Luke 7:37-43
When I taught junior high school there was a particular student who did not do well; he had poor grades and a bad attitude. He did not do well in most classes, that is, but he was fine in mine. When I suggested to another teacher that we all may want to work with this student I was told that he was a hopeless case. But at the end of the year the young man wrote me a note thanking me for my encouragement.
It was the same student in all the classes, the difference was that I would not let his reputation color my perception of him.
In Luke 7 we have the first part of Jesus encountering a sinful woman. What did the woman do for Jesus? What did the Pharisee think? What was the point of the parable?
The issue of sinfulness came up the other day in a discussion among clergy. How much sin is too much sin? The question arose from church members trying to decide if a sinful person should be allowed to take part in their worship service. I responded with this story of the sinful woman.
She knew she was sinful, but she also knew she needed to be forgiven. With this awareness and this powerful drive to find salvation she wordlessly offers praise and adoration to Jesus.
Did Jesus know who she was? Yes, of course. But her past was not important. What was important was that she was seeking forgiveness, and knew she needed a great debt forgiven.
We are all sinful, and to attempt to rank our sin with others – I’m not as sinful as you, my sin is not as bad as yours – is absolute foolishness. To reject another because we view them as sinful is to take the position of the Pharisee. We sit in judgment and reject the very people that Christ came to save and that the church should work to rescue.
We should each be willing to accept other people in spite of their sinfulness, because we have had a great debt canceled. Perhaps it would help us to accept others when we remember we have been accepted by Jesus.
DAILY CHALLENGE: What can you do to remember the size of your cancelled debt?
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