Home ownership… it is a blessing and a curse, isn’t it? I am grateful that God has blessed me where I can own my home, however; when you own a home — you have to maintain a home. It seems like the work never ends sometimes. How about those home projects that you know you have to do, but you never seem to do, because… well… you dread doing it.
Such was my world last Saturday when I finally emptied our deck, got out the power washer, and cleaned said deck. I am a bit ashamed to admit this, but we have lived in our house for 4 years, and I have never power washed the deck, and yeah… it looked like it. Our deck sits about 8 feet above the ground, which made it impossible to power wash without getting soaking wet. I was covered in some nasty dirty water, that was for sure!
But I persevered! Eventually I was able to finish the sides and move up top to the deck. I could not believe the layer of dirt, algae and overall disgusting scum on the deck boards! Yuck! As I used that power washer to blast away the filth, it was immensely satisfying to watch the wood grain reappear. I had no trouble determining which portions of the deck needed to be cleaned, because the comparison between clean and dirty boards was startling.
It took me four hours, but now the deck is clean, and about 5 shades of brown lighter than it was before. A tedious job for certain, but the results make it worth it!
Once Jesus was eating dinner at the home of Simon, a well known Pharisee (Luke 7). While they were eating, a prostitute entered the room and fell at Jesus’ feet weeping. Once again, we can assume a backstory to this event. At some point this woman had heard Jesus teach… somehow she knew who he was and that he was capable of forgiving her sin. She knew him.
As she wept, her tears fell on Jesus’ feet… and then she began to wipe Jesus’ feet clean with her own hair. In her brokenness she kissed his feet, and upended a jar of expensive perfume upon them.
Could you imagine a more humbling scene? Her hair now matted and filthy… perfume, a tool used to lure men to her, now poured out as an offering to Jesus. And what a fitting offering to Jesus too… the giving up of what had been used to perpetrate her sin. Jesus had no problem seeing where sin had stained her life. So, what did Jesus do? He forgave her of her sin.
Oh, such a simple statement to make, isn’t it? He forgave her… but in reality the Divine One delved into her soul and saw the stains of rejection, self-loathing, shame and brokenness… and he washed her clean. Washed away the scum of shame and sin… washed away the taint of the men who had used her… washed away the brokenness, so that he could bring to her the joy of healing, acceptance and worth!
And the satisfaction the Savior must have felt! The satisfaction of a broken life that had been renewed! He proclaimed to those at the dinner table, “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.” (vs.47)
O friends, a cleaned deck is a wonderful thing, but a cleaned soul is beyond estimation! Praise be to God that in Jesus Christ we have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb!
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