Faith, Feelings, and My F-150, episode 10
How Jesus Heals Sexual Brokenness
Alexâ sister Alena sat next to him during the church service. She was absolutely shocked that the church had just allowed a young woman to share her story about being sexually abused by a pastor. Alena thought no church would ever want to talk about something like that. She was just as surprised that anyone would want to tell their story. That was the kind of thing Russian families like to keep to themselves, and not tell anyone else.
Alena thought maybe the rest of the service would be a bit more traditional. But she quickly realized this was not the case when Pastor Petrov announced that the title of his morning message was âHow Jesus Heals Sexual Brokennessâ.
Part of Alena wanted to quietly slip out the back door and go home. Plenty of people in the church knew her history. But she was so mesmerized by Tatianaâs story that she decided to stay. Alena was beginning to think some churches might actually be safe places to talk about past mistakes.
As Pastor Petrov began his sermon, most of the people were wide-eyed with attention, still in shock from hearing Tatianaâs story. He acknowledged this as he began.
âSome of you find it hard to believe that I asked Tatiana to share such a personal story with the entire congregation. Many believe church is not an appropriate place to discuss sensitive sexual issues. But if the church is not a good place for that discussion, what is?
All of you read the news. You know that sexual abuse among clergy is a huge scandal. And donât try to tell me itâs just the Catholics. We all know better.
Many of you have come to the church to pray for healing. And when you do, you donât keep your illness a secret. You tell us exactly whatâs happening, so we can pray for you to be healed.
Our moral brokenness is just like our physical brokenness. If we keep it a secret, we will never find healing. But if we bring it into the open and seek Godâs touch, we will be able to find the healing we need.
Some of you are surprised that Tatiana would openly share her darkest secrets with you. Maybe you think what happened to her defiled her. But thatâs not the case. The adult who forced himself upon her defiled himself by his actions. But Tatiana was a child. She did not understand what was happening. No shame falls upon her because of what happened.
Think of the story of Jesus on the cross. He was beaten and bloody. He hung naked on the cross, for everyone to see. When he was mocked, he said nothing. Worst of all, God the Father placed the sin of the world upon him and turned his back on Jesus. The pain was so great that Jesus cried out, âMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?â
Nobody has ever experienced the kind of shame Jesus did. Isaiah 53:3 tells us, âHe was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him notâ.
Hebrews 12:2 says, âJesus endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of Godâ. Jesus hated the cross. He hated the humiliation he suffered there. But his humiliation did not keep him from experiencing glory. Hebrews says that today he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
You may feel empathetic toward Tatiana. But you may be very angry at the pastor who did this to her. You may feel that he deserves harsh punishment for what he has done. Youâre not wrong. But we need to be careful that we donât see his sexual brokenness as worse than other forms of brokenness.
Many of you have read that the Bible speaks of homosexuality as an abomination. Leviticus 18:22 says, âYou shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abominationâ. But the Bible says casual sex between men and women is also defiling. Romans 1:24 says, "God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves."
Itâs easy for those of us who havenât committed big sexual sins to look down on those who have. But we must be very careful. Sexual sin isnât the only kind that God calls an abomination. Hereâs what Proverbs 6:16-19 says: âThere are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothersâ.
That changes everything, doesnât it? Look at the things God calls an abomination. A proud look. Lying tongues. Those who sow discord among brothers. Those are the kind of things weâre more likely to put up with in church. But God calls them abominations.
If youâve been a member of this church for the past 3 years, you know firsthand some of the unkind words that have been spoken between members of our congregation. And I follow many of you on Facebook. I know the kind of things you post, and many of us arenât gracious to those with different opinions.
God calls a proud look an abomination. That can be very difficult for us to accept. Many of our Russian churches have longstanding traditions about the kind of clothes that are acceptable in church. The kinds of music we must sing. The particular Bible translation we must use. We have many rules and regulations that donât come straight from Godâs Word. And sometimes we look down on those who donât keep our traditions.
God calls that a proud look. It says we think weâre better than someone else. And he calls that an abomination.
All kinds of sinâsexual sin and prideâare equally repulsive in the sight of God. Romans 3:23 says, âAll have sinned and fall short of the glory of Godâ. None of us match up to Godâs standards. Any of these sins are bad enough to keep us out of heaven. Rev. 21:27 says, âBut nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lambâs book of lifeâ. Whether our sin is the sin of adultery or the sin of arrogance, they are enough to keep us from entering heaven.
Sometimes those with sexual sins and those with hearts full of pride donât get along very well together. Here is what Jesus experienced when these two kinds of sinners met each other.
Luke 7:36â50 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Phariseeâs house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Phariseeâs house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, âIf this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.â And Jesus answering said to him, âSimon, I have something to say to you.â And he answered, âSay it, Teacher.â
âA certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?â Simon answered, âThe one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.â And he said to him, âYou have judged rightly.â
Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, âDo you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgivenâfor she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.â
And he said to her, âYour sins are forgiven.â Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, âWho is this, who even forgives sins?â And he said to the woman, âYour faith has saved you; go in peace.â
When you read this story, there is only one person who is described as a sinner. Itâs the unnamed woman. Evidently her reputation was so bad, the dinner guests didnât even want to mention her name. Everyone knew who she wasâa sinner. Jesus doesnât disagree with them. This woman was a sinner. We donât know what kind of sin she committed. But itâs safe to guess it was one of those big ticket sins that grabs everyoneâs attention, like sexual sin.
But the truth is, there were a lot of sinners in that room. Simon was upset because Jesus let a sinner touch him. Jesus didnât tell her to go away. He didnât mind that her presence upset Simonâs highly dignified guests. He let her draw near and touch him.
At the end of this story, who still loves their sin? The woman was clearly a sinner. But she was repentant. Her passion and generosity was a result of her gratitude for how much Jesus had forgiven her.
But Simon and his guests? They were hardened in the sin of pride. They thought Jesus should kick the woman out, and commend them because they never did anything as vile as she did. But the truth is, in their hearts they hated both the woman and Jesus. So when the story ends, the woman has been cleansed from her sin. But Simon and his guests were still guilty of the abominable sin of pride.
How can you tell who is forgiven and who isnât? The ones who arenât forgiven are upset because Jesus didnât give them the recognition they felt they deserved. They saw themselves as dignified and honorable, and werenât happy that Jesus let someone with a vile reputation enter their dinner party and draw close to him.
But look at the woman. She is in tears. You canât miss the depth of her passionate love for Jesus. She didnât mind being on the floor. She didnât mind giving him something expensive. She didnât mind kissing his feet. She was absolutely, passionately in love with Jesus. The way todayâs young people might say it, she was ânuts about Jesusâ.
How do you feel about Jesus? Simon and his friends didnât think they had much to be forgiven for, so they werenât especially grateful. They just wanted a nice, formal acknowledgment from Jesus. But the woman was nuts about Jesus, because she knew how deeply he had changed her life.
So, what should you do if you realize youâre an abomination in the sight of God? What if you have lying lips? What if you have a proud look? What if you sow discord on social media? What if you have sexual sins you hope nobody in the church ever learns about?
The bad news of sin is that we donât just feel guilty. We are guilty. We havenât just done something dirty. Weâve become something dirty.
But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus bore all of our sin on the cross. He became something vile, so that we could become something clean. Psalm 51:7 says, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." In John 17:22 Jesus says, âI have given them the glory that you gave me.â
When we come to know Jesus, our shame is gone. The guilt is wiped away. We are made clean. And it isnât just true for us as individuals. Those of us who believe are joined together as a holy people belonging to God.
1 Peter 2:4â9 says, âAs you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.... You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are Godâs people.â
We all read the news. There are wars and rumors of wars. There are debates in many countries around the world about who should be allowed to become a citizen. But here is what God says about all of his people. We have become a holy nation belonging to him.
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10-19 The United Nations recognizes about 200 nations around the world. But in the spiritual realm, there are only two: the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. These two kingdoms have no dual citizenship. Either you are the lord of your own life, or Jesus is. The woman in Luke 7 recognized the brokenness and emptiness of a life where she was the lord. So she gave herself to Jesus and let him be the lord. But Simon and his guests thought they were doing a good job as lord of their own lives. That pride kept them out of Godâs kingdom.
We are the church of Jesus Christ.
What makes us one is not our language. Itâs not our citizenship or our denomination. What makes us one is that we were once full of sin in the eyes of God, but now we are made clean by the blood of Jesus. And the way we can tell is by who is nuts for Jesus. Are we ready to give Jesus a polite handshake, or will we get on the floor in front of everyone and kiss his feet?
10-20 Those who enter Godâs kingdom are a chosen race and a holy nation that declare Godâs glory. It doesnât matter what youâve done or where youâve come from. If youâre washed by the blood of Jesus, youâre family. Youâre one of us. And together we bring honor and glory to God.
When the service ended, Alex looked closely at his sister Alena. She was unusually quiet. This was a lot for her to take in. Alex and Natasha had been praying for her for a long time. They knew it takes time for someoneâs perspective to change. They hoped this service might be part of a new chapter in Alenaâs life.
