Thoughts on Luke - Day 31

                                             Luke 7:29-50
 (All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)
³¹ Jesus went on to say, “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? ³² They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:

“‘We played the pipe for you,
    and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
    and you did not cry.’

³³ For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ ³⁴ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ ³⁵ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

³⁶ When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ 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.
³⁹ 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.”
⁴⁰ Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
⁴¹ “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
⁴³ Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
⁴⁴ 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. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

             Jesus lived in a "pre-Christian" culture and we are said to live in a "post-Christian" culture. What they both have in common is that people have their minds made up that Christianity is wrong so when they are exposed to the truth of the gospel, it's kind of a "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up." Therefore, they look for reasons to reject it rather than accept it. Here we see that principle in action. The Pharisees are saying, "We've rejected John so we can't accept Jesus. What should our rejection be based on? I know, He hangs out with sinners and goes to parties that He shouldn't. Not only that but He allows prostitutes to touch Him and sit next to Him and talk with Him. He even accepts things bought with their sinfully made money in worship of Him. We reject Him on that basis." Jesus basically says, "You hypocrites, everything that you are accusing me of doing - John the Baptist didn't do, yet you rejected him because you saying he was out of touch with reality for isolating himself. If I went to a funeral and cried, you would say that I should have danced in celebration of the person's life. If I danced and celebrated their life, you would say that I should have been grieving. If I rejected this prostitute's kindness then I would have been a cold, uncaring jerk but if I was kind to her, I should have not made it look like her behavior was acceptable but have spent my time with people exhibiting good behavior."

        How do we present the gospel in an age where "we can't win for losing"? A lot has been written about this lately. Even this morning I read a blog from "Relevant Magazine" on the topic. They emphasized 1. Not being in a Christian bubble - Jesus certainly wasn't guilty of this in this passage as He is accused of hanging out with sinners. 2. Not by intellectual superiority - Jesus just loved sinners in this passage which wooed people to Him. Lane Craig, the brilliant Christian apologist came to belief even though he didn't believe in the virgin birth. He was able to look past that because of the winsomeness of Christ, and then once he received Christ, he realized how easy it is for God to supersede  the laws of nature. 3. Not by culture wars - Jesus didn't try to legislate His morality, He just tried to save people from their sins. He didn't say, "No alcohol at this party and I will come", but rather He came to save people from their sins by following Him. If you follow Jesus, He will take you away from sinful behavior because He isn't going in that direction. 4. Not by telling people we are better - this is why the prostitute came into His presence; she knew He was better but He didn't project superiority but rather an approachable presence.

        I have to add one more to these 4 listed. In this day and age where there is no absolute truth, no Judge we eventually answer to, and where deep down everyone is good - it's just their upbringing that messes them up, I think it is important to somehow get across the bad news, that we are broken, before people will accept the good news. The woman realized she was sinful yet Simon didn't. Maybe doing the above 4 things where we get into people's lives in a loving accepting, non-judgmental way will shine a light on their sinfulness like a light exposes darkness. The passage says "wisdom is proved right by her children". I think this is key. The "children" are our fruit. Unbelievers can argue all they want about what we believe, but when they see our fruit, and literally godly children and a family that everyone would want to have, it may shine a light on the inadequacy of their system of beliefs.

     Lord, help me be Jesus to the unbelieving, post-Christian world around me. Help me to present a Jesus that they want and realize they need, which in reality is the true Jesus. Amen