and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.
Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this man who even forgives sins?" (Luke 7:38, 49 NASB)
Real estate agents often say, "Location is everything". In these verses, we find the importance of location before God as well.
In the first instance, the repentant, weeping woman positioned herself behind Jesus and at His feet. It was the position of a follower (from behind) and of humility (at His feet). When she dried His feet with her hair, she was not only behind Him, she was kneeling at His feet, a position of penitence. Her physical position wordlessly demonstrated the attitude of her heart toward Christ. She was a repentant, humble disciple and, as she knelt at his feet, her sins were washed away and her eternal destiny was secured. She became a clean, new woman.
The other guests took a very different position. They were "reclining at the table with Him". These people chose a position of equality with Christ. They sat beside Him. There was no humility. There was no evidence of penitence or discipleship. In the end, they recognized that the woman, that weeping bundle of brokenness on the floor, had gained something they had not, and wondered about it. Her sins had been forgiven. There seems to have been no doubt about it. "Who is this man?" they wondered. They wondered, but neither their position nor their hearts changed, and their question went unanswered.
The position, or "location" we choose to assume before God is vitally important, and has eternal consequences. Do we opt for an equal position, expecting that our opinions and desires have equal merit before our righteous and holy God? Do we assume the position of penitence, humility, and brokenness? There is a vast difference of heart accompanying those two positions, and we do well to examine our own position before God.
Giving our own desires and opinions equal or greater weight in comparison to God's may be the way of our world, but it is not the way of forgiveness and healing. Only one person left the dinner party that night with a soul redeemed by mercy and grace, and it was not one of those sitting at the table. It was the weeping bundle of brokenness on the floor. Her position of humility before Christ may have seemed untenable to those at the table, but it yielded her an eternal reward, and it can do the same before us.
Pray today that the position we and our loved ones assume before God will be one of humility and penitence. Pray, too, for the brokenness that leads to true discipleship and a life redeemed by mercy and grace.
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Link to last night's post: http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/06/all-kinds-of-knowing.html
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