Words of Jesus Podcast - Do You See This Woman

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

Jesus, our Redeemer, came to minister to small and great with the same love and unerring truth. John 3:17-18, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Offer: "The Red Letter Questions" by Don C. Harris. Email [e-mail] to request a free "The Red Letter Questions" audio book on cd or you can purchase a print book online.***Ch. 25 - JESUS ANOINTEDJesus accepted an invitation to go to the home of a Pharisee for a meal.  While Jesus sat eating, a sinful woman of the city came to the house, bringing an alabaster box of ointment. (The gospel of John identifies the woman who anointed Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair as Mary, the sister of Martha.  Evidently the story was known in two versions, and the two writers had heard the same story but about different individuals.) She stood weeping and washed his feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee saw what the woman was doing, he thought to himself;            “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him; for she is a sinner.”            Jesus said to the Pharisee:            “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.”            The Pharisee replied:            “Master, say on.”            Jesus said:            “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?”            Simon answered, saying: “I  suppose that he to whom he forgave most.”            Jesus replied:            “Thou hast rightly judged.”            Jesus turned toward the woman, saying to Simon:            “Seest thou this woman? I entered unto thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she hath washed my feed with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.  Thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.  My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, ‘Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little’.”             To the woman Jesus said:            “Thy sins are forgiven.”            Those who sat at the feast thought to themselves:            “Who is this that forgiveth sins also?”            Jesus said to the woman:            “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Great story today. This is one of my favorites in the scriptures. It's just a beautiful, beautiful thing. We can see the heart of Jesus Christ. We can see the heart and into the minds of some of the people around him. He actually opens a person,

he opens them up in public here. And it's probably somewhat embarrassing for poor old Simon. This is Simon the Pharisee we're going to be talking about. But what a beautiful story this is about the redemption and the love of Christ. You know, you get to talking about doctrine and theology and, you know, pointing out verses and playing with words. All this kind of stuff is fun,

but today we're going to talk about the real stuff. And what is that? It's Him redeeming us and making us better and loving us and forgiving us and being, you know, the very son of God that he came to be. Here, let's get into the story, shall we? This is chapter 25 in our book, The Words of Jesus, and it comes from Luke 7, starting

somewhere around the verse 36. Jesus accepted an invitation to go to the home of a Pharisee for a meal. This was Simon the Pharisee. While Jesus sat eating, a sinful woman of the city came to the house, bringing an alabaster box of ointment. She stood weeping and washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. I don't know if you have my book called The Red Letter Questions.

But in that book, I take some literary license with this story, but it's really, really worth reading. This story, as I was reading it in the scriptures, it was like it was just opened up to me, and I could just see this happening, and I tried my best to write those things down and share them with you. Red Letter Questions. You can find any books I've ever written, by the way, on Amazon or any of the Internet bookstores. You can go to your own bookstore and ask for it, and they can get it. That particular book is called The Red Letter Questions.

Now, here we have a woman that is known as a sinner. And it's not really clear as to who she was, but I see her as a woman who was looser than most. And she cut corners and allowed certain things in her life that perhaps she shouldn't. It was a different world in those days, you need to know.

There was no such thing as a woman on her own having the same stature in the community as a woman who was married. And her future financial capabilities were always in doubt. Her character was always in doubt. It was always tough for the women in these days and so they just made decisions that turned out to be poor ones in a lot of cases. Unscrupulous and uncaring and very

very unlovely people in the world were abusive to these women in just every way that you can imagine. And so Simon had a certain amount of abuse in him that you're going to see here, the kind of abuse that these kinds of women, if you'll allow me to say so, were either used to or at least very, very familiar with, that people felt this way about them. So this sinful woman of the city came close to the house

bringing an alabaster box of ointment. Now, this alabaster box, do you know what alabaster is? It's actually stone. And it's somewhat easy to carve. And it's impermeable that you know you could put an oil into a box that you carve out of well the kind of stone we have around here and over a period of time that entire stone will be soaked with that oil and it'll eventually go leaking through the rock. It's because it's the nature of the stone.

Well, the nature of the alabaster was that it didn't leak and it was used to house, house, it was used to contain certain oils and creams and tinctures and medicines and these kind of things. But because it was easy to carve, many times they were made to be very ornate. And some of them were very, very beautiful. However, the alabaster, as utilitarian as it happens to be is also fragile. Fragile enough that this

box can be broken when it's dropped. So it has to have a certain amount of care. This woman carried in this alabaster box a perfume, an ointment. And I assume that, you know, why would a woman of lower means, of questionable, you know, financial security and this kind of thing have such an expensive thing as this?

Well, you know, I don't know, but I can't help but think that she used it to ply her trade. I think that perhaps this perfume was the attractant that she would use in her... It wasn't a business. I'm not making this woman out to be a prostitute. I'm not making her out to be a whore. I'm just saying that there's a lot of things that were obvious to at least the general public, certainly to Simon the Pharisee, that this woman is a sinner. The Pharisee saw what the woman was doing, and he thought to himself, listen to this,

this man, if he were a prophet, Simon, what did you just say? If he were a prophet. Now I don't know if Simon invited him to his house for the very purpose of deciding exactly who Jesus was, what Jesus was, whether he was a prophet or not, an honest man. I don't know what he had in mind. Perhaps he invited him because he was convinced that Jesus was the prophet, or

he was a Pharisee, so he certainly understood the messianic prophecies and understood who the anointed one was supposed to be. Perhaps he just wanted to question him. But when this happened, all of a sudden this doubt came to the surface in Simon's mind and said, if this man, if he were a prophet, he would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she's a sinner.

Jesus said to the Pharisee, I can't help, it's a little emotional for me because this is one of the first things I ever heard the Lord say to me. When it came time for me to put my life where it belonged and I understood that the only way I was going to do that was by spending time with the Lord and listening for His voice. I know you'd like that first meeting or even maybe 15 or 20 subsequent meetings to be a very pleasant

thing and you got the goosebumps going and he kisses you on the forehead and you crawl up in his lap and you, whatever, you know these grandpa ideas that you may have about God. But you know there is such a huge distance between God's people and him that this has to be bridged. It has to be fixed. it has to be fixed and it cannot be ignored god is really not into fantasy like you are he can't just pretend like you're okay i'm okay you know everybody's got their own truth and he can't do that it's just not in his nature

he's he's just all about truth. His nemesis, the satanic influence in life that is his nemesis, it's his opposite, it's his enemy. You know what Jesus said about him? He's a liar and the father of it. Wow! If that is the reciprocal of what God is, God's truth and he's the father of it, you can't expect him to just ignore these things you can't expect him to love you

and if you want to have a relationship with him perhaps you should prepare for him to say something along the lines that he said to Simon. Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. Jesus was disappointed because he knew how Simon felt about this woman, that he knew had found her way out of her sin, likely had been recently baptized,

likely had recently become one of the ones who came and stood outside the temple as they read the Torah. And now she wants to put her life right. She knows what it's like to have her sins covered. She knows what it's like to be her sins covered. She knows what it's like to be forgiven. And her heart is broken, yet she has this attraction toward Jesus

that just surpasses every other attraction she's ever had for any man anywhere in her life. And now she's there. And she's there to say thanks. And Simon, the Pharisee who feels like he has no sin, feels like he has no need of any redemption that Jesus happens to be offering. I'm putting words in his mouth and it's not out of malicious intent.

I'm just surmising that something about what he had to say, something about the way he felt, something about him looking across the table and rubbing his beard and looking and then looking at Jesus and looking at that woman over there. I think Jesus perceived he's judging this woman. And Jesus looked over at him and said, Simon, I got something to talk to you about.

I wonder what he was going to talk to him about. Well, I am so tickled that what he did say to Simon was recorded in our Bibles. Because it would have drove me crazy wanting to know what he had to say to Simon. The Pharisee said, Master, say on. You got my permission. You got something to say to me?

Go ahead. Jesus said, there was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed him 500 pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Honestly and immediately. He frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of them will love him most?

What happened to the subject? I thought the subject was sinfulness. I thought the subject was her being nasty and wicked and sinful. And I thought the subject was whether or not you were a prophet. And your particular perception and your spiritual discernment of the situation, how did the subject jump from that to who loves who? Well, Jesus knew right away this is a matter of love.

It's a matter of love on her part. And friend, it's a matter of lack of love on yours. Boy, we need to be careful who we condemn. You don't know what the prior 24 hours were in a person's life. You have no idea. Why in the world would you condemn somebody because of the way they smell, or the way they look,

or the way they act, the way they talk, whatever habits are hanging on their life? Why in the world do we get this attitude? And I'll tell you, you don't have to cultivate it. Many people have it. Many people have it naturally. It comes natural for them. And we just need to be very careful with that. But you know, thank God that we have this communication promised

to us by the lord himself i appreciate that but boy sometimes that communication is hey something i want to talk to you about can you imagine can you imagine your dad saying this to you you come bouncing in from high school and you throw your books on the couch, and you run to the refrigerator to get something to drink. Hey, Dad, how you doing? I got something to talk to you about. Well, I'm telling you, perhaps, you know, one-tenth of the fear that goes through you

when you consider that was the fear that, I mean, ten times that. When the Lord says, I've got a problem with you. Oh, boy. I don't want you to have a problem with me. Well, so Jesus is going to teach Simon a lesson here. And he's essentially saying, what in the world do you expect? What do you expect a woman who has suffered under the slings and arrows of a

mouth like yours times a hundred people in Jerusalem? What do you expect a woman who has no hope for the future whatsoever, neither financially nor socially nor meritally, or in any other way, all of her hopes are dashed, all of her friends are gone, everything that she has that was of any worth whatsoever when she was a little girl

has long been frittered away at this particular point. And I come into her life and I say you can be new again. You can be whole again. You can be innocent again. And you expect her to do what? Wait outside? Really? Is that what you're expecting her to do you can you can wait out here we'll be out here in a minute the master is busy now he'll see you later no i assure you he'll see you now he'll see you now she loved him she appreciated what he did when it says that she came up behind him it's not uncommon in the Middle East to recline

when one eats even at a table there are no chairs around the table the table is about 12-14 inches high off the ground and it's not uncommon for people to sit on their legs or on their feet perhaps swung to one side or the other but I think that she kind of snuck in there. She saw where Jesus was sitting. She pops back out of the tent. She runs around the other side where she thinks he might be.

She raises the tent up and she sees him in there. And she sneaks in under the tent. And she goes in there and she starts to kiss his feet. And as she does, she's overwhelmed. She didn't come in there to wash his feet. It happened by mistake. These tears came from her eyes. Her face was at his feet. She was kissing his dirty feet.

She appreciated who he was and what he had done for her. And the Bible says that she reached and got a towel, and I think her intention for this towel was to apply this expensive and wonderful ointment, this perfume, that I don't think she had any intention of ever needing again. And she didn't just dole it out. She didn't just drip it out. She broke the box.

She had no intention on carrying any of that back with her. Now here's an expression of love toward Messiah. And man, just what, 12 feet away? Just over the table? Just, you know, through the wine glasses and through the bread plates, on the other side, is this mean and hateful Pharisee

despising every bit of her and willing at that point to despise him. Simon, I have something to say to you well he didn't know he was in trouble it wasn't long before he realized that he was Jesus says what do you expect her to do her sins are many

many yours okay they're few but they're sins she's been forgiven of many, many things. You've been forgiven of a few. Don't you think that it's right? Don't you think that this is expected? That her thanks to me would so far exceed yours? I guess I'm giving you the Harris translation and not

reading what's here. But you'll find that that's exactly his attitude about this is, their sins are many and they're forgiven. What do you expect her to do? Simon answered Jesus' question when he says, who do you think will love him most? Simon answered Jesus saying, I suppose he to whom he forgave most. Jesus said, thou hast rightly judged.

Now in this situation, you haven't judged rightly at all. In that situation, you judge rightly. How comes that, Simon? And Jesus, this is another portion of the scripture that really touched me the bible says that jesus turned toward the woman and said to simon do you see this happening i see this happening? I see this happening. I can see this happening. He turned toward the woman

and said to Simon, and he's looking right down Simon's nose when he says it. Do you see this woman? Friend, there is so much in that question. You can hardly walk away from it. You know the problem? You know what that resentment comes from? Why we hate sinners, people not like us, people that's got little red dots in their forehead

their skin's a little darker than ours they got brown eyes and i got blue eyes or any of the rest of this stupidity of bigotry and prejudice and racism and this ism and that ism You don't see the person. Don't you see this woman? This is a woman. This isn't a sinner. This is a woman. We have saved somebody this day. How is it you can look at her and see a whore, see a slut, see a prostitute, see a no good woman see somebody that you wouldn't even have her in your house sweeping your floors because you know why? You don't see a woman, I see a woman I see somebody who needs help and you don't

and you know what's caused this simon this sounds like it sounds like i'm saying that the more sins the better in a person's life but the problem is is you just don't sin that much you know this religious life it works out for you and you're happy in this life she's never even known this life i doubt she's ever even heard the torah read you live in it every day and so you think that everybody ought to live like you do you think everybody ought to have the understanding you do man is he talking to the modern church or not this is a problem people This is a problem with us. You know, I just think Christians don't look different.

Well, you know what? I do too. I think they should. But I don't think they ought to be ostentatious. I don't think they ought to flaunt their differences in front of other people and condemn them for not having whatever characteristics they think they should have. We just don't love people. You know, the Bible gives us three ways to know we're saved. I don't care. You got a little Roman

road tracked in your house? Throw it away. You got a little once saved, always tracked in your house? Throw it away. It's just chock full of lies and ridiculous logic let's go by the scriptures to decide whether or not a person is actually born again the bible says that you know number one because you keep his commandments do you keep his commandments i try well what are you going to do a judgment judgment? You say, well, am I going into the kingdom of God or not? And the Lord looks at you and says, well, I tried. Is that really what you're going for? No, you need to have a good solid yes. Yeah, I keep the commandments. I keep them, all of them. Well, nine of them. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You got to keep them all. That's how you know you've

been born again. Number one. Number two, we know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. You want to sit in judgment over a person like this? You want to compare yourself to them? You want to judge them as less than you because they don't see things the way you do they don't act the way you do they don't use the language you do they don't look like you they don't smell like you Wow that's just borderline stupid really and I'll tell you what I'd rather be called stupid than wicked so you know don't get mad at me about the word stupid you want to be called wicked because that's what it is it's just wickedness and evil man it's just it's just wrong we need

to love one another now he says see us now this woman i entered i entered into thine house, and you gave me no water from my feet. But she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss. But this woman, since I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head thou didst not anoint with oil but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Which by the way is considered a huge waste. Or something that kings and princes do. But the average man out there he might wash his feet. But you know anointing oil

it goes on the head wherefore did I say unto wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. To the woman, Jesus says, thy sins be forgiven. And those who sat at the feast thought to themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins also? Jesus saith to the woman, thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace.

What a beautiful story. Does this happen to you? Is this part of your life? Does this ever happen? You need to see to it that it does. If you do, you're going to love him much. All right, it's time for us to go. Wow, time just gets by.

Write to me, Don, at thinkredink.com on the Words of Jesus series. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you