Choosing Intimacy (title is link to sermon)
This is part three of the "Not a Fan" series by Kyle Idleman.
What path are we on?
So many people think they are on the right path and to their credit believe it to be the right path because that is the way they were taught.
In Luke Chapter 7, we read about two people who encounter Jesus on very different paths.
In Luke 7:36 Jesus is invited to eat at Simon the Pharisee’s house.
Simon doesn’t give Jesus a kiss when He walks in, though that was the custom—at least on the hand. Typically the custom would’ve been to wash the feet of your guest or to have a servant do it. Jesus’ feet go unwashed. Oftentimes when you had a guest, especially a distinguished guest, you would give them some inexpensive olive oil to anoint their head. That was their custom. None of this happened for Jesus.
Then we see in verse 38 a woman walks into this house and she is weeping and she is crying, and she falls at the feet of Jesus and the tears now are dripping off her cheeks and onto the dirty, muddy feet of Jesus that should’ve been washed by the Pharisee.
And she sees that they’re not washed; she sees how her tears are making the dirt run off of His feet and she undoes her hair. I don’t think she planned this. She would’ve assumed His feet would be cleaned, but they’re dirty. So with her tears she washes His feet and with her hair she dries His feet. She begins to kiss them, crying, broken. She pulls out a jar of very expensive perfume and she pours it on His feet.
In a picture, that’s intimacy. And until you’ve witnessed or been in that kind of relationship, you won’t know what intimacy is.
I could read you the definition, explain where the word comes from or how the word is used, but you wouldn’t really know what intimacy is. You would just know about intimacy.
One Hebrew scholar calls it, “A mingling of the souls.”
Honestly, intimacy can be pretty scary, because it involves allowing yourself to be vulnerable. And many people fear intimacy with others and with God because they know that vulnerability and pain go hand in hand. So many people have experienced a betrayal, or a crushing blow from someone close to them. They opened up, they made themselves vulnerable, and then someone let them down.
And when we make ourselves vulnerable to God, we know He’s going to find some things that we’re not proud of.
Think of the sinful woman in Luke 7.
A woman of ill repute, she knew she had sin in her life that made her unworthy to touch the Messiah.
And because we’ve all fallen short, we know that God’s going to look into our lives and find things that He doesn’t condone. So it kind of makes sense that many people would be afraid of that vulnerability.
But followers know that there’s so much more gained from intimacy with God, because then we know that He’s there with us through any pain we endure.
That comfort, knowing that God’s with you, can only come through intimacy. Amen?
Simon sees all this woman does for Jesus, her embarrassing actions, and the Bible tells us in Luke chapter 7, verse 39…it says, “When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus 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.’”
But Jesus, who knew Simon’s thoughts, answered him, “Look, I came in the house. You did not give me a kiss, not even on my hand. She hasn’t stopped kissing my feet. You gave me nothing to wash my feet with, and she is washing my feet with her tears. You gave me no olive oil for my head; she has poured perfume on my feet.”
And people can just see the brokenness of this woman, and then Jesus turns to this woman and He says, “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”
Simon brought Jesus to the meal, but all he wanted was knowledge. He wanted to keep things shallow, and he defined his relationship by not washing Christ’s feet, not caring to kiss him, not being willing to anoint his head, but this woman was willing to open up to Jesus.
She made herself vulnerable, being totally willing to open up and let Jesus know her.
So, I ask you today, will you let Jesus know you?
Will you embrace the close and intimate relationship He wants to have with you?
Choose Intimacy today.
Be blessed
Comments
Amen