Luke 7

When reading a book or watching a movie I can get so immersed into the emotions of the characters. I often laugh with them, cheer them on, and even though I know they are fictional I can get so devastated and cry when they die or something terrible happens to them. I can find myself dwelling on this sadness for a few days, wishing things had gone differently for them. I remind myself that the story is not real and neither are the characters.

Although the Bible is very much real and everything written is God’s holy word (2 Timothy 3:16-17), I often forget that the characters are so real! When I read through the gospels I can sometimes be searching for answers, a good verse that stands out to me, or trying to relate it to myself rather than processing who is writing, who is being written about, and who it was originally written to. 

If I don’t stop myself and imagine who Jesus is, what his character was like, and remember that He, at the time, was fully God and fully man, I can forget what it must have been like for Him. He had emotions that led him to laugh out loud and shed tears. He had physical pains from traveling by foot each day. He probably got stubbed toes, scraped knees, and definitely experienced hunger and thirst.

This chapter describes Jesus healing many people of physical and spiritual illnesses (Luke 7:21); it shows Jesus raising a man from the dead (Luke 7:14-15), and forgiving a woman of her sins (Luke 7:48). It can be easy to just read this as you maybe would a history book. With little description of the characters and written to explain certain events, it can be easy to forget how real Jesus is.

After reading how Jesus healed many people from all kinds of sicknesses I imagine him being very worn out. As a mom I reach a point at the end of the day where I am overstimulated, overtouched, and physically/emotionally exhausted. I imagine Jesus felt much of this as well. 

Jesus has compassion on the woman who lost her son and even though he knows the outcome (that He will raise her son from the dead), He had compassion for her and bore the sadness alongside her. 

And when the sinful woman comes to Jesus crying at his feet, kissing them, and wiping them clean with her hair, think about what his feet might have been like. Jesus didn’t wear new balance sneakers or get a warm bubble bath each night. He traveled by foot with his disciples on dirt paths with worn out sandals. His feet were likely covered in dusty dirt, calloused, and blistered.  He was and is as real as you and me. Yes He is God and is perfect, but living in this broken world can be painful.

Now picture Jesus with all of this realness in mind. Picture Him going to the cross. Yes we know that He died on a cross to save our sins and rose from the grave defeating death, but instead of just being able to recite a verse that, let it sink in. 

Someone chose to pay the debt of our sins by dying the most painful death. He was beaten and humiliated in front of a crowd of people, shouting insults, until he was bleeding out and so weak He could hardly stand. Then He was nailed, yes hammered nails pierced through His skin and muscles, to be hung on a cross, where ultimately He suffocated. He did all of this with you and me and everyone in His mind, with love in His heart. His name is Jesus.

And when we fall to our knees, crying at His feet, He is ready to say to us, “your sins are forgiven.”