DESPERATE TO PROVE A DEATH
Unfortunately, insurance fraud is common to many parts of the world. For instance, the country of South Africa is battling an epidemic of fake life insurance claims. When a person reports a non-existent death, that person might be able to collect lucrative benefits from an insurance company. Extended family members might try to claim a relative’s death ahead of time, hoping to maintain their family’s standard of living. Other times, criminals use sophisticated trickery, acquiring unidentified remains from mortuaries and passing these bodies off as “proof of death” to collect a payout. Insurance companies have to fight these crimes, with so much money on the line.
DESPERATE TO SHOW HER DEVOTION
In first-century Israel, meals were usually taken with diners reclining on pillows with their feet extending away from the table. In today’s passage, a woman with a checkered past approaches Jesus’ feet and begins to weep, either in sorrow over her sin or gratitude for the Lord’s forgiveness. Her tears drop onto his feet, and she wipes them with her hair and pours perfume on them. Her desperation to show her devotion is as extreme as the men who tore through the roof to lower a paralyzed friend to Jesus (see Luke 5:18–27).
Questions
- When have you been desperate to prove something? How did it turn out?
- In Jesus’ Jewish culture, how scandalous do you think it was it for this woman to do what she did?
- What can we do when our hearts are overflowing with love for Jesus?
