Naked & Not Ashamed...Not

Naked & Not Ashamed—

Seems like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it

To be Naked and to be not ashamed about being naked

Hard to imagine, isn’t it—probably shouldn’t imagine it in too much detail, should we

And yet: that is the only description we are given about the human experience in a sinless world

Genesis 2: we’re told a lot of stuff about human beings and God’s purpose in making them

But the only description of what it FELT like to be human in a sinless world

What it would feel like to be human if we didn’t live in a sinful world

Is to be NAKED and not ashamed

Which is no doubt why: first response to sin entering the world

Was not humans hiding from God: hiding from one another: covered fig leaves

Human history has been one long elaborate attempt to hide our nakedness

In fact, one of my recurring nightmares as a child

Starts out on the school bus—everyone whispering to each other and looking at me

Me not understanding why, and becoming extremely self-conscious

Then arrive at school, I’m last person step off the bus

At which point the entire school, erupts in laughter, pointing at me

Finally, I look down: and to my horror

Discover a major oversight in my wardrobe selection

Namely, I forgot to select one

And I’m standing there in my scooby doo underwear

Virtually naked—and utterly ashamed

In fact, a mattress company called Ergoflex in the UK conducted a survey on dreams like this

And found that 35% of people have had repeated dreams about being naked in public

They’ve had dreams, in other words, about what it feels like to be human in a sinful world: to be naked & ashamed

Because to be naked is to be exposed—it is a symbol of being FULLY KNOWN

And because human beings were made to be FULLY LOVED

Perhaps our greatest fear is being FULLY KNOWN

B/C it turns out: there are some things we know about ourselves

That if anyone else knew…well…it’s hard to imagine they could still love us

So we pretend: we try to appear lovable, to be who we think others want us to be, to appear worthy of their love…

To be naked & not ashamed is to be fully known & fully loved

And just don’t seem to live in a world that offers love to people who wear scooby doo underwear in public, do we?

TURN: Luke 7

So here’s our predicament: generally speaking: we all want to be fully loved but don’t want to be fully known

Don’t want to be fully known b/c we dont think we’re fully lovable

But we can’t be fully loved unless we are fully known

You can only be loved to the degree you are known

… … …

… … …

Unless we discovered a love more powerful than our faults, a grace greater than our sin

TURN: Luke 7

This morning: I’m going to need you to pull the lists back out I had you make the other day

… [plank eye]

Invited you to do what many Christians are experts at doing

Had you identify someone certain worse sinner than you

Then I had you make an imaginary list of all the sins you witnessed them commit

We then made another list

List of all the sins you’ve witnessed yourself commit

From that exercise we discovered why it is we don’t make good gods

Our judgments tend magnify the sins of others and eclipse our own sins…

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…remember: PLANK-EYE: short-sighted, skin-deep

Short-sighted: don’t know whole story…

[no little girl ever grew up hoping to be a prostitute]

[every little girl…princess: princess and goblin quote]

Skin-deep: don’t see past surface

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TEXT

As in most narratives, if you want to find the meaning: need to identify the conflict

The conflict in this text is driven by a concern regarding knowledge, personal knowledge

About what Simon knows about the woman—and thinks he knows about Jesus

About what the woman knows about herself—and believes she knows about Jesus

And what Jesus knows about both Simon and the woman

The conflict arises in the text in a comment Simon the Pharisee makes under his breath

He said TO HIMSELF: [idiom: thought…inner dialogue]

“If this man were a prophet:

“He would have known who and what sort of woman this is—who’s touching him: a SINNER”

Simon thinks he knows Jesus is not truly a prophet—based on two assumptions

1. A prophet of God would not let a sinful woman touch him

2. A prophet of God would know the woman touching him was sinful

But, it turns out, Jesus not knows exactly who the woman is, which he will soon reveal

But he first reveals that he knows Simon in a way that no doubt leaves Simon feeling rather exposed

Simon said something to himself without making a sound v. 39

v. 40 Jesus answered him, saying, Simon, I have something to say to you...

All those secret thoughts you get to keep to yourself, those secret judgments about ppl in your heart

INSIGHTS