The Life of Jesus Series:
How Jesus interacted with
others.
Luke 7:36-50
(Use the link below to
read the verses.)
When
I was in school, most of my teachers graded on a curve; except of course for
Mr. Van Note. He was famous for saying things like, “You missed the boat” and,
“I’m going to teach to the fast learners. The rest of you will just have to
keep up”. He was a tough, but fair math teacher. But, going back to grading on
a curve; how does it work?
According k12academics.com, "In education, grading on a bell curve is a method of
assigning grades designed to yield a desired distribution of grades among the
students in a class… The instructor can
decide what grade occupies the center of the distribution. This is the grade an
average score will earn, and will be the most common. Traditionally, in the
ABCDF system this is the 'C' grade”.
Although grading on a curve is normally thought of in
terms of education, it can apply to every area of our lives. In fact, it would
seem to be human nature to “grade on a curve”, especially when it’s to our
benefit.
Consider the story in Luke 7. The sinful woman shed tears
on Jesus’ feet; then dried them with her hair and finally anointed his feet
with expensive perfume. In the mind of Simon the Pharisee, the situation was
black and white. He was righteous and she was a sinner.
39 The Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this. He
thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman who
is touching him is a sinner!” ICB
In
response to this, Jesus told a story about a moneylender who forgave the debts of
two different people. One a very large debt and the other a moderate sized debt.
What’s important here is that the moneylender forgave both the big and the
small debtor. In the same way, Jesus offered forgiveness to both the sinful
woman as well as the Pharisee.
So,
who do you relate to in this story?
A more important question is; how do you
respond to sin in your life? Are you blind to it like the Pharisee? Or, like
the sinful woman, do you cry out to Jesus in love and faith, asking for his
forgiveness and grace?
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize
with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as
we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne
of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help
us in our time of need. Hebrews
4 NIV
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