Today’s chapter is Luke 7.

Tom writes:

If I was round a friend’s house and a sex worker wandered in and started caressing my feet I suspect I would feel a tad uncomfortable. If she then started sobbing and lathing me in perfume I would be gathering up my stuff and skedaddling for the exit. The fact that Jesus sits, relaxed and smiling while this excruciating scene is unfolding is an astonishing display of his security. The fact that Jesus then praises this woman and rebukes the much more sensibly-behaved diners is shocking to say the least. Who really behaves like this? Who do you know who actually changes people’s lives while they nibble their tiramisu?When we allow these stories about Jesus to come to life in our imagination we realise there was something about Jesus’ shalom-filled presence that caused people’s true natures to be exposed. The way he did stuff - the way he treated people - caused their most polished presentations of themselves to crack apart and their deepest secrets to be laid bare. And then, when the exposure had been made, Jesus would issue a stunning act of forgiveness or an equally stunning call to repent. Jesus seemed happy to challenge the proud because they might actually listen and then they would come to life. But Jesus really delighted when humble hearts were laid bare before him because it enabled him to pour the healing of the Spirit into their salivating souls. Jesus drew people close so he could actually change their lives. Indeed, when John the Baptist started to doubt that Jesus had really brought the Kingdom, it was the changed lives that Jesus pointed to as evidence of his Kingship.

And this is why we love Jesus, isn’t it? Not because he is comfortable to be around; he isn’t… but because he changes us. And he wants to keep on changing us. We come ashamed, exposed, wrenched apart by our lives. And then he looks at us with love, speaks a word of forgiveness and washes away our shame. And at times it is others that Jesus wants to change through us. Jesus trusts us enough to give us precious moments when someone’s deepest self is exposed so he can use our grace-imbued words, our love-defined response to usher them into new life. What Luke wants us to realise is that this person after person transformation - this grubby work of seeing people’s shame and seeing it washed away - is the highest pinnacle of ministry of the Kingdom. Jesus loves to change people’s lives.

Question for reflection

Have you exposed your deepest shame to Jesus? What does he say to you about it?

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Luke 7 - Tuesday 9th January