The Uninvited One

“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil.” Luke 7:36

I love this story where pride collides with humility...where despair and sin understand the need for engagement and a Savior...where the legalism of the host is trumped by the longing of the uninvited. No doubt there were many things on Simon’s mind when he orchestrated a dinner for a man named Jesus. The table had been set perfectly I’m sure...the lounging cushions arranged in an intentional way...the guest list pridefully chosen to showcase his guest. Meanwhile, word of this special dinner with this Jesus person echoes in the heart of this sinful woman. She lays her reputation aside and gathers her most precious belonging...her expensive perfume. She fully understands that she will be perceived as an uninvited guest, a party-crasher, and an outsider. I wonder how long she stood outside before she entered the home. How she must have longed for fellowship and acceptance of family instead of the isolation of bad choices? Did she have to muster up the courage or was she so desperate for a Savior that she bolted right in? She was about to exchange her loneliness for community with Jesus. She was about to join His circle instead of being an outsider looking in.

This beautifully painted picture resonates deep in my heart, soul, and spirit today. It nudged my memory of when our daughter was in an in-patient facility as a young teen. We were trying to help her navigate through wounded feelings she was presently experiencing. One day in family counseling (including her siblings) the counselor had us sit in a circle of chairs. She asked our daughter to take a chair and place it in the circle based on her feelings. As she approached the circle and picked up a chair, I figured she would place it next to me. Instead, she took a chair and walked out of the circle with it and placed it in a corner of the room and sat down. It broke my heart to think that she either didn’t want to be in our circle or didn’t feel loved and invited into it. We desperately wanted fellowship with her on the deepest levels. We wanted her to see that there was always an invitation and deep desire for us to love her, welcome her, and protect her.

And so does Jesus. He invites everyone to His table regardless if mankind excludes them. Don’t we all feel unworthy to approach Jesus at certain points of our lives? Sometimes wouldn’t we all rather withdraw and isolate instead of courageously approaching Jesus with our brokenness and sin? The woman who washed His feet, dried them with her hair, kissed them with her lips, and anointed them with her greatest gift was not only looking for forgiveness but was longing for a place next to Jesus of belonging and community.

When we come to Jesus in humility, we become the woman in Luke’s story. The uninvited one who becomes the exalted one...the uninvited one who becomes the honored one... the uninvited one who brings our chair back into the circle.