How would you feel if someone barged uninvited into your home while you were having a dinner guest, and upstaged you in front of your honored guest?\u00c2\u00a0 And to make matters worse, suppose the intruder was a neighbor who continually made trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Chances are you would be upset.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what happened to this Pharisee and he was upset.\u00c2\u00a0 So, why does Jesus take the intruder’s side?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now the Pharisee’s invite to Jesus was the in-thing to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Jesus was the talk of the town.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody sought after him at that time.\u00c2\u00a0 How fortunate was this Pharisee to have his invitation accepted.\u00c2\u00a0 But in reality, the Pharisee lacks sincerity. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It was, after all, the message that Jesus preached that made him popular, and that should have been the substance of his meeting with Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Pharisee does not even seem to be aware of the message that Jesus was teaching.\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed Jesus scolds the Pharisee for not providing some of the customary honors due an important guest- no water to cool and wash his feet; and no oil to anoint his head.\u00c2\u00a0 So, the Pharisee is not displaying that he is honored by Jesus acceptance.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, it is as if he feels that it is an honor for Jesus to be in his presence.\u00c2\u00a0 On the contrary, the sinful woman lavishes honor on Jesus and displays true humility.\u00c2\u00a0 She bathes Jesus with her tears, and anoints him with a fine perfume.\u00c2\u00a0 This woman was repenting- she had taken to heart her own inadequacies.\u00c2\u00a0 She was responding to the message that Jesus had proclaimed, and she was determined to lay it all out in sincerity to Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 The Pharisee does not even seem aware of his sin or the need to repent.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather the Pharisee was preoccupied with his own importance, and not the opportunity to internalize Jesus message first hand.<\/p>\n
How about you and I?\u00c2\u00a0 Are we here to honor Jesus and to repent of our sinful tendencies?\u00c2\u00a0 Or are we deluding ourselves by thinking that our presence sets us apart from our sinful neighbor?\u00c2\u00a0 Jesus is looking for our burdens, our sin, and our repentance.\u00c2\u00a0 He is not looking for a list of our perceived strengths.\u00c2\u00a0 Our challenge is always and everywhere to strive to be like him.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, as Paul put it in Timothy:\u00c2\u00a0 “Let no one have contempt for youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.”\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
September 17, 2009 Thursday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time 1 Tim 4: 12-16; Lk 7: 36-50 Dc. Larry Brockman How would you feel if someone barged uninvited into your home while you were having a dinner guest, and upstaged you in front of your honored guest?\u00c2\u00a0 And to make matters worse, suppose the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}