Warrior Woman - A Sinful Woman Anoints Jesus' Feet - Luke (18)

Warrior Woman for Sunday Morning - Lesson 3 for 8:30 women

As you know,

I love to call our time together a feast.

Because we are about to

Devour God’s Living Word.

I know this morning

It is so good to be back together

And

I am excited to hear

From the living God –

how about you?

This is our 3rd week

of studying women

in the first century of Jesus.

The first week we saw a God

Adventure come to a young girl

Name Mary- Miriam(Jewish name) to

Birth the Son of God and she

Said Yes – in a culture where

She could have been killed.

The second week, we learned about a

Samaritan woman – A Samaritan woman-the lowest

Of lows-married 5 times, and Jesus a Jewish

Rabbi sat with her and spoke with compassion,

And shared with her – the first person in the bible

That He was the Messiah! The whole town

believed because of her testimony.

As we have learned

there are 3

distinctive features

of the first century

Jesus was born into.

These are important to know –

because it sets up for

our story each week.

First we know this is a society

where hospitality

is extremely important.

If you did not provide hospitality

to strangers or friends –

shame would be brought

upon you.

You know this story

but let me show you

a great example

of the importance of hospitality.

Hospitality in the middle east

goes all the way back

to the time of Abraham.

Genesis 18

The story tells us that 3 strangers

come to visit Abraham.

Abraham

does not know

who they are

but

he is going

to extend massive

middle eastern hospitality

to them,

You want to see the strength

of hospitality

in the middle eastern world –

it says in Genesis 18:2 –

Abraham looked up

and saw three men standing nearby.

When he saw them,

he hurried from the entrance

of his tent

to meet them

and bowed low to the ground. (pure humility)

When he bowed down

his response was,

“If I have found favor in your eyes,

my lord,

do not pass your servant by.

Abraham was eager to show

hospitality to these three visitors.

Remember in this culture,

a person’s reputation

was largely connected

to their hospitality.

Even strangers were to be treated

as highly honored guests.

He is telling them in verses 4 & 5

let me give you something to drink,

let me wash your feet,

let me refresh you

and let me give you

something to eat,

He doesn’t know who they are.

End of verse 5 - they agree to be served.

Let’s see how he talks to Sarah.

Verse 6 – we see that Abraham

hurried into the tent to Sarah,

“Quick,” he said, get three seahs(sayus) of fine flour

and knead it

and bake some bread.

(no left-overs - they are having fresh baked bread)

Verse 7 – Then he ran to the herd

and selected a choice, tender calf

and gave it to a servant

who hurried to prepare it.

You get the picture how important hospitality is

– by the time the story is done

Abraham is going to provide

a wonderful feast

for three men

that he doesn’t even know.

In this culture

how you treated strangers, foreigners,

how you set your table,

and invite people to it

is a matter of your honor

or shame.

You are known in the middle eastern

biblical world

and even to this day

in the middle east

by your hospitality.

In Jesus world

table fellowship was everything.

It is one of the highest affiliations

with people that you can have.

Who you eat with in Jesus World

who you welcome,

who you embrace

and who you accept

was your identity.

But we know

Jesus is notorious

throughout the 4 gospels,

was even adamant

about eating with tax collectors

and sinners.

Jesus was not afraid to welcome,

Embrace

and accept tax collectors

and sinners.

This is good news for us –

because what this means

if Jesus was physically

here this morning

he would eat with us.

He would welcome us,

he would embrace us

and He would accept us.

I am telling you this

as an appetizer

for our main meal

which will be a story

at a table for dinner.

The second

distinctive character

of a middle eastern world

is honor and shame.

We have seen that

Every woman Jesus interacts with

is brought from shame to honor.

The third distinctive character

of a middle eastern world

is a communal culture.

Everything is measured in the we

not the individual –

it is always us.

Family, village, community, tribe.

is His

Let’s look at another

Appetizer

to understand our story tonight.

We are going to talk about

women’s hair.

A woman’s hair

was very important

in the biblical world,

and it still

is

in the Middle East today.

Let me show you –

remember

when we talked about

how a man

in the Middle East during the first century

could divorce his wife

over her just burning toast.

Well, a man could divorce

his wife if she went out in public

with her hair unbound

or uncovered.

If a woman wore her hair uncovered,

her husband could divorce her

without giving her any financial support

to help her transition.

Why do they require women

to cover their head

when they leave their homes?

This is a direct quote

from a recent prime minister

of Iran –

it is the obligation

of the female

to cover her head

because women’s hair exudes(radiates)

vibration that arouse

and corrupt men.

Did you know

your hair exudes vibrations?

If you leave your house

with your head uncovered

you may receive unnecessary attention

from people,

such as flattery,

envy and

most importantly,

sexual attraction from other men.

How many of you got up this morning

And thought

men maybe sexually attracted

to me

Because of my hair?

In Jesus world,

a woman’s hair was her glory.

Usually, the only person

to see your hair down

was your husband.

When a woman’s hair

in the first century world

started coming down,

something is going on.

I bet you can guess

something about hair

will be a part of our story tonight.

If we could go back

2000 years ago

during Jesus time

remember,

table fellowship is very important,

hospitality is very important,

living in community is very important,

then what would it look like,

to go to a traditional

first century

middle eastern Jewish meal

with Jewish people.

What should we expect?

When you arrived

you would expect

5 acts

to be provided by the host:

1. A kiss of welcome –

this says

come into my home –

you are welcome here.

2. Someone would come

and wash your feet

with water.

If a host was wealthy

they would have a servant

wash your feet.

If a host was middle class

or poor

they would

wash your feet themselves.

3. Olive oil

would be brought

to wash your hands

- it serves as an ancient soap.

4. Then Anointing the head of honored guest

with special oils.

(This is only for special guest,

like a rabbi,

a pharisee,

or a politician.

They are honored, they are special).

These are the esteem guest.

5. Now table position.

All of the men in the photo

are reclining

and the heads

are toward the table

because that is where

the food is.

They are all reclining on their left side.

They are all leaning

on their left arm

with their heads

toward the table.

The feet are away

and you use your right hand

to get your food.

What we are not seeing,

if we expand

the photo out

their would be another group

of people

present at the meal

but not sitting at the table.

The poor,

the blind,

the sinners,

they are considered outcasts

and they would sitting

against the wall

watching the guests eat.

They would be fed

after a meal was served.

Whatever food was left over

was served to the outcasts

at the wall.

A pious host would invite

their guest of honor

to sit at the table,

and he would invite the poor,

the lame, the blind,

the outsiders

to sit against the wall

and to eat the leftovers.

It was clear back then

who they thought was honorable

who was shameful.

Who was clean and who would was unclean

were separated.

Those were the appetizers now for our feast:

Now we are ready for out story this morning.

As you can guess, this story happens at a meal.

Luke 7:36 Now one of the Pharisees

invited Jesus

to have dinner with him,

so he went to the Pharisee’s house

and reclined at the table.

Now we understand

what this looks like

Jesus reclining at the table.

Laying on his left side,

head toward table,

feet away from table

or close to the wall.

Did you catch the fact

that a Pharisee invited Jesus

to dinner?

Did you know

a man in this century

had to be 30 years old

before he could be a rabbi.

That is why

the bible is very clear

to tell us

that Jesus was 30 years old

when he became a Rabbi.

He was walking around Galilee

living as a Rabbi at 30 years old.

When new Rabbi’s

or 30-year-old rookies

began being a Rabbi –

older religious leaders

who maybe were 40, 50 or 60, years old

they would want to check them out,

check out their theology.

There were three primary places

this questioning

or vetting would take place.

1. It could be at the Southern steps or the teaching steps in Jerusalem.

2. It often happened in Synagogues.

3. The other place vetting occurred would be at meals.

or what we would call table fellowship.

A senior Rabbi would invite a rookie rabbi to dinner.

This is exactly what is happening

in Luke 7:36

Now one of the Pharisees

invited Jesus to have dinner

with him,

so he(Jesus) went to the Pharisee’s house

and reclined at the table.

This is not a social dinner

The older rabbi is inviting

Jesus do dinner

To drill him about his theology.

Luke 7:37 - A woman in 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.

A woman

has been introduced

in our story.

They describe her

as a woman

who lived a sinful life.

She has learned

where Jesus was eating,

so she came

with an alabaster jar

of perfume.

This jar itself is expensive

and the perfume is expensive.

We have talked about the table norm

for hospitality.

Everyone gets the kiss of welcome

Everybody gets their feet washed.

Everyone gets olive oil for their hands.

But for special guest

you anoint them

with a special kind of oil.

This un-named woman

comes with her Alabaster Jar

to anoint Jesus.

What else could be taking place

at this meal.

The theory is

this woman brought two jars

to dinner

not one.

Let’s go to Psalm 56:8

You Yourself have recorded my wanderings. (misery)

Put my tears in Your bottle.

Are they not in Your records?

This verse suggest

that tears are kept in bottles

or the living God

somehow keeps a record

of our tears.

So hundreds and hundreds

of years

before Jesus comes on the scene,

Jewish Women

started reading this Psalm –

their thought

if God was going to have a bottle

that collects

or keeps

memory of all my tears,

than I am going

to do that to.

So, Jewish woman

started a tradition

of having

their very own tear jars.

So, when they wept

or when things broke them in half,

when things mad them cry,

when things made them sad,

when they we grieving,

or when their husbands went to war,

throughout history

Jewish women would pull out their tear jar

and they would physically collect

their tears.

They will allow their tears to fall into their tear jars –

they are collecting them,

they are keeping them,

and they are holding them.

This story reminds me that our tears matter.

The things that have made you cry

they matter

I take God at His Word

and I believe

the Almighty God

has a record of every tear

that you have ever shed.

Jewish women, would have these jars

and when their husbands came home from war,

the woman would go and

get their tear jars

and they would pour out their tears

saying to you see how much

I missed you.

I am so grateful you are home.

So, Jewish women in Jesus day,

we might well imagine

so many of them

having these tear jars

and every time they looked at it

they knew it represented

the sum total

of all their sorrow.

All of their tears,

all of the things that had broken them,

vexed them

and pressed them. (pause)

We know

that when this woman

comes to this dinner

she hears that Jesus is there

and the text

lets us know

she brought

an alabaster jar of perfume.

But I also believe

she brought her tear jar

because who better

if you were to anoint

or pour out the sorrows of your life

who would you rather

pour them on

than the Son of God.

The Bible tells us

this woman had been known

as a sinner.

We have a Pharisee hosting this meal –

how many of you think

this Pharisee’s had sinful people

sitting at their table?

So she is at the Pharisee’s house,

but she one of the ones not at the table?

You notice her position is against the wall.

I believe she is there with her alabaster jar perfume

to anoint him high and holy

as an honored guest.

I believe

she also brought her tear jar

because it is

a double anointing that is coming.

Our story goes on in

Luke 7:38,

As she stood behind him

at his feet weeping…

Do you see the imagery –

she is at the wall

sitting close to Jesus feet,

she is not close to his head -

the head is what

you usually anoint the

– the head is where

you anoint your honored guest with oil

She can’t get to his head –

she is against the wall.

The closest physical part

of Jesus’ body to her is his feet.

We know she has

her alabaster jar of perfume

and she begins weeping.

Catch this next line in 7:38 –

and she began to wet his feet

with her tears.

In a Jewish world

if your going to wet somebody

with your tears

it is done with your tear jar.

She is pouring out

the tears of her entire life,

of her entire story

onto Jesus feet.

As you can read,

she is overcome with emotions,

and we don’t know

exactly what is causing

the weeping.

But we read

she is weeping at a dinner party,

at a Pharisee’s house.

At this point,

everyone in the room

is probably staring at her.

What do you think Jesus(a holy rabbi)

is going to do

with a woman who is against the wall

who is crying at His feet.

This is an unusual moment.

In a middle – eastern world,

we are expecting the men

at the table

to shame her

because she is literally losing it

at the dinner party.

The reason we can say she is losing it –

remember how we talked about hair

in Jesus world? –

Women cover their hair,

it is their glory,

you do not go out

with your hair down.

Pick it back up in Luke 7:38 –

Then she wiped them(meaning Jesus feet)

with her hair…(pause)

You can be sure

everyone at the dinner table

is watching and wondering

what is going on!

She has her hair unbound

and she is touching a holy rabbi of Israel,

weeping, and crying

at a Pharisees home

in the middle of table fellowship.

This is highly irregular.

To wipe Jesus feet with her hair

and pouring out the tears

from her tear jar –

The passage ends with 7:38,

she…kissed them

and poured perfume on them.

They are probably

ready to lock this woman up

because this is crazy behavior.

But what she is doing,

she is wiping Jesus feet

with her glory – her hair.

She is anointing him

with the perfume

and her tears –

this is a double anointing.

Most rabbi’s would say,

stop touching me,

get yourself together,

put your hair back up –

everything you are doing right now

is shameful.

This is what everyone expects

to be said to her.

Do you know what I love about this,

Jesus can handle

us falling apart!

This is the best part

of the story to me.

We should all give ourself permission

to lose it

on Jesus.

This is raw

and unfiltered emotion

she poured out her emotions on Him

because she knew

he could take it.

I know this,

when you pour out

yourself to him,

He will embrace you

and He will sit with you.

Let’s look

at the reactions

of the people in the room.

39 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.”

The host

who we find out later

is Simon

puts on his judgmental hat

and starts judging

not only the woman

but Jesus as well.

If this man were a prophet –

he would know that an unclean woman

was touching him.

He is judging Jesus

for not responding or acting,

He is also judging the woman.

Take note:

Jesus lived in a religious world

that was all about clean and unclean.

You realize if you were considered clean

you tried very hard

not to touch unclean.

Because when clean

touches unclean –

clean became unclean.

Got that!

Jesus enters

into this world

and lives

a different way

than the norm

as a Holy Rabbi.

Jesus never minded

touching unclean

because with Jesus

it was all being restored.

Jesus knew

when he touched unclean

it became clean.

Jesus is not afraid

for you to touch him.

He knows He can make

unclean become clean.

Luke7:40

Jesus answered him,

“Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

You notice Jesus address Simon first.

Jesus is about to tell a story

that reflects Simon and the Woman.

41 “Two people owed money

to a certain moneylender.

One owed him five hundred denarii,

and the other fifty.

42 Neither of them

had the money to pay him back,

so he forgave the debts

of both.

Now which of them will love him more?”

43 Simon replied,

“I suppose the one

who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,”

Jesus said.

Jesus is truly a prophet

Because he has read

Simon’s thoughts

And reveals a truth.

Simon was obviously

Guilty of pride.

Jesus is getting ready

to rearrange this room.

This room is going to look different

when Jesus is finished with it.

We are about to see Jesus

generously lift this woman

from shame to honor.

Simon is about to be shamed

and this woman

is going to receive honor.

44 Then he turned toward the woman

and said to Simon,

“Do you see this woman?

(Jesus acknowledges the woman

but he is talking to Simon,

the Pharisee, the host)

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.”

Simon did not extend

the norms of hospitality

when Jesus

came to his house that night.

This lowly, sinner woman

against the wall,

she is doing for Jesus

what Simon should have done.

So what Jesus is saying,

Simon you are actually

the shameful one

in the room right now.

You extended very little hospitality

toward me

but this woman has done it all.

You realize Jesus is saying

this to Simon

at his own house

at his own dinner party.

Jesus is rearranging the room.

We see Jesus stand in the gap

for this woman

who is losing it on his feet.

She had just poured out her life to him.

This story shows us what Jesus is like.

Psalm 75:7 – goes perfect with our story:

It is God who judges:

He brings one down, he exalts another.

James 4:6 –

God opposes the proud

but shows favor to the humble.

Jesus has addressed Simon

but he is getting ready

to address the woman.

What does Jesus do

when you lose it on Him

or when you pour out the grief,

the hurt,

the sadness,

all your tears on Him.

What will be his reaction?

Now he turns his gaze directly toward the woman.

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?”

That is a big question!

Some may expect Jesus to answer –

Hello, I am the Messiah!

I am the one who forgives sin!

Love this

Jesus refuses to divert his gaze

from her

He ignores them completely

because he is focused on her.

He doesn’t even acknowledge

the question.

Jesus is more concerned

with lifting her out of shame

and restoring her to honor.

50 Jesus said to the woman,

“Your faith has saved you;

go in peace.”

What I learn from this story –

Jesus is not okay

with you sitting against the wall.

He comes to generously

lift us up

out of our shame.

To restore your honor

and send you away in peace.

Who thinks Simon never invited

Jesus back to dinner?

I don’t think so either.

I am sure this woman

never forgot that night.

Cause when she lost it

on the Holy Rabbi of Israel,

the Messiah, the very son of God –

she wiped his feet with her glory,

poured out her tears

I am sure

she remembers that night

as:

He was the one who could take that.

And the one who fought for her,

he stood in the gap for her

in front of every man

that was at that table that night.

This is what Jesus does for us.

If he did it for her

he will do it for us.

Deut. 31:8 second part of the verse:

for the LORD

will personally go ahead of you.

.He will be with you;

he will neither fail you

nor abandon you.”.