When I sin, I feel bad, even remorse, but am I ever moved to tears? Sadly, this does not happen very often. Yet, there are many examples in the Bible that record such deep repentance but perhaps none more moving than this one, recorded by Dr. Luke in his Gospel.
And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
Luke 7:37-38 (NKJV)
It was surely a startling display of repentance for this woman to wash the feet of Jesus Christ with her own tears and wipe them with her hair. She understood the depth of her sins. She knew her Savior whom she worshipped could forgive her. These were tears of sorrow, repentance, and gratitude.
Susanna Wesley, the godly mother of John and Charles Wesley, who would later start the Methodist Church in England, wrote, “Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may seem in itself.”
Amen!
If I fail to understand what sin is, I fail to understand the depth of depravity that I am in. Sin is more than a slight wrong, it is an affront to God. Each time I sin, it should strike at my very core and move me to tears of sorrow and repentance.
How desperately I need my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Only by continuing to surrender myself to Him will I gain the mind of God, recognizing my sins, even when they seem innocent.
Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.
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