Text: Luke 7:3650

Topic: How contrast helps make us grateful

Introduction

Illustration: Schmidgall tells how his family took for granted the closer on his front it broke. Then they had to deliberately stop to ensure the door closed each time they walked out.

Illustration: College students, after eating institutional food for three months, look forward to eating food at Thanksgiving.

Contrast is important in developing an attitude of gratitude in our lives.

The story of Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman is a lesson in contrasts.

Simon invites Jesus to the banquet to make himself look good. He is critical, superspirtual, and proud.

However, the woman is humble, and weeping, washes Jesus' feet, a behavior in stark contrast to her past.

Jesus stops to teach Simon the lesson of contrast.

The first lesson in this event is the importance of understanding or revelation.

Simon has a false sense of security: he doesn't realize that while the prostitute has a debt, he is in debt too.

Illustration: Operation Greylord was a scandal in Chicago in which judges stole $50 and $100 at a time, which they justified, saying it was only small amounts of money.

Illustration: Saved at a young age, Schmidgall never did anything terribly were not a lot of contrasts in his life. However, he did struggle with dangerous and pride.

Sometimes we have contrast and don't know it; we need to recognize that apart from Jesus we are nothing.

The woman has this attitude; she knows she has a debt and although she is a hardened person, she accepts her obligation to welcome Jesus.

The second lesson in this event is the importance of perspective and wisdom.

Gratitude grows out of our view of both the nature of sin in our lives and the nature of God's love, as evidenced by the woman's actions in the story.

Simon was not grateful because his blinded him to the contrast of himself to Jesus.

Illustration: Schmidgall asks which is worse: a tornado wiping out a town or poison in the water destroying the population. The tornado is no worse than the poison; likewise, the woman's sins are no worse than those of Simon.