Pride Over Shame: Jesus' Liberation and Welcome

Devotional

Day 1: The Perfume of Refusal: Anointing Beyond Shame

A woman kneels, pouring costly perfume on Jesus’ feet—not hiding her tears, her hair, her love. Religious leaders call this scandalous; Jesus calls it sacred. He defends her act as a gift, contrasting it with the coldness of those who police propriety. Shame thrives when we let others define what is “too much,” but liberation begins when we honor the beauty of unapologetic offering. Pride, like her perfume, disrupts the systems that call vulnerability disgrace. [24:44]

“Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.’”
(Luke 7:44–46, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been told your love or identity is “too much”? How might Jesus’ defense of this woman’s offering affirm your own sacred worth?

Day 2: Stonewall’s Echo: Liberation as Divine Memory

Pride celebrations hold the memory of fists raised against police batons, a community refusing to be erased. Jesus’ ministry echoed this rebellion: healing lepers, dining with outcasts, honoring those called “unclean.” Liberation is not a metaphor—it is collective action that honors the bodies and stories of the marginalized. To celebrate Pride is to remember that God’s justice always sides with those who rise from the dust of shame. [27:58]

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”
(Luke 4:18, ESV)

Reflection: What personal or communal “Stonewall moments” have shaped your journey? How does honoring these stories deepen your understanding of God’s liberating love?

Day 3: Pride as Invitation: The Light That Won’t Hide

Jesus insists the woman’s anointing isn’t rebellion but revelation—a light that cannot be hidden. Pride, too, is not arrogance but an invitation to witness the fullness of humanity. When we refuse to shrink, we expose the lie that some identities must be whispered. Like Jesus blessing the woman’s “faith,” holy pride declares that to be seen is to participate in divine wholeness. [30:10]

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others.”
(Matthew 5:14–16, ESV)

Reflection: What part of your light have you been tempted to hide? How might shining it freely become an invitation for others to step into their own wholeness?

Day 4: The Pharisee’s Mirror: When Shame Boomerangs

The religious leader judges the woman, only to have Jesus hold up a mirror: “You withheld water; she gave tears.” Shame projected onto others often reveals the giver’s own unmet brokenness. Systems of shame—whether ancient or modern—crumble when we recognize their roots in fear, not truth. Jesus redirects the gaze: liberation begins when we stop policing others and confront our own unloved parts. [33:12]

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
(Romans 12:2, ESV)

Reflection: When have you projected shame onto others or absorbed it from others? How might Jesus’ mirror help you disentangle truth from fear?

Day 5: Generative Love: The Antidote to Hostile Shame

“Every part of ourselves we do not love will become hostile to us,” wrote Robert Bly. The woman’s perfume—a lavish, “wasteful” act—becomes a sacrament because it flows from self-love. Pride, like her offering, is generative: it creates spaces where love expands instead of contracts. Cis or queer, we’re called to nurture the parts of ourselves and others that shame would call “too much”—for these are the seeds of divine wholeness. [35:32]

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
(1 John 4:18, ESV)

Reflection: What “unloved” part of yourself needs nurturing today? How might embracing it free you to love others more expansively?

Sermon Summary

Luke’s story of the woman anointing Jesus’ feet shows Christ doing what Christ does over and over in the gospels: freeing people from shame. The woman comes with tears, hair, kisses, and ointment, and the Pharisee sees only what he thinks should be rejected. Jesus sees gift, courage, beauty, and faith. The Pharisee tries to put shame on her, but Jesus turns the light back on him and shows that the shame he wants to project is actually his own.

Pride Sunday carries joy, but also memory. Stonewall stands as a holy reminder that freedom often comes through people refusing police brutality, unjust suppression, and the demand to stay hidden. Pride names that refusal. Pride is not arrogance. Pride is not rebellion against God. Pride is freedom, liberation from shame, and an invitation to be seen.

Jesus’ ministry is filled with this same liberating movement. Lepers are healed and restored. Women are raised up. Demoniacs are freed and welcomed back into community. Tax collectors are drawn into the Jesus movement. These stories are not only miracles and teachings. They are stories of oppressed people being set free from chains laid upon them, chains of shame that were projected onto them by others.

Luke’s account refuses the old reading that mainly sees the woman as shameful and Jesus as merely forgiving her. Jesus does not treat her as a problem to manage. Jesus receives her love with gratitude. Jesus names what she has done as more faithful than the hospitality of the Pharisee, and Jesus blesses her: “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Her vulnerable gift becomes an example of good faith.

Pride over shame therefore becomes a gospel act. Shame lifts no one up. Shame heals no one. Shame hides and binds. Pride says that identity, love, healing, and liberation are good and beautiful. Robert Bly’s line presses the point: “Every part of ourselves we do not love will become hostile to us.” Parts that others have taught people not to love can become places of pain unless love and nurture are given room.

A Christianity built on shame asks people to hide what should be loved. The way of Christ opens another way, a spirituality not of repression and hiding, but of expression, coming out, and pride. Divine love is not bound by convention, tradition, culture, religion, government, or shame. True, expansive love is generative, liberative, and proud.

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Key Takeaways

1. Pride refuses imposed shame Pride is named as the opposite of shame, not the opposite of humility. The refusal to hide becomes a truthful act when shame has been imposed by others through fear, bad religion, or selective readings of Scripture. This kind of pride does not inflate the self, but receives the self as worthy of being seen. [29:43]
2. Jesus exposes projected shame Luke’s story shows Jesus turning attention away from the woman’s supposed disgrace and toward the Pharisee’s failure of love. The one attempting to shame another is revealed as the one carrying shame. Christ receives the vulnerable gift that religious judgment wanted to reject. [32:38]
3. Shame heals absolutely no one Shame is shown as a force that hides, binds, and diminishes. It does not produce holiness, freedom, or love. The gospel movement in this account lifts up healing and liberation rather than repression and concealment. [34:32]
4. Unloved parts become hostile The line from Robert Bly names a deep spiritual truth: what is rejected inside a person does not disappear, but often turns painful and destructive. Identity and love that others have forbidden must be brought into tenderness, not pushed into hiding. Pride becomes the practice of nurturing what shame tried to make dangerous. [35:32]
5. Divine love breaks every boundary Love is described as larger than convention, tradition, culture, religion, government, and shame. Christ’s welcome of the woman becomes a sign that true love is not controlled by the systems that try to police it. Expansive love gives life because it is generative, liberative, and proud.

## [38:48]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[24:44] - The Woman Anoints Jesus’ Feet
[27:58] - Remembering Stonewall and Liberation
[28:42] - Pride as Freedom
[29:23] - Pride Against Shame, Not Humility
[30:10] - Jesus the Liberator From Shame
[31:24] - Gospel Stories of People Set Free
[32:02] - Shame as Projection
[33:12] - Jesus Honors the Woman’s Gift
[34:32] - Choosing Pride Because Shame Fails
[35:32] - Unloved Parts Become Hostile
[36:30] - A Christianity Beyond Shame
[37:41] - The Pharisee Sees Liberation
[38:48] - Divine Love Is Not Bound

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Luke 7:36-50 (ESV)
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Observation questions

In Luke 7:39, the Pharisee judges the woman as “a sinner” unworthy of touching Jesus. How does Jesus redirect the focus away from her actions and toward the Pharisee’s behavior?
The sermon mentions stories of lepers, women, and tax collectors being liberated from shame [31:24]. What do these groups have in common in how society treated them?
How does Jesus describe the woman’s actions compared to the Pharisee’s hospitality in Luke 7:44-46?

Interpretation questions

Why might Jesus emphasize the Pharisee’s lack of love (e.g., “you gave me no water for my feet”) instead of starting with the woman’s forgiveness? What does this reveal about shame and projection?
The sermon states, “Shame is a projection” [32:02]. How does the Pharisee’s reaction to the woman illustrate this idea?
Robert Bly’s quote—“Every part of ourselves we do not love will become hostile to us”—is linked to the sermon’s theme [35:32]. How might rejecting parts of our identity (as others have taught us to) lead to internal conflict or pain?

Application questions

When have you felt shame projected onto you by others (e.g., societal expectations, religious judgment, or cultural norms)? How did you respond, and how might Jesus’ response to the woman reframe that experience?
The sermon argues that pride is “the practice of nurturing what shame tried to make dangerous” [35:32]. What is one part of your identity or story that you’ve been taught to hide, and how could you nurture it with love instead?
Jesus calls the woman’s act “faith” (Luke 7:50). What vulnerable or courageous act of love might feel risky for you to offer others right now, and why?
The Pharisee struggles to see the woman’s gift as beautiful [33:12]. Where do you sense judgment or shame clouding your ability to see others’ gifts? How could you practice seeing them as Jesus does?
How can communities actively reject shame-based teachings and instead create spaces where people are “seen, loved, and liberated” [38:25]? What practical step could your group take toward this?

Sermon Clips

67s

“``Shame is a projection, is it not? Remember, shame is not only what we feel must be imposed upon ourselves. Shame is also what can and what often is imposed upon us. In our story from Luke this morning, Jesus exposes the shame being projected onto the woman anointing his feet with perfume. Indeed, so many for so long have read and interpreted this story primarily as seeing how Jesus offers forgiveness to the woman anointing him, its own reading and projection of shame onto her. I contend to you that's not how Jesus saw it. Jesus exposes in this encounter how those who desire to shame others are actually the ones bearing the shame and living with it.”

72s

“I want to talk about pride over shame this morning not only because it is pride month, not only because of who we are gathered here, but because many choose to use selective, poorly translated bible verses drawn out of their context and intended meanings to shame our LGBTQ family and loved ones' identities and love. Many wrongly choose to position pride against humility or worse, pride against God. But we know our pride is not the opposite of humility. It is the opposite of shame. Our pride is not an act of arrogance. It is an act of refusal to hide or to be hidden, an act of being seen. Our pride is not a rebellion. It is an invitation. It's a liberation.”

74s

“Remember, shame is not only what we feel must be imposed upon ourselves. Shame is also what can and what often is imposed upon us. In our story from Luke this morning, Jesus exposes the shame being projected onto the woman anointing his feet with perfume. Indeed, so many for so long have read and interpreted this story primarily as seeing how Jesus offers forgiveness to the woman anointing him, its own reading and projection of shame onto her. I contend to you that's not how Jesus saw it. Jesus exposes in this encounter how those who desire to shame others are actually the ones bearing the shame and living with it. What the pharisee believes Jesus should not accept and reject with disdain is exactly what Jesus accepts with gratitude.”

57s

“Many wrongly choose to position pride against humility or worse, pride against God. But we know our pride is not the opposite of humility. It is the opposite of shame. Our pride is not an act of arrogance. It is an act of refusal to hide or to be hidden, an act of being seen. Our pride is not a rebellion. It is an invitation. It's a liberation. As a faith community, we have to remember that we have gospels filled with stories of Jesus being a liberator from shame.”

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First Congregational Church, Charlotte Michigan This sermon · AI assistant

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Pride Over Shame: Jesus' Liberation and Welcome

Devotional

Day 1: The Perfume of Refusal: Anointing Beyond Shame

Day 2: Stonewall’s Echo: Liberation as Divine Memory

Day 3: Pride as Invitation: The Light That Won’t Hide

Day 4: The Pharisee’s Mirror: When Shame Boomerangs

Day 5: Generative Love: The Antidote to Hostile Shame

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Pride Over Shame: Jesus' Liberation and Welcome

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