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Needed or Wanted? Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On this podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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  to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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  what God is doing in us and in our community.
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  This fall, we're living in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke
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  and John. And learning how to live.
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  From our model Jesus. This sermon is part of our
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  series The Gospels. You can find out more
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  information about our church at fumccollingswood.org.
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  Thanks for listening. May you sit at His feet as we
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  get into our scripture this morning, coming from the Gospel
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  of Luke Chapter 7, starting verse 36, One of the Pharisees
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  asked Jesus to have dinner with him.
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  So Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat.
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  When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was
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  eating there. She brought a beautiful
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  alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume.
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  Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping.
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  Her tears fell on his feet and she wiped them off with her
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  hair. Then she kept kissing his feet
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  and putting perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had
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  invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a
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  prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him.
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  She's a Sinner. Then Jesus answered his
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  thoughts. Simon, he said to the Pharisee,
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  I have something to say to you. Go ahead, teacher, Simon
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  replied. Then Jesus told him this story.
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  A man loaned money to two people, 500 pieces of silver to
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  1 and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay
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  him. So he kindly forgave them both,
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  canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him
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  more after that? Simon answered.
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  I suppose the one whom he cancelled the larger debt.
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  That's right, Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and
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  said to Simon, Look at this woman kneeling here.
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  When I entered your home, you didn't offer me water to wash
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  the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears
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  and wiped them with her hair. You didn't greet me with a kiss,
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  but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing
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  my feet. You neglected the courtesy of
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  olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with
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  rare perfume. I tell you her sins, and they
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  are many have been forgiven. So she has shown me much love.
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  But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.
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  Then Jesus said to the woman, your sins are forgiven.
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  The men at the table said among themselves, Who is this man that
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  he goes around forgiving sins? And Jesus said to the woman,
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  your faith has saved you, go in peace.
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  This is the word of God for the people of God.
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  Thanks be to God. Amen.
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  There's something about being needed that makes us feel good
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  about ourselves, right? Knowing that we have a
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  particular skill or ability that we bring to a situation or or a
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  unique knowledge or understanding that we can offer.
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  It may it means the difference, right, between feeling like a
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  success or feeling like a failure.
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  It it makes us feel important. We like we like to feel
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  essential, right? Or or like we have an
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  irreplaceable role to play. We can't just be swapped out
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  like a cog in a machine. But as good as feeling needed
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  can make us feel, I think there's a deeper longing that we
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  experience. I, I think we all, whether we
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  can identify it or not, we long to not just be needed, but to be
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  wanted, right? There's a difference, don't you
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  think? Right.
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  It's one thing when one of my boys comes to me and says, hey
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  dad, I need a ride to practice. It's another thing when they
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  come and say, hey Dad, can we go have a catch?
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  Can I join you in what you're doing?
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  It's one thing when someone calls the church and says we
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  need a pastor to do our wedding. It's another thing when someone
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  calls and says, we want you to help us prepare for our
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  marriage. Will you meet with us for
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  premarital counseling? Do you do you see the
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  difference? Or being needed can can be
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  functional, right? If I couldn't give the ride or
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  do the wedding, you can plug someone else in who is capable
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  and they could do it. But the want, the want though,
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  that's that's personal. That has to do with with the
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  essence of who we are. It's less often about the
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  activity. It's more about the person.
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  But you know, the two don't have to be mutually exclusive.
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  It's not that having a need negates a want or vice versa,
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  right? Like in the premarital
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  counseling example, the need for premarital counseling is seen
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  and they specifically want me to do it right.
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  It can be a both end, not just an either or.
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  My point is, what we want to be needed.
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  We need to be wanted, right? We need to feel like we have a
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  value that extends beyond what we're able to do for someone or
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  what we can offer in a given situation.
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  We need to be valued for who we are, not just what we do.
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  At the risk of projecting our human feelings onto our God,
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  who, while He is 3 persons, is certainly not merely human, I
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  want to submit that even though we may desperately need God, He
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  also longs to be wanted. I think that's the whole story
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  recorded in the Old Testament, right?
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  Adam and Eve wanted to be like God more than they wanted God,
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  so they ate the fruit. Israel needed to be delivered
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  from their captivity in Egypt more than they wanted to trust
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  who God is. So they wandered in the
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  wilderness for 40 years, over and over and over again
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  throughout their history. When they were in trouble,
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  Israel would cry out for God to save them from their enemies,
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  and he would. But it wasn't long before the
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  choice came for the people to walk with God, and they'd reject
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  God again. They needed God, but they didn't
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  want God. But we're not reading in the Old
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  Testament this fall, are we? Right.
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  We're in the Gospels. If you're reading along with us,
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  looking specifically at the stories from Jesus's life and
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  ministry, in particular those good news stories that take
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  place between Christmas and Good Friday, which are where we
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  usually locate the themes of the gospel, right?
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  Christmas and and Easter. But we believe that it's not
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  just Jesus birth and death that are good news for humanity.
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  Jesus life, how Jesus lived among us.
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  It's also good news. It's part of the gospel.
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  So this morning I want to take a look at the story that we read
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  together of this woman who clearly needed Jesus, but who
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  also wanted Jesus, right, and who displayed an extravagant
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  devotion to Jesus. As we're looking at this story
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  from the Gospel of Luke, your mind might be connecting it with
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  similar stories from each of the other gospels, right?
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  We're familiar there. There's a similar story in the
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  other 3 gospels. And and while it's true that
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  each gospel includes an account of a woman who anointed Jesus
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  with perfume, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're
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  all four recounting the same event.
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  There are several reasons to think that there are at least
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  two different anointings that are being described.
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  And personally, I think Matthew, Mark and John are all describing
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  the same experience. These three gospels all put the
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  location of that story in the village of Bethany, which is a
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  little village outside of Jerusalem.
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  They put the timing near to Holy Week in Jesus triumphal entry
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  into Jerusalem. And they put the emphasis on the
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  anointing as a preparation for Jesus's burial and the conflict
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  point between Jesus and Judas over the cost of the perfume and
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  what could have been done with that money.
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  However, in Luke's Gospel, like we just heard, right, the
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  implicit location, which we don't even hear in this story,
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  but from the context around it, it is.
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  It's in Galilee and and Luke positions this story
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  significantly earlier in the ministry of Jesus.
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  And the conflict isn't between Jesus and one of his disciples.
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  It's between Jesus and his host. And it centers around the
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  reputation of this woman as a sinful or immoral.
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  I think Jeremy read this morning an immoral woman.
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  And I think what we have here is an experience which happened
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  early in Jesus's ministry, which is re enacted later in Jesus
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  life by someone close enough to Jesus to have had heard about
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  that first experience. They'd heard the story of what
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  this woman did and and in preparation for the suffering
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  that Jesus was about to enter into anointed Jesus again.
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  I said, I just want to kind of locate this story for us because
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  I don't think they're all talking about the same one.
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  We don't have to try to somehow make them all agree together.
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  So that said, let's look closely for a minute at this, this story
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  from Luke and his version with the idea in mind that we're not
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  trying to make them all agree. And let's see what this woman
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  can teach us through her example.
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  There. There are five things that I
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  think we can learn from this unnamed woman who wanted to be
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  near Jesus. OK, five things.
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  I'm going to number them for you.
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  They'll be easy to follow along. Right?
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  Number one, this woman, she was able to discern the moment that
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  she found herself in. She was able to discern the
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  moment she found herself in. She had heard that Jesus was
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  nearby and she took advantage of that opportunity.
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  And to borrow a a phrase from Pastor John Tyson, she allowed
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  the clock to determine her play. Have you heard that phrase
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  before? That the clock determines the
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  play. It's a sports analogy, Jeremy,
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  and it's a phrase that comes from from situational football.
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  It means you, you call the game differently depending on where
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  you are in the game, right? You call the game differently in
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  the final two minutes of the game than you do in in the first
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  quarter or the second quarter. There, there's a different
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  urgency to what you're trying to accomplish.
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  And and this woman, she allowed the clock to determine the play.
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  She discerned the moment she knew Jesus was nearby, and she
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  had a window to act. I think we need to discern the
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  moment that we find ourselves in, right?
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  There's a shift that is taking place around us, particularly in
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  regard to the emerging generations, the way they're
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  responding to Jesus, things that we're hearing from, from Mark
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  and Alyssa and from others. And that should change the way
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  that we operate as a church, should change what we what we
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  give ourselves and the urgency we feel.
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  A friend and mentor of mine that I was with this past week, he he
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  left on Friday to spend a month in Europe.
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  He'll be meeting with people in seven different cities to speak
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  with young people about awakening and outpouring and
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  travailing prayer, contending prayer.
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  He's reorienting his whole life to gathering and connecting and
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  resourcing the these younger generations as they pursue
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  Jesus. We need to discern the moment
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  that we find ourselves in and respond accordingly to where we
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  are in the game #2 how does this woman respond?
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  She takes this valuable bottle of perfume, or probably
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  something she had been saving for her wedding day.
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  She breaks it open to anoint Jesus, right?
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  This was an irreversible decision.
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  She wasn't just taking the lid off for a minute so she could
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  pour a few drops of perfume on Jesus.
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  This was a sealed stone bottle that had to be broken open to be
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  poured out, and she was willing to do it because of Jesus.
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  She realized that He was worth everything and her action, that
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  it was extravagant, some might even say irresponsible or
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  excessive, she held nothing back.
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  She wasn't worried about being able to sustain this kind of
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  ministry or devotion to Jesus. She was willing to expend that
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  which was most valuable for her, for God's sake.
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  And I wonder this morning, what's most valuable for you?
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  What's most valuable for us as a church, as a congregation?
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  Is it worth no? Is Jesus worth breaking it open
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  for? What does it seem responsible
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  for us, reasonable for us to try to hold on to?
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  He might be asking us to let go. It's like Paul said.
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  But one thing I do right, Forgetting what is behind and
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  straining toward what is ahead. This woman broke the bottle and
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  imagine the aroma that must have filled that room as as she
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  poured out its contents. It's this number 3.
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  She poured out this perfume upon Jesus's feet, the perfume
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  mingling with her tears as she wept.
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  She wiped his feet with her hair, washing Jesus's feet as he
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  reclined there at the table. It it makes me wonder, after she
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  left that house, how long did she carry the scent of that
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  perfume on her? How many days did the aroma of
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  that encounter with Jesus linger upon her hair?
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  Did people turn to see who just walked past as their nostrils
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  filled with that sin? Was it ours days, weeks.
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  We don't know. But she carried the fragrance of
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  that encounter with Jesus everywhere she went.
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  Do people smell the aroma of Jesus on us as we pass by?
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  Do they recognize us as people who have been with Jesus?
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  Does his presence mark us like this young man Mark was telling
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  us about his friends? Notice there's something
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  different #4 when she was judged and criticized for her former
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  reputation, she didn't run out of the house.
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  She didn't try to justify herself or explain it away.
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  This woman, she let Jesus defend her.
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  Jesus told Simon that that short parable about a man who was owed
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  money, right? By two people, one who owed 500,
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  we'll just say dollars, $500, The other who was owed $50.
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  And when neither of those people could pay back that loan, he
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  forgave the debt. Jesus told Simon that those who
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  have been forgiven much are the ones who show much love.
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  Just like this woman had done. She was doing.
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  You see this woman, this sinful woman, she recognized just how
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  much she owed to Jesus, and she was willing to display that
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  extravagant devotion that she felt to Him.
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  She knew how much she needed Jesus, but she also showed how
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  much she wanted to be with Jesus right even before He spoke these
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  words of forgiveness over her. Do you recognize this morning?
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  Not just what you need Jesus to do for you, but but also a
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  desire, a longing to be near Jesus even if he didn't do
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  anything else for you. Again, do you feel like you need
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  to justify your choices for Jesus to others?
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  Why you give what you give, or why you invest your time where
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  you do? Why you prioritize certain
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  people or certain events? Can you let Jesus defend your
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  extravagant devotion to other people?
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  Can you just be faithful to doing all that He's asking you
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  to do? Last thing #5 we don't hear
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  about what the rest of this unnamed woman's life looked
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  like. But I have to believe that after
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  this experience, that she lived out of that encounter with Jesus
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  for the rest of her life. That her life was forever
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  different. That the transformation that
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  took place as she broke that bottle and poured the perfume
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  out upon Jesus feet became the defining reality of her life.
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  That she spoke of that moment of encounter to anyone who would
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  listen. That she no longer was defined
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  by her former life of sin. She was defined by the
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  transforming power of Jesus. And I wonder, I wonder if we
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  want God enough to allow ourselves to be transformed.
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  Do we want God enough to be changed and marked by our
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  encounter with Christ? Do we want God enough that we
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  will will live out of our encounter with Jesus?
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  I think it's something we have to wrestle with because I think
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  the story of Israel all through the Old Testament, it can tend
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  to be our story as well. We recognize that we need Jesus
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  to save us. We recognize that we need God to
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  do something in our lives, but we don't want God enough to live
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  the kind of life that he calls us to.
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  We're more comfortable needing God than we are with wanting
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  God. AW Tozer, the great old
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  preacher, he he said God waits to be wanted.
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  God wants to show up where he's wanted, where people are willing
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  to love him with an extravagant devotion.
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  Not just in the places where he's needed, although he shows
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  up there too. Jesus is looking for people who
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  are willing to discern the moment we find ourselves in,
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  people who will break open the bottle, people willing to carry
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  the fragrance of Jesus on their person, people who will let
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  Jesus defend their choices, and people who will live from their
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  experience of Jesus, not just for an encounter with Jesus.
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  Do you want God? Do you want Jesus more than you
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  need him? Remember, they're not mutually
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  exclusive things. We can need Jesus and want Him.
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  Do you want Jesus? Are you willing to risk it all
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  to show your love for him? What would that look like in
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  your life? Maybe being more bold and
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  sharing what Jesus has done in your life with those around you.
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  Maybe it's getting up early to come to a prayer session or
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  coming to 1 after a day at work. Maybe it's serving at the food
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  pantry or with Young Lives like we heard about a couple weeks
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  ago. Maybe it's God's asking you to
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  support some missionaries like Mark and Alyssa.
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  What would it look like for you to display an extravagant
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  devotion to Jesus? To show Jesus not just how
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  grateful you are for what he's done, but to show Him how much
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  you love him, how much you desire to be near him.
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  To show Him you want him to come near to you, no matter what it
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  costs. Would you pray with me this
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  morning? Jesus?
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  I want you here and I want to be made willing to do whatever you
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  would ask me to do. God, would you show us?
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  Show us where we are, Help us to discern the moment we find
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  ourselves in. Would you help us be willing to
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  break open the bottle that that thing that we're holding on to
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  that seems most valuable? Jesus, would you help us be the
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  kind of people who can carry your fragrance to a world where
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  life often stinks? Would you help us trust you to
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  defend us when we make choices of the people around us?
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  Say just doesn't make sense. And would you help us to live
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  from an encounter with you, Jesus, that wrecks us for
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  ordinary life? Would you come and meet with us
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  even now as we sing and close the service, Jesus?
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  Would you open our eyes to see what you're doing, where you're
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  doing it, and how you're calling us to respond?
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  We love you, Jesus. We want you here.
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  Would you help us to live like it?
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  We pray this in your name and for your sake.
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  Amen.