Are you grateful for your salvation? Does your worship reflect your gratitude? Let’s reflect together on Luke 7:36-50.
In this passage we find Jesus reclining at the dinner table of Simon the Pharisee. Around the table the dinner guests lay propped up on one elbow with the other arm freed-up for eating, drinking and gesturing. The diners’ heads were nearest to the table and each other, with their feet extending away from the table. No doubt there was quite the gathering of Israel’s A-list around the table with them. Jesus had his own following as well. He was a phenomenon, and he drew crowds wherever he went. Word spread like wildfire each time he healed someone or confronted the Jewish leaders with his teachings. Can you imagine the room going silent with all eyes on Jesus every time he spoke?
Perhaps no one even noticed when a woman entered the room and stood at his feet. The scripture tells us that she was well-known for her sinful lifestyle. What lifestyle? A life of promiscuity? thievery? lying? gossiping? envy? harlotry? The story does not say; we only know that she stood at Jesus’ feet. She just stood there weeping. It doesn’t say why she was weeping, but she was weeping so much that her tears were wetting Jesus’ feet. I imagine her with her head hung low, maybe in shame, perhaps just in hoping to not be recognized, or both. In her arms was a jar of perfume that she had brought to thank Jesus, perhaps to anoint his head.
Perhaps she had witnessed Jesus heal someone and heard him tell them that their sins were forgiven. Perhaps she believed that Jesus could even forgive her sins. Perhaps only minutes before arriving at Simon’s house she had been laughing, smiling and humming to herself a song of joy. Perhaps she had been rehearsing exactly what she was going to say to Jesus. But when she got to Simon’s house, she saw the crowd. And the guilt of her sinfulness came flooding back.
So there she stood: no longer smiling. No longer laughing or humming, but crying. She had completely forgotten what she was going to say to Jesus. In fact, she was speechless. All she could do was stand there and weep. As she noticed her tears darkening Jesus’ feet, she stooped down to wipe them off. In so doing she saw that his feet had not been washed when he entered Simon’s house. Suddenly she realized that she had an opportunity to show her gratitude and serve Jesus by washing his feet! She wiped his feet with her hair as she continued to wet them with her tears. Kneeling down very close to the ground, she no longer was thinking about the crowd. She was again focused on this man from God who did miracles and offered forgiveness. Forgiveness was something that she had desperately desired, but never thought she would receive. As his feet were becoming somewhat clean, she remembered the perfume that she had brought for his head. Not wanting to draw any attention to herself, she poured the perfume on his feet, and began kissing them in genuine humility. Then something happened that perhaps she hadn’t thought of. When she opened the jar of perfume, the aroma filled the entire room, making the guests look around to see from where it was coming.
There is more to the story, but I am not going to deal with it. Please read it for yourself. I simply want to point out the genuine, humble way in which she expressed her gratitude to Jesus. That, my friends, is worship.
As you worship, forget about the crowd. Lose yourself in genuine, humble, grateful worship. Kneel at the feet of Jesus. Let the tears flow.
Your prayers and praise will rise to fill the Holy of Holies with a sweet aroma that is pleasing to the Lord.
Scott Jamin
