Annointing Jesus

Introduction

Illustration: Stopping a Train Car in Toronto.

Today, we are going to discuss extravagant worship AND one of the greatest barriers to that worship - shame.

I cannot delve into every aspect of shame, but I can tell you how to solve it. Jesus. Let’s read together.

Read Luke 7:36-50.

Explanation

The Woman Extravagantly Worships Jesus

A good way to describe her worship is “completely undone.”

She sees the dishonor placed upon Jesus at the table and moves to fix it.

The men around the table have invited Jesus for dinner, but they have done so to dishonor him. Jesus was at a public dinner. Dignitaries and religious leaders would have been there, but the windows were also open and people would hang onto the windows to hear the “high-browed” conversation. Public dishonor.

They did not anoint Jesus head with oil, and they did not kiss Jesus at the door. It would be the social equivalent of going to a dinner party and someone ignoring you and not offering you a seat at the table.

But worst of all, they did not offer to wash Jesus feet. *explain

So this woman, seeing the dishonor - the lack of understanding about Jesus’ worth - moves to fix it.

Make no mistake:

When we sing extravagantly

When we listen to the word intently

When we give generously

When we serve with abandon

When we love without bounds

When we do anything as an act of worship, we are remedying the world lack of concern for the glory of God.

And we are establishing in powerful ways the weight of his glory.

Your worship is never a burden for Jesus. Your pouring out your heart before Him is never wasted.

Anytime you sing, worship, and praise God, realize that you are practicing for your eternity, and what you are doing is not wasted upon the Lord or in you.

I see several beautiful qualities of this woman’s worship.

Her worship was audacious. People felt uncomfortable with her being there much less her expression of worship.

She wept in his presence - so much so that she had enough tears to clean his feet.

As she washed Jesus feet, she realized that she had no towel. So she unraveled her hair and dried Jesus feet with her hair.

A woman’s hair was considered her glory, or the most beautiful trait about her.

Her cleaning Jesus hair was awkward, but her hair was also filled with whatever Jesus had encountered on the road.

Her worship was costly.

She pulls out a costly bottle of perfume. The bottle and perfume cost between a year and a half and two and a half years wages.

Do you own any object in your house that it took you two years to pay for. This was irreplaceable.

But, this woman had found something worthy of spending it.

Her worship was beautiful.

Do you want this worship? There is a big, obstacle to worshipping Jesus in this way. Do you know what it is? Shame.

What is shame, and why is shame so detrimental to our faith?

Shame is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrongdoing or failure. “You recognize that you have done something wrong, and you feel humiliation for it.”

Two ways that shame keeps us from extravagant worship:

The wrong type of shame.

No shame at all

The Shame of the Woman

There is a type of shame that is soul crushing. We see our guilt, the things that we have done, and we distress at the inability to interact with God.

It is a shame that believes that men is sinful - deeply, wickedly sinful, but denies God’s grace and ability to remedy it.

This wrong shame tells us two things about our relationship with God.

You should not associate with God.

God will not associate with you.

Without the gospel, we have no right to God. But, because Jesus gave himself for our sins, we do have access to God.

Too many people will not enter heaven, not because they had a false estimate of themselves, but because they had a false estimate of the power of God’s grace to cover their sin.

Sara Walton, “Shame is not meant to crush us; it’s meant to open our eyes to the true state of our hearts.”

Illustration: Praying without ceasing. Often, the first thing that comes to my mind is that I have not prayed. Instead, take those prompts to interact with God.

Because shame is an emotion caused by the guilt of wrongdoing,

The Lack of Shame

Jesus addresses the dishonor that Simon shows Him.

Jesus gives a parable - two men are indebted to a moneylender. One owed 500 denarii, and the other owed 50 denarii. The moneylender forgave both. Who is the most grateful for the moneylender? The one who was forgiven the most.

Jesus is not saying that the Pharisees are less sinful than the woman. He is saying that they are less aware of their sins. There are no little debts when it comes to sin.

Why do fifty and five hundred denarii matter to this text? Because fifty denarii could be paid back with reasonable expectation.

No one could dream of paying back 500 denarii.

That’s why the alabastar jar of ointment mattered little to the woman.

Jesus had paid her debt in a way that was forever. It was immovable.

Simon was not required to kiss, greet, or help Jesus in any of the ways he described. However, his lack of even the slightest happiness at seeing Jesus shows that he believed Jesus to be someone he owed little.

The lack of shame in our world comes in two forms:

Some of us attempt to remove shame by doing enough good to only need a minimal amount of Jesus.

We add Jesus to teaching SS, rotary club, giving to the needy, raising good kids, having a decent marriage. etc.

Because we are generally pretty good, we only need a little of Jesus.

You need the full share of Jesus, friend. You just may not be aware of it.

We live in a world that says, “Everything goes!” You ought never feel bad for any decision that you make.

And the problem is… you can’t shake it.

No amount of social conditioning, explaining it away, or attempted indifference can help you shake the guilt and shame of your sin, because morality is not a social construct. Morality is truth given by God an inherently perceived by every man, woman, and child as God’s general revelation of Himself.

I am not pro-shame. I am anti-shame. That’s why I am a follower of Jesus.

Tim Keller says it best, “The gospel says you are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, yet more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope.”

Invitation

Jesus speaks a better word. Forgiveness. Grace. Life. Brand New. Come to Him.