Do You See? A Lesson in Grace and Sight

Karl Ihfe: Thank You Beth and Marty. Thank you LCU. Students thanks for showing up. Today is
April Fool's. I thought this might be a really elaborate prank that some of you
were playing on me to invite me to come this morning. I'm excited to get to be
here. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father it is a gift to be together as
your people. Would you bless us as we seek your face today as we get a chance
to grow our hearts and our minds in you and in one another and this incredible
University here at Lubbock Christian, Father, thank you for the gifts that you've given to us. May we
be grateful and may we live in light of your grace and your goodness to us. Now, Father, may the words
of my mouth and meditation of each and every heart be acceptable and pleasing unto you, O God,
our gracious one and Redeemer. Amen. How's your eyesight this morning, folks? Had to get my eyes
checked this week. I'm getting older. I don't know if you could tell. I haven't been here in a little
while. Some of you know me, some of you don't. I had to go get my eyes checked. I
brought a couple of slides with me to see if you could see what I can see. This
first one maybe you recognize who are my chips and salsa folks out here today.
Right, we got a few of you. Some of you may be familiar with Tostitos. Have you
ever looked closely at the logo and noticed the little hidden figures in the
logo? Right, have you ever noticed the two guys holding the chip over the bowl
salsa? Have you ever seen that one? Maybe some of you have, some of you haven't. What
about this one? FedEx. Have you ever noticed something about the FedEx? Have you seen the
arrow? You find the arrow before? How many of you have seen that before? Oh, check it
out right there between the E and the X. What about, who are my chocolate folks? Toblerone,
I hope you guys know what that is. It's chocolate. Have you ever noticed the bear on the mountain?
Did you see that?
Have you seen that before?
That was kind of a newer one to me.
My baseball fans out there, Milwaukee Brewers, some of you may be fans, some not, but have
you ever noticed how the baseball glove is made up of an M and a B for Milwaukee Brewers?
A college student actually came up with that design back in the late 70s.
They were looking for a new logo and a student your age came up with that.
I think it's pretty clever, still use it today.
Last one, some of you may have seen this before
if you've taken an intro to psych class.
How many of you see the old woman?
How many of you see the young lady?
Which do you see?
Have you ever noticed that you kinda get to see
what you're looking for?
Have your eyes ever played tricks on you?
Have you ever seen something that wasn't there
or maybe not seen something that was plain as day?
I wanna draw your attention this morning
to a story in Luke chapter seven
that talks a little bit about sight
and invites you to consider,
are there ways that God is at work in your world
right in front of you and you just don't see it?
In Luke chapter seven, verse 36,
we learn 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's touching him
and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner."
And Luke tells us a story
that's got three main characters at play.
The first one we learn is Simon, and he's a Pharisee.
In fact, Luke tells us three times in two verses,
he's a Pharisee.
Pharisee invited Jesus, so Jesus went to the Pharisee's house and the Pharisee
served him dinner. He's hosting this meal, he's intrigued, he's heard a few
rumors about who Jesus might be and he wants to get a taste of it himself. He
wants to see is this man really a prophet? Does he know? And so he seems to
at least be giving Jesus a fair shake here. "Come over to my house, have some
supper." And once he sees Jesus in action he'll know. And he thinks he's about to
have a clue when this second character Jesus comes in but then the third
character this woman walks in. He thinks he understands, "Oh now I know whether or
not this guy is really a prophet." Only he's about to be proved wrong. The third
character is kind of interesting. It's an unnamed woman. We don't know her name. We
know she lives in the town. How did nobody know her name? Well I think it's
because her name really wasn't that important. They knew her by reputation.
Actually what they knew was some of the things she struggled with the most and
they reduced her down to that lowest level. She's an uninvited guest. Her only
descriptor is she's a sinner. Have you ever been reduced down to your worst
moment? Oh there's Carl yeah that's that's the guy who betrayed one of his
good buddies in high school. Yeah that's him. Oh yeah there's the guy who who
takes advantage of people sometimes, who uses them for his own benefit. Yeah,
that's the guy. That's how people see her. That's the only way that
people see her in the story. Now some may wonder, how did she even become a part of
this story? How did this random person just walk in? Well, privacy was a little
different back in the ancient world. In this kind of house that Simon would have,
the doors and the windows would be open because there's no central heat, no air
conditioning. And so it wouldn't be uncommon for folks who pass by to just
stop and take a look. And sometimes it would be a friend who might pop in, maybe
it's a family member or just some random person stopping by to see what's going
on at this house. They can hear something is going on and they want to be a part
of it. Luke tells us this woman is coming with an intent to anoint Jesus. It's this
expression of gratefulness, of a grateful love and heart because she's been
forgiven. She's received prodigal forgiveness in fact. But when she arrives
and sees Jesus, she's overwhelmed we're told. It's more than she can bear. Her
heart is broken in praise and in love of what has been done for her and she
starts weeping. Has that ever happened to you? When you've been so overwhelmed by
someone's kindness to you that you just weep. I remember the first time I ever
encountered this I was with my family we're at home and we were having some
family event I don't know what it was just my immediate family and at one
point my dad's sitting in his chair in the living room and I look over and he's
just crying so I went over to my mom and I'm mom what's wrong with that why is
he crying he's just so happy son that's kind of strange way to react to
happiness and then then I became a father back in 2004 and a buddy of mine
who had had a kid a year before me.
He came up and he said, "Carl, you need to know
"you're gonna be there in the room,
"the baby's gonna come, and you're just gonna start crying.
"You just need to know that."
I said, "Look, pal, I'm not gonna just start crying."
He said, "No, you will."
"No, I'm not going to."
"Yeah, you will."
"Okay, fine, we'll see, pal.
"I'll show you afterwards."
I didn't cry.
And literally, as soon as my son was born,
and I got to be right there,
the doctor hands him to me,
and I just started weeping.
This joy, this experience of love and grace,
I just could not fathom how I get to be a part
of something so big.
I was overwhelmed.
I wonder if there was a moment when this woman looked up
from what she was doing and realized,
have you ever been in a space where all the eyes were on you
and you suddenly became aware of that?
That if she suddenly became aware of everyone looking at her
and so she tries to make things better,
only she makes it worse, right?
she takes her hair down and she starts kissing his feet, right? Which in that
culture in that day those those could have been taken as sexual innuendos.
Right, like what is this woman doing? We know her reputation. Now she's taking her
hair down. Now she's kissing his feet and she's pouring perfume on them. What is
going on here? So we can imagine why Simon had the reaction that he did. This
woman is a known sinner, which means she's also unclean. So now any of her
touches of Jesus now make him unclean. So again, it's no surprise that Simon says
this guy's no prophet. I mean he can't even see a sinner standing, actually
kneeling right in front of his face. No way.
Verse 40, Jesus answers Simon, "I have something to tell you." Tell me teacher.
Two people owed money to a certain moneylender.
One of them owed 500 denarii and another 50.
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.
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."
Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this that even forgives sins?"
Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you.
Go in peace."
Simon assumed Jesus couldn't see,
only it was Simon who was blind all along.
Luke gives us this incredible picture of what happens
when someone, a human heart,
begins to actually see for the first time.
They realize that God sees them,
that God understands them, who loves them,
that God doesn't just love them, God actually likes them.
That when they realize for the first time
that forgiveness might be an option for them.
When someone's not reduced
to their worst possible moment in life,
when not reduced to a caricature of some other person,
right, this woman is just a woman, she's a sinner,
she doesn't have hopes and dreams like you and me.
She doesn't have a plan for her future,
a desire to make a difference in the world,
she's just a sinner.
And yet when she encounters this amazing forgiveness
that Jesus has shared with her, it breaks her heart.
it opens her world up.
When she's seen for who she really is,
who she was really created to be, it's amazing.
I wonder how many of us this morning
have had that kind of experience in our own lives,
that kind of encounter with God where he's really seen us.
Not the pretend, not the facade, not the mask,
but the actual real us and come to realize
that God doesn't just love you.
He really likes you. He really likes who you are.
And He wants you to become the best version of you,
the one that He created you to be. I wonder how many of us have actually
experienced
that kind of miracle. Well I can tell there's a little litmus test that we can use.
It's really simple. Just ask yourself this question,
how well do you see others? How well do you see other people, especially those
who are marginalized?
especially those who have a reputation.
I mean, you know the ones, right?
It's that one, yeah.
That picture in your head of that person
that does that thing at that time, all the time,
yeah, that one.
How well do you see them?
See, Jesus was proclaiming this new kingdom,
a kingdom that's marked by grace and forgiveness
that's so overwhelming,
it challenges all social conventions and structures.
That there's a kingdom coming but it's filled with surprising grace and certain
judgment. And right here in Luke we get a picture of it lived out in flesh and
blood. And what's amazing to me is that this kingdom is still breaking through
even 2,000 years later. At this overwhelming grace and forgiveness it's
still happening all around it. The question is do you see it? Do you see
that woman? Do you see that man? Do you see your fellow student? Do you see that
person on the news that's been reduced to just the base common denominator?
Right? Where they're maybe just described by one word. Jesus challenged Simon, "Do
you see this woman? She's right here in front of you." Has been the whole time. The church has
to grips with this reality that those who who were expected to to see the
gospel to hear it and to respond to it were rejecting it and those who were
seen to be on the outside looking in they just kept responding and they
couldn't keep them out. This amazing love overwhelmed this woman and it's been
overwhelming people for centuries now. Can you see it?
Simon is the one guilty of poor hospitality which in that day would have
akin to this woman letting her hair down in public. He's never come to terms with
the depths of his own guilt, his own sin, and so he didn't appreciate God's
generosity, his forgiveness. He who has been forgiven little loves little. I
think the same is true of us today. This woman brought her perfume jar as a
response to God's amazing love, and she didn't care what others thought about
that experience instead she just was overwhelmed. She saw it and accepted it
and was overwhelmed by it. In fact this story we're told Jesus says your sins
are forgiven go in peace. That her sign of faith was was loving service in
response. So a couple things as I leave you this morning. Number one I want you
know God sees you and not only does he love you, he really likes you. He wants
the best for you and he's ready to help you become who he created you to be.
The second thing is this, that our faith is marked by sincere loving service. If you
want to know what we should do, well I think Jesus gives us a clue here to
really come to grips with how much God has forgiven you and in turn will you
share that same loving kindness with others. By this everyone will know that
you are my disciples if you love one another. God may these students go in
love today. May they come to grips with the reality of how deep you love them
and how much you forgive them and want them to be the person you created them
to be. God help us not to reduce one another to one common denominator but
instead would they give us the opportunity to have hopes and dreams and
a new life, a life in your kingdom. God help us to see, give us eyes to see, we
pray in Jesus name, amen. You're dismissed.
: (applause)