What does Tribe teach about feeling forgiven?

At Tribe, the teaching on feeling forgiven grows out of something more than just knowing the facts of forgiveness. Working through two Gospel scenes, Pastor Brian showed that the woman in both Mark 14 and Luke 7 experienced something the Pharisees and even the disciples in the room did not: genuine clarity that came from genuine closeness to Jesus. The Pharisee saw a woman defined by her reputation. Jesus addressed her simply as a woman and publicly honored her. That gap in perception was not a gap in information. It was a gap in intimacy.

The pattern Brian kept returning to was the difference between being near Jesus and actually knowing him. The disciples were physically present and still missed what was happening entirely, which is what led to the observation that "proximity does not necessarily equal intimacy." The woman with the alabaster flask had neither the social standing nor the religious credentials of anyone else in the room, and she was the one who understood. Her response to Jesus was not performance. It came from a place of knowing who she was with, and who he was toward her.

For anyone carrying the weight of wondering whether their forgiveness is real or complete, the teaching points here: Jesus already knows, and he still draws close. As Brian put it, "If he already knows and he still wants to hang out with you, what does that say about him?" Feeling forgiven, in this teaching, is not primarily a matter of working up the right emotion. It grows from letting that kind of closeness with Jesus become real.

Taught from Luke 7:36-50 · Mark 14:1-9 · James 4:8