Who Do You Listen To?

Hi friends,

In response to all the shame and blame that's being thrown around these days, I wanted to share a short excerpt from my latest book, Women of the Bible Speak Out. The excerpt comes from chapter 12 which discusses the story of the "sinful woman" who anointed Jesus' feet in Luke 7. See what you think, and I hope you'll be encouraged . . .

Who Do You Listen To?

There’s an interesting dynamic of shame and blame, of scorn, that sometimes happens in my household of six kids. Today, it played out in an exchange between my thirteen-year-old daughter Bria and my ten-year-old son Jayden. It went something like this:

Bria: Jayden didn’t put his plate in the dishwasher.

Jayden: Bria! I did too.

Me: Bria, that’s Jayna’s plate. Jayden cleaned up after himself.

Jayden to Bria (with increasing volume): I did too, Bria! Stop trying to make me look bad.

Me: Jayden did what he was told.

Bria to Jayden: You never put your dishes away.

Me: He did this time.

Jayden (still totally ignoring me): I do too. I put my plate away. Stop being mean, Bria!

Me: (Heaves a big sigh.)

You would think that Jayden would be satisfied that I was backing him up, especially since I was the authority in that situation. You’d think he’d rest in my praise and affirmation of his innocence. But no. All it takes is one sibling saying something critical or negative about another, and that becomes the only thing the criticized one can hear.

Thank goodness the woman with the alabaster jar wasn’t like that! She knew who to listen to: Jesus. She focused exclusively on him. In fact, she did not cease kissing Jesus’s feet even when others were talking about her. She heard only Jesus, paid attention only to him.

I want to be like that—so focused on gratitude and love that I have no room to dwell on the scorn of the Pharisees in my life. I never want to allow the critics to distract me from showing love to God or from following his will for me.

The key, I believe, is firmly deciding whose opinion matters. Do we care about the scornful comments of those who are mean-spirited and judgmental? Do we let them pull us away from Jesus’s feet? What if they’re religious leaders? So was Simon! His opinion was supposed to matter . . . or was it?

In comparison to the opinion of Jesus, Simon’s opinion meant nothing at all. And that’s how it should be. If those around us, even leaders in the church, degrade and deride us, then they are not showing the character of Jesus. Jesus says we are forgiven. Jesus says we are made new. He is the one who offers freedom and peace. He is the one who calls us to come near.