What Is It About “A Tale of Three Women?”

This past January I gave a message at my church titled A Tale of Three Women on Luke 7:36-50, which tells the story of Jesus having dinner at Simon the Pharisee’s house where a sinful woman, almost certainly a prostitute, interrupts the dinner, cries on Jesus’ feet and dries them with her hair.

The central point was that Christians should be living in such a way as to make Christ attractive to the broken, the lost, and the outcast. Yet too often the opposite is true. We think about how it would make us look. We worry about our image. We worry about the cost. We don’t want to deal with the headaches, the heartaches, or the pain. We fear walking into the pain, loss, brokenness, and sin of such people. Yet this is what Jesus did again, and again, and again. I further illustrated the point by telling the stories of two other women that I knew personally: one who got lost in the church, and another who is currently broken outside the church. In both cases their experience paralleled that of the woman in Luke 7.

The congregation was very moved and a number of people wanted follow up. I am not the regular preacher at my church so I asked if there would be interest if I provided “follow up” on my blog. I received significant encouragement to do that. Since, doing so without posting the sermon would leave my readers who do not attend my church in the dark, I posted it here as well.

What I did not expect was that it would become my most viewed post. It recently past 200 views. Now that is no big thing to some, but my blog audience is modest at best, a little more than 250 WordPress followers. Typically a post will be read the most in the first couple days and then fall off quickly, making random reappearances here and there.

Not so with A Tale of Three Women. It has been regularly viewed since its original posting on the 27^th of January. It has been viewed at least once and more often viewed 3-7 times every week since it was posted. Last week I received an email from a person who wanted to talk about it. No other post I have has anything close to this viewing pattern.

I am not complaining. I’m glad that it is. But it is a very long post at 3400 words. It is almost six months old, so you have to look for it. So why is it still viewed so much? As impressive as WordPress statistical reports are, they can only tell you what is happening, not why.

I hope it is because it has hit a nerve. That it is a reminder that when we start saying though word or action, “we need to keep our distance from those messed up sinners” that Jesus rebuked that sentiment in Matthew 9:12-13 (NIV) saying, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

There are a lot of hurting people inside the church that need our love and encouragement and support much more than a slap on the wrist or disapproving looks from us. A lot of harm is done in being more concerned about being right than being righteous. Giving lip service to the saving grace of Jesus Christ while withholding it from hurting people because of how lost or broken they are does nothing to advance the Kingdom of God. My mentor Charlie Jones used to say about such people, “Why don’t you become an atheist and help us in reverse!”

I hope that it is because it makes us want to change. To correct these things. I hope that it is because God is reminding us of the power of His grace. I hope it is because God is encouraging us to be willing to love one another the way He loves us…even when it is hard, costly, and means you have to reach down with that love into the dirt and muck of sin to get it where it needs to go. And when you think about it, Jesus is doing the very same with you and me—even today—isn’t He?

Even before I posted this, someone else viewed A Tale of Three Women again. I may never know why it is getting the constant play that it is, but I am glad that it is nonetheless.