A GREAT BIG “THANK YOU”!
Luke 7:36-50
Ah…that wonderful time of the year has arrived when we feed our faces until we nearly burst, resembling stuffed turkeys ourselves as we waddle from the table to the couch to watch football. Oh, ya, it’s also the time of year when we’re encouraged to give thanks to the Lord for all of our blessings—but that part easily gets relegated to an afterthought in too many of our homes on Thanksgiving Day. My hope is that we could promote it to center stage of our hearts and lives this Thanksgiving—and I’m hoping that our time in the Word this morning will help us with that.
We’re looking at another scene from Jesus’ life today from the Gospel of Luke. This is my last sermon in the series I’ve called, “Close Enough to Feel the Pain”—reflecting on Jesus’ pattern of getting so close to people that He couldn’t help but be aware of their hurts and struggles—even when the pain in their lives may have been self-inflicted. Such people seemed to be His mission, didn’t they—and He would not shirk away from them!
The scene of Jesus’ life to which we turn this morning poses the contrast between the town harlot and a local preacher—between a woman known to be a sinner in their town and a Pharisee, one of the men who was a leader in the Synagogue. Once again we find Jesus at a party—this time at the home of a prominent Pharisee, a man named Simon (not to be confused with the Simon we know mostly as Peter). Parties were fairly public events in those days, at least in the sense that they took place in open courtyards and the uninvited commonly stood around and observed the guests and the festivities from the perimeter of the courtyards. That’s what opened the door for what happened at this unforgettable party.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 7—
[Read Luke 7:36-50, TNIV]
It was a fascinating scene, wasn’t it? Let me see if I can help you envision it better. In those days, they ate, as the Romans did, with a low table in the middle and with something like couches or loungers surrounding the table. Lying with their heads at the table and their feet out, the guests would form a pattern that from above them might have resembled a great big star.
Jesus was reclining in this manner at the home of Simon when this woman in the crowd came up to where Jesus was and began to weep over Him. Scripture just tells us that she had lived “a sinful life.” And it seems fairly safe to assume that the sinful life she lived was one of sexual impropriety. Chances are that she was a prostitute—and her reputation was known throughout the community, including all who were at this party and all who were watching from outside Simon’s courtyard.
I wish we had a name for her, so we could at least call her by name—but I suppose in that town her reputation preceded her and the men in the town preferred her to remain nameless. But something had drawn her to this man Jesus—her shame, her desperate desire to be set free from the trap of her own sins, and, with all of that, a glimmer of hope that this man had the power to set her free and give her a new lease on life. Her emotions got the best of her, and it seemed like all she could do was weep. No words came from her mouth.
And as she wept at the feet of Jesus, she became aware that her tears were dripping down onto His feet. His feet were apparently dirty from open sandals on dusty roads he had traveled that day—and she realized that no one had washed His feet as would have been common custom, a common courtesy. It must have been a bright moment in the midst of her painful tears to realize that somehow her tears were meeting a need, albeit in such a strange way. So when her tears had thoroughly rinsed his feet, she dried them with her long hair. First of all, it was scandalous for a Jewish woman to let her hair hang down long—women of good reputation always pulled it up. But not this woman—which tells us something more about her reputation in town. But the scene of her wiping dirty feet with her own hair shows the depth of her humility before Jesus, and the power of hope she had somehow found in Him. No one had ever responded to her as this man did.
Simon—the Pharisee—reacted in a way that reveals a lot about who he was and why he had invited Jesus to this party. It would appear that he did not invite Jesus as a social equal, for he didn’t provide any of the usual amenities for Jesus. He hadn’t offered the anointing of oil for Jesus’ head. He hadn’t offered the customary foot-washing. He hadn’t even given Jesus the proper greeting—which in their part of the world would have been a kiss. He had apparently invited Jesus out of curiosity—not respect. He had heard that Jesus was a prophet and he wanted to see for himself who this new celebrity really was.
And evidently, in Simon’s opinion, Jesus flunked the first test. Simon said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him” (The Message). And Jesus, reading Simon’s heart, said, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Then Jesus pointed out that this woman had done the things that Simon had failed to do. Because she had been forgiven so much, she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed not His head but His feet with expensive perfume. Her sins, which were many, were forgiven because she loved so much.
We don’t know how Simon reacted to Jesus’ words, but we know that his shallow interest in Jesus was exposed for what it was. Simon knew everything about religion, liturgy, theology, ethics, temple worship, and the law. He knew much about God but somehow missed the essence of where such knowledge is to take us—while the unnamed woman had captured the heart of real worship. You see, the woman knew how sinful she was. Simon’s problem was that he thought he was better than he was and he misunderstood the nature of God and God’s unwavering unconditional love.
We think of Jesus being the Lord of the clean and the wholesome, but the truth is that Jesus gave His life for those who had made an ugly mess of their lives—whose life details we’d be embarrassed to share in nice places like church. The very essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “agape,” which is the Greek word for the love of God, a love unlike any other love. Every other kind of love is to some degree conditioned. It’s a trade-off—“I will if you will.” God’s love is different. Through Jesus, God is saying that He loves you just the way you are now. There’s nothing you can do that can make Him love you more than He does right now.
If you respond to His love and give Him your life, He’s not going to leave you as you are. If Christ isn’t Lord of our lives, our lives are a mess—even if we look good on the outside. But Christ aspires to set us free and to transform us—and over and over we hear the great stories of how Christ has indeed done that in people’s lives! But even when Christ transforms us and we begin the journey to become the person He designed us to be from the beginning, He will not love us one bit more than He does at this moment. That’s agape love.
In our story from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus sensed the woman’s deep sorrow for her sins and He pronounced her forgiven. The forgiveness was unearned—right? She didn’t deserve for Jesus to forgive her sins. Why should He, a stranger even care about this immoral woman? But the very fact that she didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness was what prompted her emotional display of such love and gratitude.
Gratitude—that should be the center of our attentions this week—not rich foods, nor football, nor the Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping deals, nor even the people with whom we share these things. There’s nothing wrong with any of those, but they can easily be distractions to our gratitude.
And even if your life has been seemingly shipwrecked this year with economic hardships, and even if you’ve experienced grief and heartache this year that has exceeded any other year in your life, and even if you might find yourself all alone on Thanksgiving Day, the redeemed child of God still has a lot of heartfelt worship to do as we humble ourselves before the Lord and recall all that He has done for us. And even if everything else had been stripped away from us, no one can take away our salvation—what God so graciously offers to us, that treasure that is above every other treasure in our lives.
And so, on this Thanksgiving Sunday, we give thanks to our Savior and Lord, our Redeemer, who loved us not because of who we were or what we had done, but in spite of those things. Our giving of thanks is to be as heartfelt as was that of the woman who wept at the feet of Jesus, who dried his feet with her hair, and who took the expensive perfume that was perhaps her greatest treasure and poured it over the feet of Jesus.
So how are we to worship Christ today? How are we to express our gratitude to Him this day and every day? He’s not here in physical form that we can respond to His needs as the unnamed woman did in Simon’s home. So how shall we thank Him?
I want to suggest to you two ways we can thank Him. First, we thank Him by our worship. That’s what this lady was doing—bowing at His feet, pouring perfume on His feet. It was perhaps her greatest treasure and she poured it over the feet of Jesus.
You and I appropriately demonstrate our thanks to the Lord when we are passionate in our worship—not just walking through the doors of the church out of obligation, or because your wife or your mom made you, but stepping through these doors with a sense of expectation and focus that this is our opportunity to join with other believers in worshipping
• our Lord,
• our Redeemer,
• our King,
• our Savior—
o the One who has given us new life,
o the One who gives us hope day after day,
o the One who sustains us and helps us,
o the One who hears our every prayer—
our Creator,
our Rock,
our Fortress!
He is the One to whom we bow down this day and every day!
And when the opportunity for corporate worship becomes such a high priority in our lives, we don’t look for opportunities that pull us away from it, we don’t make casual excuses not to be part of it—it is an unwavering priority in our lives!
May I meddle a bit to push my point here? I wish I could have put my fingers on the raw data this week, but I heard in recent years that 30 years ago the “regular attender” at most churches missed about two Sundays per year—but now the “regular attender” will be gone from their local church 12-15 Sundays every year. And honestly, I’m guessing that in Idaho it just might be more than that!
Some of you remember when we used to give away Sunday school pins for perfect attendance and how some people proudly wore their little Sunday school perfect attendance pins that had little bars on them which reflected maybe 12 years of perfect attendance, or 20, or even more. None of us would earn such badges anymore! I understand. Our world’s so complicated. Our families are spread out, and we travel often. We have lots of opportunities to do fun things over the weekends and there are lots of places to see and experience. Our lives are complicated by lots of commitments beyond the local church—some of which may be good, some of which may not be so good in the big picture of things.
And what I yearn to see is for more followers of Jesus who make worship a high priority in their lives. The truth is that a lot of people are far too casual about whether or not they’re going to make it to church on Sunday. And parents, what do you think that says to your kids? What example are you setting? How important is the Sabbath to us? And when you’ve got to be away from your own church family here, do you make a serious effort to still join with other believers to worship the Lord on the Lord’s Day—to humble yourself before Him once again and acknowledge your need for Him, to sing songs of praise and worship which you lift to Him, to hear God’s Word proclaimed so that you can apply its great truths to your life, to quiet your heart and soul before the Lord to talk with Him and to listen to Him?
Can’t we worship by ourselves? Sure, we can, and we need to do so every day. But all through scripture—Old Testament and New Testament—we see proclaimed the value of corporate worship, coming together as fellow believers and centering our attention on Lord in worship together.
And dare I say again that such worship is not centered around what makes us happy. Please understand that we work hard to make worship relevant and meaningful to every person who walks through our doors, but at the end of the day worship is not about us—the pastors of this church—making you happy with how we approach worship. It’s about the opportunity for each of us to humbly come together and with one heart lift our praises to God; it’s about falling at His feet and basking in the wonder of His mercy and grace.
Well, I believe that making worship a high priority in our lives is one way in which we express our thanks to God. And I know that many of you do, and I affirm you for it. I just know that we live in a culture that minimizes such a commitment—and we as followers of Christ need to be on our guard lest we get swept up in the distractions and lest we let our families get caught up in less important things that distract us from the main thing. But when we make a solid commitment to keep worship a high priority in our lives, we’re far more likely to maintain heartfelt gratitude in our daily lives…and God is honored.
I also believe that we demonstrate our gratitude to the Lord when we let our lights shine for Christ in our world. I suppose we need to share our love for Jesus in a way that is as unabashed as the woman in our story today. She clearly didn’t hide her love for the Lord. It just gushed out from her. All could see it—and don’t you know that there were those watching around the table and around the perimeter of the courtyard who felt humbled and challenged in their own lives by her all-out love for the Lord that day?
I still have on my desk the stack of cards you gave me with the names of persons for whose salvation you are praying. I’ve come to see them not just as names on cards, but as your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, your friends, your moms and dads, your husbands, your wives—people you care about who need to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. I join you in praying for those people often. I don’t know that I ever take that stack in my hands and start through the cards without tears filling my eyes, because I know the heartache of loving people who haven’t yet figured out how much they need the Lord, people who are lost now and will be lost eternally if they don’t make a u-turn in their lives. And I encourage you again to keep praying for these people.
But I also want to encourage you to let your light shine before them. How? Three words come to mind: prayer, care, and share.
• Pray for them regularly, asking God to show you how to let your light shine before them.
• Care for them. Just love them. Find ways you can demonstrate loving kindness to them.
• And then Share with them—as God gives you natural opportunities to speak of the difference Christ makes in your life.
I’ve been reminded again this week that the greatest way we let our lights shine before others is simply to pour out love upon them in the same way Christ poured out His love upon us. And I know that it’s hard some times. Honestly, we don’t always know how to best love others…but I’m also confident that our Lord wants to show us how and to teach us.
Back in the late 80’s, I was pastoring in a small town in Ohio—Galion, Ohio. There was a young man remotely connected to our church with whom I got acquainted. Chris was living in a homosexual relationship with another young man whose grandmother attended our church. He’d come by the church sometimes during the week and ask if he could go into the sanctuary and play the organ. He’d come to church occasionally. Now and then he’d ask if he and I could meet for lunch—and over time I learned of his loneliness and the dysfunction of the relationship he was in.
I endeavored always to be kind and gracious with him, though not excusing away the sin in his life. And, honestly, I’ll confess that I was often a bit uncomfortable with the thought of being seen having lunch with him—because I knew a lot of people in that small town knew how Chris was living and I didn’t want them to draw the wrong conclusions. But I always went, because I knew it was the right thing to do.
And honestly, when I left that town in 1991, I didn’t have much hope that Chris would ever change his ways, as desperate as he was for a new way of life. But maybe 3 or 4 years ago now, I got the shock of my life one day when I got a phone call from Chris. I learned that he had finally given his life to Christ, broken away from his homosexual relationship and lifestyle, became involved in the church I once pastored, and worshipped there regularly. Chris was calling me to thank me for the role I had played in his conversion. There was a sense of joy and peace I had never heard in Chris before. And I was reminded again of the importance of us simply loving people who need to know Jesus, loving lost people like Jesus did.
I think that’s a great way to show our gratitude to Christ, too—because it’s partnering with Him in His great purpose in our world. I suppose it may be easy to say “Thank you, Lord” for this and that, and to make our thanks the focus of one day a year, but perhaps the real test comes in committing ourselves to consistent and continual heartfelt worship. Perhaps the rest test of thanksgiving comes in living out with others the kind of love Christ has poured out over us. And it’s to that kind of thanksgiving that I challenge you today. May God bless us as we give ourselves to becoming more and more people of heartfelt gratitude to our Lord and Savior.
