Today's Scripture Reading (August 3, 2024): Genesis 2
Could God have been wrong?
I know some of you are upset at me for even
suggesting that this might be true, but don't leave now. I was listening to
Erwin McManus speak on gratitude a while back, and he talked about the
prostitute who sat at Jesus's feet at Simon the Pharisee's house. The story in
Luke 7 is about this woman who comes to Jesus and falls at his feet, pouring oil
out of an Alabaster jar onto Jesus's feet. The oil had probably cost the woman
her life's savings, and there is every probability that it had been initially
purchased for her eventual marriage. But she comes to Jesus, weeping, and pours
out the oil on the Rabbi's feet. Her tears dripped onto his feet, and then she
let her hair down, which in that day was very sexually suggestive, and wiped up
the oil and the tears from Jesus's feet with her hair. We are told in the story
that Simon the Pharisee was thinking that if Jesus knew the kind of sin that
this woman was involved with, he would not let her touch him. Jesus answers
Simon's thoughts with a story. The story was about two men who owed money; one
owed a little bit while the other owed a massive amount. The debtor decides to
forgive both debts. However, Jesus asks Simon which one loved him more. Simon
replied that the one that had been forgiven the most would love the master
more. Listen to Jesus's reply.
Then he turned
toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came
into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my
feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a
kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my
feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on
my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as
her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little." (Luke 7:44-47)
It seems like Jesus is telling Simon that he has not done enough
wrong to love God enough. The solution to the problem would seem to be self-evident.
Go and do wrong. Sin like you have never sinned before. If you want to love God
more, go and sin; use the Ten Commandments as a guiding list. At this point,
McManus wonders about that person who leaves the church and gets arrested. When
asked about his crime spree, he says, "I just wanted to love God more."
Could God have been wrong? As far as Simon the Pharisee was
concerned, that was the truth of the situation; Jesus was wrong. If he had only
known who it was that was touching him, he would never have let her touch him.
Jesus's response shows that he is not wrong but that Simon is without
understanding.
As we read this story from the Garden, we find that God creates
Adam and then sends him on a hunt for a mate. And we have a question: God, you
had to know that there was no one and no animal that could have been a mate for
Adam. I am sure he found a dog and became best friends with Rusty, carrying
Rusty around in his pick-up truck, but regardless of how hard Rusty tried, he
was not the match that Adam needed. Of course, the answer to our question is no,
God is not wrong. But Adam needed some time to realize that. Adam needed to
come to an understanding of his need for a real community.
I must admit that I see these pre-Adams all over our modern
culture. They are the ones who do not believe that they need people, that their
Rusty's are enough. If there is a truth in this passage, it is this: Adam had
all the animals but was still lonely; he needed someone else. He needed to understand
his deep need for community. It is what I like to call our essential community.
We are created in the image of a God who exists in the essential community as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Adam needed the same type of community, one that
needed to be found in someone created in God's image, just as he was.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Genesis 3
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