Day 86
Deuteronomy 7:1‐8:20; Luke 7:36‐8:3; Psalm 69:1‐18; Proverbs 12:1
Your Perspective or God’s?
You’re giving a dinner party. A streetwalker enters the room uninvited and kneels behind one of your guests—letting down her hair, caressing and kissing his feet, crying softly all the while. The code of your religion, which you hold dear, is being broken in several ways all at once. Why isn’t your guest, whom many are admiring as a prophetic teacher and a healer, making her stop?
Jesus asks you to consider not what you thought you knew about her, but what she is now doing: acting selflessly as a servant, her heart broken. This prodigal daughter of God is showing boldly that she wants to come home. Should she now be affirmed for this change in her as pleasing to God, even if it is only temporary? Or should she be dragged back into condemnation for her past, or met with skepticism about the sincerity of this new behavior?
Jesus welcomes us home, despite our sins, which are many: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Are we just as willing to look beyond another’s past or outward appearance, what we think we know about her or him, to extend the loving “welcome home” embrace of Christ?
Is there someone you think you know who might be closer to God than you can see, maybe waiting to see what you, someone who professes to follow Christ, will respond?
“For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13, ESV)
The Rev. Dr. Steve Clifton