“Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.”
— Luke 7:44-46 (NLT)
It was custom at that time that when a guest came to your home for dinner he would be greeted with a kiss. His feet would’ve been washed, and his head anointed with oil.
This woman most probably waited near the door for Jesus, expecting that Simon would greet Jesus with a kiss and then a servant would wash his feet. She probably hoped to anoint his feet after they were washed.
But Jesus was not greeted with a kiss. And his feet were not washed.
At this point, it would have been easy for the woman to have stood back and let the fact that things had not gone the way she was expecting to prevent her from anointing Jesus’ feet. The customs that she was used to and expected were not followed. She could have decided this wasn’t the way that she wanted to do it, so she wouldn’t do it at all. She could have taken offence and decided to leave. She could have left quietly; no one would have noticed. But she took matters into her own hands – she wouldn’t let this deter her from what she had come here to do.
3.
Don’t let unmet expectations prevent you from what you set out to do
It can be easy to walk into church and decide that because the worship team isn’t very good, or you don’t really like the songs this week, you can’t worship. It can be easy to take offence to something the worship leader, service leader, pastor has said or done, and decide that you’d rather not worship at all, rather than give them the satisfaction. It can be easy to decide that because of that argument you had with so-and-so, or because the kids were a nightmare this morning, or because that person didn’t smile or say hi to you, you’re not really in the mood to worship so it’ll just have to wait until you’re feeling more like it.
These are all silly examples, but they illustrate the things that we can let hinder us from worship; offence, pride, injustice, disrespect, rejection.
The woman who came to anoint Jesus’ feet could have felt every single one of these. She could have been offended by their disregard for the customs of the day. She could have been prideful and decided she wasn’t going to anoint dirty feet. She could have felt disrespected and rejected – it was clear that she was despised by Simon and rejected by everyone in the room, except Jesus. She could have felt a sense of injustice – she had got there early after all, she had dropped everything, and no one could even be bothered to wash his feet?! She could have felt all of these things, and she probably did feel at least some of them. But she realised something that we need to.
Letting these feelings, these offences, these broken expectations hang over you will only rob you of your worship.
The only person in the room that is important is Jesus. And the only person who can decide when and how you worship is you. Letting other things get in the way won’t prevent anyone else from experiencing intimacy with their Father God.
No matter what worship songs are playing, no matter who else is in the room with you, no matter what has happened before or is going to happen later, you can enter into the presence of God if, and only if, you choose to.
Worship is something we do, not something done to us. In the most difficult and worst circumstances, we can still worship our God. Even if the kids are running wild around the room during our “quiet” time with God, even if the church has no pastor, no worship leader and has to make do with singing to no music at all, we can still bow before the Lord, offer Him our praise and give Him everything we have. Paul and Silas still worshipped when they were in prison; beaten, rejected and in chains! (Acts 16:22-26).
What we must never do is neglect our worship, abandon our devotional times or leave church blaming our failure to worship on imperfect conditions, the out of tune singing, the dull sermon, or the noise from the children in the next row. We are in charge of our own decision to worship, and no one else. We cannot let un-met expectations prevent us from our purpose.
Thank you God that You long for me to draw near to you in worship
Please forgive me for the times I have let offence, pride, unfairness, disrespect or rejection get in the way of lifting your name high.
Help me to always have a right attitude, knowing that I am in charge of my own decision to worship.
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