Seeking Christ

 June 26, 2023

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” —Matthew 6:33

What does seeking God look like? Am I doing it? It’s easy to go through the motions; to read and pray so I can check it off my daily to-do list. But am I coming to meet God, or to get it done?

Luke 7:36-50 tells the story of a Pharisee named Simon who invited Jesus to dinner. At some point in the festivities, a “sinner” woman—probably a prostitute—crashed the party and did something scandalous. She poured perfume on Jesus’ feet, took down her hair, and weeping the whole time, spread the perfume over his feet with her hair. She offered this perhaps as a sign of her repentance, but Simon apparently saw it as a flagrant sexual overture.

Two people are physically in the presence of Jesus. Simon the Pharisee, who knew all the right things to say and do, and the woman who knew neither. Simon was the host. Perhaps it looked good on his résumé, had all the markings of piety and sincere searching, but it was just a show, a sham.

The woman, who remains unnamed, was breaking all the boundaries of propriety in order to get to Jesus, but she was used to breaking the rules. She didn’t have the right words, didn’t know the right protocol; she just came with what she had, washed and wept, and was forgiven. She alone truly met Jesus. In contrast to Simon, she remains unnamed, perhaps because it’s Jesus’ name that is important, not hers. Maybe Simon was all too willing to have his name be known.

What was Simon seeking that evening? To impress Jesus, or his other guests? To satisfy his curiosity? There was a show, a facade of seeking Jesus, but the evidence of his failure is clear: Simon saw only the woman’s sin. Jesus saw the woman herself.