How we hear. (Matthew 26:6-13)

Tuesday we talked about how JESUS knows and how he knew how HIS death would come, even if HE relish the idea, (we will get into that probably Wednesday with verses 36-46. This woman, Mary, listened. HE said HE would die and so she anointed HIM.
This is the odd bit for me, if I am honest. Because of the crossroads I am blessed to see, I have seen "christians" use Paul to treat women as lesser and meant to serve women. I've seen women who act as though the only reason humanity hasn't died off is because they tell the men what to do and what not to do. I've seen the gambit of life and hate when it comes to things like this. Heck, even in the 80s, if a woman acted like a man she was a whore or another word for a female dog. Coming right back to that, "We caught this woman red handed committing adultery." Okay, cool. Where's the guy then. Cause Torah says both are to be put to death. [We can and I would love to dig into conversation on that one verses following things now and the OT abuses against each other.] (Comment and we can dig into it, because we don't war against flesh and blood rather against principalities and spirits.) So it's where I have so much to want to dig into. The fact that we are made to help each other, that it's about rising each other up by lifting each other before HIM. Being the friends who take their crippled buddy and break open a roof because it's more important to see healing than it is to give a damn about a roof, that can be easily patched, church looking like a hospital.
We have spent thousands and thousands of years cutting each other down, ripping each other apart and washing our hands in the pain of others. [If you hate another you have committed murder in your heart. Mt 5:22, 5:45] We have been raised in this world (humanity) to treat the "other" as lesser and "them" as the enemy. We miss that if we are not **OF** this world, simply in it, then there is no "other" because GOD'S job is to sort the weeds from the tares (we are called to love, see all of Matthew 13) and "them" isn't a thing. If there is a "them" it should be in the form of, "What can we do to help them?" Giving your coat when your neighbor demands your shirt. Is it easy? No. Is it simple? Yes. Does it require getting rid of the stuff that isn't us and has nothing to do with who we really are? Yes. Does that make use loose who we really are? Not at all!!! In face JESUS, Himself, says it, "... if you give up your "life" you will really find it."
It requires laying down a lot of these silly things we still cling to. Women greater, no men greater, this colour, no that one, my tribe, no mine! These are the childish things to lay down before HIM. Men verses Women, GOD makes them both so why continue with Cain verses Able? It's all coming back down it this one moment. If you are free, why run to chains or killing your brothers and sister, by word, by act, by wild comment. Why treat HIS creation as lesser when in today's verse we get to see that it's not about anything more than "the least of these that listens." Cause in that time, women we seen as the least, in some groups they are still are today. Shame we haven't learned that it's time to put that childish behaviour away. All this time and we are still learning, grasping at, understanding that we are to live out the grace HE shows and let our lives bear the truth of Who HE IS.

And I know this is a random side bit, but I hear sometimes that "Preachers are representing God when they are up there." We, as Followers of The MESSIAH, represent HIM every moment. Maybe if we started living that fact out less people would see Christians as hypocrites and more as a kingdom of people who say, "I was one way, I am now another, in the middle, was HIM." And live and love like we truly believe we have been set free of the damnations and chains of this broken world and the demonic masters who think they rule it. Living like we are really set free by HIS grace and by the power of HIS Blood.