without shame... without guilt...
Different than the shameless of yesterday...
The word came to mind reading a new book ... the author recounts a story from Luke 7 ... Jesus accepts an invitation to dinner at the home of a Pharisee... but the dinner party is crashed by a prostitute...
She was desperate to see Jesus again, and she overheard someone saying that he was having dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee --- a dinner she would never be invited to attend, not in a thousand years. ... But she had to see Jesus. It's hard to imagine what it would take for her to walk into that courtyard. ... She is desperate to express the love and affection she feels for him. What she does next is reckless, it's impulsive, it's inappropriate, and it's exactly the kind of follower Jesus wants.
Picture the scene. Jesus is reclining at the table. Instead of using chairs they would lean on an elbow that was propped up by a cushion. Their feet would be away from the table. This woman approaches... The table grows silent. Everybody is watching. Everybody knows who she is. What is she doing? She looks around at the guests. She feels from some that familiar glare of condemnation. Others keep their eyes down, embarrassed by her presence and the awkwardness of the moment. But when she looks at Jesus... She falls to the ground and begins to kiss his feet. Soon, the tears are just pouring down her face. They begin to drip onto the dirty feet of Jesus. As she looks at the muddy streaks she suddenly realizes that his feet haven't been washed. She can't ask for a towel, so she lets down her hair... an intimate expression... She lets her hair down in front of Jesus and there was likely an audible gasp. She begins washing the feet of Jesus with her tears and drying them with her hair.
--- Kyle Idleman, excerpt from not a fan. (emphasis added)
To those who looked down on her... she was shameless... but it's exactly because she was shame-less that she was able to do what she did... that she was driven to do what she did... the inappropriate...
Jesus had changed her heart... freed of guilt... shame... she shame-lessly worshipped Him...
This is the Word that frees...
For the Scripture says,
"Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."
Romans 10:11
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