This story is a good illustration of what it means to trust God’s Word. Jesus told His disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake” (Mark 4:35), speaking of the Sea of Galilee. At that point, they knew it was His will to go to the other side, and Jesus expected them to believe what He said. However, after they launched out, they soon found themselves in a fierce storm, and waves were breaking over the edge of the boat, filling it with water. Amazingly, Jesus was taking a nap! He obviously believed, unlike His disciples, that they were going to make it to the other side of the lake.

Little children are often scared over things that their parents, who have a higher knowledge, aren’t the least bit concerned about. We are often like those fearful little children and God is always like the confident parent. Like little children, we should look at our Father’s confidence and have faith. When we trust Him, we can sleep even when things are going badly, because we know God has everything under control. Fear and anxiety are what keep people up all night long.

Jesus’ disciples should have followed His example, believing His Word in spite of their predicament. They should have realized that if Jesus was asleep, He must not have been worried, and so there was no cause for them to be concerned either. They were, however, petrified over what was happening to them, and finally woke Jesus, who immediately calmed the wind and waves with a rebuke. Can you imagine seeing such a violent storm immediately stop?

After rebuking the wind and waves, Jesus then rebuked His disciples, asking why they were so afraid and why they had no faith in Him. God expects us to trust Him.

Jesus’ disciples were too stunned by what they’d just seen to attempt to answer Him, and probably missed what He was hoping they’d learn. But they would soon have another chance to use their faith against some wind out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, only next time, Jesus wouldn’t be in the boat with them! God is a great teacher!

Q. Certainly Jesus was always in the center of His Father’s will, and was surely led by the Holy Spirit to cross over the Sea of Galilee that evening. And certainly God knew there would be a violent storm that would threaten their lives as Jesus and His disciples crossed. So why do you suppose God led Jesus to cross the Sea of Galilee when He did?

A. We don’t know for sure, because the Bible doesn’t say. However, we can read other stories in the Bible where God led His own people into difficulties with the purpose of delivering them. He wants us to learn to trust Him, and times of trial are great times to trust God! God may have been teaching the disciples a lesson about faith, as well as glorifying His Son before them.

Q. When you face difficulties that you can’t control, what do you think God would want you to do?

A. He wants us to trust Him, taking Him at His Word. Of course, unless we know what He has said, we have nothing to trust. That is why it is so worthwhile to know the Bible. That is the only place we can find God’s promises.

Application: The only time we should worry about our circumstances is when God is worried about them. But since God never worries, we should never worry either!

In the ancient land of Israel where Jesus lived and taught, on occasion, people accidentally found hidden treasures that had been buried hundreds of years beforehand by some wealthy member of a forgotten civilization. Naturally, if the fortunate finder didn’t own the land where he found the treasure, he would attempt to buy it, thus gaining the land and, more importantly, the treasure. If the purchaser thought the treasure was valuable enough, he might sell everything he owned to have enough money to purchase the field. It would be worth it, however, because he would regain all he sold and more, once the treasure was in his hands.

A place in the kingdom of heaven is like that because it is the most valuable thing anyone could possess, and it would be worth giving up anything and everything else to gain it. People who truly believe the gospel, who believe there is a place in heaven to gain, value their salvation above all else, and it shows in their lives. They repent of their sins and will give up anything that they know might keep them out of heaven. Their relationship with Jesus is the most important thing. It is their hidden treasure and their priceless pearl!

I’m sure you easily understood the parable of the fishing net, so there’s no need for my explanation. However, this would be a good time to learn something about interpreting Jesus’ parables. Usually, each parable serves to illustrate one primary point, and to try to find spiritual significance in every detail of a parable is dangerous. The point of the parable of the fishing net is that there are two categories of people in the world: the wicked and the godly. One day they will be separated, and the wicked will be cast into hell. That’s what Jesus wanted to teach through this parable. There is no spiritual significance to the net, the beach or the crates mentioned by Jesus, and we shouldn’t look for any.

Q. What would you be willing to take as a trade for your salvation?

A. If you answered, “A billion dollars,” or named anything else, you probably don’t really believe the gospel. True believers value their salvation above all else. There is nothing they would take in trade for it.

Application: When the men of the first two parables realized what could be theirs, they did whatever it took to gain their desire. Following Jesus does cost us something, and many people decide not to follow Jesus because they value other things more highly than eternal life, like respect from other people, or their wealth that they don’t want to share. We should value what God values, because He knows what is truly valuable.

The best way to teach is to take what a person already understands and relate it to what he needs to understand. For example, if a person didn’t know what a donut was, you could explain it by saying that donuts are round with holes in the middle, like car tires, but small enough to hold with one hand. They taste something like bread, and often have sweet-tasting icing on top, and so on.

Jesus wanted His followers to understand certain spiritual principles, and He explained those principles using parables, stories that compared natural things with spiritual things. Jesus’ parables were not only meant to help His followers understand spiritual concepts, they were also designed to hide those same truths from those who were not His followers. Jesus, of course, wants everyone to be His follower, but only those who decide to become His followers receive certain privileges, such as going to heaven in the future and understanding spiritual truths right now. Jesus said, “To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge” (Matthew 13:12). But those people who weren’t open to His teaching would be cursed to remain ignorant of wonderful spiritual truths.

This particular parable we just read explains why so many people who hear God’s truth are not changed by it. Speaking to people who understood about planting seeds, growing plants and harvesting a crop, Jesus compared God’s Word to seeds and people to four different types of soil. Just as a seed planted in good soil sprouts, grows and bears fruit, so God’s Word planted in a receptive heart will produce a changed life. But the same seed planted in poor soil will never produce fruit. It’s important to realize that in Jesus’ story, the seed and the sower, unlike the soils, didn’t change. The reason that some people are never saved has nothing to do with God and everything to do with people’s receptivity.

Jesus first spoke of seeds falling on a footpath. The soil there was packed hard from people always walking on it, so the seeds couldn’t penetrate. Jesus said that this soil represents people who don’t understand the good news. The reason they don’t understand it is not because they can’t understand it, but because they don’t want to understand it. Anyone, even a child, can understand that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for his sins. And God certainly wouldn’t hold someone responsible to understand something that is impossible for him to understand.

God’s Word can’t penetrate hardened hearts, and like the exposed seed that is quickly eaten by birds, so God’s Word is snatched from hardened hearts by the devil. When that happens, a person who could have been born again remains unchanged.

The second type of soil Jesus spoke of was a shallow, thin layer over rocks. If you’ve ever planted anything in shallow soil, you can understand exactly what Jesus was talking about. The seed sprouts and the plant begins to grow, but when the sun shines, the shallow soil quickly dries, and the young plant withers and dies. This soil represents the person who enthusiastically receives the gospel at first, but when he faces trouble or persecution because of his new belief, his faith quickly dies. Most pastors and evangelists have seen a lot of people like that. Saving faith is a faith that perseveres no matter what. Every Christian will have his faith tested in difficulties and persecution, so hold fast to your faith.

In Jesus’ third example, the seed fell on ground where thorn seeds had also been sown. The thorns ultimately dominated, and the little shoots from the good seeds were choked by the thorns and died. This represents a person who receives God’s Word but doesn’t make it his highest priority. Other things become more important, like making money. The good news about Jesus demands our utmost attention, because through it, Jesus calls us to be His devoted followers. You can’t have a casual relationship with the Lord.

Finally, Jesus talked about the good soil where the seed sprouts, grows and produces fruit. Of the four types of soil, only this kind represents a person who is saved in the end. Only this kind produces fruit. Those fruits would include the fruit of the Spirit listed in the book of Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (see Galatians 5:22). It would also include the fruit of obedience.

If you’ve become a true follower of Jesus, you can rejoice that you are good soil! Aren’t you glad you are?

Q. According to this parable, will every Christian produce the same amount of fruit?

A. No, some produce thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred fold. Additionally, fruit is something that gradually ripens, and every Christian can grow in the fruit of the Spirit. Some of us still have some green apples, but at least they’re apples!

It is also important to understand that if a person has no fruit at all, he is not really saved. Every true Christian will bear some fruit.

Q. Even though all true Christians could be classified as good soil, do you think there’s any possibility of our soil becoming like any of the other three kinds?

A. Yes, there is that possibility, and we should guard ourselves from allowing it to happen. The writer of the book of Hebrews said, “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12, NASB). This warns us that good soil can become bad soil.

Application: The most wonderful thing is when we meet an unsaved person who is receptive, like the good soil of this parable. Let’s pray today for God to direct us to encounter people like that, so we can share the good news with them.

The people who weren’t Jesus’ followers heard Him tell many parables, but they didn’t understand what He was talking about. Jesus, however, would always explain the parables to His followers later on because they were open to the truth (see Mark 4:34). Aren’t you glad that the Bible records many of Jesus’ explanations so that His modern-day followers can also understand His parables?

Today we read the parable of the wheat and the tares. Tares are weeds that look very much like wheat, but when the wheat begins to produce grain, the tares produce nothing. From God’s perspective, there are only two categories of people in the earth: “the people of the Kingdom” who are the followers of Jesus, and “the people who belong to the evil one” who are not followers of Jesus. Although saved and unsaved people look a lot alike, what differentiates them is their fruit, or lifestyles. True believers in Jesus act like it, just as true wheat produces grain.

At present, God is allowing both saved and unsaved to live side by side. But that will not always be the case. At the end of the world the two categories will be separated, and the unsaved will be gathered by God’s angels and thrown into hell where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42). The godly people, however, will live together forever in God’s kingdom with brand new glorified bodies. Perhaps Jesus was literally referring to those new bodies when He said we will “shine like the sun” (Matthew 13:43). (And you thought you were a bright kid now!)

Two other parables we read today illustrate the future outcome of what Jesus began two thousand years ago. Both parables are about things that grow large after a small start. A mustard seed is so tiny that it’s difficult to see without a magnifying glass, but it grows into a huge plant. So God’s kingdom began very small, with just Jesus and a few disciples. But it has been growing ever since then, and one day there will be nothing other than God’s kingdom. And, only a little bit of yeast is added to bread dough to make it rise, but that little yeast permeates the entire lump, ultimately affecting the whole loaf of bread. So, too, one day Jesus’ influence will affect the entire world. That is the day we’re waiting for!

Q. Can you imagine living in a world where everyone is obedient to God and has a glorified body? Can you think of some things people now use that won’t be necessary in God’s kingdom?

A. Door locks, guns, burglar alarms, band-aids, and deodorant to name a few!

Q. Jesus never once referred to people as Christians and non-Christians. In what we read today, He defined people as either being “people of the kingdom” or people “who belong to the evil one,” evildoers or godly (see Matthew 13:38,41,43). What do these terms tell us about who really is a Christian and who is not?

A. They tell us that people who are evildoers and claim to be Christians are not really Christians.

Application: Most people think that things will always be the way they are right now. But what we read today from the lips of God’s Son indicates that is not the case. The wisest thing anyone can do is to get ready for the eternal future, regardless of what anyone else thinks. Although Christians may be in the minority right now, one day we’ll be a 100% majority.

This short section in Matthew’s Gospel serves as additional evidence that Jesus was God in the form of a human being. Although He had a mother, four half-brothers and at least two half-sisters, He did not think of them like you or I think of our mother, brothers, or sisters. We consider our relationships with them as special, and unlike what we share with any other people on earth. They’re our own “flesh and blood.” Jesus, however, considered Himself to be more closely related to those who, as He said, do the will of His Father in heaven. Had He been only a human being and not God, His reaction to the request of His mother and brothers to see Him could be considered thoughtless, uncaring, and even sinful. But because He was God, He spoke the pure truth, testifying that He had a closer, more important relationship with those who obeyed God than He did with His own mother and brothers.

At least two other points could be made about this short passage. When Jesus declared that His disciples had a relationship with Him that could be best compared to the relationships between family members, He endorsed the fact that family relationships ought to be the closest relationships among human beings. Again, notice that when He wanted to make a point about the closeness of His relationship with His disciples, He used a comparison of relationships within a family. He did not say, “Who are My favorite neighbors?” or, “Who are My best friends at school?” but, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” (Matthew 12:48).

In our perverted and ungodly culture, many families are fragmented. Parents and children are alienated from one another; brothers and sisters hate each other. Families slowly drift apart as individual members seek deeper relationships elsewhere. That which God has intended to be an institution for building our closest relationships is often just a dormitory at best or a battleground at worst. But Christian families shouldn’t be like that. God wants your closest relationships to be with your father, mother, sisters and brothers. It may sound hard to believe if you and your brother(s) and/or sister(s) are enemies, but God wants you to be very close friends . Are you?

There is, however, one possible exception to this, also made clear in this short passage in Matthew’s Gospel. Just as Jesus acknowledged that His relationships with His spiritual brothers were higher than His relationships with his physical brothers, the same is true for all followers of Christ. As Christians, we can and should have relationships with one another that transcend the best relationships that non-Christians have with their own family members. If some or all of your family members aren’t Christians, you may well have closer relationships with people outside your family, people who are believers like you. This doesn’t mean, however, that you should neglect your relationships with unsaved members of your family. Rather, you should love them with God’s love, attempting to win them to Christ. And if all of your family members are saved, then you are doubly blessed to have such special relationships with people who are your physical and spiritual brothers and sisters!

Q. How would you describe your family and the relationships between members? Are you very close, close, not so close, drifting apart, or splintered? What could you do to improve the relationships within your family?

Q. How much time does your family spend doing things together? Do you think the amount of time you spend together is sufficient to build your closest relationships? Do the things you do together as a family truly contribute to drawing you closer to one another, or are they non-productive things, such as watching TV?

Application: As believers in Jesus, we are members of the most wonderful family in the world. We’ve got millions of brother and sisters in heaven and on earth, an awesome big brother named Jesus, and a Father who cares for us like no other!

This story happened about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, Israel. The Jewish people had a big building something like a church that was called the Temple. God had said that all the men who were descendants of Moses’ brother, Aaron, were supposed to work at the Temple doing various jobs. They were called priests. One of their jobs was to burn incense, something that smelled very nice, in an inner room of the Temple, called “the holy place.”

There were so many descendants of Aaron at the time of this story that they took turns doing the various jobs. It just happened that Zechariah was chosen to be the one to burn incense inside the Temple, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him. He was probably really excited to go in the Temple into a special room that few people ever got to see! Imagine how shocked he was when an angel named Gabriel suddenly appeared before him! Have you ever been scared in your own house when you suddenly saw a family member whom you didn’t know was in the same room with you? Think of how you’d feel if it was someone you didn’t recognize. What if it was someone who looked like an angel? No wonder Zechariah was “overwhelmed with fear” (Luke 1:12).

The angel told Zechariah some amazing news: In answer to his prayer, his elderly wife would have a special baby. Zechariah’s son would be a great prophet and preacher, and by the Holy Spirit’s power, he would persuade many people in Israel to quit sinning. That way, they would be prepared for another very special person who was about to come: God in the form of a man!

Zechariah didn’t believe what he heard because he thought he and his wife were too old to have a baby. They were as old or older than your grandparents! But nothing is too hard for God, and Zechariah should have believed what he heard. It was an angel who spoke to him, and that angel had just come from heaven to deliver the message from God.

God was a little bit angry with Zechariah’s unbelief, so He took away Zechariah’s ability to talk for about nine months! God expects us to believe what He says because He never lies. A lesson we can learn from Zechariah is that it is better to say nothing at all than to say something that disagrees with what God has said. God is always right in what He says.

Q. We learned today that many of the Israelite fathers weren’t very good fathers, but when they heard John’s preaching they repented and started to really show their kids that they loved them. What is the most important thing your father or mother could do to show you how much they love you?

A. Teach you about God and the Bible! (So you must have good parents!)

Q. When do you think Zechariah prayed to have a son?

A. Probably many years before when he was a younger man, since he didn’t believe it was possible for his wife to have a baby even after hearing the angel’s message. Our prayers are not always answered as soon as we’d like.

Application: God’s Word is always true, so we should never say anything that contradicts what God has said.

One day some religious teachers and Pharisees asked Jesus to show them a miraculous sign to prove that He was from God. Jesus had performed many miracles already, healings in particular, and the Pharisees had surely heard the reports and even witnessed some themselves. So they were probably asking for something even more spectacular, like fire falling from the sky or the Sea of Galilee being divided in two.

Jesus replied that their request showed how evil and faithless they were, but then promised them a spectacular miraculous sign: Just as Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days and nights and came back to life, so He would spend three days and nights inside the earth and come back to life! That would prove beyond all doubt that Jesus was from God, because He was dead and only God could bring Him back to life! No magician could pull that off!

Jesus knew, however, that even after He was resurrected, the Pharisees and religious teachers would not believe in Him. Hoping to bring them to their senses, He told them what would happen when they stood before God’s judgment seat. God would assemble the people of Nineveh who repented at Jonah’s preaching, and they would condemn those who rejected Jesus. Additionally, God would bring before His judgment seat the Queen of Sheba, who was so spiritually hungry that she journeyed hundreds of miles to hear Solomon’s God-given wisdom. She also would condemn the Pharisees and religious teachers for rejecting Christ. Both she and the people of Nineveh demonstrated an openness to the truth, and were convinced of the truth with much less proof than that which God had granted to those to whom Jesus was speaking.

Finally, Jesus compared the people of His time to a demon-possessed person who was temporarily delivered. After the demon had gone out, the person’s condition improved and he was temporarily clean. But he then allowed the demon to come back into him, and this time that demon brought with him seven other more wicked demons. Consequently, the man became more wicked than he was previously.

This comparison has been proven universally true. Our own nation has experienced several periods of national repentance and revival, however, the effects are short-lived. After a period of years the nation slides back into sin, and the people become more sinful than those who lived before the last revival. We are praying for another revival in our nation, but there will be no lasting righteousness until God’s kingdom comes.

Q. Did you notice that Jesus claimed to be greater than both Jonah and Solomon? Isn’t that an indication that He was prideful?

A. No, it’s another indication that Jesus was God in the form of a human being. It would be prideful for any other human being to make such a claim. God, however, can’t think too highly of Himself, because He is by far the greatest person ever. It would be impossible for Him to be guilty of pride.

Q. If a person is possessed by a demon or demons, but then becomes born again and delivered, according to what we just read, does he have to worry about becoming demon-possessed again?

A. A person who is born again has the Holy Spirit living inside him, and so he could never be demon-possessed and Spirit-born at the same time. The demons that formerly possessed him may come back to tempt him, but he can use God’s Word, believing and obeying it, to resist them, and they will flee (see James 4:7). In the passage we just read, Jesus was making a comparison to describe the deteriorating spiritual condition of His generation. He wasn’t trying to convey that every demon-possessed person who is delivered eventually becomes more demon-possessed.

Application: Today we learned about the varying receptivity of people to the truth. Entire cities sometimes collectively repent, while other, more spiritually privileged groups of people harden their hearts. How would you rate your city’s or country’s receptivity to the truth? Do you think the people are becoming more or less receptive?

Today we realize even more how wicked the Pharisees were. After witnessing the instantaneous deliverance of a man who had been both blind and unable to talk, they claimed that Jesus got His power to cast out demons from Satan. Most of the other witnesses whose hearts weren’t so hard began wondering out loud if Jesus was the Messiah.

Jesus easily exposed the lie of the Pharisees’ accusation. Why would Satan empower someone to cast out his own evil spirits that he had commissioned? He would be undoing his own work, and if he continued, his kingdom would be doomed to self-destruction.

Jesus also mentioned that some of the Pharisees’ own followers were casting out demons. Were they empowered by Satan as well? The Pharisees would of course deny such a thing, showing their double standard.

Jesus then explained that He cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is much stronger than any evil spirit. The Bible says that Jesus came to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8, NASB). Jesus explained that by using greater power, He was able to “tie up the strong man,” Satan, and rob him of his possessions, the people he’d held captive. He then went on to warn the Pharisees that they were guilty of a sin that could never be forgiven: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What is that? The Pharisees were saying that the marvelous works of the Holy Spirit were actually works of the devil. That is blasphemy, aimed specifically at the Holy Spirit. When someone’s heart is so hard that he can see the power of the Holy Spirit instantly heal a blind and mute man, and then call it the work of Satan, there is no hope for him to be saved. The condition of his heart is so bad that forgiveness is out of the realm of possibilities.

Sometimes the devil convinces young Christians that they have somehow blasphemed the Holy Spirit by something they’ve thought or said. But no true Christian could commit this sin. In fact, if you’re even concerned that you’ve committed this sin, that proves you haven’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be concerned.

Referring to the Pharisees, Jesus said that the condition of their hearts was revealed by their words, just as fruit reveals whether a tree is good or bad. A bad tree can’t produce good fruit, and likewise, evil men can’t say “what is good and right” (Matthew 12:34). When people one day stand before God to be either allowed into heaven or thrown into hell, the words they spoke on earth will be used as evidence to prove whether they are saved or unsaved. People who have truly believed in Jesus will have spoken kind words, forgiving words, words about God and Jesus, words from the Bible, and words of praise and thanksgiving to God. People who have never believed in Jesus will have spoken many hateful, selfish words, words that mocked the Bible and Christians, and even used God’s name as a swear word. Do your words prove that you’re a believer in Jesus?

Q. How do you suppose some of the Pharisees’ own followers were able to cast out demons?

A. We can read in another Gospel something that John once reported to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t one of our group” (Mark 9:38). Jesus replied, “Don’t stop him!…No one who performs miracles in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me” (Mark 9:39). So we learn that other people, even those who weren’t followers of Jesus, were using His name to cast out demons. They had discovered a way to cast out demons that worked: tell the demons to come out in Jesus’ name ! That shows us that there’s a lot of power in the name of Jesus! It also indicates that the followers of the Pharisees who were casting out demons must not have been too devoted to the Pharisees. Their hearts were obviously more open to Jesus, and they were on the verge of believing in Him.

Q. Jesus said that any city or home divided against itself is doomed. Can that same principle be applied to a church?

A. Yes. God wants His people to be unified, but when Christians in the same church start fighting with one another, it can ruin their church. The more unified we are, the stronger we are.

Application: The Holy Spirit is a million times more powerful than any evil spirit from Satan. That’s why the Bible says, “The Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4).

This woman who kissed Jesus’ feet probably had a reputation as a prostitute. Although the Bible contains no such record, it seems likely that Jesus had previously ministered to her, accepting her repentance and forgiving her many sins. Now, at Simon the Pharisee’s house, she returned to show her love and gratitude for her Savior. It’s quite obvious she believed that Jesus was God in the form of a human being: How many people’s feet would you wash with your tears and dry with your hair? How many people’s feet would you repeatedly kiss and perfume? Hopefully only God’s!

This story, for several reasons, also affirms that Jesus was who He claimed to be. First, because Jesus allowed the woman to do all those things to His feet, and there’s no evidence that He was the least bit uncomfortable with it. Why? Because He was God, and God deserves to be worshipped. Would you allow someone to do that to you? Hopefully not! Any other human being who allowed another person to perform such a worshipful act would be guilty of great pride.

Second, Jesus told the woman that her sins were forgiven, something that only God has a right to do, as those present that day realized. If Jesus wasn’t God, then He was one of the most evil people who ever lived, because He knowingly deceived people into believing that He was God and accepted worship of which only God is worthy. If you don’t love Jesus, then you hate Him! But nobody should be neutral about Him, because He wasn’t, as some think, “just a good man.” Simon the Pharisee thought that what he was witnessing proved that Jesus wasn’t even a God-sent prophet.

Simon assumed that a God-sent prophet would automatically know how immoral the woman was. It hadn’t occurred to him that Jesus was God and that the woman had repented and had been forgiven by Him. So Jesus explained to him what was happening before his eyes. He was witnessing a redeemed person worshipping God with humble gratitude. Because she had been forgiven of so many sins, she was especially thankful, and it showed.

Then Jesus compared her actions with Simon’s. Simon hadn’t even offered Jesus the common courtesies of that day which any dinner guest should have received. No doubt Simon had a servant wash the feet of his other guests when they arrived, but he hadn’t even offered Jesus water to wash His own feet! Yet the forgiven woman washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Simon hadn’t greeted Jesus with a common kiss of greeting as he had his other guests, but the forgiven woman repeatedly kissed His feet, an act of adoration. Neither had Simon extended to Jesus the common courtesy of anointing His head with olive oil as he probably had done for his other guests, but the forgiven woman anointed Jesus’ feet with rare and very expensive perfume.

Simon’s discourtesy revealed that he didn’t invite Jesus to his house for dinner in order to get to know Him or ask Him honest questions, but to set Him up before his other Pharisee friends, so they could have a close-up chance to find fault with Him. They hated Jesus, and wanted to prove He wasn’t even a God-sent prophet. How sad! If they had known and believed the truth, there would have been no room for the forgiven woman near Jesus’ feet, because they would have all been on their knees there, weeping for their sins and asking for His forgiveness!

Q. How was the forgiven woman able to perform her act of worship while Jesus was eating with Simon and some other Pharisees? Do you think that she crawled under the table or did she stick her head under His chair?

A. That was a trick question! In Jesus’ day, people ate their meals lying on their sides around a very low table, their legs pointed outward like spokes on a bicycle wheel. The woman in today’s story knelt behind Jesus’ feet and legs, where she was easily able to wash His feet with her tears and dry them with her hair.

Q. According to Jesus, what was it that channeled salvation from Him to the immoral woman?

A. Her faith in Him.

Q. How can we be certain that she did possess saving faith?

A. Her humble act of worship revealed her faith. She publicly, without shame, demonstrated that she believed Jesus was God. All true Christians possess a deep gratitude to God for the forgiveness of their sins, and it shows by how they live their lives.

Application: Jesus said that a person who has been forgiven much, loves much, and a person who has been forgiven of little, loves little. Actually, all of us who are saved have been forgiven of much more than we realize. Does your love and gratitude for Jesus show by how you live?

The United States Marines often advertise for recruits, saying they are looking for “a few good men.” Jesus, however, found a few good men and women as the first recruits for His growing army. They loved Him because He first loved them. According to what we just read, some of the female recruits had been previously ill or demon-possessed. Mary Magdalene, whom you will one day meet in heaven, had been delivered of seven demons, which tells us that she had been in a horrible condition before she met Jesus. Unsaved people can allow the entrance of demons into them by practicing wicked things, and so it’s quite possible that Mary Magdalene was formerly a very sinful person. But Jesus delivered and forgave her, and now she was following Him closely. She was the very first person to see Him after He had risen from the dead!

Another one of Jesus’ female followers was Joanna, the wife of Herod’s business manager. She, along with Mary Magdalene, was one of the first people to see Christ’s empty tomb. She also helped to support Jesus and His disciples financially. Since Joanna’s husband made his living working for Herod, it was actually some of Herod’s money that was used to buy food for Jesus.

People who are true followers of Christ, male or female, want to support His cause, and one of the ways they do that is with their money. Today, Christ’s followers financially support His cause by giving money to their church, missionaries and mission works. Anyone who claims to be Christ’s follower (and who makes money) but gives no money to Christ’s cause is only fooling himself. Do you give a portion of the money you receive to Christ’s cause?

Joanna and her husband, who worked for the occupying Roman government’s ruler were probably looked upon by most other Jews as traitors. But Jesus gladly accepted her as a member of His band of disciples, right along with a number of other people even though their reputations might hurt His. But Jesus was motivated by pure love, and He was unconcerned what judgmental people might think of Him because of those with whom He associated. We should follow His example.

Today we also read about another Mary and her sister Martha, two women who were very good friends of Jesus. Jesus visited their home one day, and as Martha diligently worked to prepare dinner, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to His teaching. Martha was trying to be a good hostess, worrying about every little detail, and she became angry that her sister wasn’t helping her with all the preparations.

Under most other circumstances, her anger might have been justified, because her sister should have been helping her. But that day, God was visiting their house! That doesn’t happen often! Jesus commended Mary for her right priorities. Spiritual food is more important than physical food, especially when it is being served by God Himself!

Q. If there is work to be done at your house by you and your brother(s) and/or sister(s), based on what Jesus told Mary, is it OK if you don’t help carry your share as long as you grab your Bible and start reading it?

A. Sorry! You can read your Bible any time, and you certainly shouldn’t use Bible reading as an excuse to get out of acting like a Christian! Mary’s case was different because Jesus was physically present and was teaching. I suppose if He had been taking a nap, He would have agreed with Martha.

Q. What do you think Jesus would say to the person who skips church on Sunday morning because he or she has so much to do to prepare for the church picnic on Sunday afternoon?

A. He would tell them that their priorities were mixed up.

Application: God loves women just as much as men. Therefore, no Christians should think of themselves as being superior to the opposite sex.