Rubbing Shoulders with Jesus

“When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 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. 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. 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.”

Luke 7: 36-39

Do you follow Jesus up to a point?

Is there an imaginary line in the sand of your heart that says: “This far and no farther!”

Is there a part of you that holds back because you have a pre-ordained ‘measured response’ to requests for anything more?

The Pharisee in our text today was named Simon and I see his response in that way.

After all, he invited Jesus into his home and broke bread with him didn’t he?

Doesn’t that show his willingness to rub shoulders with the teacher?

One problem though, and its’ a big one; Simon and you and I, for that matter, are not called to just rub shoulders with Jesus. We are asked to surrender all to Him. Part of that surrender pushes that imaginary line in our heart well past our comfort zone to extend His love and His mercy to the ‘type of people’ Simon was repulsed by.

Here’s the kicker though: you and I are those ‘type of people’.

That’s right – you are a sinner saved by grace.

Take away the ‘saved by grace’ part and what are you?

Please – I know all about sanctification and the work of the Holy Spirit – but without that work – I and you and Simon and everyone else is no better than the woman in our story today. We all needed His mercy and we all have received His mercy. Now we need to go and extend His mercy. The imaginary line in Simon’s heart seemed to have stopped at the point of extending mercy to someone in need. Jesus taught a lesson and we don’t know if Simon heard and applied that lesson. How about you?

Have you heard it?

Are you willing to extend mercy to others or does a ‘line in your heart’ stop you?