Being at the Feet of Jesus

Luke 7:36-50

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Matthew 26:6-13

Mark 14:3-9

John 12:1-8

Luke 7:36-43

As different as the two debtors were, they had one thing in common–both needed forgiveness.

Accompany Them with Singing–The Christian Funeral

by Thomas G. Long

"A good funeral makes it clear that the deceased is a saint, one created in God’s own image, a prism through whom we have seen refracted the grace of God.

When Christians look at other people and “see for real,” they do more than look for the lovable qualities that can be found…in most people. They look at them, and at themselves, in the light of Jesus Christ. All of us in the faith, fragmented as we are, nevertheless belong to Jesus Christ. Seeing each other as saints is not finally about our virtues, but his. This is what Paul was talking about when he said that we no longer even look at people “from a human point of view.” The reason? We look at people not only as they are to the naked eye, but as they are when illuminated by the love of Christ, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17).

At a funeral, everything is aimed at this kind of “seeing for real,” at recovering and celebrating the true identity in Christ of the brother or sister who has died. We have already done this at baptism. There we insisted that despite all of the ways that the world may seek to distort this person’s true identity, indeed despite all of the ways this person herself or himself may forget and waste this identity, nonetheless this is and will remain a child of heaven, a daughter or son of God. 

We do the same at a funeral. Those who have died are not essentially “divorced people,” “alcoholics,” “rich,” “poor,” “bank presidents,” “AIDS victims,” “golfers,” “veterans,” “secretaries,” “children with Down syndrome,” “people with Alzheimer’s,” or any of the other labels they may have borne; these people are first and foremost saints of the living God, made holy by Jesus Christ.

And so there we are, and there they are—the single mom, the auto mechanic, the man who cannot put things back together with his children—broken human beings and new creations, flawed people and fellow saints all, traveling companions on the way of Christ."

Luke 7:44-50

44 Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You didn’t anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. 47 Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”

50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

What if we see forgiveness in the biblical sense of release?

Jesus detaches the woman from her past, freeing her from what held her captive so she can step into a life-giving future.

Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.