Wholeness: Directions

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” -Luke 7:36-39

The woman in the story didn’t need to be told she was broken. Clearly, she knew that already. Yet I’m willing to bet that is all anyone ever did for her was point out her mistakes. Yet nobody ever showed her how to become whole again. I’m sure a big part of the reason she was there, was because she craved some real answers, and thought this Jesus was where they could be found. This begs the question, are we as the church being more Christ-like than Pharisee like? Or are we effectively telling people they need to go to righteous street, but never giving any directions on how to get there.

Now consider Jesus's response.

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. -Luke 7:40-43

Jesus does not judge the Pharisee’s judgment or hate on his hatred. Nor does he just say this is how you should feel about this, now start feeling that way. (The two extremes that most fall back on.) Instead, Jesus points him in the right direction to finding the right answer for himself. He does it in such a way so that that he could start to understand the why, not just the what.

With that being said, are we merely defining righteousness as a standard of morality, then just telling them to live it with no direction on how to become holy in every dimension? Then criticizing them for their failure despite our poor directions. This brings me back to a question I posed way back at the very beginning of my ministry. Why are we not teaching as Christ taught? Apparently many are getting lost by the church deviating from his example. People are not finding lasting righteousness rooted in Christ’s wholeness that way. Clearly, this is an issue that needs to be addressed, since the effects are trickling down to every aspect of the church.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” — John C. Maxwell

The Visual PARABLEist