Yesterday we were on a walk talking to our youngest son. When I asked him the why behind something, his response literally stopped me in my tracks. It had to do with a hard, yet wise decision a friend had made & when we asked what led to it, he simply said,
“Well you don’t know better until you’re around better.”
I didn’t know why it impacted me with such weight until I read the story of the woman with the alabaster jar. Jesus is eating at the home of a Pharisee when suddenly, “a certain immoral woman” arrives with an expensive jar of perfume.
She kneels before Him & begins to weep. We don’t know her thoughts, but because of my past, I could quickly fill in the void with mine.
Here is a woman known for seeking a fake form of love, giving everything meant for her groom to anyone who’d “love” her. Her sins piled so high, she probably couldn’t see a way around them…until she met Jesus.
The Pharisee judges Jesus in his heart for letting a woman like that touch Him. But Jesus does what only God can do-He answers the man’s thoughts!
The man didn’t offer water to wash the dust off His feet, but the woman offered her tears.
The man didn’t greet Jesus with a kiss, but the immoral woman kissed his feet!
The man didn’t anoint Jesus with oil, but she did by sacrificing her expensive perfume.
Jesus turns to the Pharisee & sums up the entire exchange with this:
“I tell you, her sins - & they are many - have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.”
This woman didn’t know better until she met, “Better”. The love she received, the forgiveness that washed her clean, brought her to a place of all-out repentance, now using what she once used for sin, as a way to worship her Lord!
Y’all I can look back on my life & see how I misused or ab-used the gifts God’s given me…gifts meant for His glory alone. Because I knew Jesus, I KNEW better, but like the Pharisee, I refused Him.
Sometimes the feeling of hopelessness can make it hard to see a way out of sin until we come face to face with “Better” - our literal Living Hope!
And when we do? May we, like the once immoral woman with the alabaster jar, use everything at our disposal, to love The One Who loved us first!
DEUTERONOMY 7:1-8:20
LUKE 7:36-8:3
PSALM 69:1-18
PROVERBS 12:1
댓글