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Dwell in the House of the Lord Volume 2, Day 40

by David Joynt on July 16, 2020


LUKE 7:44-46 | 44 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

 The third use of anointing oil is to signify honor and welcome. Offering oil to a guest at a meal was an expected sign of hospitality in Jesus’ day. Similar customs prevailed in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. One of the signs of cultural disarray is when we honor the wrong people. Actors who pretend to be others for a living, individuals who stand out in bizarre and outlandish ways, egotistical athletes and politicians—all attract so much attention. Faithful marriage partners, honest workers, and public servants are invisible to a culture sometimes fixated on accidents and the abnormal.

 Who we choose to honor says much about our values.

 Who do you honor?

 

Tags: values, honor

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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