my soap journal

Scripture:

Luke 7:36-39 “One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

Observation:

Another display of the difference Christ makes.  Sin separates people from God.  It’s a wholesale deal-breaker for any hopes of communing with our creator.  That was true before Christ, and it’s still true today.  God will not tolerate sin.  Christ, however, bridges the gap.  God wouldn’t be in the presence of this woman – Christ lets himself be washed, kissed, and anointed by her.  It’s interesting – those very things are what we need Christ to do for us.  Wash us of our sin, welcome us to His Kingdom, and given a new path.  In any case – Christ can tolerate the sin in us, not to remain in us, but our sin doesn’t keep us from him.  God recognized the chasm that would always exist and that he would not move.  He also recognized that despite our best, we could never bridge that chasm.  So he sends Christ – holy and pure – able to be both in the presence of God, and in the presence of sin to bridge that gap.  Astonishing.

Prayer:

Lord – Creator, thank you for Christ – for a deep love and desire to be in our presence and for sending Christ to make that possible.