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| Lot's Wife Courtesy Pixabay.com |
The other woman was Mary, the sister of Lazarus. All four gospels relate this story from each disciples' perspective. I use the bare bones of it. Jesus was at a friend's house for lunch when Mary, a former harlot, came in and kneeled at Jesus' feet and washed them with her tears and dry them with her hair. When the friend was thinking about the woman and her sins and Judas worried about how much the perfume cost, Jesus told a story intended to show them why she did what she did. When he finished, he said, "Leave her alone; why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful deed to Me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want. But you will not always have Me. She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of is preached be told
Anyone who ever sat in a Sunday School class for any length of time has heard about both these women. Two women Jesus wanted us remembered for two very different reasons. We remember Lot's wife for her failure and Mary for her love and devotion to God. There are no other women mentioned in this manner by Jesus. In fact, I don't recall anyone in the Bible saying we were to remember anyone else.
Simple obedience would have saved Lot's wife. Her fate was needless and stupid. Why was it necessary to look back? Tell me, if angles showed up on your step and said your city was being destroyed and you had to get out now, what would you do? They recognized these men as angles and didn't express any doubt, but did as instructed and headed out of the city.
The angles told them, "Whatever you do, don't look back!"
No one had a problem with it, except Lot's wife. Everything she loved was back there: the new dress she had begun, the cake in the oven, a lunch date with her friend, her home, her friends, her prestige all lay behind. Lot's wife saw nothing waiting ahead of her except a cave in the rocks. She needed just one final look.
No one had a problem with it, except Lot's wife. Everything she loved was back there: the new dress she had begun, the cake in the oven, a lunch date with her friend, her home, her friends, her prestige all lay behind. Lot's wife saw nothing waiting ahead of her except a cave in the rocks. She needed just one final look.
Mary, eyes clouded with tears, kneeled and washed the Lord's dirty feet. He walked all over the place from muddy streets to barn yards. But this woman, with her dirty reputation, entered uninvited and crouched down to clean all this from his feet with her tears and an expensive perfume and dried his feet with her hair.
Mary didn't need to look back. She knew what lay behind her. Her home, her friends, and her prestige turned to ash when she entered "Sodom and Gomorrah". Instead, Mary turned her eyes on her Savior's feet and remembered him writing in the sand the day he destroyed her own Sodom and Gomorrah. When Jesus said "Go, and sin no more.", Mary ran and never looked back.
Remember Lot's wife. I think we're all like Lot's wife. We spend a lot of time looking back at what we've left behind for whatever reason. I know I do. Regret. Remorse. Whatever you want to call it. There is this tug to look back one more time. Fortunately for us, we do not turn into a pillar of salt.
Or do we? Jesus tells us we are 'the salt of the earth' in Matthew 5:13 and if we lose our savor, we're useless. Mark 9:49 says, "For everyone willbe salte d every sacrifice will be seasoned
Perhaps the reason for Lot's wife's condition was more than just her punishment. She stands as a monument to all of those who looked back,longing for the things left behind. She stands useless, salt that has lost its savor.
Remember Lot's wife. I think we're all like Lot's wife. We spend a lot of time looking back at what we've left behind for whatever reason. I know I do. Regret. Remorse. Whatever you want to call it. There is this tug to look back one more time. Fortunately for us, we do not turn into a pillar of salt.
Or do we? Jesus tells us we are 'the salt of the earth' in Matthew 5:13 and if we lose our savor, we're useless. Mark 9:49 says, "For everyone will
Perhaps the reason for Lot's wife's condition was more than just her punishment. She stands as a monument to all of those who looked back,
What do you think about this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbeinternational.org/blogs/unnamed-woman-alabaster-jar
First in all four Gospels the story is either directly told or alluded to. Matthew Mark and Luke all recite virtually the same story from different perspectives. John simply says that the sister of Lazarus and Martha was the Mary who washed Jesus feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. I think it highly unlikely that there would be two women named Mary who did the exact same act under the same circumstances.
DeleteI have not looked it up but Mary Magdalene was the woman Jesus rescued from the crowd of men about to stone her. This is also alluded to with the resurrection I believe. And I think most of those in the Christian faith make the connection with Mary Magdalene as a sister of Lazarus and Martha. Again I could be wrong on that I would have to go back and research.
She definitely was a sinner because in one place it specifically says she’s a sinner. So she’s breaking the Hebrew law in someway and there were only a few ways that women could do that. Prostitution was usually the commonly mentioned one. The fact that all four Gospels referred to this single woman would indicate to me there’s only one she was Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, and I think she was Mary Magdalene, the woman Jesus rescued from the crowds.
The woman writing the article you cite seems to have a problem with the word prostitution and the fact that many women of that day that had no husband often had to go into prostitution. This wasn’t that something they did for fun it was survival. We don’t know why Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. And we don’t know why the woman washing Jesus’s feet was a sinner. That sin wasn’t Specified. But we do know that the views of women during those days was very narrow and that more often than not if they were considered a sinner they were involved in prostitution. She makes it sound like it’s some kind of an unjustified accusation. I think it is simply putting one plus one together. She is a little bit edgy about it for some reason and I failed to understand why that was based on her article.