Live Free with Josh Howerton - Holy Week: A Sinner's Table | Ep. 42 | Tuesday April 4, 2023

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

As Holy Week continues to unfold, Jesus finds Himself at a table with sinners. They spend time in conversation, breaking bread and expressing their gratitude toward Jesus. Today’s episode discusses how He spent His time leading up to His arrest. While people were plotting to take Jesus into custody, He was faithfully continuing His ministry on earth. This discussion reveals just how much Jesus cares for you, no matter where you are in life. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's daily drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. This week's devotionals will walk us through Holy Week as Pastor Mike helps prepare our hearts for Easter. For more information on our special Easter weekend services this coming weekend, visit lakepoint. and church slash Easter. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining us.

We're just doing some extended episodes this week as we trace the steps of Jesus heading up to Easter. And we followed him yesterday as he rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and the crowd was going crazy. And today we follow him to the house of a guy named Simon. You know, the world is full of smell. Some are amazing. Some are not so great.

I can't stand the smell of cooked cabbage. Anybody else? Wet dogs, fingernail polish? I love the smell, though, of fresh-cut grass and bacon, fron, and a pan. I love the smell of pizza, chocolate-chip cookies. You see a theme developing here, cinnamon rolls. The smell is powerful. A smell can even transform you right back to, like, your grandma's house.

You smell a certain kind of bread and go, that's the kind of rolls that were at my grandma's house. Every Thanksgiving. Back in wherever you live, you know, smell is powerful. You ever wonder what makes God go, oh, man, that smells so good. Well, it was an evening dinner and probably lots of wonderful smells all around. There's the aroma of fresh fruit and meat roasting on an open fire and onions and peppers and spices and wine and maybe even some fresh baked bread. It was a dinner, and Jesus had been invited. Sometimes when we focus on the final week of Jesus, we forget that Jesus was full of joy.

I think Jesus was fun. He had a contagious laugh, probably had this unforgettable smile, and he was always getting invited to parties. And grumpy negative people, they don't get so many invites to come over to the house and hang out. But Jesus was always having dinner with people. And it wasn't about the food. It was all about the people. And it didn't matter who. I mean, he broke down all kinds of social.

varies of the day by who he hung out with. In fact, Jesus was labeled by the religious community as a quote-unquote friend of sinners. Wouldn't that be a great label to wear? That the Pharisees thought of their dinner table is exclusively sacred. They even referred to it as their little temple, which is why they refused to eat with sinners because you can't have people like that hanging out at our holy little temple. I was thinking how the Pharisees would have loved the modern invention of hand sanitizer. Not because they were like germ freaks, but they were always washing their hands to avoid defilement by being around, you know, the unholy. Jesus, he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty.

He went out of his way to touch the untouchables. He hugged the unhuggables. He gave dignity to the homeless. He gave hope to the disabled. He gave honored inequality to women. He loved little kids. Jesus proclaiming. and modeled. In God's kingdom, there are no undesirables, and he lived like the great banquet

was open to anybody, and everyone was welcome at his table. Thus, the label, friend of sinners. Now, just to be clear, Jesus never communicate that behavior doesn't matter. Behavior matters in many, many ways. It simply isn't how you get accepted by God. And Jesus modeled that. He met people right where they were. And here he is again, a few days before he would be crucified, eating dinner at the home of another quote-unquote sinner, someone that most would not associate with. The guy's name is Simon. And let's pick up the story in Matthew, chapter 26. It says this. Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who previously had leprosy. Just a couple of things before we move on. You can't miss the description of Simon. This is not Simon,

the Simon Peter, not Simon the Zeal, not Simon the Pharisee, not Simon Cowell. This was a guy known as Simon, the leper. Now, you've probably heard a little bit about leprosy. So for the second time, let me just remind you that a person got infected with this terrible skin disease, which would eventually affect the entire central nervous system and the internal organs. They lost their family. They lost their job. They lost their home. They lost everything. They were outcast and labeled as unclean. And they had to declare that description of themselves if they came remotely close to another person. So here is Jesus at the home of one of those untouchables that he had touched, a man who had been healed. He had restored his self-worth and dignity, and now Simon accessed the host for this dinner party with all kinds of

wonderful smells. A little backstory here. At the same time this dinner is going on, there's another gathering going on, plotting to kill Jesus. You see, Jesus had walked. You see, Jesus had walked. walking to the temple in Jerusalem during Passover week, and he sees the religious leaders are running this market where people had to buy their officially approved sacrifices. They were ripping people off. Money changers, they're collecting money to convert people's hard-earned cash into what was called the temple currency. And you can imagine the currency rate was jacked up.

Passover week had become big, big business, all in the name of God. And Jesus can't take it. He says, oh, this stinks. This smells so bad. I can't stand the smell of injustice. I hate the stench of hypocrisy. And he starts turning tables over and driving animals out and coins are flying everywhere. He said, this is a place where people are supposed to connect with God.

It's become a place of extortion and con games. And he shouts to them, tells them straight up that this is not how my father intended for it to be. Well, this obviously doesn't set well with the religious leaders who are raking in huge problems. from the temple courts. So it's no surprise that Matthew 26 actually starts like this. At the same time, the leading priest and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest, plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him. But not during a Passover celebration they agreed, for the people may riot. Now Matthew is not necessarily trying to give us a step-by-step account of like Jesus went here and then Jesus went there and then Jesus went there and then Jesus

went there. If you read all four Gospels together, you can pretty much put together a pretty accurate chronological roadmap of Jesus' final week, even his life. But I love the way that Matthew is more concerned with the heart of what's happening here. In fact, he kind of sandwiches this event at Simon's house between the plot that was developing among the religious leaders to

arrest and kill Jesus and Judas's villainous decision to work with them. Skip down to verse 14. It says, after dinner, Judas Ascary, one of the 12 disciples, went to the leading priest and asked, how much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you? And they gave him 30 pieces of silver. From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus. So Matthew here is saying, all this is going on behind the scenes. These guys hated Jesus. Their whole world revolved around themselves and their system of corruption, and they feared they were losing control.

everything they had worked so hard to set up for themselves was in danger of crumbling. They weren't about to let this friend of sinners topple their lucrative religious empire. And they were soon going to get some help from somebody on the inside. But meanwhile, I think Matthew puts it right here. It's like he's almost saying, all this sinister stuff is secretly brewing. But guess where Jesus is? Yeah. at the table of one of those so-called sinners,

a guy who had been rejected, labeled, unclean, despicable, outcasts from society. Yeah, Jesus, well, all that's going on? He's hanging at Simon the leper's house. You see, I don't think Matthew ever got over this friend of sinners thing. I think he never got over that night when he first invited Jesus over to his house with his other tax collector buddies and some other disreputable friends

and some arrogant religious leaders crashed party and ask, why does your teacher eat with such scum? And it says, when Jesus heard this, he said, well, listen, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do. I have come to call, not those who think they're righteous, but those who know their sinners. I think if we could sit down with Matthew, and I can't wait to someday, he would tell us, I'll never forget the way Jesus interacted with people that other people wouldn't touch with the 10-foot pole. I'll never forget how he never played favorites. He met people where they were. It gave everybody a sense of dignity. When you were in this presence. You felt like you were the most important person on the planet. So even while

this group was meeting to devise a plan to get rid of him, he was just hanging out with sinners, because that's just what he did. So Simon's house is filled with all these wonderful banquet smells. There's lots of dinner guests. Counting the disciples, there's like 17 people for dinner. One of the guests walks into the room, and this whole scene's about to take on a whole new aroma. It's the sweet, sweet smell of extravagant gratitude and worship. It says in verse 7, while he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful

alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head. Now, John's account identifies this woman as Mary, the mother, Mary the sister of Lazarus. I mean, just about every time we see her, she's at the feet of Jesus. She loved him, hung on every word, soaked up everything

he had to say. She was so grateful for who he was, what he'd done for her what he'd done for her brother, and she takes this extremely expensive, translucent bottle filled with about 12 ounces of important fragrance and just pours it on in from head to toe as this extravagant act of worship. The house is filled with great smells, humility, gratitude, and worship. But at the same time, cynicism is wafting in the air. Verse 8, the disciples were indignant when they saw this. What a waste, they said. It could have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor. Now while Matthew includes all the

disciples joining in on this, John includes the chief critic as being Judas. John adds, Judas didn't really care about the poor, but rather being the treasurer of our group, he had been lining his own pockets. Judas's heart stands in direct contrast to Mary's. He was unable to love the way she did. He was unable to surrender everything in lavish worship on God. Why? Because his life revolved around himself. What's in it for me? He didn't have a heart of compassion. He had a heart of greed.

And when you can hide a heart of greed under a cloak of phony compassion, you've got a really dark heart, a heart that will lead you to do the kind of thing that Judas eventually does. And, gang, when I contrast these two hearts, Judas's heart and Mary's heart, I know which one I want. And I also know which one I could drift toward if I ever lose my sense of gratitude. Well, Jesus knew their hearts, and he says, why do you criticize this woman for doing such a good thing to me? You'll always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. She has poured

this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial. I tell you the truth. Wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed. Jesus says, guys, listen, you're going to have ample opportunity to take care of the poor. I've taught you that. I've modeled for you. That's a huge priority to God. He wants you to care for as I taught you. I taught told you the least of these. He wants for you to be his hands and feet in this hurting world. So you will always, he'll always have a chance to extend compassion. That's not what this is about. But in this moment, can't you see that Mary's heart is exploding with gratitude? Unlike some of you guys, she's been listening, like really listening. And she's using this

extravagant gift to thank me for my life and prepare me for my death. She understands the good news. and because of what she's done today, people all over the world will talk about this act of worship forever because she's held nothing back. And I'm praying today that your heart and mind would swell for gratitude for all that Jesus has done for the fact that we have been forgiven much. And when somebody opens a door of their heart like that

and they pour out their love, that's when God says, Oh man, that smells so good. Have a great day. See you tomorrow. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our Easter weekend services this coming Saturday and Sunday, either in person or online.

You can find all the information about our Easter services at lakepoint. combe.combe. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt. Church slash Daily Drive.