I Was Anointed with Perfume and Tears

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

September 12, 2019

I Was Anointed with Perfume and Tears &

Several Women Joined Me as I Traveled

Page 102-103

Luke 7:36-50; Luke 8:1-3

The Kingdom of God is coming! What do you think of, what images come to your mind when you hear Jesus’ announcement? The expectations of the people who first heard Jesus’ announcement differed from the reality of God’s Kingdom. In Jesus’ Kingdom, there is exceeding joy, forgiveness of sins, and love. Jesus was teaching there will also be serious opposition to God’s Kingdom. In today’s passage, all of these realities are demonstrated in a simple gathering around a dinner table.

In today’s passage, Jesus is showing us that a great obstacle to our life in Christ is our attitude about sin. Too often today, people think of sin as something they ‘have to’ give up in order to be saved. Jesus doesn’t think of sin as something we have to give up in order to come into the Kingdom of God; sin is something we get to give up in order to enter into new life in Christ.

Sin is not just a nuisance or a simple difference of opinion about morality. Sin cuts to the core of our being, and is a compelling force within us vying to be the operating system of our life. Sin is so insidious, so destructive of life, that the Apostle Paul teaches the only way to overcome the power and practice of sin is to surrender our lives to be crucified with Christ. (See Romans 6 and Galatians 2)

In our story today, the Pharisee saw the woman clothed in her former sinful life; Jesus saw her clothed in righteousness. The woman saw herself clothed in joy, love, and forgiveness because her sins had been forgiven.

The reality of Jesus’ Kingdom is that there is not a nickel’s worth of difference between me and the Pharisee, and me and the woman. There is a huge temptation within me to think God is getting a pretty good deal when he gets me, because I can deceive myself into thinking that my sins are few, and for the most part inconsequential. However, my sins are just as deadly, just as shameful as the Pharisee and the woman’s sins.

My Takeaway: I want the woman in today’s passage to be my model in life.  Like her, upon receiving my Master’s forgiveness, I humble myself at his feet in love and adoration, in celebration of my righteousness.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.