An invited and an uninvited guest, a Reflection on Luke 7:36-39

He has accepted a dinner invitation from somebody respectable. Somebody not respectable shows up. I wish I could think of some appropriate sermon illustration to insert here. I must know a lot of them, but none are coming. But if I could it would be start like this:

(Fill in the name) Methodist (or some other denomination) Church was having its Sunday morning service when in walked (here's where I need the great example of an illustrative sinner) .....

She doesn't belong to the establishment, but she sure does know Jesus and his importance. She has brought a jar of something expensive and anoints him with it. She washes his feet--try to remember the last time you even thought about doing this even for someone you knew--and dries them with her hair.

The reaction of the host--How can he be a prophet? He doesn't even recognize what kind of woman he is letting touch him in public.

In his time--and in ours, Jesus sure could upset the respectable. And, in his time and in ours, he can attract the sinners.