Jesus Visits Messy Houses

You get the TV and I will get the door.

We then sat there in silence until the tapping on the door had stopped and we heard the car leave the driveway.  In a few minutes, they were gone. We had pulled it off. We had made them think that we weren’t home.

We now laugh about that incident with my mom. I can’t quite remember why she didn’t want that person to visit on that particular day. Perhaps she just wasn’t in the mood to talk or maybe she hadn’t had time to pick the clutter up. 

Whether you have ever gone to extremes to avoid company like my mom I’m sure if you are honest there have been times you have wanted to. 

Times you heard that knock on the door and there were dirty dishes in the sink or you had left those towels lying on the bathroom floor. Times you thought I can’t let them see I didn’t clean my house today. 

Other times when your hair was a mess and you hadn’t put any makeup on yet.  I just couldn’t let someone see me like this. 

Maybe it was the silence that fell in the room. Would they know you weren’t having a good day if you let them in?  Could you manage to put that smile on your face again so they wouldn’t know you were struggling? Would they be able to see that you don’t have it all together all the time?

Maybe worse you wonder if they had heard you argue with your husband as they walked up the sidewalk. Wonder just how much of that conversation had they heard as they reached to knock on the door?  It would be too embarrassing to let them in if they know our marriage isn’t perfect. 

Messy houses.  We all have them from time to time. But did you know Jesus visits houses like that? Houses just like yours and mine. He walks right into our messes and sits down beside you anyway. He doesn’t walk in and accidentally finds our messes either.  He chooses to visit on purpose already knowing they were there. 

Jesus visited a messy house in a place called Bethany once? 

Let me set the scene up for you…..

Jesus was sitting among his disciples at Simon the Leper’s house in Mark 14:3-9:

3 And while He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. 4 But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted? 5 “For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. 7 “For the poor you always have with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good; but you do not always have Me. 8 “She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. 9 “And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her.”       

Right off the bat it is pointed out Jesus was in a house that once housed a man with leprosy.  Even though Jesus had healed this man of this terrible contagious disease, most of the society of that day would have avoided this house.  Think about it like his. What if Simon has just gotten over Cov-19. Would you have visited his house? Would you have touched anything? Even though he was better now would you have sat down in that house? 

Then an unnamed woman shows up carrying an expensive bottle of oil. She has come to anoint Jesus. The disciples see this situation and an argument ensues.  They argue that her using the oil is a waste of money.  This oil could be sold to help the poor.  Disagreement soon turned to finger pointing. And it had to have been frustrating for a woman who was just trying to follow her heart for Jesus. She was totally misunderstood. 

What we find was that under this roof there had been sickness, a financial situation, people couldn’t agree and get along and there in the middle of it all was a woman who had not been invited to the party just trying to follow her heart. Yes, this house was messy.

 I am going to be honest and say this house in Bethany could have easily been my house.  A place that sometimes I feel that Jesus wouldn’t want to visit with all the turmoil, frustration and struggles to cope with in my everyday life. Because quite honestly, sometimes I get this thing called life right and other days I don’t. 

There are days that I am the unnamed woman in this house doing what is right and serving God with my whole heart and other days I am more like the fussy disciples.  How is that for being honest? 

The amazing thing is that Jesus sat among them all.  In the midst of the good and the not so good.  Jesus always seemed to show up in the middle of people’s messes.

He showed up around people in the midst of storms, sick and diseased people, people struggling to make a living, blind people, lame people, people in crowds and even holier than thou people.  He showed up around both the old and young, rich and poor and even around kids. There were even the fallen women of the day and the bottom of the social ladder unnamed women.  He even showed up around dead people.  

But back to Bethany…

As I studied the woman in this scripture, I found that this unnamed woman was perhaps Mary the sister of Lazarus. The same Mary that sat at His feet taking the time to listen to Him and know who He really was. The same Mary that when Jewish culture would not have allowed her a place near a Prophet teaching God’s word. But Jesus had allowed her to sit openly at the feet of the Messiah. The same Mary that knew Jesus called forth her brother from the grave and the same Mary that would have seen that he had healed Simon from leprosy.  

Whoever this Mary was, Jesus had won her heart. If indeed this was Mary the sister of Lazarus, she no doubt poured all this oil out on Jesus from a heart full of gratitude.

 If any of you have ever had sick loved ones or people in your family are unsaved like me, then you know when I say that you would give anything to see them healed. No price would ever be too great. You would understand her heart that risked being rebuked openly to go against the grains of the custom of the day and dare enter a man’s house to show tribute by anointing this man named Jesus in front of them all.

What happened in the house of Simon the Leper, became this woman’s memorial forever recorded within the pages of scripture.  And it really doesn’t matter what her name was. Just like sometimes in our lives too it’s really not going to matter whether you get credit for something or not that you do for God from your heart. 

A woman’s complete surrender of everything she had to show her love for a God that had healed those she loved around her and had allowed her to sit at the very throne room of God.      

This whole passage of scripture makes me think in a house just like mine Jesus chooses to visit no matter what is going on. Even on the messiest of days. And even in the midst of busyness and chaos amazing things still happen in ordinary houses under the roofs of the people who dare to surrender all to this man named Jesus. 

And all we have to do is invite him in….