Location: Three Rivers Wesleyan Church
Text: Luke 7:36-50
I. Introduction
- Family dinners can be awkward
- I hadn't seen the movie, so I looked it up...
- I don't mean to suggest that Jesus is an annoying dinner companion. Let's just say he sees right through us.
- And I don't mean to reinforce those personalities among us that think they are being like Jesus when they are as annoying as possible.
- It's no use trying to be on your best behavior when Jesus comes to dinner. You just have to submit and let him reveal you to yourself.
- Dinners with Jesus can be like a house call from a doctor (e.g., my father, my friend).
- You can't afford not to invite Jesus to dinner.
A. The Pharisee asks Jesus to dinner.
- Seems odd. Why would he do that?
- Not all Pharisees were bad. Luke aligns them with "the righteous" and "the healthy" (e.g, Luke 5:31-32). At the starting line, they were much closer to the kingdom than the "sinners."
- One big take away: Let people surprise you. Leave room for change.
- They help simplify the world for us--but they also skew the world.
- The immediate context in Luke 7 - John the Baptist is demon-possessed, Jesus is a drunk.
- We skew "out-group" individuals toward the bad.
- All Baptists are... All Catholics are... All Democrats are... All Republicans are... All illegal immigrants are...
- Jesus defies our stereotypes.
- There is hope for a Pharisee. Who is your Pharisee--the religious person you think is not on the same page with God? The liberal? The conservative?
- She is one.
- [We should ignore the parallels. Luke does not identify this woman with Mary nor a woman just before Jesus' arrest.]
- Luke does not use "sinner" in the way we do ("We're all sinners.").
- Luke neither justifies sin nor expects it of God's people.
- We all come with a debt, but we all must leave righteous--Jesus' words to the Pharisee.
- Always leave room for a sinner to change. (Hitler?)
- The Pharisee didn't realize he was a debtor.
- He didn't realize Jesus was his king. He didn't wash his feet.
- He didn't realize Jesus was his family. He didn't kiss him.
- So often we think we have everything figured out when we don't.
- Harry Potter and Snape, my social media temptations
- She finds forgiveness.
- They didn't realize he could forgive sins.
- They got stuck speck hunting--looking for the specks in the woman's eyes. They didn't see the logs in their own.
- Jesus always blows up our boxes and stereotypes.
- Her faith saved her. It is the strange combination of Jesus' power and our submission.
- Have you invited Jesus to dinner lately?
- Who are the Pharisees and sinners in your life? Have you given them room to change?
- What has Jesus been trying to show you, but you haven't been listening? It's often right below our conscious mind. It's like a gnawing that we don't acknowledge. It makes us lash out. It makes us angry.
- Submit to the doctor's prescription!
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