TURN TO JESUS; HE CHANGES YOUR LIFE

Sermon on Luke 7:44-50 Lent V 03.22.2015 Pastor Aaron L. Christie Trinity Evangelical Lutheran + Waukesha, WI TURN TO JESUS; HE CHANGES YOUR LIFE Then...
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Sermon on Luke 7:44-50 Lent V 03.22.2015 Pastor Aaron L. Christie Trinity Evangelical Lutheran + Waukesha, WI TURN TO JESUS; HE CHANGES YOUR LIFE Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 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." 48 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" 50 Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." (Luke 7:44-50 NIV) 44

__________________________________________________________________ ____________ JESU, JUVA! In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, What a change! The young girl's personality changes from bubbly to brooding. The suburban teen’s sense of fashion has been traded in for dark jeans, baggy sweatshirts, and gobs of mascara. The Goth music she's listening to has slowly changed her. A young man has fallen in with the wrong crowd. He used to love his Lord, adore his parents, and excel at school. Eventually, lying becomes an art and drug abuse a way of life. He comes to point where he hates his church, ignores his parents, and loses at life. Living only for one's desires can change a man. The alcoholic refuses to ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 1 | Sermon on Luke 7:44-50

get treatment. Instead, he doubles down on his addiction. He ages ten years for every one he lives. People who haven't seen him for years are shocked by how old and unhealthy he looks. Some changes in people are painful to see and difficult to deal with. What a change! Thank God, that also goes the other way. The employee who was anxious, angry, and flirting with burnout, comes back from seven days in Mexico tan and at ease. What a change! The young man who didn't care about homework, couldn't care less about his job, disrespected mom and dad, and lived to lie on a couch playing video games, returns from Marine boot camp leaner, clean cut, and brimming over with “yes, sirs” and “no, mams.” What a change! The woman who went into the hospital with terrible back pain and shuffling around with a walker comes home from the hospital all but pain-free and moving around with ease. A week of vacation, a stint in the service, a carefully executed surgery: all can be just what the doctor ordered. Some changes are wonderful to witness and a joy to experience. This morning, we see that some things don’t change: We don’t get the impression that Jesus said “no” to a dinner party all that often! He gladly accepted invitations to eat with tax collectors and women of ill-repute. On the other, he had eagerly accepted invitations to dine with Pharisees. On this day, Jesus graciously accepted another invitation to dine at the home of Simon the Pharisee. We don’t know much about Simon the Pharisee, except of course, that he was a Pharisee. He was a religious professional, dedicated to his life of religious obedience and observance. We don’t know what city Simon lived in. We don’t know when he invited Jesus over. We don’t know who else was on the guest list. We don’t know what was on the menu. We can take a good guess as to what Simon’s motives were: it is likely that he was more interested in finding fault with Jesus than feeding him, with questioning him rather than quenching his thirst. There is much that we don’t know about that dinner in the home of Simon the Pharisee. What we do know is that someone who wasn’t on the guest list showed up and quickly became the center of attention: “37 A woman in ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 2 | Sermon on Luke 7:44-50

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” (Luke 7:37-38). Simon’s reaction is pure Pharisee: this woman is a sinner! What does she think she is doing in my home? Unasked, uninvited, and certainly unappreciated! And Jesus? There is no way that he can be a true prophet if he can’t recognize that a walking moral disaster is kissing his feet! Jesus’ reaction is pure grace: he told a parable of two debts that were owed to a moneylender. One debt was ten times the size of the other debt. Unexpectedly and undeservedly, the moneylender had a change of heart. He canceled the debts of both! And then came Jesus’ question: “Now which of them will love him more" (Luke 7:42)? Simon unwittingly floundered into proving Jesus’ gracious point: "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said (Luke 7:43). Jesus’ point? Look and see, Simon, the forgiveness of sins changes a woman! Who was this woman? She was a well-known sinner in the village. This is likely a tactful way of calling her a prostitute, a hooker. Can we possibly put ourselves in this sinner’s sandals? It is one thing to read the word “sinner.” It is an entirely different thing to experience the life behind that word. Perhaps we can get at it this way: do you think this woman ever cried? Did she ever shed a tear at the humiliation of selling herself for men to use? Did she ever cry herself to sleep, do you think, over the mess her life had become when other ladies her age had loving homes and the arms of protecting husbands to hold them? Did she ever cry, perhaps, because she was hungry again and she would have to do what she would have to do if she wanted to eat? Do you think she was ever - just maybe once abused or battered in her risky way of life? How many tears did she cry without anyone knowing; without anyone, frankly, caring. We don’t know the woman’s name. She was just another nameless sinner with plenty to cry about. ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 3 | Sermon on Luke 7:44-50

But who is she now? The sinful woman is, in Christ, a forgiven woman. A sinner had become a saint. Tears of sorrow are transformed into tears of thanksgiving. She had once used her lips to kiss men with adulterous kisses; now she uses those same lips to kiss Christ’s feet in adoration. She had once offered herself to the highest bidder. She now offers Jesus her highest gift: perfume poured on his feet. She had once offered her body to men for a price; now she offers her whole self to Jesus - body and soul - for salvation without cost. The heart of a prostitute had become a heart overflowing with praise. A woman of ill-repute had come home to the Father’s house as a dearly-loved daughter. Her great debt of sin had been forgiven by the One who came to seek and save the lost. The forgiveness she received from Jesus when she turned to him in faith literally changed everything about her! She doesn’t speak a single word: her tears, her gift of perfume, and her tender drying of Jesus’ feet speak volumes. Simon the Pharisee didn’t speak a word either. Instead, his silence preached a sermon on self-righteousness. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is-- that she is a sinner" (Luke 7:39). Simon had plenty of judgement stored up in his heart, but had little love to show Jesus: no water for washing, no kiss of greeting, no oil to soothe Jesus’ skin. Simon’s reception of Jesus was barely socially acceptable. Simon loved Jesus little. The woman’s reception of Jesus was as over-the-top as her love for Jesus. The woman loved Jesus dearly. She loved much, for she had been forgiven much. Simon the Pharisee loved little, because he had been forgiven little. What is our reaction tonight when Jesus comes over for dinner and the village prostitute shows up uninvited? Or to view it another way: Who are we at the dinner party? The pharisee bottling up judgment at the head of the table? Or the prostitute pouring out tears of thanks on Jesus’ feet? We would be quick this evening to claim the biblical high ground: we are the forgiven prostitute! But when is the last time we’ve shed a genuine tear over a sin we’ve committed or the shame that Jesus saved us from? When is the last time that we’ve given Jesus our over-the-top gift out of pure ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 | Sermon on Luke 7:44-50

thanksgiving - and not because pastor preached about it for three weeks? When is the last time that we’ve stretched social norms in expressing our love for Jesus? We love him in church. That’s what we’re supposed to do at church. But do we love him as openly and obviously in the Pharisee’s house where the surroundings are anything but comfortable? At work? In the university classroom? At my God-hating uncle’s house? When is the last time that we have simply refused to let anything get in the way with us being with Jesus: not our past, not what people think, and certainly not our schedules? Or have we simply become accustomed to loving less, because deep down we figure that we have little that needs forgiving? If that’s the case, no, when that’s the case, then the first sin we need to repent of is our love affair with Simon the Pharisee! God bless each and every one of us with a repentant heart - a heart that turns to Jesus in genuine sorrow over our sin. Frankly, each of us has plenty to cry about in life: heartbreak and depression; loneliness and loss, sin and shame. I love the way the old English poet says it: Drop, drop, slow tears, And bathe those beauteous feet, Which brought from Heav’n The news and Prince of Peace. Cease not, wet eyes, His mercies to entreat; To cry for vengeance: Sin doth never cease. In your deep floods Drown all my faults and fears; Nor let His eye see Sin, but through my tears. Then Jesus said to her and he says to YOU: “Your sins are forgiven…Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (7:48, 50) Jesus changes our tears of sin and shame into tears of thankfulness too! What Jesus experienced in Simon’s house, he also does for you. Jesus ate dinner at a Pharisee’s house. He turns right around and invites you to dine ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 5 | Sermon on Luke 7:44-50

at a free banquet of salvation: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows (Psalm 23:5). The woman anointed Jesus by pouring out her precious perfume. Jesus turns right around and anoints you, not with precious perfume, but with his holy, precious blood. The woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. Jesus turns right around and washes us not with tears, but with the forgiving flood of his baptism. The woman kissed Jesus feet. With those same feet, Jesus runs to you proclaiming good news, pure peace, good tidings, sure salvation! “Son, daughter, your sins are forgiven… Go in peace.” Jesus’ forgiveness changes everything about our lives! Lives formerly lived out of love for sinful-self are now lived out of love for the Lord: "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). Jesus’ love changes our lives. Our faith now itches to express itself through love! • Our eyes see a church; Christian love sees it as a special place to meet with God. • Our eyes see an Order of Service; Christian love sees it as an opportunity to proclaim the forgiveness of Christ - to pray, praise, and give thanks. • Our eyes see an offering plate; Christian love changes it into an opportunity for generosity. • Our eyes see a stranger; Christian love changes him into an object of our concern. • Our eyes see our fellow members; Christian love changes them into brothers and sisters. • Our eyes see another family’s child; Christian love changes that child into an opportunity to teach and train in Christ. • Our eyes see a ministry; Christian love sees pure Gospel opportunity! All of this - and much more - is done because forgiven sinners can’t wait to show Jesus how much he means to us! None of this is done so that the little Simon in us can impress his fellow Pharisees. We don’t do our acts of love ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 6 | Sermon on Luke 7:44-50

to prove our worth to God or impress our fellow man. Instead, we love the Lord and our fellow man because of who we are in Christ: forgiven and dearly loved. Simply put: We love because he first loved us! Our faith in Christ’s blood has saved us. Our faith in Christ’s blood has changed us. If a young man is changed over several weeks by his drill sergeant, how much more are we changed by the never-ending love of the Lord of the Universe! In faith, turn to Jesus; he changes everything about your life! All through Jesus. Always through Jesus. Only through Jesus. Amen.

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