We can't be insulted! - Brennan Manning

To be alive is to be broken.

And to be broken is to stand in need of grace.

Honesty keeps us in touch with our neediness and the truth that we are saved sinners.

There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are.

When a man nor woman is truly honest (not just working at it) it is virtually impossible to insult them personally.

Those who are truly ready for the kingdom are just such people. Their inner poverty of spirit and rigorous honesty has set them free. They are people who had nothing to be proud of.

There was the sinful woman in the village who kissed Jesus' feet. There was freedom in doing that.

Despised as a prostitute, she had accepted the truth of her utter nothingness before the Lord.

She had nothing to lose!

She loved much because much had been forgiven her.....

To be alive is to be broken; to be broken is to stand in the need of grace.

   -- From The Ragamuffin Gospel, Chapter 4, 
                         by Brennan Manning 


One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal.

He went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town heard that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.

Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is -- that she is a sinner."

Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."

"Tell me, teacher," he said.

"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii and the other fifty. Neither had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."

"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.



Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.

"Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven -- for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven....Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."  (Luke 7:36-50)