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Luke 7:36-50 tells the story of a Pharisee (Simon) who invited Jesus into his home for a meal. Pharisees of course were a class of Jews who were super righteous. They interpreted the Law of Moses in a very strict way and were spiritually arrogant in their faith.
Simon didn’t just invite anyone in to his home. He certainly wouldn’t invite someone who might bring dishonor into his home like a Gentile or a Jew (who might be a hated Tax Collector working for the Romans) or an unclean leper or perhaps even worse… a prostitute.
Also Simon probably expected something in return… a favor by Jesus, maybe some miracle or anything like that which would bring honor to his house.
When Simon invited Jesus into his home he neglected something. He didn’t give Jesus water to wash his feet, he didn’t greet him with affection and he didn’t anoint Jesus’ head with any aromatic oils. These things may not be our custom today but they were back then and Jesus noticed the lack of hospitality and said nothing.
Simon is delighted to host Jesus and then a woman who was a known sinner walked into his house. Keep in mind that the city of Nain was a small town and in small towns everyone knows everyone else. This woman was probably guilty of some sexual sin, perhaps a prostitute and as such would not even be allowed in the Synagogue which was the social/religious center of every town. Her name is not given, but let’s call her Rachel… Rachel the prostitute.
Rachel knew who she was and that she would not be welcomed in Simon’s home. Rachel, probably with great temerity, entered Simon’s home. She didn’t intend to eat but just wanted to honor Jesus with an aromatic ointment.
And as she entered she started crying. When she was a little girl she never dreamed of being a prostitute. Perhaps circumstance had forced her into that occupation but she hated it and she hated herself every time a Jew made a wide berth around her on the sidewalk or when the whole village (except her and others like her) were gathered together in the synagogue... and she cried. She noticed Jesus’ feet were dirty so she washed Jesus’ feet with the only thing she had… her tears and dried his feet with the only thing she had… her hair. She kissed his feet and anointed them with the aromatic oil.
Simon sees in this scene the attention he deserved being directed on Rachel and as a true product of his religious upbringing mentally condemned Jesus for allowing Rachel the prostitute to even touch him.
Jesus of course could read minds but you didn’t really need that unique gift to figure out what was going on in Simon’s head and then Jesus identified for Simon and Rachel that there were two sinners in the room… Simon who was inhospitable and of course Rachel.
Sometimes we get so busy looking at others and the sin that rules their lives that we fail to look inwardly and see the sin that we own which is by comparisons sake small but which Jesus still holds us accountable for.
Sometimes because all we can see is the sin of others, we think we are better than them and treat them accordingly and compound our sin.
Jesus said that Rachel’s “faith” had save her because she “loved much” in understanding who she was and in honoring the one who could lift her out of the mess she had made of her life.
Rachel risked the wrath of Simon the Pharisee to reach out to the only hope that she had to reverse the course of her life. Simon was so blinded by Rachel’s great sin that he couldn’t see that he too was a sinner. Let’s open our eyes and see who we are and reach out to Jesus Christ.
The letter to Philemon is about a runaway slave named Onesimus who was owned by Philemon and somehow made it to Rome where the Apostle Paul was imprisoned by the Roman government awaiting trial.
Somewhere along the way Onesimus hears about Jesus Christ and becomes a Christian and a friend and helper of Paul.
This makes me wonder a few things… Paul could have asked/demanded that Philemon free the slave Onesimus or he could have offered to purchase Onesminus or he could have asked Philemon to loan Onesimus to him. Instead he sends Onesimus back to Philemon.
My guess is that if he had done any of these things (besides sending Onesimus back)that Philemon could have felt that he was being taken advantage of. After all Philemon could have had a significant investment in Onesimus especially if Onesimus had a particularly valuable skill set. It might have been, as Paul alluded to, that the slave Onesimus might have stolen from Philemon. All these things have to be considered as possibilities.
So Paul was very careful about how he handled this situation… after all it could have turned out to have a negative impact on the Kingdom. Paul’s handling of this situation demonstrated skill and concern about all parties involved. By sending Onesimus back, Paul demonstrated both Philemon’s legal right to Onesimus and Onesimus’ legal obligation to Philemon. So Paul was acting in a way that dealt honorably with the Law.
It was almost a certainty that Philemon would act honorably towards Onesimus and perhaps even free him. Paul in his writing to Philemon in an understated way reminded Philemon of his obligations to Paul. Presumably Paul converted Philemon to Jesus Christ and perhaps as an Apostle laid hands upon him and imparted some spiritual gift. Philemon was under a tremendous spiritual debt to Paul.
The bottom line is that Paul demonstrated great skill and consideration so that the Kingdom could be elevated and not diminished. What a great lesson… can we do any less?
“Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord’s people there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem.” Romans 15:25
This passage references a special collection taken from Greek Churches to render aid to the church in Jerusalem whose members were suffering from a lack of basic necessities.
This passage is also used as authority to limit the collection taken every Sunday to the needs of Christians only.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and it has caused me to ponder certain things about the use of these funds… perhaps because I am in a position of leadership and I see a few administrative problems.
- What if A Christian woman is in need of food but her husband and family are not Christians. Maybe the husband is a real scoundrel. Do you release funds to the woman and forbid her to share with her husband?
- What if a Christian family has some starving Muslim neighbors including the cutest little kids you have ever seen and you find out the Christian family has been sharing with those neighbors. Do you admonish them and tell them... that money is Holy money dedicated to God and not to be used to feed the dogs?
- Do the funds released to the Christian family cease to become church funds and now become funds belonging to an individual? If so what happens if you find out they have been using those funds to replace the carpet in their house?
- Why didn’t the Apostles exercise their power of miracles and turn rocks into loaves of bread so we wouldn’t have to deal with these kinds of problems?
- What if the real reason they restricted these funds to Christians was there was not enough to feed the Christians and the non-Christians?
- What if the church had a surplus of funds and all the Christians had been taken care of and there was plenty of money left over…then could we help the starving non-Christians?
I do believe that every interpretation we give a passage has to agree with the theme of the New Testament that Christians both individually and collectively should love God with all their hearts, soul and mind and love their neighbors as themselves. Thanks for thinking with me.
I’ve really been enjoying teaching the middle school class. I guess because for the last I don’t know how many years I’ve been teaching only adults.
I had it in my mind along with the class material to teach them other things… like how to greet people and how to be sociable.
In our day and time kids are intimidated by adults and don’t interact very well. A big reason for that is parents don’t encourage that concept or even discourage it by letting their kids CARRY CELL PHONES AND OTHER HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICES that discourage interaction.
How fortunate then that we had a visitor in class this morning. I took the time to shake hands, introduce myself ask a few engaging questions, etc. Then I asked my students if they noticed what I had just done. Then we went on to reading a scripture and I commented to my students that they had been rude to our guest because no one had offered him a Bible. Then we read out of the lesson book and I commented… failed again! No one had offered him a lesson book or to share a lesson book. We proceeded on and Weston (on his own) passed the visitor a pencil. Boom!!!
I also told them that frequently I see them pass by me at church and not even look at me or say a word. I told them that makes me feel like I don’t even exist that I am invisible and am meaningless in their sight. One of them said they don’t like being the first one to say hello. Jeremy (my assistant teacher) said… someone has to be first!
When I took over the class no one was bringing their Bibles so I made a rule that everyone had to bring their own Bible. Last week I told them that even though they were not adults yet they were going to start acting like adults in my class and bring their Bibles and have their lessons done.
Today I mentioned that in the scriptures Christians are compared to Roman soldiers and I asked them what the sword represented. They didn’t know but I told them the sword is the Word of God (the Bible) and it was an offensive and defensive weapon. We made the point that our sword was our best friend and we keep our best friend with us all the time… we don’t leave it laying around or losing it. We don’t come to Bible class expecting to use some of the swords that are left scattered lying around the room and we don’t borrow a sword. We have our own swords and we cherish them and become intimately familiar with them. Everyone had their sword today.
Today I gave them four points about rules for interpreting the Bible and told them I was going to test them on it. Then I wrote it on the board to not only exercise their ears but also their eyes. Then I pointed out that even though I said I was going to test them on it… no one had written it down. They wasted no time scribbling them down.
Part of my class is to also to challenge their parents. I asked them what they did on the way home from church. Several said they listened to music. So now they have questions to ask their parents on the way home (no more music) like what does hypocrite mean and what is the Latin derivation of the word and can they (their parents) think of any other words that start with “hypo-“
They are also supposed to quiz their parents about rules for interpreting the Bible.
I also used the young visitor as a foil. I told them he could have asked his parents… Where are we going to church tomorrow? His Dad would respond… Parkway. The student could say… I wonder what they are going to be studying in class because I want to be prepared… Dad can you call and find out?
Any way you can see I like to challenge (mess with) them and get the parents more involved. Thanks for entrusting their care with me. I wish you good luck.
The peak period for cattle drives from South Texas to the rail heads in Kansas was in the 1870s. The Vaquero/Cowboys of South Texas would chase down and rope wild cattle in the brush to build a herd. Usually they had to tie off those wild cattle to Mesquite trees and then let them choke down a little until they could be managed.
One of their tools was to take domesticated oxen… steers that had been trained to pull wagons, etc. frequently weighing 2500 pounds or so. The vaqueros would hobble their oxen to those wild steers and turn them loose. Eventually the ox would pull the steer home because they were used to being fed grain corn twice a day… and really liked it
That concept reminds me of this verse…
“In the same way you wives must submit yourselves to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe God's word, your conduct will win them over to believe. It will not be necessary for you to say a word” (1 Peter 3:1).
Now I’m not saying that a wife is an Ox or that a husband is a wild Steer but what I am saying is that sometimes husbands have certain notions that they need to be trained out of and it doesn’t do any good at all for a wife to continually harp on those notions. The text says that a godly woman can change her husband not by words but by behavior.
By definition that means it’s going to be a time consuming process that requires “patience in well doing”.
You can imagine that 2500 pound Ox hobbled to a 1000 pound steer slowly pulling that beast back to the ranch house where the steer finds out that a diet of corn is actually tastier than just eating grass and mesquite beans.
All I’ve got to say to you wives is keep pulling… you have the advantage because God is on your side and that wild untamed husband of yours will thank you one day (unless you ship him to the railheads in Kansas to be slaughtered… lol).
Mark 4, records in just one paragraph a story of Jesus and his disciples in a boat when a storm whips up. The disciples wake Jesus exclaiming “Teacher do you not care that we are about to perish?” at which time Jesus spoke the winds and rough seas into silence.
Jesus didn’t include this story in the Gospel narrative because he was short on miracles or needed to fill a little space.
Jesus had just taught on the shore of this very sea some stories about the coming Kingdom. He taught about sowing seed and the productivity of faith planted in a faithful heart. He also taught about the mystery of how a seed is transformed into a plant and the coming harvest. Lastly he taught that the kingdom was like a planted mustard seed and how such a small seed could turn into a big plant.
And then at the culmination of this teaching about the Kingdom he gets into a boat and crosses the sea and the winds blow, the sea is churned up and the disciples fear that they are going to drown. Like they expected the headlines of the Jerusalem newspaper the next morning would read... "Jesus and Disciples Drown During Freak Storm on the Sea of Galilee".
It’s like they haven’t been listening… nothing can stop the coming of the Kingdom and their role in it… not stormy seas, not earthquakes, nothing can stop the Kingdom!
Jesus included this story at the culmination of his teaching to test their understanding and their faith and they came up a little short in the faith department. But… that’s okay because the building of faith is a process and Jesus was patient with his disciples just as God is patient with us.
There may be some stormy seas ahead of us too but just remember… Jesus can calm the stormiest of seas. Have a little faith in him because he has a plan for us.
From his youth David shepherded his father’s flocks of sheep. In all probability he carried his camping equipment on a cart. He would build his own fire and cook his own meals and clean up after himself. His dad would send him supplies from time to time. Shepherds might spend months to years away from towns and town life.
During the day he watched the sheep graze all day long and cared for all their needs. Undoubtedly he helped the ewes deliver their lambs and helped clean them up and assisted them in learning how to nurse and whatever else they needed.
During his free time he became expert with a sling and could kill (with a stone) an eagle that might prey upon a baby lamb. Those sling propelled stones could also fend off and kill larger predators like wolves, coyotes, lions, etc.
David also in his hours of being alone learned to play musical instruments and composed songs. Those songs were sung to his audience of sheep to calm them down when needed. David also spent a lot of time looking at nature and contemplating God… praying and singing songs of praise to him.
David learned to be Shepherd of Israel by shepherding sheep. He understood about taking care of God’s flock of people and seeing to their needs. He killed the Philistine giant Goliath who was threatening God’s flock Israel with a sling propelled rock to the head just like he had done many times before when predators threatened his sheep.
David sang to his people about God and wrote poetry about the God he had learned about while tending sheep. Nature is a great teacher.
When David was off in those far away pastures grazing sheep he had no idea he would one day be King of Israel (and no one else did either) but God knew. You may think you have the smallest and most insignificant job in the world but set your eyes and the course of your life on God because God can do great things with humble people.
