A spiritual devotion on Luke 7:18–50
Most of us go through periods in life where we feel doubt, desperation, or both.
After years of Christian ministry and countless disappointments and hurts, I spent some of my thirties struggling to continue this Christian journey.
Did I really believe anymore? Did I want to dedicate the rest of my life to Jesus and keep experiencing these hurts at the hands of his people? Was there a different and better way of life and belief system that I should choose?
Those doubts were often interwoven with my desperation. I longed for rest, healing, friendship, and safety. If you’ve been through spiritual abuse or religious trauma, you know how desperation and doubt can often walk side by side.
Luke 7:18–50 is a collision of doubt, scandal, and extravagant grace. John the Baptist, imprisoned and disillusioned, sends messengers to ask the question many of us ask in our own dark nights: “Are you the One, or should we expect another?” Jesus doesn’t scold the question. Instead, he points to the evidence of grace breaking loose—the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and good news is preached to those experiencing poverty. Sometimes, when faith frays, we need to be reminded that the kingdom of God is already stirring in places we thought lifeless.
Then comes the scene in the Pharisee’s house. An unnamed woman—sin clinging to her reputation like a shadow—bursts in, weeping. She anoints Jesus’s feet with perfume and tears, wiping them with her hair. It’s messy. It’s inappropriate. It’s scandalous. It’s precious. It’s beautiful. And it’s offensive to those who believe holiness should keep its distance from sinners. But Jesus flips the script. He doesn’t see her scandal but her love. While the religious elite recoil, Jesus welcomes her as the picture of forgiven devotion.
These two stories bind together. There’s room in this kingdom for the doubter and the desperate. The Spirit of Christ invites and welcomes the one questioning if Jesus is real and the one so certain of his mercy they weep at his feet. What holds them both? Grace. Who embraces the doubter and the desperate? Christ Jesus. What sends us out from this story? Gratitude.
We follow a Jesus who honors honest doubt, welcomes scandalous love, and forgives sins that everyone else remembers.
Big Idea: Jesus meets our deepest doubts and worst failures with the relentless grace that sets us free.
Reflection: Where are you longing for Jesus to answer your questions or calm your doubts? How does love for Jesus show up in your daily actions and relationships?
Prayer: Merciful One, hold my questions, heal my shame, and fill me with the kind of love that spills over in worship. Teach me to see others through your eyes and to rest in the grace that never lets me go. Amen.
Graham Joseph Hill is the Mission Catalyst – Church Planting and Missional Renewal for Uniting Mission and Education. You can read his Blog here and his Substack here.
Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels.com
