Monday, October 15, 2012

Pour Out

"She was desperate to see Jesus again, and she overheard someone saying that he was having dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee- a dinner she would never be invited to, not in a thousand years. Of course, she normally would have no interest in attending. But she had to see Jesus. It's hard to imagine what it would take for her to walk into that courtyard. But she was so focused on Jesus that she forgets about herself. She is desperate to express the love and affection she feels for Him. What she does next is reckless, it's impulsive, it's inappropriate, and it's exactly the kind of follower Jesus wants."

"Picture the scene. Jesus is reclining at the table.This woman approaches and stand at the filthy feet of Jesus. The table grows silent. Everybody is watching. Everybody knows who she is. What is she doing? She looks around at the guests. She feels from some that familiar glare of condemnation. Others keep their eyes down, embarrassed by her presence and the awkwardness of the moment. But when she looks at Jesus, He seems to know what has happened in her heart. He gives her a warm smile. He seems delighted that she has come, and He looks at her with the eyes of a loving father watching His beautiful daughter as she enters the room. She has never had a man look at her that way before. She is so undone by that that the tears come, just a few at first, and then more. She falls to the ground and begins to kiss His feet. Soon, the tears are just pouring down her face. They begin to drip onto the dirty feet of Jesus. As she looks at the muddy streaks she suddenly realizes that His feet haven't been washed. She can't ask for a towel, so she lets down her hair. In those days women always wore their hair up in public. For her woman to wear her hair down in front of a man that was not her husband was considered to be such an intimate expression that it was literally grounds for divorce. When she did this there was likely an audible gasp. She begins washing the feet of Jesus with her tears and drying them with her hair."

"Then Luke says she had an alabaster jar of ointment. Most likely this refers to a flask that was often worn around the neck as a kind of perfume for women. As you might guess, because of her profession, this flask was quite important. She had used it a drop at a time many, many times, for many men. But now she empties it. She just empties the whole thing out. She will not need it anymore. She pours this flask, her life, on His feet, and kisses them over and over."

-Not a Fan: Teen Edition: What it really means to be a follower by Kyle Idleman 

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