12th February 2023
Sociologist Brene Brown’s TED talk “The Power of Vulnerability” has garnered millions of hits. For good reason: we are hungry for the freedom to admit our vulnerability. Brown pushes us to embrace our own brokenness, with the reality that we are not alone in it, that we are—or easily could be—just one step away from the broken people all around us. Brown says: We are “those people.” The truth is … we are the “others.” Most of us are one paycheck, one divorce, one drug- addicted kid, one mental health diagnosis, one serious illness, one sexual assault, one drinking binge, one night of unprotected sex, or one affair away from being “those people”—the ones we don’t trust, the ones we pity, the ones we don’t let our children play with, the ones bad things happen to, the ones we don’t want living next door.
In our passage this Sunday we are reflecting on the woman who washed Jesus’ feet (Luke 7v36-50). As we do so, it’s worth reflecting on where we are in the story. Are we the raw and honest woman? Are we the judging pharisee? Or are we neither? Perhaps hiding in the crowd, unable to let it all hang out with Jesus?
Wherever Jesus went his goal was not to expose the pain of others or the attitudes of others for the sake of it. However, sometimes the only way to healing is through honesty in a safe place with safe people who love us. Perhaps this is why James writes: “Confess your sins to one another that you may be healed” (James 5v16).
Maybe before Sunday you would like to read the passage in Luke and think, “Where am I in this story?”.
Source: Adapted from Elisa Morgan, The Beauty of Broken (Thomas Nelson, 2013), page 25