Sermon 607 Relationship not religion

Luke 7:36-50 (The Passion)

36 Afterward, a Jewish religious leader named Simon asked Jesus to his home for dinner. Jesus accepted the invitation. When he went to Simon’s home, he took his place at the table. 37 In the neighbourhood there was an immoral woman of the streets, known to all to be a prostitute. When she heard about Jesus being in Simon’s house, she took an exquisite flask made from alabaster, filled it with the most expensive perfume, went right into the home of the Jewish religious leader, and knelt at the feet of Jesus in front of all the guests. 38 Broken and weeping, she covered his feet with the tears that fell from her face. She kept crying and drying his feet with her long hair. Over and over she kissed Jesus’ feet. Then she opened her flask and anointed his feet with her costly perfume as an act of worship. 39 When Simon saw what was happening, he thought, “This man can’t be a true prophet. If he were really a prophet, he would know what kind of sinful woman is touching him.” 40 Jesus said, “Simon, I have a word for you.” “Go ahead, Teacher. I want to hear it,” he answered. 41 “It’s a story about two men who were deeply in debt. One owed the bank one hundred thousand pounds, and the other only owed ten thousand pounds. 42 When it was obvious that neither of them would be able to repay their debts, the kind banker graciously wrote off the debts and forgave them all that they owed. Tell me, Simon, which of the two debtors would be the most thankful? Which one would love the banker most?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose it would be the one with the greatest debt forgiven.” “You’re right,” Jesus agreed. 44 Then he spoke to Simon about the woman still weeping at his feet. “Don’t you see this woman kneeling here? She is doing for me what you didn’t bother to do. When I entered your home as your guest, you didn’t think about offering me water to wash the dust off my feet. Yet she came into your home and washed my feet with her many tears and then dried my feet with her hair. 45 You didn’t even welcome me into your home with the customary kiss of greeting, but from the moment I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You didn’t take the time to anoint my head with fragrant oil, but she anointed my head and feet with the finest perfume. 47 She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman at his feet, “All your sins are forgiven.” 49 All the dinner guests said among themselves, “Who is the one who can even forgive sins?” 50 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith in me has given you life. Now you may leave and walk in the ways of peace.”

I read this passage last week before we took communion, and, as we took communion I suddenly wondered what it would have been like for the woman in the story to have taken communion after the death and resurrection of Jesus. She had put her faith in Jesus and would probably become part of the body of believers we find in Acts Chapter 2.

Can you imagine what it was like for that woman before she met Jesus? Can you put yourself in her shoes?

You have had a hard life. Stuff happened and you became destitute. No husband in a society where marriage is the only real security. No relatives to help you out. It’s a choice of selling your body or begging. You don’t want to beg.

There are plenty of men who will come to you late at night and pay you for your services. So-called “respectable men,” men who devoutly attend the synagogue, men whose extramarital activities are given the blind eye by the religious leaders.

You, though, are shunned by “respectable” people. They look down on you in the street. You cannot attend the synagogue. You don’t like your way of life, but you are hardened to it and to the shame you feel. You remember when you were a child, when you felt loved and accepted.

Then you meet Jesus. He is talking to the crowd. Standing at a distance, you listen to what He is saying. He is telling the crowd that the Kingdom of God is near. He is calling them to repent. He promises to take their burdens. He promises to give them peace. And all of a sudden, it seems that He is looking directly at you. His words seem to be directed at you. And something happens. You believe what He says. His eyes convey love and acceptance. You feel a peace that you have never felt before. Somehow, it doesn’t matter anymore what the townspeople think about you. Your shame seems to disappear. You feel a new life beckoning you. This Jesus, somehow, has given you a new start.

You are drawn to this teacher, this Jesus. You want to see more of him. You hear that he has been invited to dinner at the house of Simon, a Pharisee. You know that these occasions are open to anyone to go and stand around and watch but you doubt if you’d be welcome. Somehow though, you don't care. You want to show him how much you appreciate him. What can I give him, you wonder? You remember the expensive perfume you've been serving for a rainy day. Taking an alabaster flask, you fill it with the expensive perfume.

The Pharisee’s house is full of people. Pushing your way in, you are glared at by the people standing there who know who you are. Suddenly, you are overcome with emotion. Tears come, and it is as if all the negative feelings of the years come flooding back to you. Somehow you know that Jesus is the answer. Jesus is lying at the table with his feet pointing away from it. Your tears fall in floods and wet Jesus’ feet. He isn’t startled, He continues with the meal. How shall you dry his feet? I could let down my hair and use it, you think. It will be a disgraceful thing for a woman to do in public, but you don’t care. You do it, you let down your hair, kneel down and dry his feet. Then you kiss his feet over and over again. Simon, the host, looks appalled at what you’re doing. You don’t care; Simon is one of the religious set that have always shunned you. Then you take your alabaster flask and gently pour the expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet. A beautiful aroma starts to fill the room and you are filled with a feeling of peace deeper than you’ve ever known before.

Jesus starts to talk to Simon. He tells him that he has a word for him. He tells Simon that he hasn’t shown him the common courtesies that one would expect. But he tells him about what you're doing. He tells him what a lovely thing it is. He says it's an extravagant act of love. He tells Simon that only those who know how much they have been forgiven, can love so much.

Then Jesus turns to you that says,“ all your sins are forgiven. Your faith in me has given you life. Now you may leave and walk in the ways of peace.” Wow! Healing and peace flow.

Behold!

I read this passage from the Passion Translation. If you read more literal translations such as the KJV, NKJV or ESV then you will find verse 37 begins with “And behold . . .” “Behold” is not a word that we use much these days, but it means, “Look! See! Take notice!” Holy Spirit is telling us to take notice of what is happening surrounding this woman and Jesus. What might we learn from it?

For me, there is a stark contrast in this story between relationship and religion.

Saved through acceptance

Simon the Pharisee represented religion. He represented the established church at the time when Jesus walked the earth. We know from the passage what Simon thought about the woman. Religion loves to categorise people, even stigmatise them. If you allow the smallest bit of religious mindset to creep in, then you can end up shutting people out.

Before lockdown, I was talking to a Christian about Spirit Café and how it could be organised. Their church did not meet in a church building, it was a school or something, but they didn’t think it would be a good idea to have Spirit Café in the same building because these strange types who come to Spirit Café might turn up to a Sunday service. I was shocked.

I’m not saying that it is easy to accept people the way that Jesus did. Kay and I sometimes watch the helicopter rescue programmes on TV. On one recent episode, three men had stolen a lorry. The driver had lost control coming down a road surrounded by houses. He had hit two or three parked cars. Someone was in one of these cars and was badly injured. He also hit and killed a pedestrian. The lorry ended up embedded in the gable end of a house. Two of the thieves ran off but the driver was trapped in the cab. The house was in danger of collapse and Fire and Rescue had to stabilise it before paramedics could fully treat the driver. The paramedics knew that this man they were treating had been responsible for the death of an innocent pedestrian. One paramedic commented that you had to take a professional stance and put this out of your mind, and just treat the casualty like anybody else.

However, it’s not like that for us as Christians. We cannot be “professional” Christians and treat everybody the same because we have to. Try that and sometimes you’re going to fail. We need to see through the eyes of Jesus. He doesn’t see us according to the degree of our sin, He sees what we can be as we give our lives over to Him. He sees the gold that He can bring out of the dross. John 3:17 says that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. As ambassadors of Christ, we too must completely avoid condemnation. We, too, should be looking at the gold in people. Jesus sees the possibilities in people. He sees transformed lives.

Time and again we see this in Spirit Café. Spirit Café is about prophetically speaking to the people who come for a spiritual reading. It’s about how Jesus sees them and what He sees them as capable of achieving through Him. It’s not just about getting people saved. It’s about Jesus inviting them to ask Him into their lives so that He can do the stuff He’s telling them about through the prophetic words and pictures.

This is the mindset Jesus is looking for in us. The mindset that recognises that Jesus is calling us to make disciples, to be part of the process by which He transforms them into amazing men and women of God through relationship with Him.

Saved through relationship

In our passage, it’s relationship that saves the woman and not religion. In verse 50, Jesus told the woman that her faith had saved her. The Passion translates, “Your faith in me has given you life.” The Greek is a form of the word, “sozo.” Sozo has a broad meaning – it can mean, “save, keep safe, preserve, rescue, make well, heal.” That’s why Bethel Church chose the word as a title for their spiritual and emotional healing sessions.

The woman in our passage appears to be saved in a first encounter with Jesus, and then she receives the emotional healing when she comes and anoints Jesus feet. And all this happens outside the established church, outside the temple, outside the synagogue, outside religion. What might this be saying to us?

As Joan was sharing with us last week, our God is a God of the new thing. With God, we can expect the unexpected, the unprecedented. He doesn’t need church buildings, although He can use them. He doesn’t need religious organisations, although He can use them. In the New Testament people were saved in private homes, in the marketplace, by the riverbank, in the jail, in lecture halls.

The lockdown brought about a huge emphasis on the use of the internet. Non-Christians looking for spiritual meaning have searched and found Christian material and online church services. Because it’s the internet, a lot of the religious side of things has been stripped away yet convey a spirituality that people crave, a spirituality that’s rooted in relationship with Jesus. People who would never go near a church building have accessed church services and other stuff. It is amazing. Yesterday, at 11.24 am UK time, I led a young lady in Sydney, Australia, in a prayer of salvation when it was 10.24 pm Australian time. She had come to have a peace treatment and responded to the invitation to ask Jesus, the One who brought her peace, to come into her life.

We live in a world where people can often seem anti-Christian. I suspect that they are more anti-church than anti-Christian. They don’t identify the church with authentic spirituality. Some of the churchified ways of doing things have had to be stripped away because of Covid. Perhaps God has a message for us in that. Relationship rather than religion.

The woman’s love for Jesus resulted in extravagant worship

The love that the woman felt towards Jesus drove her to pour out her expensive perfume over His feet. That’s worship. We might find it rather unconventional, but it is worship, and, I think, it is important to acknowledge that. Mind you, I doubt if Simon the Pharisee thought it was decently and in order.

It makes you think, what is worship? We are used to being fed with a continuing diet of new, powerful worship choruses from contemporary Christian worship leaders and songwriters. We should be thankful for that, but we should realise that there is a danger that the style of worship should be a means to an end and not an end in itself. You could attend one of the big churches, and, perhaps, smaller churches, in the UK or US and really get into a couple of hours of worship, and then, that’s it as far as worship is concerned for the rest of the week.

Jarrod Cooper is a worship leader and pastor of Revive Church in Hull. He wrote King of Kings, Majesty. In his book, Glory in the Church, he listed 8 myths that churches can have about worship. See if you have been caught up with any of these:-:-

1. God’s order is like our order.

2. God is polite and politically correct.

3. The local church should be like a conference.

4. If in doubt, do what you did last week.

5. Better music will mean better worship.

6. Our worship culture is the right one.

7. We have to fill the allotted time.

8. Well, it works in Pensacola, i.e. it’s good to imitate.

Can you see how a religious mindset can influence the way that we view worship? The religious mindset is one that is man-focussed and not Spirit-led.

Worship is about relationship and not religion. That’s why the account of the woman in our passage has such a powerful message for each of us. Matt Redman recognised this when he wrote Heart of Worship, which we are probably all familiar with:-

When the music fades All is stripped away And I simply come Longing just to bring Something that's of worth That will bless Your heart I'll bring You more than a song For a song in itself Is not what You have required You search much deeper within Through the way things appear You're looking into my heart I'm coming back to the heart of worship And it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it When it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus

Worship is about relationship and that relationship is 24/7. It’s not just two hours on a Sunday. It is a way of life. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to be singing worship choruses every waking hour, it means that every part of our lifestyle is influenced through our love for Jesus. That’s the essence of Christian life – to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. And we can do that, if we choose, because the Spirit of Jesus lives in every Christian.

Do I choose relationship over religion?

I find the story of the sinful woman personally challenging. As a Christian, do I always choose relationship over religion? Do I sometimes allow the insidious religious spirit to creep in? Is there a danger that I can shut people out because I don’t see them as Jesus sees them? Am I constantly looking for the gold in people? Do I seek God’s heart for the people I encounter?

Do I love Jesus enough to lay aside my own pride and prejudices so that God’s love can flow to the world through me?

Am I open to new ways God is calling His church to?

It’s all about worship. Reverencing God in all I do, until it becomes an established way of life.