Have you ever found yourself feeling distanced from God? Perhaps you’ve experienced the sweetness of fellowship with him as the gospel of Jesus warmed your heart. But perhaps you have also faced days or even seasons of not being enthusiastic about the things of God. Walking in sin surely sabotages the joy of fellowship or communion with God, but sometimes we experience times of doubt, distraction, or disarray that are inexplicable. The light of God’s face is harder for us to see, and we begin to long for a return to the intimacy with God we once had. Where is God in our times of lack?
A few years ago, I had the privilege of teaching a small group for RUF at Lynchburg College. Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) serves as the PCA’s primary vehicle to reach college students, pointing both weary Christians and doubting skeptics alike to Jesus for fulfillment. The group at Lynchburg College was fairly small, but those young adults still hold a special place in my heart to this day. Their campus was truly a place where the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few.
During that semester, our small group had been going through a series entitled Jesus and Your Life. We walked together through the Gospels as we sought to better understand the earthly ministry of Christ and how he tended to our brokenness, our frailties, our joy, and our faith.
As we came to Luke 7:36–50 one night, our group collectively found indescribable joy and solace in the story of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany.
Now, many of us at Grace have grown up in the church and are probably familiar with this passage. An uninvited woman came to Jesus at night to the house of Simon, and she anointed his feet and his head with an alabaster flask of ointment. But we may ask ourselves, “Why is this story important? What does it even matter that a woman came and anointed Jesus?”
The answer this account gives us is that Jesus’ anointing tells us everything about the human condition before a holy God.
Simon, who had invited Jesus over for supper, was a Pharisee who had formerly been a leper. It was common in that day to entertain guests who would elevate your own status before others, so Simon went all out and invited Jesus’ close disciples as well, though they were many. Simon had been healed from a vicious, life-threatening disease, and yet had risen to a place of high honor and respect as a Pharisee and student of the Law of God. He had much wealth and was progressively increasing in status before others.
In contrast, the woman who came to Jesus is described by Luke as being “a woman of the city,” code for one who had given herself over to various sins in the city streets. In Matthew and Mark’s accounts, the woman is left unnamed to emphasize Jesus’ graceful response to sinners over her specific situation, and yet in the Gospel of John, this woman is explained to be none other than Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who had all become dearly loved friends of Jesus.
In each of the Gospel accounts, the woman approached Jesus from a place and position of shame intertwined with faith and humility dovetailed with boldness. Breaking open her alabaster flask, she poured out several years’ worth of life savings upon Jesus. The aroma filled the room, drawing the attention of all around. Her sacrifice had cost her all of her own welfare, but for the sake of worshipping Jesus, her Lord and her King, it was wholly worthwhile.
However, she was soon rebuked by Simon, Judas Iscariot, and others circled around the expensive meal. As the flask had been broken, she too broke down into tears before Jesus. Though she had known Jesus prior and had been transformed by his grace, surely thoughts of her own unworthiness to come before Christ flooded her mind again. Voices of her shameful past joined together with the voices of those who denounced her presence.
Yet Christ lavishly spoke words of grace on her behalf. Like a prophet, Jesus spoke with authority to those who were riled up, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6; cf. Matt 26:10). And like a priest, Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48). And like a king holding authority, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:50).
Looking at our own lives, when we ourselves feel distanced from God, we do well to seek the Lord—to come before him in honest prayer and to not shrink back from doing so. We hear from God when we read of Jesus in the Word of God. And those who hear his word from a place of humble reception and faith are always refreshed, for his word never returns void.
As we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus this week, may we be reminded of the sweet invitation from Christ to come to him, no matter our estate, no matter our feelings, or our lack. All he requires is to feel our need of him.
As Jesus himself told us at the end of Holy Week, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).