Introduction: John Ortberg begins his book Love Beyond Reason with this story: "Her name was Pandy. She had lost a good deal of her hair, one of her arms was missing, and, generally speaking, she’d had the stuffing knocked out of her. She was my sister Barbie’s favorite doll.

"She hadn’t always looked like this. She had been a personally selected Christmas gift by a cherished aunt. Her face and hands were made of some kind of rubber or plastic so that they looked real, but her body was stuffed with rags to feel soft and squeezable, like a real baby. When my aunt found Pandy, she knew she had found something very good.

"When Pandy was young and a looker, Barbie loved her. She loved her with a love that was too strong for Pandy’s own good. When Barbie went to bed at night, Pandy lay next to her. When Barbie had lunch, Pandy ate beside her at the table. When Barbie could get away with it, Pandy took a bath with her. Barbie’s love for that doll was, from Pandy’s point of view, pretty nearly a fatal attraction.

"By the time I knew Pandy, she was not a particularly attractive doll. In fact, to tell the truth she was a mess. She was no longer a very valuable doll; I’m not sure we could have given her away. But for reasons that on one could ever quite figure out, in the way that kids sometimes do, my sister Barbie loved that little rag doll still. She loved her as strongly in the days of Pandy’s raggedness as she ever had in her days of great beauty.

"The years passed, and my sister grew up. She outgrew Pandy. She traded her in for a boyfriend named Andy (who, oddly enough, was even less attractive than the doll Pandy). Pandy had not been much of a bargain for a long while, and by now the only logical thing left to do was to toss her out. But this my mother could not bring herself to do. She held Pandy one last time, wrapped her with exquisite care in some tissue, placed her in a box, and stored her in the attic for twenty years.

"The nature of my sister’s love is what made Pandy so valuable. Barbie loved that little doll with the kind of love that made the doll precious to anyone who loved Barbie. All those tears and hugs and secrets got mixed in with the rags somehow. If you loved Barbie, you just naturally loved Pandy too.

"More years passed. My sister got married (not to Andy) and moved far away. She had three children, the last of whom was a little girl named Courtney, who soon reached the age where she wanted a doll.

No other option was thinkable. Barbie went back to Rockford, back to the attic, and dragged out the box. By this time, though, Pandy was more rag than doll.

"So my sister took her to a doll hospital in California (there really is such a place) and had her go through reconstructive surgery. Pandy was given a facelift or liposuction or whatever it is that they do for dolls, until after thirty years Pandy became once again as beautiful on the outside as she had always been in the eyes of the one who loved her. I’m not sure she looked any better to Barbie, but now it was possible for others to view what Barbie had always seen in her.

"When Pandy was young, Barbie loved her. She celebrated her beauty. When Pandy was old and ragged, Barbie loved her still. Now she did not simply love Pandy because Pandy was beautiful, she loved her with a kind of love that made Pandy beautiful." (John Ortberg, Love Beyond Reason, p. 11-13)

That kind of reciprocal love we see in this story out of the Gospel of Luke. It is one of my very favorite stories of the ministry of Jesus. It’s a favorite because like Barbie loved Pandy so Jesus, in spite of all her raggedness, loved the nameless woman in our story. Yet in the same way as she was loved she loved Jesus in return with a love that would not be contained. Her love had to be poured out both passionately and extravagantly.

We are all ragged people. Our raggedness mostly results from our own sad and desperate choices. Sometimes our raggedness is the result of the way life has turned. Regardless of the source or cause of that raggedness the love of Jesus for us makes us valuable. Along the way we can begin to feel and know the depth of that raggedness and the result is guilt and shame. That’s what this woman felt because she knew she bore the pain of her choices and the source of her guilt and shame. Therefore she was able to understand the love and forgiveness of Jesus. The Pharisee in the story had not begun to see his own raggedness therefore for him the love and forgiveness of Jesus was a spectator event. He couldn’t begin to understand.

In our text for this morning Jesus taught that a person who does not fully understand their own raggedness will not fully understand the love, deliverance and freedom that he offers from guilt and shame. What I want us to see today is that only when we understand just how we are "Pandy’s" worn out from our own sin will we understand a kind of love that can discard no one.

Jesus accepts an invitation to have a meal in the home of a Pharisee named Simon. For Jesus to do this only shows how willing he was to meet anyone in order to show them his love. Luke records earlier his eating with Matthew the tax collector so he was willing to reach out to someone who felt, at least from God’s point of view that he was not particularly difficult to love.

The meal was going fine with people coming and going in and out of Simon’s home because of the popularity of Jesus. It went well until "she" came in the room. We don’t know who she was except that there is some connection she feels she has with Jesus and is inexplicably drawn to him. She may have heard him speak. She may have actually had a conversation with him. Yet more than likely she was one who because of her life and lifestyle had been in the shadows listening, believing, receiving and saw this as her only chance to show Jesus just how much she loved him. We simply don’t know if this was an expression of love and gratitude for forgiveness already realized or forgiveness anticipated.

Why was she so reluctant before now to secretly show him the passion of her love and gratitude? We don’t know. What we do know is she was a "sinner", a promiscuous woman, a hooker or a whore. She obviously wasn’t invited but risked all the social irregularities to just be near him. John Ortberg writes, "She hadn’t always looked like this. There was a day when she had been someone’s little girl, when someone cherished dreams for her, perhaps. When she had dreams herself, maybe. But that day had been gone a long time. It had been years since she had been in the public company of anyone respectable. It took all the courage she had to brave the looks and whispers in that room." (A Love Beyond Reason, p.18)

So there she is and there he is. She is behind him, he is facing away from her. She has in her hand a small globe of very expensive perfume. It has cost her all she has earned as she gave her body away cheaply. She meant to pour it on his head but she sees his feet stretched out as he is reclining in the customary manner at the meal. Suddenly her sense of her own raggedness, her love, her gratitude, his presence, this moment, caused her to begin to cry. Her tears at first were filling her eyes then they ran unrestrained down her face, falling not on the floor but on his feet.

She was embarrassed at the awkwardness of the situation and she does what would have been unthinkable for a Jewish woman to do in public-she let’s down her hair! Oh, she had let her hair down often but this time it was not for another but only to wipe away her tears. She took a long, dark handful of hair and began to wipe the places on his feet where her tears had splashed. As she wiped one or two she suddenly was just overcome with the emotion she felt inside. The tears became countless and she could no longer keep up with their marks.

If this were not risky enough she then began to do what spontaneously was her deepest personal expression of love. As she drew near with her hair she began to kiss his feet. Her lips did not just brush his feet once but over and over she let the lips that had been stained by her shame become lips that kissed again and again these feet. Yet, she was not finished for she took the perfume that she brought with her, broke the top and poured all of the perfume not on his head but on his feet! The room suddenly became filled with the fragrance of the aroma of extravagant love that was unashamed and unhindered.

Why did this woman respond so deeply and passionately to Jesus? I believe it was because she understood fully the reality of the guilt and shame of her ragged broken life. Shame and guilt are two emotions that are very much the same. Guilt is an emotion that recognizes that we are responsible for something that is wrong in our life. It is no doubt a painful but sometimes helpful and healthy emotion. I believe this woman’s sense of guilt, her personal sense of sin drove her to this obvious demonstration of repentance.

Yet she overcame something else and that is shame. Shame hurts us a deeper level than guilt. It hurts at a fundamental level of our soul. Guilt can be used in a healthy way but shame is experienced so deeply that it often makes us see ourselves as without hope and recovery. Shame causes people to see them selves as without value, unlovable, unworthy and irreparable. What this woman sensed was that Jesus was the only one who could relieve her soul of the weight of guilt and the depth of shame.

The song, "Pour My Love on You," which our choir sings expresses the words that this woman felt and how we feel when we sense the depth of our own personal sense of sin, guilt and shame, states:

"I don’t know how to say exactly how I feel.

I can’t begin to tell you what your love has meant

I’m lost for words.

Is there a way to show the passion in my heart?

Can I express how truly great I think you are?

My dearest friend, Lord this is my desire

To pour my love on you…till every drop is gone."

What do you think about your own raggedness? When you fully understand how your choices have torn you and disfigured you, you are broken. When you are broken the depth of your raggedness doesn’t need to hold you back from showing the extravagance of your love for Jesus.

The woman’s attitude is only one of two in our story. She fully understood the raggedness of her sin and it broke her heart. Is that your attitude? Or, are you more like Simon, the Pharisee? What was the Pharisee’s problem?

Simon no doubt waited for Jesus to rebuke this woman for her scandalous life as well as her behavior. He did not even say a thing yet it was written all over his face. Simon thought that as long as the moral exterior of his life was clean everything was just fine. Yet Jesus said that real waste dump in our life comes from within " For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you and make you unacceptable to God." (Mark 7:21-23).

Do you think that somehow your raggedness is somehow not as damaging as another’s? The reason Simon reacted so was because he felt that the woman was a sinner, but he was not! He felt that only a person of his earned worthiness could approach someone like Jesus. The Pharisee thought that God was only for people like him. I mean you’ve got the equivalent of an Anna Nicole Smith, Madonna or Pamela Anderson kissing the feet of Jesus and Jesus does nothing. Simon misunderstood his own sin; therefore, forgiveness for a person like her was out of his grasp. Do you think that way? How many people are turned away from our lives because we think that God is only for those who have no outward evidence of raggedness.

How would you react? If you would react like the Pharisee, then you can’t understand forgiveness because you still have not comprehended your own raggedness! God’s grace reaches to all! As the song by U2 say’s "Grace makes beauty out of ugly things." So many times our problem is that we say, "I can’t come to God like this! I must do something to make it right. God is not for me! Not now, I’m not worthy." Are you like Simon not understanding refusing to accept just how ragged you really are, therefore, still missing real forgiveness? If you are, then listen to Jesus’ teaching.

Jesus tells Simon a story about two people who owed one person a debt. One owed a huge debt and the other a very small debt. Yet they both had the same problem: neither could pay the debt they owed. So the one to whom they owed the debt forgave both of their debts. Jesus question is simple, "Who was more grateful, the one who owed the huge debt or the one who owed the very small one?" Simon could see through it quickly and responded, "The one who owed the larger debt". They both owed a debt. They both were unable to pay. They both were forgiven. Yet who felt it more deeply?

Jesus shows Simon and us that he is scandalously ready to forgive the debt that she and he owes to God. Jesus shows Simon that he had no knowledge of the debt he owed and it was reflected by his lack of respect for Jesus (v. 44-46). Notice that He was looking at the woman but at the same time was speaking to Simon. In doing so he points out to Simon the differences in his actions and in hers. Simon provided no water for Jesus to wash his feet; she though had soaked them with her tears. Where he had not even offered the common courtesy of a kiss on the cheek, she could not stop kissing his feet. Simon didn’t even offer the cheapest olive oil for his head, she had poured out the most expensive perfume on his feet. The woman knew the debt and was broken beyond belief over her sin.

Do you understand the meaning of your own raggedness of sin? It’s an exponential debt greater than the size of all the debt of Enron and WorldCom. Do you realize you can’t pay? You’re unable to pay. Do you realize God cancels out your debt in the cross of Jesus? Romans 3:22 says, "We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done." (NLT) Today I’m not asking you to accept this for the first time. I’m asking you to perhaps own it for yourself.

There is more to understanding forgiveness than the debt being removed. There is the word of Jesus to a broken heart and the peace that only his word can bring.

Simon just couldn’t bring himself to receive the forgiveness of Jesus because he clung to the notion that he did not need much forgiveness. As Ortberg says, he "lost his own sense of raggedness." Yet the woman knew all about who she was and that Jesus knew all about her and loved her anyway. Jesus simply tells the woman her sins are forgiven. Jesus tells her two things: "Your sins have been forgiven," and "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Both of the verbs "forgiven" and "saved" are in the Greek perfect tense meaning that what was done remains done. Nothing would ever spoil her forgiveness or her being his completely. The depth and reality of her raggedness is locked away the attic of God’s grace never to be opened again.

Retired pastor John Claypool tells the story about a counselor friend of his and a young woman who came for counseling. She had a terrible sense of her own raggedness of sin, guilt and shame and it was real. She couldn’t get rid of it; she couldn’t feel forgiven. She came week after week and couldn’t get a breakthrough. One day he decided to try something. He said to the woman, "I want you to take this piece of paper and pencil and write down every sin you ever committed." She went to a desk and did it. She brought it back and he said, "Is every single sin on that paper that you can remember?" She was a little tenuous so he sent her back. "Write down every one you can remember. Try to dredge them up. Write them down." When she had done that, he took a brass bowl that was in his office and he shredded all of those papers and he said, "I want you to kneel before this chair." He put the brass bowl right in front of her. "Now," he said, "I’m going to light a match to these sins. They are going to burn up. They will be no more and I am going to stand behind you with my hands upon your head. I want you to listen to what I say because they are the words of God from the Psalms."

He lit those shredded pieces of paper, stepped behind her and put his hands upon her head and began to quote from Psalm 51. "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to they steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." He moved over to Psalm 103: "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him." And she broke. All of a sudden that cesspool of sin was cleansed in a torrent of tears. She sobbed with heavy, aching sobs. But when it was all over, for the first time in months, she was free. Jesus continually offers the same to you and me.

Conclusion: Over in the Williams Ministry Building are some boxes that belong to our family. In one of those there are two ragged stuffed dolls. They are cartoon characters from the sixties, Yogi Bear and his companion Bobo. They were given to me but my younger brother found a relationship with Bobo essential for his childhood. He loved Bobo literally to pieces. Mom saved both Yogi and Bobo. They ended up with me after Mom moved soon after my father died. They are still there in all their raggedness and I’m sure only reparable at a cost my brother and I are unwilling to pay.

I’m glad God didn’t feel that way about you and me. Our raggedness was no obstacle to his love. It still isn’t today. Do you need to be told, "Your sins are forgiven"? Then let Jesus’ words to this woman be his words of consolation and freedom to your heart. "Your sins are forgiven." "Go in peace." Then in response will you pour your love on him till every drop is gone?

Sunday, July 17, 2002

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

[email protected]