In Luke chapter 7, a prostitute washes Jesus’s feet with a vial of perfume and her hair. She does this in front of a room full of religious leaders and churchgoers. When Christ is challenged, he defends the prostitute.
We live in a world where we feel we cannot open up to people about our sin. We feel like we have to make our lives clean before we can come to God, church, or each other. The prostitute poured the symbol of her life of sin on Jesus’s feet, and we can do the same with our sin.
I’m a Youth Pastor at the Memorial Road Mennonite Brethren Church in Edmond, OK. I don’t preach all that often – about 4 times a year, but I really enjoy preaching. I preached my last sermon at MRMBC on Sunday, July 12. Well, my last sermon as the Youth Pastor there. My wife and I will be moving to Durham, North Carolina in just a few weeks (more info on that here).
Anyway, I preached on a passage that’s been on my heart for a while – Luke 7:36-50. It goes like this:
Jesus is invited to a dinner party.
The host (a Pharisee named Simon) is incredibly rude to Jesus.
Somewhere along the way a “woman of sin” (probably a prostitute) shows up and starts washing Jesus’s feet with her tears, then pours a bunch of perfume on his feet.
Simon doesn’t like the fact that a prostitute is pouring her perfume on his floor, so he starts complaining.
Jesus doesn’t like that Simon is complaining, so he calls him out.
Then Jesus proceeds to blow everybody’s mind talking about forgiveness and sin.
Basically, Jesus breaks every Middle-Eastern-AD-30 social rule in the book according to their culture and defends a prostitute in a room full of church leaders. It’s a crazy story, and it’s implications should literally change our lives.
Here is the sermon audio:
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I’ve been in a writing mode lately. Songwriting, anyway. It’s really been years since I’ve focused on songwriting, and it feels really good to try and formulate thoughts, emotions, and passions into lyric phrases.
One song I’m currently working on is called “When You Stand”. Here are the lyrics, as they stand now.
I can’t wait until this is over
I don’t think I’ll ride this out
If I can’t talk to anybody
I’ll never get my feet on the ground
So won’t you be my crying shoulder
Help pick these thorns out of my crown
Will you be there when it’s over
And pick me up off of the ground
Cause we all fall down
Yet we all know how
To point and stare and ignore what’s there
We all fall down
And we wander around
We will find our way when we stand
So I will be your crying shoulder
I will be there till the end
I will be there when its over
You will see me when you stand
The message of the song two-fold. First, we all go through hard times in our lives. We all mess up, we all feel guilty, and we need each other. Yet it is human nature for us to point the finger at somebody else when they are down and totally ignore what is going on in our own lives.
In Matthew 7, Jesus addresses this when he says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” (Matt 7:3-4).
The second part of the song deals with how I want to respond to people around me in need. Rather than point out a spec, I want to be an encourager. I use the imagry of being down on the ground as opposed to standing. I want to be the person that lifts up rather than pushes down. The last line states, “You will see me when you stand”. It’s saying that if you are a person in need, I want to be there for you – to go through the battle with you, and to stand up with you. When it’s all over, and you are back on your feet, I want to be one of the people that is standing with you.
I’m almost finished with the song, and hopefully I’ll get it recorded soon.
I am disgusted with what I call “American Christianity”. I was at a youth camp last week, and our speaker brought to our attention a recent poll of non-Christians in America. The poll revealed 3 of the top feelings toward Christians in America. They are:
Christians are judgemental
Christians are gay-haters
Christians are close-minded and intolerant
In other words – we’re no more than hypocrites.
There really is no argument against data like that. This is how we as a Christian community are viewed. In my opinion, we’ve earned this reputation. Other statistics show that the general lifestyle of a professing Christian in America does not at all differ from a non-Christian. Things like divorce rates and such are identical. The word “Christian” means “little Christ” – or to be Christ-like. In my opinion, we as Christians are way off the mark when it comes to actually doing what we are supposed to do – to be like Christ.
I recently had a conversation with a fellow youth pastor. It was one of those talks where you kind of come to an epiphany during the conversation. I’d never verbalized it in my life before, but at the end of our talk, I told him, “My greatest fear is that I’ll become like the Pharisees. That I’ll become like the religious leaders that Jesus hated”. Jesus called them “Sons of hell”. He literally pointed to a group of pastors/church leaders and said, “You are sons of hell”. Powerful. It was because they cared more about how they appeared to those around them than what was inside their hearts. They had empty faith. The reason I said I was afraid of becoming like the Pharisees is because, while I truly and genuinely try to live like Christ, many times I don’t. I’ll say that I forgive, but I’ll hold a grudge. I’ll say I care for the poor, but I live in a nice house in the suburbs and hardly ever think about people who have less than I do. I’ll say I want to help the oppressed – the helpless, but I sometimes I feel like I don’t really do anything about social justice or equality. There is a struggle inside of me. There really is a struggle inside of all of us. We are born with a sin nature. Yet, we are also created in God’s image – in the image of a perfect, loving, and merciful God. And we are called to live a life like Christ.
Last week, at camp in Colorado, I wrote a song called “Empty Faith”. This song is many things. It’s a confession – an admission of guilt. It’s a portrayal of the struggle between sin and love that lives inside me. It’s a prayer – a petition to God to change my heart and make me more like Him.
Here are the lyrics:
We hold our Bibles high
And we say we’re right
We’ll give you the perfect lines then run and hide
Can’t we see we’ve lost the way
Can’t we see that it’s all just fake
As long as they’re watching everything’s fine
Where are you in all of this
We use your name but destroy your image
I say I’m different but I just look the same
So I am over all this empty faith
I’ve been changed by a love I can’t explain
So I am over all this empty faith
We’ll white-wash the outside
We’ll do everything right
As long as they’re watching everything’s fine
You ask for more
You search the heart of me
Change the heart of me
May we all have a desire to truly and honestly live like “little Christs”. I encourage you to really examine your own heart, and then ask God to make it more like His.
