(Joy: The 3rd of
4 devotionals on Advent.)
Luke 7:36-50
When
I was a little boy one of the Christmas Eve traditions that we had in our
family was to sit down in the living room on the couch with our Father. He
would start reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Why my Dad
chose to do that is a mystery. Possibly, he was hoping we would get tired and
fall asleep.
It
is a story about a bitter, lonely and ill-tempered old man. He felt that life
had been hard on him and that he had earned everything he had. Nobody had ever
given him anything, so in turn, he wasn’t generous to anyone. Scrooge’s
response to a “Merry Christmas” greeting was, “Bah, humbug”!
The
story in Luke 7 is about a woman who lived a “sinful life”. The Living Bible
refers to her as a common prostitute. She was at the bottom of the social,
religious and economic ladder of society. Good people, like the Pharisee in the
story, would have
nothing to do with her.
We
don’t know for sure what her back story was, but we can assume that life had
been hard on her. The little that she had, she had earned. Nobody had given her
anything. However, she was smart enough and intuitive enough to realize that
she was a “sinful woman” that was detested by respectable people.
For
Scrooge, it wasn’t until his confrontation with the Ghosts of Christmas Past,
Christmas Present and Christmas Future that he was convinced to change his
ways. The result was a joyful and generous Scrooge that went far beyond common
courtesy to help others.
For
the sinful woman, it wasn’t until she had a life changing encounter with Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, that she changed her ways. She poured out her love for
Jesus with her tears, drying his feet with her hair and anointing him with
expensive perfume.
Two
people who previously had no joy. Both recognized their brokenness. Both
experienced redemption. One through his encounter with the fictional spirits of
Christmas. The other through her encounter with the real life Emanuel (God with
us).
May
you and your family experience the true joy of Christmas this year; God with
us.
(If
God has spoken to you through this devotional, please feel free to share it
with others.)
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