Luke 7:37-38, 47 - A Beautiful Expression of Love

Last week, while I was in the middle of conducting an online webinar, one of my co-workers came into my office carrying a bouquet of flowers and put them on my desk. As I continued the session, I snuck a quick peek at the card which read, "Jimmy, You are Amazing! Love, Thomas". As you can imagine, my heart swelled in my chest and a tear escaped from my eye. These beautiful flowers were not for a special occasion, they were "just because". I felt special. These flowers were a true gift of love.

These flowers made me think of a story in Luke chapter 7. A story of a beautiful expression of love. Love that does not hinge on my behavior, but is given.

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...
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.”

One of the first things that catches me about this story is the woman's love for Jesus. She comes and humbles herself, pouring expensive perfume onto Jesus' feet and wipes his feet with her hair. A couple things to note:

1. Perfume was very expensive and the amount this woman poured on Jesus would have cost a great deal. This was not an easy gift to give, it would have cost her much.
2. In Jesus' time a woman did not bear her hair in public. If she did people thought she was promiscuous. This woman gave up her dignity to give this gift to Jesus. The personal cost was great.

Clearly this woman had great love for Jesus. She gave up of her fortune and her dignity to lavish love on Jesus. She lavishes love on Jesus. Not because he did something for her but because of who He is. The flowers I received were like that. They were a lavish gift of love, not because I did something to deserve them, but because of who I am.

Jesus responds to this gift, pronouncing her forgiven and further explains that she is able to express this great love because she feels the freedom of forgiveness. The forgiveness was not a result of her love, an expression made possible by her forgiven state.

Jesus goes on to compare the love offered by the woman to that of his host, a prominent religious leader in the village who did not offer to wash his feet, did not offer perfume, nor greeted him with a kiss, all common courtesies of the day when hosting an honored guest.

The host did not see his need for forgiveness and therefore had no great expression of love, the woman did and her expression was beautiful and honored Jesus.

Are self aware of your shortcomings? Do you know your need for forgiveness? Do you have a great appreciation for the wholeness and grace given to you by God and others around you? What can be seen in your expressions of love?

1 Corinthians 12:21-26 - We Need Each Other

Last week I was arranging some flowers. It was a large bunch so I grabbed more than one vase, one large and one small. My thought was to put a single flower in the small vase and the rest in the other.I grabbed out a especially pretty dark purple mum from the bunch and put it in the small vase. As I stood there and considered it, I started to notice some imperfections and I realized that it wasn't quite so pretty by itself. As I grabbed a stem of greenery to add to the small vase to create some architectural interest.  I thought, we are like that flower, beautiful, yet alone, are flaws are more noticeable.

When a person stands by him or herself, in independence, it becomes easier to see the imperfections. Any flaw or mistake is easily noticed. We can also see their unique beauty as well. I would bet we can each think of a person who we place in a category by him or herself. We know all the amazing and beautiful things about that person and if we have a strong connection to that person, we notice there presence whenever that person is in our environment...but we are also aware of that person's flaws.

Now let's place that person in community. Suddenly that person's flaws seem to diminish because where one is weak, another is strong. Where one is foolish, another is wise. The strength and beauty of each person tends to come forward, while the weaknesses and flaws fade into the community.

The Bible talks about community in 1 Corinthians 12. Let's just look at a few verses:

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

 God understood that in community, we would be able to be strong and accomplish much. One of my favorite phrases in these verses is, "but that its parts should have equal concern for each other." God is reminding us that we will have need of others caring for us, just as we need to be concerned for others.

I was also reminded of this last Sunday in church when a reading by George Odell was referenced, titled We Need One Another:

We need one another when we mourn and would be comforted… when we are in trouble and afraid… when we despair, in temptation, and need to be recalled to our best selves again.
We need one another when we would accomplish some great purpose, and cannot do it alone… in the hour of our successes, when we look for someone to share our triumphs [and] in the hour of our defeat when with encouragement we might endure and stand again.
We need one another when we come to die, and would have gentle hands prepare us for the journey.  All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us.

This reading also points out how strongly we need to be in community. The irony is, that we try to be independent. With everything out there showing us and speaking truth to us about our need for community, we are determined to prove that we are individually strong and we can handle it on our own. When we need help, we are embarrassed and ashamed to ask for it. We have no trouble asking for help or prayers for another person, but to look into someone eye's and ask them to help us...to pray for our deep need...that is one of the hardest things for us to do.

We are eager to help others, to fill their need and often encourage others to call on us for help, but we struggle to seek it for ourselves. It makes us vulnerable to rely on another person and to ask for help, particularly if we might not have help to offer them in return. The idea of being in debt scares us...and yet we are in debt to our creator, for our very life. We need God, we need people, and others need us.

Do you have a need? One that you are reluctant to ask others for help with? It can be scary, just like jumping off a stage into a crowd of people. But the beautiful thing about community is that they catch and carry you. Take a risk, ask for help and feel your community carry you.

*Here is a bonus, as I was looking for the George Odell reading, I came across this song by Sanctus Real called We Need Each Other.


Enjoy!