“Spirituality” is an unfamiliar word. It simply means the processes involved in maintaining our relationship with God and being transformed by that relationship. It's about knowing God and growing as a result.
Passionate spirituality, is not the only kind of spirituality: There are a number of other less helpful kinds! The Pharisee demonstrates polite spirituality. He has invited Jesus round after the synagogue service, for food. He wanted to hang out with Jesus, and you can't invite people round without giving them some food. But you can't have a hot meal because that would involve working on the Sabbath. So the meal would be cold meat, salads, fruit, with bread baked the previous day. The guests would be given water to wash their hands – that was the law. But no foot-washing, no ointment, no welcome kiss: that was luxury. So it was polite enough. It was enough to get by. But it wasn't on fire. It wasn't an expression of love. It was a matter of doing the minimum.
Many of us have a polite spirituality today. We are measured, unemotional, respectable, in how we maintain our relationship with god. He gets his bit of our time – an hour or so on a Sunday, read a few verses every day; a few coins in the offering. Jesus looks beyond the few coins, or the many – to see what is going on in our hearts. He is looking for the things we do to be the overflow of heart of love for him.
And the danger is that the next step down from a “polite” spirituality” is a “spirituality of Pretence”: the kind of thing that Malachi mentions – where worshippers bring a sacrifice – but it's a lame or blemished animal. It withholds the tithes – the tenths of flocks and harvest that the Old Testament law required of every family in the nation. And it says “This whole temple thing is such a bore! How long is it going to go on for?” And some of us have been there: we like everyone to think we are people who pray and read our bibles, but we can go for days or weeks without doing either apart from in Church on a Sunday. We like everyone to think we are giving generously to the Church – but we know how much we are really giving. We like everyone to think we are committed to Jesus but inside, we are thinking “this is such a drag!”
Some people have a spirituality of “Entitlement”. What I call a “push-button spirituality”. We do our bit for god. We come to Church, we sing, we praise, we give. Maybe we don't brag about what we do; we are quiet and discrete about it. We don’t complain. But we believe God owes us something. We feel as if our prayer, our walk with God, our Sunday worship and service, entitles us to have our prayers answered.
We have a push-button spirituality when we preach “repent and believe” without any expectation that a person's life will be changed by Jesus. Now I believe in “repent and believe”. But repent and believe is more than a legal transaction; it is dynamic event that brings about a transformation.
We have a push-button spirituality when we teach that somewhere, there's a key, a way of releasing faith, that will get all our prayers answered by God. Now I know Jesus said “believe that you have received it and it shall be yours.” But that's not a formula to get what I want in prayer. It's a challenge to bring our desires, our asking, into the service of kingdom faith, not to bring kingdom faith into the service of our desires.
We have a push-button spirituality when we expect that following a particular pathway will bring results – blessing, answered prayer, growth. God never provides us with buttons to push. He is a person not a machine. He is looking for relationship, for passion.
The trouble with a “push-button spirituality” is that, if we are motivated by the results, rather than the love, then, when we stop getting the chocolate, we stop pushing the buttons.
Passionate Spirituality, is the greatest commandment, the spirituality God desires. Jesus recognises that the woman “loves much”. And Jesus says “The greatest commandment is 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Mt 22. 37-40, cf Lk 10. 27) This goes right back to the Old testament, to Deuteronomy 6. 5. Passionate Spirituality is what God has always wanted. For us to love him... with everything.
Passionate Spirituality, is seen in the woman's generous, extravagant, emotional response to Jesus. Her response is total. She has gone beyond the idea of giving a wee bit back to Jesus. She is giving everything. Mark tells us the ointment was worth 300 denarii, and a denarius is a day's wages. That means it was worth a year’s salary for a full-time labourer. That's a lot of money. The woman is giving everything. Once a widow threw two tiny copper coins into the temple treasury, among other people who were throwing huge bags of money in. Jesus saw her. Maybe she was embarrassed, but Jesus said her gifts was worth more than all the fat cheques because he knew that she had given all she had.
So, passionate Spirituality is extravagant. It is about everything we have. And in fact, as the woman came into the presence of Jesus, not only did she give everything. she had materially, but indeed even her reputation – or what was left of it – was in tatters. What she did was extreme. But the nature of passionate spirituality, is extreme.
Some of us have fearful, self-preservation, calculating hearts that are reluctant to give in terms of money, time, praise, appreciation, opportunities or forgiveness. We need to restore the passion in our hearts that can be extravagant because we are in love.
Passionate Spirituality is about emotions, because it is about everything. There is love, there is gratitude, there is wonder, and shame and fear and relief, all rolled into one. So she is in tears; she gets embarrassed, she mishandles the situation, and ends up letting her hair down to dry Jesus' feet after soaking them with her tears.
We need to find place for our emotions in our walk with Jesus. Too often our spirituality is about our minds and our words. And yes, we need to understand: but we need to respond, and part of that response needs to be with the emotions that God has created us to have. So, do we get excited when we read God's word? Do the tears ever flow when we are worshipping God together or praying on or own? Do we ever feel like shouting out with uninhibited joy at God's grace? Let's not be afraid of emotion.
Passionate Spirituality, is our response to God's love. Jesus says the one who is forgiven much, loves much. That doesn’t mean she was forgiven because of what she did for Jesus. It means that what she did for Jesus, she did because she knew she was forgiven. Somewhere backstage of this encounter, was another meeting with Jesus. Passionate spirituality comes from a heart that knows it is loved. That is where Passionate Spirituality comes from. It isn't worked up through tear-jerker music. It is our response to revealed facts. The fact that made the difference for the woman in the story was that Jesus had accepted and forgiven her, messed up as she was. The Pharisee in the story hadn't got Spiritual passion, because he hadn't got the facts. It's not that he didn't need forgiven: with his sneering criticism of both the woman and Jesus, he was about as nasty a piece of work as any Jesus dealt with. He just hadn’t realised his need. A key theme in the story is “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Listen: joy comes, gratitude comes, passionate spirituality is birthed, in knowing who Jesus is and how his love forgives our worst mess.
And Passionate spirituality makes a difference.
What the woman did in Luke 7 led to truth being discovered about Jesus. “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” Truth is revealed when we get passionate about Jesus. Matthew and Mark tell us that the anointing prepared Jesus.' body for burial. In telling a similar story, John 12. 3 says “the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment”. When we get passionate about Jesus, the fragrance can go a long way!
And for the woman herself, Jesus says “Your faith has saved you; go in peace”. Passionate spirituality, when we respond to truth with everything – releases assurance of salvation and enables us to journey towards peace.
© Gilmour Lilly October 2015
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