once more. She goes to the house. The house is filled with many guests. Jesus is reclining at the table, legs stretched out. She comes up behind him, in complete humility, and anoints him. She unbraids her hair to wipe his feet; she touches his feet in an almost sensual manner as she cries so hard that it is like water washing His feet. She lays herself open before him in complete repentance and thankfulness for His saving grace.
The Pharisees are offended by what they see. She is touching Him! That is a no-no! And Jesus is letting her do it! He cannot be a prophet if He is letting such an unclean person touch Him! This has been the stance many times of the church. We thought we were too righteous for the world. Because we were touched by God’s presence, we were too good for those who were “unclean” out in the world. Time and again, Jesus says, “You got it wrong.” Jesus is a physician. He heals in the natural, and He heals the heart. When He draws near, and we draw near to Him, and He speaks, we are drawn to Him. He is called to draw all men to Him, yet the church is doing the opposite. We repel all men from God. We have lost sight of God’s heart, blinded by our own self-righteousness. If we do not allow ourselves to align with the heart of God and reach out to touch the unclean, the churches in our country will empty.
Thus, we do what we can to reach the unclean, the unchurched, and the pre-Christians. We do things to make it easy for them to come into the House. Our job, as followers of Christ, is to help them along so that they move from pre-Christians to connected to the heart of God. Jesus demonstrates time and again by letting the woman do what she did the true heart of God.
Now, in the midst of turmoil in our country, is the time for us to rise up in humility and in love and show the world where the answers are. Now is the time to view the world as Jesus viewed the world. Look at that woman who is in process of coming out of her lifestyle the same as Jesus saw her; without judgment, without hate, but with love and acceptance. Jesus received her and allowed her to touch Him in an almost forbidden way. The Holiness of God is not so holy that it can’t come in contact with someone who is broken. Our righteousness should never get in the way of our ability to empathize with those who are broken. This story is one way Jesus shows the true heart of God.
