So it is “LOVE” month according to the commercial retailers who have yet another chance to increase their store profits with large purchases of chocolates, stuffed animals, flowers and jewelry including dinner reservations and let’s add a bottle of expensive sweet perfume!
Don’t get me wrong, I love a box full of chocolates any day of the year! As a little girl, I could not wait for my Dad to bring me my big heart box of chocolates and I would sit in my room smelling the aroma of the various pieces of delicious looking chocolates and running my fingers around the smooth curves of the heart box knowing all these were for me. (I always made sure my mom got her own box from Dad). And then the tasting would begin. One little bite here and there. Sometimes I would have 5 or 6 pieces with little bites on them because I wanted to see what was inside. Thank goodness I didn’t continue to do that as an adult! Imagine if you could take a bite out of someone just to see what is really inside and then decide whether you would like them or not. Or better yet … did they take a bite out of you? Only to throw you aside and decide there were other better tasting “candies” to explore?
There is a woman in the bible that touched my heart very deeply and I have understood her more as the years pass by as she is referenced several times in the New Testament and more specifically in the books of Mark and Luke. So much so that in the book of Mark it is written Mark 14:9 "Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
So who is this woman? She is a woman with a lot of imperfections, a sinful past, probably a prostitute or someone with a long list of past lovers but no husband. Someone who was looked down upon in society and not liked at all by other women let alone religious or community leaders. But this woman had such a grateful heart that it burst with love toward a very special guest visiting a house nearby. Ignoring the glares of disapproval, she enters and proceeds to pour out the most exquisite smelling perfume oil out of an alabaster jar. She pours this on the special guests’ feet, head and with her hair washed his feet with her tears. Let’s read this again “she washed his feet” with her tears. This special guest as you know was Jesus. And he was so touched by this woman’s expression of love, that he proceeded to set the people straight who were in the home because he could see their hearts clouded with judgment toward her.
Luke 7:45-47 “You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
She loved much because this woman knew she had been forgiven of many things. Her new life began when she understood that forgiveness. She may have saved up many years for that bottle of perfume, it could have been the only gift she had received in her life and treasured. She never hesitated once and brought that gift, the jar of oil and generously poured that expensive perfume over the feet and head of the one that had freed her from her past. She now had a future of hope, restoration and LOVE. What better way to show it?
Never forget that there is one who looks at you with great and perfect Love. You may not realize that you have washed the master’s feet many times over the years with your tears. When you cried silently at night, those tears didn’t just stain your pillow, they stained the heart of God.
Jesus is not forgetful, just like he made sure this woman would be referenced forever not just in eternity but on the pages of his word. Our society says, “Show me some Love”. I say, “Show Jesus some Love”. You will always be loved much – because you have been forgiven much by him.
