The Non-Prayer of Simon the Pharisee for the Tearful Woman at Jesus' Feet

 Mourning can teach us how to pray for a wayward relative or a wayward culture.  Because we don't want to wallow in misery and regret, consider the following as you mourn in prayer for another.

1.  Mourning:  By understanding the ways of God and the rebellion of man, you can pray with greater focus and intensity.  Learn to walk with that person through the consequences of sin, feel their pain, ask for their repentance.

2.  Yearning:  As I pray for my friend or my nation in the predicament of judgment and sin, let me yearn for something more.  They were made to reflect the character and glory of God.  They were made in His image.  The relationship with God that could bring them contentment and satisfaction has eluded them.  What a blessing it would be for them to find Christ, to turn from their ways, and to reflect His glory!

3.  Worship:  Now my prayer turns from my friend to the God who made them, their Creator, Redeemer, and Judge.  God's justice is impartial and perfect.  His offer of forgiveness through Christ, His grace and mercy are beautiful.  O That all people might wonder after such a God as this!

4.  Intercession:  Having seen my friend as he is, and God as He is, I long that they find each other.  I intercede on behalf of my friend.  I know that "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and God turns it however he pleases."

I can imagine in my mind, if Simon had been a different sort of religious man, that he might have prayed for the sinful woman, the tearful woman at Jesus' feet.  He could have left us a pattern, how to pray for our wayward child, our wayward nation.  He might have prayed:

(Mourning)  "Ah, Lord, do you see the condition of my friend?  She is trapped in her sins and she can't get out.  The consequences of her actions have brought her open shame.  Her iniquities have isolated her from you and from others.  She is alone in her grief.  Her tears are just the outward evidence of the pain in her heart.  

(Yearning)  "Lord, you made her for more than this!  The image of God within her can shout your glory.  She is made for a relationship with you.  She needs to know your love and compassion, your forgiveness and healing.  What a difference you could make in her life!

(Worship)  "O God, You are a great and compassionate God.  I have known your love and forgiveness.  Your healing has brought me joy.  Your justice has been vindicated at the cross and I have been healed.  If only my friend could see your Fullness, which are my joy and delight.

(Intercession)  O Lord, heal my friend.  Dry her tears.  Heal her wounds- the ones we can see and the ones we cannot see.  Grant her repentance.  Call her to Yourself.  Make her whole.  We long to see in her what only You can do.  What you did for me, please do for her...

Sermon on the Mount: Mourning, Wisdom, and the Religion of Simon

 Solomon echoes the sentiment of Jesus in this second beatitude.  "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting" (Ecc. 7:2).  Why is mourning better?  Here are my thoughts.

1.  To mourn properly, the wise man must understand the ways of God.  What is God like?  What is the effect of His righteousness in the world?  How has God constructed His world in a moral sense?  Good Theology will help us here.  Bad Theology will leave us mourning in the wrong places and for the wrong reasons.

2.  To mourn properly, the wise man must understand the rebellion of man.  Every sin, however slight, is cosmic treason to a perfect, holy God.  Rebellion gathers sins as it rolls down the hill toward destruction.  The wise man learns to see the traps and pitfalls of temptation.  More than once has he heard the snap of a trap around neck of the unwary.  More than once has he shouted warnings to the fool, but to no avail.  In this, he mourns.

3.   To mourn properly, the wise man must empathize with the sinner because he himself has taken that path.  He watches helplessly, but for prayer, as the sinner or the sinning nation blindly enters into the consequences of sin and God's righteous judgment.

At the dinner in Simon's house, the tearful woman is condemned by Simon.  She might have been helped if he had truly known the character and ways of God.  If he had remembered his own rebellion and its sinful consequences, he might have been in a position to understand the plight of the woman and point her to God.  As it was, all of his religious training did her no good (him either).

The Rabbi at the meal, however, was wise.  He understood the character and ways of God because He was God.  He also knew the weakness of man, his temptations and the path of rebellion.  He was tempted in all ways, like as we are, yet without sin."  He was also loving, moved to forgive the woman who met Him with tears.  And just like the many surprising reversals in Jesus' teaching, the one we expect to be forgiven is condemned and the one condemned by the crowd, walks away clean.

Sermon on the Mount: Mourning and the Pharisee

 "This man receives sinners and eats with them" was the common complaint of Jesus' religious critics.  Yet, he ate with Pharisees as well (Luke 7:36ff).  Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus for dinner and he accepted.  At the meal, the house filled with interested observers, looking for a glimpse of the up and coming rabbi.

One person was drawn to the meal who was not wanted.  She immediately felt the judgment of the crowd.  "Put her out of the camp, stone her, see that she is removed from polite society."  The crowd, and Simon, condemned her.

The sinful woman, unnamed in Luke's account, came in tears.  Her shoulders bore the weight of her sin and its consequences.  She had no illusions regarding her standing with God or with society.   Her tears were the pain of desperation.  Her spiritual poverty drew her to Jesus.

Simon became critical of Jesus because she wept at his feet, anointed them with oil, and wiped her tears with her hair.  She was in mourning for her sin and the consequences that had led her to this hour.  This was not a parable of Jesus.  The tearful woman, the mourner, walked away comforted.  Simon, who sat in condemnation, found himself judged.

Sermon on the Mount: What Does It Mean to Mourn?

 The first two Beatitudes are an interesting pair.  To be poor in spirit is to be spiritually bankrupt, having nothing of merit to commend ourselves before God.  If we do not receive the grace of God, we are loss.  To recognize that bankruptcy is to be poor in spirit.

The second Beatitude is like it.  To mourn is to grieve the nature and impact of sin in ourselves.  We see the consequences of sin in our own lives and we mourn the destruction.  It leads us to repentance.  Paul writes, "For godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death" (II Cor.7:10).  There is deep regret for our own waywardness- our sinful, self-destructive tendency to do our own thing, to act as if God did not exist.

When we mourn our own sin, it leads us to repentance.  It is not the morbid preoccupation with our own inadequacies.  I am not to wallow in discouragement for the rest of my life.  Mourning for sin leads me to my Savior.  Jesus takes my sin upon Himself and gives me His righteousness.  The task of mourning is finished with regards to my sin and its consequences.  Now, faith grabs hold of God's promise of forgiveness and cleansing.  To continue to wallow as a kind of penance is to deny the promise of God.

Another king of false mourning is the kind of mourning seen in the lives of Saul and Cain.  Saul is confronted by Samuel for his sin and he responds by admitting his transgression.  Yet, he wants to still be honored before the people.  There is no regard for the sin against God.  Cain, after God confronts him for killing his brother says "my sin is more than I can bear."  He decries his punishment, but does not repent of his sin.  That's not mourning.

We mourn our own sin, and we mourn the sins of others.  David mourns, "My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law" (Psalm 119:136).  God regards those who mourn for public, corporate sins:  "Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it" (Ezekiel 9:4).

Finally, the ministry of mourning is temporary, a part of this life.  Comfort is for eternity.  Note the order:  Mourning is first; comfort comes after.  Beware of reversing the order:  Luke warns "Woe to you that laugh now..."  Only in the final state of glory will our comfort be complete.

Sermon on the Mount: What Does it Mean to be Blessed?

 In the Sermon on the Mount, there are eight blessings pronounced by Jesus upon His followers.  What does it mean to be blessed?

It could mean an abundance of wealth.  Yet, Solomon says there is a difference between having wealth and being given the power to enjoy it.  Paul writes that we can be blessed by God "and he adds no trouble to it."  Riches, by themselves, do not have the power to satisfy our souls.

It could mean simply "happiness"- those events of life that bring us joy and pleasure.  We know, however, that such happiness may not last.  Solomon even says that good things and trouble sometimes happen together.  Simple happiness doesn't last.  Our souls remain discontent.

Our hearts truly long for more:  Contentment, Satisfaction, Well-being, Fulfillment.  We want happiness on the inside, where the events of the hour cannot change it.  We want happiness that is permanent, that carries over into eternity.  Can true happiness be found even in the midst of pain and misery?

"Blessed" is a word that describes God Himself.  He is the happiest being because all things are ordered by His wisdom.  He is in control of all things.  His righteousness and glory are displayed.  Nothing can mar his joy.  It is the life and joy shared among the members of the Trinity that amazes the psalmist:

"Awesome is God from his sanctuary, the God of Israel- He is the one who gives power and strength to his people.  Blessed be God!"  (Psalm 68:35)

"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.  Blessed be His glorious name forever, may the whole earth be filled with His glory!  Amen and Amen!  (Psalm 72:18-19)

The kind of blessing envisioned in the Beatitudes is the kind of blessing that invites us into relationship with an eternally happy God.  We are, according to Peter, invited to share as "partakers in the divine nature," to enter into the same bliss in which God Himself resides.  It is permanent and unwavering.  Every nook and cranny of our souls pleads for filling.  God pours Himself, and His happiness, into our hearts and the image of God in us shouts for joy.  "Increase, O Lord, our capacity to glorify and enjoy You!"

The Place of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew

      The Sermon on the Mount is part of the early ministry of Jesus in Galilee.  Matthew sandwiches the Sermon on the Mount between two refrains: 

"And he went through all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people."  (Matthew 4:23)

"And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction."  (Matthew 9:35)

     These verses both mention two ideas:  Jesus was proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom and what the Kingdom would be like.  He was also demonstrating the power in that Kingdom.  Teaching and proclaiming on one hand, and healing every disease on the other.

     These two ideas help us to understand the material between these verses.  At every synagogue He passed Jesus announced the coming of the Kingdom of God and what it would be like.  The Sermon on the Mount is a part of the teaching.  After the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7), we have the power of that Kingdom demonstrated.  Aspects of Jesus' healing ministry follow in Matthew 8-9.

     Matthew is making the argument that the Word of Christ and the witness of Christ go together.  The Sermon on the Mount explains the power of the miracles.  The miracles demonstrate that the Kingdom of God has truly come. The witness of the words and the miracles were unmistakable.  God was walking among them and calling mankind to Himself.

Sermon on the Mount: The Pronouncement of Blessing (Mt. 5:2)

      Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount with  series of Beatitudes- each describing the kind of person who is blessed in the Kingdom of God.  Each Beatitude has three parts:  1)The Pronouncement of Blessing, 2) The Condition or Character of the Recipient, and 3) the reward that awaits them.  Each Beatitude features a surprising reversal.  Culture taught that the rich and powerful were influential because they were given the blessing of God.  Jesus reverses that narrative:  Those who are blessed, with eternal happiness and joy, are the poor, the meek, the humble.

     We might be excited to be blessed by a famous person- we might get an autograph or a picture to show our friends.  But the famous person doesn't know us, who we are or what we need.  We might be blessed by a rich person, but riches falter.  And who knows whether the riches given would actually be good for us?  The rich man may not have that kind of knowledge.  We could be blessed by a close friend or relative.  They might have the advantage of knowing us intimately and knowing what we need.  They would be glad to bless us if they only had the power and authority to make the blessing a reality.

     The Sermon on the Mount offers us something more.  In Jesus, we have someone who knows us better than we know ourselves.  He cares for us in ways we may never fully understand (watch Christ as He sets His face like a flint for the cross).  He cares, He is willing,  and He has the power and authority to make the blessing happen.  What would you be willing to do in order to assure the blessing of Jesus?

     We are not responsible for great achievement in order to win the blessing of Jesus.  His blessing is not out of reach.  It can be bought with a measure of humility.  Trading pride and self-sufficiency for meekness, learning to hunger and thirst for what is in line with Christ's character, are what is needed.  We must empty ourselves of our own sufficiency so that we may receive the blessing of Christ.  The pronouncement of Blessing is matchless grace.  The Kingdom of God is being offered to us.  Don't settle for anything less.

Marriage is a Secondary Pleasure

 Because God has set eternity in the hearts of men, only God can fill the void. Solomon pursues wealth and power and sex and achievement as objects of primary satisfaction, but nothing can hold the water. Death levels the playing field. “You fool, tonight your soul will be required of you!”

Solomon has taken great pains to rip everything out of our hands that could be an idol. None of it worth selling your soul for. We dare not worship even good things. “Fear God and keep his commandments.” Only God matters. At the point when our heart surrenders, God is gracious. Now that He is alone as our primary pleasure, He- as the Father of lights and the Giver of good gifts, begins to restore what has been taken.

But those pleasures have been transformed. The good gifts, wealth, food, and sex, are no longer vying for supremacy in our lives. Instead, God does two things, according to Solomon:

1. He gives us these secondary pleasures because they have finally learned their place in our lives. We recognize them as coming from the hand of God.

2. He gives us the power to enjoy them. In Solomon, the gifts from the hand of God and the power to enjoy them are two different things.

Eating, drinking, working, and marriage are listed by Solomon as those things that come as secondary pleasures from the hand of God. Marriage, then, is a secondary pleasure. When it occupies the primary position, it is an idol.

How can marriage be an idol? Whenever we love or worship the gift more than the Giver, we have traded the creature for the Creator. When we make the relationship an end in itself, we forget that all things must point to God or they detract us from real purpose. Christian culture must uphold the dignity of marriage as part of the creation ordinances, but be careful not to make it a god.

Marriage after all is for life “under the sun.” Jesus told the those who denied the resurrection that men and women will not be given in marriage in eternity. Marriage is the shadow for which our relationship to Christ, is the substance. Christ’s relationship to the church is not like marriage, but marriage is like the church’s relationship with Christ. Marriage here foreshadows the eternal relationship: That relationship is the ultimate reality.

When we make marriage primary, we make single believers second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God. But Paul commended singleness for its singular passion for Christ and His mission. In Isaiah, God promises to give Eunuchs and foreigners “a memorial and a name” better than sons and daughters. Jesus said, there are three reasons that people are Eunuchs: They are born that way, they are made that way by the hand of men, or they choose to remain single for the Kingdom of God. We must not minimize their service for God as second-rate. Marriage is a gift. So is singleness. Both come from the hand of God as blessing for the believer.

Christopher Yuan tells the story of Ken and Floy Smith, a couple whose life of ministry resulted in the conversion of Rosaria Butterfield. When Floy died, Ken was comforted by this thought: “Our marriage was not interrupted (by death), but fulfilled. So I took my ring off. Marriage completed. Interestingly enough, this brought me immense comfort, peace, and thanksgiving.”

The Sermon on the Mount: The Rabbi Takes His Seat (Matthew 5:1-2)

     There are two groups of people who gather to hear Jesus speak.  The inner circle is the disciples, recently called from their occupations to follow Christ.  Daily they listen to Jesus' words, daily they marvel at his works and his character.  They have opportunity to ask questions out of their own need and to listen as Jesus shares both wisdom and compassion with his disciples.

     The outer circle is the crowd, already gathering to hear his words and marvel at his works.  The crowd will be amazed at his teaching.  He will reverse many of their religious assumptions, like who is truly blessed by God and what kind of person is called to inherit the Kingdom of God.  Soon enough, the crowd will divide into followers and critics, people who want bread and people who want life.

     If you were called to follow Christ, you would follow behind, listen to his daily advice, conversation, and informal instruction.  It was the custom, however, that when the rabbi took his seat, the disciples would quickly gather at his feet and listen with rapt attention.  It was time for more formal instruction.  Matthew underscores this by using a Hebraism:  "He opened his mouth and taught them saying..."  The phrase indicates that what follows from the lips of Jesus comes with a significant measure of deliberateness and sobriety.  It is time to listen.