FBC Daily Devotional – June 22, 2021

Good Tuesday to you. How did your Monday go? Hope you got a lot accomplished. You got your week off to a good start and Got summer off to a good start. So here we are a second day of summer and We find yourselves reading in the book of Luke and come across Another Pharisee.

We keep running into these Pharisees. Don't we in these New Testament? readings so far Matthew Mark and Luke and they're all over the place and They give Jesus a lot of hard times don't they and he in turn deals with them in a rather forthright manner and that and the reason for that is one of the reasons for that is Jesus is God.

God is a God of grace and a Pharisee whether he's a Pharisee in the New Testament sense or in modern-day Pharisee a Pharisee cannot Understand grace and he cannot accept grace. He he can't accept anyone into his into his Orbit who is who he considers to be more wretched than himself.

He just can't do it and he can't accept the idea that.

Grace.

Should be extended to someone who is more wretched than he is. And of course, that's about everybody because nobody's. You know, nobody's as righteous as the Pharisee. Nobody's as good as he is. He just and he just can't stand being around them.

So here this here's this Pharisee who's throwing a dinner party and invites Jesus to come to dinner and at this dinner party here comes in a woman who is a sinner and. We know we don't quite understand the culture of this because you know, we have a dinner party.

We have people we invite. They come into our home. We close the door and whoever has been invited. They're the ones that are around the table. Well in that culture is a little bit different kind of a setting.

Dinners like this were often held in an open courtyard and a lot of times people could come and go to Intermingle with the guests at the table, even if they didn't have anything to eat. So anyway here's Jesus reclining at the table and in comes this woman and.

She.

Begins to wash his feet with her tears she's weeping and. The way she's described in verse 37 is that she is a woman in the city who was a sinner. Who was a sinner now, you might read that and say well, of course she was all have sinned and come short of the glory.

I mean, everybody's a sinner yeah, but that's a really kind of a euphemistic way of saying that she was she was like a prostitute and Or very sexually promiscuous. Whether or not she got paid for it or not.

This was the kind of woman that she was until grace reached her. But she carried with her that stigma of what her life was before she was affected by Jesus before grace reached her and the Pharisee knows full well what kind of woman this is and.

As she is wiping Jesus feet with her hair and the tears wipe falling from her eyes and She's cleaning his feet with her hair. I mean, this is Sounds incredible to us that that would happen. Yeah, it it did and It was a common thing.

It was an expected thing when you go to as a guest to somebody's house that you have a servant that will. There's a servant there at that house that will wash your feet because you're wearing sandals on a dusty road.

That was just an act of hospitality. But the Pharisee sees this what's happening and he he just gets this look of consternation and he has this attitude of disgust like. And then he's critical of Jesus.

He must not he must not be a prophet. He must not be who everybody thinks he is because because if he were he would know what kind of a woman this is and if he knew what kind of a woman this was. There is no way in the world that he would let her touch him.

This is attitude and of course Jesus rebukes him for this and points out the fact that. She's doing this because she loves much and she loves much because she's been forgiven much. She understands grace and she responds to grace.

With.

Immense gratitude and demonstrations of love. That's the way someone responds that understands grace. They respond with immense gratitude and they and they understand Grace as it's shown to others. So as Jesus rebukes the Pharisee, he's essentially pointing out.

Mr. Pharisee. You don't appreciate this because you don't understand grace. You don't understand grace and You don't therefore love very much. You haven't been forgiven for very much. Why not because he doesn't think he needs to be forgiven of anything.

He's the same kind of he's a good example of the Pharisee that Jesus uses in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee the Pharisee and the tax collector which will come up later in our reading in the book of Luke.

One who stands and looks up to heaven and says Oh God, I thank you that I'm not like everybody else. I'm not like these sinners over here. And here's this Pharisee in his house who's looking upon this woman and with disgust and can't stand there even being in his presence and Is so thankful that he's not like her but must what must be wrong with this man.

Who's letting her wipe his feet with her hair? He must be he must be crazy himself. He must be wicked himself. You know this same attitude is seen in people today. Professing Christians who supposedly have been recipients of grace and yet when they see Someone else who's had a bad past and is is you know God has touched them and they're trying to put that past behind them.

They have no use for such a person. They have no use for him. Why don't understand grace? Don't understand grace. I Want to encourage us not to be like this Pharisee. But instead To love much if we've really been forgiven because if you have come to faith in Jesus Christ You have been forgiven much.

So I never committed sins like this harlot. No, maybe not but your sins are sins and the wages of your sin is death. Just as it was hers. So if you have been the recipient of grace don't despise grace being exhibited to others.

Instead be grateful for it and praise God for that grace extended. All right. Well, let's pray and ask the Lord to help us to be a grace filled people who have been the recipients of that grace. Our Father and our God deliver us from being Pharisees.

May the grace of God that has reached down into our hearts and lives may that grace be extended to others and May we relish in every display of your grace we pray in Jesus name. All right. Well, have a wonderful Tuesday and I trust God will bless you in it.

Good day.