Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Seeing People Through Jesus’ Eyes”. Another great title! I do hope you read and study each day’s lesson. Very helpful.
For this week, I’d like to look at a case study of this very thing. Let’s read Luke 7: 36-39…
“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at His feet weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ‘This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.’”
In this story we have three characters I’d like to focus upon… Mary, Simon and Christ. In this story…
What did Mary see?
• She saw that Simon had invited Jesus, but had not honored Him.
• She saw her own great need of Jesus.
• She saw Jesus as He wanted to be seen.
What did Simon see?
• He sees a woman NOT in her place.
• He sees a sinner (meaning a great sinner!).
• He sees a woman and a great sinner in the space reserved for men, with her hair down, touching Jesus in an intimate manner.
What did Jesus see?
• Luke 7: 40-50… “And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ So he said, ‘Teacher, say it’. ‘There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii and the other 50. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered and said, ‘I suppose the one whom he forgave more’. And He said to him, ‘You have rightly judged’. Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered you house; you gave me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
• Ephesians 2:10… “For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”.
• He saw His masterpiece(s)… covered with mud.
• He saw Mary as she was… the masterpiece she is.
• He saw Simon as he was… the masterpiece he is.
• He looked past the mud and offered them both the words that were living water to them both… to wash the mud and cleanse them. Living water, so that the mud-filled water would be distasteful to them.
We are to see others as Jesus sees them. We are to follow Jesus. With all others, we are to:
• Love them.
• Treat them as people of worth.
• Treat them as the masterpiece of God which they are.
• Treat them differently than the world does.
• See them as God sees them.
Remember, “Because of Christ, we have become God’s inheritance” (Ephesians 1:11 NLT margin). All of us are His inheritance. Without us, God has no inheritance. And He wants us all. Everyone. Every mud-covered sinner. Children of the King… everyone. Let us be taught of God… to see all things rightly, as He sees them.
With brotherly love,
Jim