Forgiven much

“You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.”
Two camps within Jesus’s “audience” are divided by this statement:

– One that is comfortable sitting and reclining in the room to listen to His teaching and to be seen near His presence, but that has no kiss for Him, no hunger to be close and personal

– Another that does not cease kissing His feet from the moment He enters their life
They both even know who He is,  but one is resigned for this to be a comfortably distant relationship,  an acquaintance, an intellectual agreement in concept and theology that allows one to justify being alongside. But the other is heartfelt surrender that comes from a personal touch of understanding of what has been paid, what has been redeemed,  and at what cost. 
It is not the amount or type of sin that differs in these responses, but the level of understanding and believing their need for a Lord and Savior – their strength or weakness of faith – that generates either a complacent attitude allowing us to imagine ourselves entertain the Lord as an occasional passerby to our lives,  or sees Him as the one whose side we refuse to leave, whose feet we refuse to cease kissing. 
And the Good News is that if we find ourselves in the wrong camp,  it is the realizing that we are in the wrong camp that opens the door to true, heartfelt repentance – that allows us to cry out, “Lord, touch this cold, hard heart and bring new life to my life,  new breath to my lungs, new praises to my lips, for your honor and glory forever and ever! Amen!”
Because if you don’t think that you are forgiven much,  if you don’t think that the price paid was high,  if you don’t believe that what you have received is in such a great contrast to what you deserve, how far does pride precede the next fall? 
Let’s not become cold and religious, but encourage each other to “do this in remembrance of me”, to eat of His flesh,  to drink of His blood, to feed upon His Word, and to walk in Spirit not in the flesh, to beg of His mercies, to praise Him in awe, to wor ship in Spirit and Truth, to accept without doubt this forgiveness this grace through faith,  and to come boldly into the throne room to kiss His feet once more.