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A week ago I had the honor of doing a wedding ceremony in France and was able to spend a few days in Paris. It was an amazing experience to visit the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe and at least see part of the outside of Notre Dame. I walked down the Champs Elysees which is home to stores like Gucci and Cartiers but in 1988 Parisans were shocked when it became the home to McDonalds. It is actually the largest McDonalds in the world and does the most business. In case you aren’t a McDonalds fan, there is also a Five Guys, and no, I didn’t eat at either one.
But I did eat. There are cafes all along the streets of Paris and they are filled with people enjoying time with family and friends. From late afternoon through the night they are filled with people enjoying croissants, cheese, cafe au lait, and wine. Eating is a big part of French culture. As part of the wedding, I enjoyed 3 amazing dinners. One was held on a boat traveling along the River Seine and it lasted for over 3 hours. The second was the rehearsal dinner which also lasted over 3 hours, and the third was the wedding reception itself which lasted 6 hours and included 5 courses.
During all these meals, I was reminded about the wedding in Cana that Jesus attended with His family and friends. Weddings, in Jesus’ day, could last three days, and now I see how that can happen. If you remember that story, it was at the end of the feast that Jesus turned water into wine to keep the festivities going. Jesus must have been a little bit French, or maybe the French learned something about wedding receptions from Jesus.
I’m glad I got to spend a week enjoying a lot of time at meals last week because it makes me appreciate this sermon series even more. Today we are beginning a series called Dinner with Jesus and what we are going to see is that when Jesus showed up for a meal, it was not just a time to eat. Meals were the times and places when lives were changed. Meals were places where people celebrated God’s abundance and grace. They were places where people were loved and accepted. For Jesus, meals were opportunities to forgive and restore people. These were times to welcome and teach and challenge and heal people. Meals were moments of worship and transformation. All of this could happen because people made the time and created space to eat together.
The opening of McDonalds along the Champs Elysees didn’t bring about the end of the world, but for many people in Paris, something important died. Fast food isn’t the end of our world either, but fast food, eating from a bag on the run, is diminishing us. A part of us is dying because we aren’t taking the time to eat together. So as we begin this series I want to issue this challenge. As a family or with a group of friends, add one more intentional meal together during this month. If you set aside time one day a week to eat together, try for two. If you eat together on the weekends, add a day during the week. And when you sit down to eat, ask Jesus to join you so that your meal won’t just nourish you physically but spiritually as well.
One of the things we forget about meals in the Jewish tradition is that they were also times of worship. The Passover wasn’t celebrated in the Synagogue or the Temple but in people's homes as they sat down to eat. Worship took place around tables as people came together to share their lives, their love, and their faith. So it’s not surprising that at one dinner with Jesus we see an example of what it means to truly worship God.
In this story we see 2 people at the meal with Jesus who were both untouchable: a sinful woman and a self-righteous man.
When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured 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 who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Luke 7:35-38
There were other guests at the dinner, but we only hear about two. The first is a Pharisee who we later learn is named Simon. As a Pharisee, Simon made sure that he and everyone else followed all the laws. Pharisees were often judgmental, and Jesus’ harshest criticism was aimed at them. Jesus called them white washed tombs because while they always tried to look clean and righteous on the outside by following all the rules, their hearts were filled with judgment and deceit. That was Simon. He had invited Jesus to his home curious about whether or not He could be the son of God, but when Jesus doesn’t follow the rules and allows this woman to touch Him, he is sure that Jesus is not a real prophet.
The other person we hear about at the table is the woman. What we know about her is that she had a reputation in town as a sinner and she was either wealthy or at least had one great item of value to her name, an alabaster jar of perfume. Some believe that the jar of perfume may have been worth a year's wages, so it was an expensive gift she has used to anoint Jesus. Whether it was all she had, or if she had more at home, we don’t know. We do know she was willing to pour it all over Jesus.
We also don’t know what kind of sinner she is. Most commentators believe she was a prostitute, but it doesn’t say that. Luke could have been clear about her sin, but he wasn’t. And neither was Jesus. Jesus didn’t reveal her past. He didn’t shame her or humiliate her. Pointing out sin is not the focus of the story, forgiveness is the focus, and this is an important lesson for us all.
While confessing our sin and coming to terms with the reality of our past is important, God is not in the business of shaming us. Too often we want to point out the sin of others, or even focus on the sin in our own lives, but Jesus doesn’t. Jesus didn’t push this woman away or make her confess all she had done wrong before he forgave her. Jesus wasn’t there to condemn but to love. He wasn’t there to judge but forgive.
John 3:16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. But the next verse is what Jesus does here.
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17
Jesus does not condemn the woman, He welcomes her. Simon, on the other hand, condemns her. He passes judgment on her and not only sets himself apart from her but from Jesus as well. He makes himself untouchable and misses out on the loving touch of God. Two very different responses to Jesus at this dinner. Simon was there to judge and condemn but the woman had come to worship. Simon, in his self-righteousness and sin, didn’t receive God’s grace or mercy, but the woman did and from her we learn what the transforming worship of God looks like.
Worship begins with BOLDNESS. This woman was bold. Everyone knew she was a sinner so she had to know that she wasn’t going to be welcomed in the home of a Pharisee, let alone at the table with his guests. She must have known that the chances were good that she would be either barred from entering or thrown out soon afterward, but she went anyway. She didn’t know if she would be stoned for her actions but she certainly knew she would be shamed, but yet she went anyway. She was bold and entered into the presence of Jesus.
What did you think was going to happen to you the first time you went to worship? I talk with people who say that if they come to church the roof will cave in. I assure them that it won’t, but they feel either unworthy or unwelcome. Many people avoid worshiping with others because they think they will be set apart, shamed, or humiliated because of their past. Joining others in worship takes boldness. It takes courage.
It also takes boldness and courage to enter the presence of Jesus. While we hear of His love and compassion, and we can read about His forgiveness and mercy, we can still feel unworthy to worship the living God. Will God forgive me? Can God forgive me? It takes boldness for us to come into the presence of God but it is in God’s presence that we experience the transforming love of God.
While the woman was bold and entered the home and came to the table with Jesus, she was by no means proud or arrogant. She came with HUMILITY. True worship requires us to humble ourselves before God and we get a picture of what humility in worship looks like if we step back and look at this dinner.
The woman is kneeling at the feet of Jesus. She has lowered herself in His presence and is anointing Jesus’ head with her oil as her tears and hair wipe away the dirt on His feet. She has lowered herself, and in the end God lifts her up. Simon, on the other hand, is standing far off. I picture him standing, looking down on this scene with scorn. He has separated himself from Jesus and His mercy. He has withheld his love from the woman and from Jesus and therefore doesn’t experience God’s love in return.
How do we enter worship? Do we come with humility or pride? Do we see ourselves as good enough to be here so we can stand in judgment over others, or are we simply grateful that God has opened the door for us to be here? We should be truly humble because none of us are good enough to be here on our own. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory so it is only by God’s grace that we can enter into worship. It is only because of Jesus that we can experience the presence and power of God.
So we come with humility and with humility comes HONESTY. This woman was honest about her sin. She knew all that she had done. She knew she was a sinner and needed to be forgiven, that’s why she was there at Jesus’ feet. She wasn’t trying to be someone she was not. She wasn’t trying to hide or cover anything up - she honestly came to Jesus and He accepted her.
Simon, on the other hand, was not being honest. He thought he was righteous enough to pass judgment on others. He wasn’t honest about his own sin and his own failure to love others. We need to be honest, none of us are perfect. Every one of us has our own failures and shortcomings and while we don’t need to hide in our guilt and shame, we do need to be honest about our sin and our need for a Savior. When we are honest about our sin - God forgives us. When we acknowledge that we need a Savior - Jesus stands ready to save.
The woman humbled herself and was honest about her life, and she was forgiven. Simon was full of pride and pretended to be something he was not and he didn’t receive the transforming power of God’s grace and love. For worship to change us and heal us and forgive us, we need to humble ourselves so God can lift us up. We need to honestly confess our sin so that God can forgive us.
The last quality of worship we see from this woman is that our worship needs to be EXTRAVAGANT. We tend to think that extravagant means expensive and while it can be, it is more than that. Extravagant means lacking restraint and this woman held nothing back. She boldly entered a place that she may not have been welcomed. She poured perfume all over Jesus which must have filled the home with a strong aroma. She wept openly and publicly and even allowed her tears to clean the dirt of Jesus' feet. She held nothing back and that is true worship.
True worship holds nothing back. Extravagance is not about the size of the gift we place in the offering box, it’s about emptying ourselves in the presence of Jesus. Extravagant worship is singing with passion because the words echo our hearts. Extravagance is praying deeply and earnestly because we desire to communicate with Jesus. Extravagance is weeping for our sin because we are being honest about all the ways we keep ourselves from God, and then weeping with joy because of all the ways God forgives us and redeems and draws us close to Him.
Too often we restrain ourselves in worship instead of allowing God’s spirit to lead us ever deeper. We hold back so we don’t look too emotional or too radical. We hold back because we don’t want to stand out and look foolish. We hold back and because we do, we miss the blessing of God’s love. Simon held back and missed everything. Jesus was at his house and eating at his table and yet because Simon was self-righteous and concerned about his appearance and what his friends might think of the scene unfolding at his home, he missed the transforming power of God’s love and grace. He held back and lost everything.
We can’t hold back when we come to worship, and we can’t hold back when we are at the table with Jesus. We will look at this very special dinner with Jesus (communion) in a few weeks, but for now, let’s come to this table with a boldness, humility and honesty that will help us throw off all that tries to hold us back. Let’s have a real dinner with Jesus and watch our lives be transformed.
Next Steps
Dinner With Jesus - True Worship
Sermon Series Challenge: Each week have one more dinner with your family and friends and invite Jesus to join you.
Read Luke 7: 36-50. Compare and contrast the two guests identified at this dinner with Jesus.
True worship requires:
BOLDNESS
● Identify the ways this woman showed boldness.
● What boldness is required when we enter worship?
● When have you needed boldness to worship God?
HUMILITY
● Identify the ways this woman showed humility.
● Why is humility needed for our worship of God?
● Read what the Bible says about humility: James 4:6-7, James 4:10, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalms 25:9, 149:4, and Proverbs 3:34.
HONESTY
● How do we know this woman was being honest about her life?
● Why was Simon not being honest about his life?
● Why is honesty needed for our worship of God?
● What do you need to be honest about as you approach worship?
RAVAGANCE
● Identify all the abundance seen in this dinner with Jesus.
● How can you be more extravagant in your worship?
● In what areas do you tend to hold back in worship and in your relationship with God, the church, and the world. How can you be extravagant this week?
