Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Wednesday, 1 October 2014 "Jesus ate with (and challenged) Pharisees"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Wednesday, 1 October 2014 "Jesus ate with (and challenged) Pharisees"
Daily Scripture:  Luke 7: Anointing His Feet
36-39 One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.”
40 Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Oh? Tell me.”
41-42 “Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?”
43-47 Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”
“That’s right,” said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”
Reflection Questions:
When Jesus said he didn't come to call righteous people, but sinners, we might think he was writing off the Pharisees and other religious leaders of his day. But he wasn't. He knew that they, too, were sinners, and he accepted invitations to eat with them. In this story, Jesus' "righteous" host was shocked that Jesus didn't condemn the woman who intruded in his supper. Jesus was more dismayed by his host's self-righteous arrogance than by her checkered past.
We never hear about Simon the Pharisee again in Jesus' story. He probably was never able to get past his distaste for a man willing to accept a "sinful" woman (verse 39). Was it a waste of time for Jesus to accept Simon's invitation to dine at his house? How willing are you to "go the extra mile" to share Jesus' love with someone who may or may not choose to respond to that love?
Reflect prayerfully on the story Jesus told Simon. Do you more often see yourself as having been forgiven much, or just for a few little missteps here and there? Does that affect the ways you relate to others when they need forgiveness? How does your sense of how much or little you've been forgiven affect your love and gratitude to God?
Today's Prayer:
King Jesus, one reason you changed the world was that you didn't shy away from people or situations in which you risked "failure." Help me set aside my inner need for guaranteed "success," so that I can share your love whenever I get the chance. Amen.
Insight from Gia Garey Moser
Gia Garey Moser is the Hospitality Program Director at Resurrection.
Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” - Luke 19:10  Jesus not only sought them, He dined with them, and invited them to follow Him.
Interestingly, Jesus was judged by the Pharisees, Israel’s ruling leaders of the day, for cavorting with sinners! I am certain they thought, “How dare he? What was he thinking?!” You see, the Pharisees in their own self-righteous indignation were appalled by Jesus and not even remotely aware of their own sin. They judged the Son of God and everyone else, yet had no ability to see themselves as sinners based upon their pride and legalistic rules that they thought made them right with God.
Jesus firmly warns them another time of this need to judge others. Matthew 23:27-28 – “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside your are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
These verses give me pause to ask myself, who am I judging?  Better yet, whom do I have a right to judge? As a Christ follower and student of the Bible I can certainly relate more with the Pharisees than with the prostitute, but my heart’s tendencies and my human condition are no different than either, and no better. Sin is sin, and I think we often get caught up in wrongly classifying some sins worse than others, which somehow justifies our own self-righteousness and need to somehow not be like ‘them.’
Lord, Jesus, I pray that your Holy Spirit would help make me aware of my own sin each day. I am grateful that You came to seek and to save the lost like me. That you have come for all humankind to make us right with God. You, Lord Jesus, are the only means that makes that happen! I thank you for your gift of grace and salvation and freely accept it in my life. May my life reflect the love that you have for all people and may your Holy Spirit prompt me to look at myself first before I turn my head to judge others. Amen
And as I finish this prayer yet another verse comes to mind. Matthew 7:1-2, 5 – “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you….You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Don’t you just love those letters in red…!
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