The essence of our faith is this: God is in the editing business and He wants complete editorial control of our lives. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, God, in essence, does a video edit of our lives. He removes all the sins, the mess-ups, the poor choices. And if you give editorial control to Him, there is no telling what kind of story He can write through you. He wants to rewrite the script of your life.
Luke 7 tells an amazing story about forgiveness that we are going to focus on this week. Luke 7:36-38 says, “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees’ house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and 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.”
Mark Batterson makes a couple of amusing points about this story. First of all, I guarantee this woman wasn’t on the invitation list. She crashed this party. Secondly, this was a really awkward moment? You’ve got your straight-laced, religious, church-going Pharisees. Then you throw in a prostitute who starts crying and kissing Jesus’ feet and breaking perfume bottles.
I have a feeling this was a totally lame party before this woman showed up. The words Pharisee party is an oxymoron if there ever was one! Kind of like jumbo shrimp, found missing, Microsoft Works (spoken like a true Apple guy), or handsome pastor. Pharisees didn’t know how to have fun. They didn’t believe in fun. They probably had laws against laughter. How fun can a party at a Pharisee’s house be?
An into this lame party, walks this redeemed former prostitute. That’ll spice things up. And things go from boring to awkward in two seconds. She starts crying and kissing his feet. She breaks open a bottle of perfume that scents the entire house. What a scenario!
Why is she there? Jesus redeemed and restored her life. He re-wrote her story. She no longer was destined to live a life of sexual abuse and relational nightmares. He edited her past and re-scripted her future. And people who have had their life-story re-written are extremely grateful. In fact, do you know how you can tell the difference between religious pharisees and redeemed prostitutes? By how they act in the presence of Jesus. But more on that tomorrow!
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