In the Bible Christian Ministry
Sunday 9-13-26 (Faith Goes to the Stand, Part 3)
  • We've Come to Worship
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  • Fill Me Up / Overflow
  • Series: Faith Goes to the Stand: Living as a 24/7 Witness
    Sermon Title: The Radical Table (Dismantling the Pedestal & Living with Humble Muscle Memory)
    Primary Scripture: Luke 7:36–50; Mark 5:25–34
    Supporting Scripture: Matthew 20:26–28; James 2:1–4; Leviticus 15:19–30; Numbers 15:38–40; Luke 14:7–11

    I. The Pedestal Problem & The Promotion Shift

    Let’s talk about what happens when human beings get elevated.
    Think about the workplace for a moment. You can work side by side with someone on the floor or in the cubicles for years.
    You eat lunch together in the breakroom,
    you share your families' stories,
    you vent about the challenges of the job,
    you support each other through hard seasons.
    And then... they get promoted.
    They get moved into supervision or middle management.
    Now, let’s be fair—we all understand that when someone steps into management, certain professional boundaries naturally have to change.
    You can’t kick it on the floor the exact same way you did before. But what is up with the airy attitude?
    You know what I’m talking about! Suddenly, they walk past you with a glazed look. Their vocabulary changes. They adopt an elevated tone. They act like they can’t be seen sitting at the same table or associating with the very people who helped them survive the floor.
    We see it in high school, too.
    A student gets invited into a "popular" clique, and before the week is out, they act like they have amnesia in the hallway when their old childhood friends walk by.
    Here is the tragedy, church: Many of us do the exact same thing the moment we grow in our Christian walk.
    We start living right, we stop doing some of the things the world is doing, we learn a little Bible doctrine, we gain some spiritual tenure—and suddenly, we get "too good for the world."
    We build ourselves a spiritual pedestal. We look down at struggling people from an elevated distance, thinking, "Well, they just need to get their life together like me."
    We become cold, untouchable, and judgmental.
    We spend so much of our lives trying to be seen by people.
    The moment we get a taste of visibility or status, our flesh craves more—even if it means projecting a version of ourselves that isn't real.
    Jesus completely obliterates that mindset in Matthew 20:26–28:
    Matthew 20:26–28 NIV
    26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
    Just because you got more, or just because you do more, does not mean you are better than anyone else.
    In God's Kingdom, promotion is never an excuse to build a pedestal; it is an assignment to lower yourself and serve.
    Being a 24/7 witness means living with humble muscle memory 24/7.

    II. Breaking the Dining Caste System (Luke 7:36–50)

    To understand what true Kingdom humility looks like, we have to travel back to the 1st century and walk into the home of a religious leader named Simon the Pharisee.
    Luke 7:36–38 NIV
    36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 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.
    Velvet Rope mentality: VIP
    Simon was the Pharisee. He invited Jesus to a formal banquet.
    Today a banquet is a nice time to dine and share with others.
    In the Greco-Roman and Hellenistic world, a banquet was not just a friendly meal; it was an architectural and social theater designed specifically to enforce civic caste, rank, and status.
    Greco Roman Symposium
    Central part is a Triclinium (means 3 couches)
    Wealthy estates featured a dining hall called a triclinium—three low couches arranged in a U-shape around a central serving table.
    Guests reclined on their left elbows, eating with their right hands, while their bare feet extended outward toward the perimeter walls.
    Seating was strictly stratified: the host sat in the center, flanked by dignitaries in descending order of social wealth and political favor.
    Roman hosts routinely served cheaper wine and smaller portions to guests sitting at the lower ends of the couches. tougher meats
    Physical manifestation of a caste system. The higher your status the closer to the middle you sat. which means if you are on the edge you are lowest of the system.
    But Simon was a Pharisee
    the law
    So for a wealthy man even those
    Simon is using the cultural mechanics of the empire to prove his worth while claiming to be separate from it.
    Simon’s home featured an open-air central courtyard (atrium).
    In that culture, public hospitality was considered a civic virtue, so uninvited townspeople were culturally permitted to walk into the courtyard and stand against the outer perimeter walls to listen to rabbis debate.
    But there was an unbreachable caste line: onlookers were strictly forbidden from stepping onto the dining floor or approaching the reclining guests.
    Simon invited Jesus to put Him under a microscope—to inspect Him with cold, intellectual detachment before his peers.
    But here comes this lady. And notice Simon since he wanted to show Jesus up says
    Luke 7:39 NIV
    39 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.”
    Simon brought Jesus into his home for public visibility, but treated Him with detached, patronizing disrespect.
    And right in the middle of this stiff, high-status room, a cultural earthquake occurred.
    Univited got to come Watch:
    A part of the status was to allow the uninvited lower cast poor people could come in the courtyard to witness the people eating and listen to the discussion.
    Watch them eat. Watch them discuss
    You can’t afford this food
    You can’t understand these points
    A woman from the city—a woman the text explicitly identifies as having a reputation as a sinner—walks right past the courtyard spectators. She steps across the unbreachable caste line onto the dining floor. She falls at the feet of Jesus.
    Feet extended outward.
    In conservative 1st-century Jewish culture, an adult woman never unbound her hair in public; doing so was considered a scandal of moral indecency and formal grounds for divorce.
    Furthermore, touching a male rabbi in public crossed every line of ritual purity and propriety.
    Yet, this woman fell at Jesus' feet. Her tears began to shower His dusty, unwashed skin. Having no cloth, she unfastened her hair and wiped His feet with her own tresses. She didn't stop kissing His feet, and then she cracked open an alabaster flask of costly perfumed oil—likely her most valuable worldly possession—and poured it out.
    The room froze. Simon whispered in disgust, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is."
    Her dignity
    Her honor
    Her morals
    Her whole person...she left it.
    (A man could divorce a woman for letting down her hair without giving her any money)
    Simon was looking at the woman through the lens of human caste.
    Simon cared about being seen by his colleagues.
    Luke 7:40–46 NIV
    40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 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. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.
    And notice what Simon withheld:
    He provided no foot-washing basin: Arid Palestinian roads were coated in thick dust and animal manure. Basic table courtesy required offering water to rinse road filth off a traveler’s bare feet. Simon gave Jesus nothing.
    He gave no kiss of greeting: A kiss on the cheek was the standard greeting of respect extended to an equal or an honored visiting teacher. Simon skipped it, silently signaling to the room that Jesus was entering under suspicion.
    He provided no olive oil: Standard etiquette meant providing cheap olive oil to refresh a guest's sun-baked scalp. Simon gave Him none.
    But this woman didn't care who was in the room!
    She didn't care about Simon’s sneer.
    She didn't care about the whispers of the Pharisees.
    She didn't care about the social disgrace of unbinding her hair.
    She only cared about being SEEN by Jesus!

    III. THE SCRIPTURAL MIRROR: Desperate Faith Over Human Visibility (Mark 5:25–34)

    Look at how this mirrors another woman in the Gospels: the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5.
    Under Leviticus 15:19–30, an ongoing, chronic flow of blood meant perpetual ritual defilement (tameh).
    For twelve agonizing years, she lived under a socio-religious death sentence. Anything she touched became defiled. Anyone who brushed against her was rendered unclean until evening. For twelve years, she was barred from the Temple courts, cut off from community life, and left broke after spending everything on physicians who only made her worse.
    Mark 5:25–26 NIV
    25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
    Think of the immense legal and physical risk she took. If she was recognized in that compact crowd, she faced public screaming, physical violence, or stoning for spreading contamination.
    Not a gross thing or germs or hygeine
    Blood represented Life
    a cronic loss of blood meant you were leaking life; you were constantly in contact with mortality and death and because God represents life so anything in relation to death meant that you were opposite of what God represented.
    You were barred from people until you were clean.
    She touched the perimeter of His garment in the dust.
    Mark 5:28–29 NIV
    28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
    Yet, she didn't ask for a stage. She didn't build a platform. She didn't demand an apology from society. She didn't care about human visibility! She said within herself, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole."
    She pressed through the press on her hands and knees and reached for the kraspedon—the sacred blue-and-white tassels (tzitzit) commanded in Numbers 15:38–40 on the hem of Jesus' mantle, representing covenant authority and holiness. Blue thread on this tassel represented holiness and Heaven. The ultimate purity. So not only did she touch. She touched the purest part.
    CONTAMINATION
    They were supposed to contaminate Jesus.
    Notice the contamination was reversed.
    Under the Levitical Law, uncleanness was contagious: if something unclean touched something holy, the holiness became defiled.
    But when desperate faith touched Jesus, the contagion reversed! Power surged out of Christ, swallowed her disease, and imparted instant purity and shalom.
    Jesus stopped the entire parade. He didn't let her sneak away healed in secret.
    Why? Because He wanted her to know she was seen. He turned around, called her "Daughter," and restored her dignity in front of the entire community.
    Mark 5:30 NIV
    30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
    Notice what Jesus told both of these women. He didn't give a dissertation on the volume or theological depth of their faith.
    To the bleeding woman, He said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well."
    To the woman weeping at His feet, He said, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
    He didn't say how big their faith was; they simply had enough faith to MOVE!
    And look at their legacy! Their witness transcended time!
    Two thousand years later, we don't remember the names of the high-ranking civic dignitaries who reclined at Simon’s banquet table.
    We don't remember the names of the doctors who took that sick woman's money.
    But right here in Georgia, in 2026, we are still speaking about these two women! Why?
    Because they put Christ first, laid down their pride, and took radical action to be seen by Him, even when it cost them everything!

    IV. THE PULPIT HOOK: "Humble Muscle Memory" & The Witness Stand

    Now, how does this apply when we step out of this building tomorrow morning?
    It requires what I call humble muscle memory.
    In athletics or emergency first response, muscle memory is the automatic, conditioned reflex developed through thousands of hours of repetition. When a crisis strikes or the game is on the line, an athlete doesn't pull out a manual to calculate their move; their body executes by conditioned instinct.
    Too many believers treat humility like a stiff Sunday suit. We put it on when we enter the sanctuary, smile, shake hands, say "praise the Lord," and then take it off and throw it in the backseat before we pull into the restaurant parking lot.
    Jesus had humble muscle memory. When a weeping outcast broke into the room, Jesus didn’t calculate His public brand.
    He didn't check with His publicist. His immediate, instinctive reflex was downward compassion!
    When you live with humble muscle memory, your witness on the stand is consistent 24/7.
    Think about the courtroom. When you take the witness stand, everyone who knows you should be able to sit in the gallery, nod their heads, and say: "Yep, that is the exact person I know."
    Too often, the opposite happens. You’ve seen it on the evening news: an arrest is made for a crime, and the news crew goes out to the neighborhood with a microphone.
    The reporter puts the mic in the neighbor's face, and the neighbor says: "No, not him! He was so quiet, so polite, he always waved!"
    They interview the coworker: "No, not her! She was so giving in the office!"
    They interview the family: "Not my baby! They aren't that type of person!"
    Why were they all shocked? Because a pedestal can conceal a hollow, double life until unexpected pressure hits!
    Go out to eat with people and treat restaurant workers horribly and talk about being humble and giving respect during the meal
    If your coworkers, your classmates, your spouse, your children, and the restaurant servers you interact with on Sunday afternoon were subpoenaed to take the stand regarding your faith, would their testimony match what you profess in church? Or would the entire gallery be shocked?

    V. Stepping Down from the Pedestal

    As we prepare our hearts before the Lord, let’s dismantle the pedestal this morning:
    Are you really who you think you are:
    Do people think of you the way you think of yourself.
    Look at yourself through the eyes of others.
    Do you cause pain to others
    Do you cause others to question themselves
    Are you as caring as you think you are.
    Audit Your Table: Look at your breakroom, your cafeteria, and your dinner table. Is your hospitality reserved only for people who look like you, make what you make, and validate your status? Break the velvet rope! This week, go sit by the coworker who eats alone. Speak to the classmate everyone mocks. Pull up a chair and bring Kingdom welcome to the outsider.
    John 13:34–35 NIV
    34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
    James 2:1–4 NIV
    1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
    Trade Human Visibility for the Master’s Gaze:
    Stop exhausting yourself trying to be seen, praised, and validated by people who can do nothing for your eternal soul. Stop managing an image. Bring your brokenness, your tears, and your real self to the feet of Jesus. If you have just enough faith to move, step out of the shadows and let Him see you.
    Train Your Muscle Memory for Monday Morning:
    Tomorrow morning, don't walk into your job or your school with an "airy attitude" because you got promoted or because you go to church. Keep your heart low before the Lord. Walk in quiet excellence, unshakeable integrity, and downward love.
    When our faith takes the stand 24/7, let our lives be so steeped in humble muscle memory that our world sees the genuine, living evidence of Jesus Christ.
    Don’t worry about being seen by the World.
    Work to be seen by Jesus
    Let us pray.

      • Matthew 20:26–28NIV2011

      • Luke 7:36–38NIV2011

      • Luke 7:39NIV2011

      • Luke 7:40–46NIV2011

      • Mark 5:25–26NIV2011

      • Mark 5:28–29NIV2011

      • Mark 5:30NIV2011

      • John 13:34–35NIV2011

      • James 2:1–4NIV2011

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