Last week, Jesus called out the Pharisees for refusing to properly mourn when called to repentance, and refusing to properly celebrate when they see the Kingdom of God being offered to all. In the incident which follows, we have an illustration of both the fruit of repentance and the beautiful, life-changing offer of the Kingdom to all.
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman[1] (Luke 7:36-50)
Now one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.When a woman of that town,[2] who used to be[3] a sinner, learned that Jesus was dining at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfumed oil. As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with her hair, kissed them,[4] and anointed them with the perfumed oil.[5]
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” So Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He replied, “Say it, Teacher.”
“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” Jesus 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. You gave me no kiss of greeting, but from the time she entered she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfumed oil.
Therefore I tell you, because her many sins have been forgiven, she has loved much; but the one who is forgiven little loves little.”[6] Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.”[7] But those who were at the table with him began to say to themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” He said to the woman, “Your faith [the faith I have given you][8] has saved you; go in peace.”
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I want to unpack this story, then apply it. Here are some things that stand out to me about this story.
1. The Bible doesn’t say why she was sinful. Tradition says she was a prostitute, perhaps because when the Bible describes Jesus as eating with “tax collectors and sinners” (as the Pharisees did a couple paragraphs earlier), that seems to be a phrase that typically includes prostitutes. It would make sense that one of the Pharisees’ derided ‘sinners’ would show up in this next event.
2. If a Jewish woman was a prostitute – and this woman seems to be Jewish - then an entire community had failed to keep the Law of Moses. There was no way a woman should have had to resort to prostitution. The Pharisees, as the teachers and defenders of the Law,should have made sure she was taken care of. They apparently didn't.
3. When guests arrived for a meal, servants typically washed and anointed them with perfumed oils. This did not happen to Jesus. Simon was not a great host. But, to be sure, Jesus had just compared him to children that don’t know how to properly mourn in repentance or rejoice in salvation, so….
4. The guests reclined as the ate, lying on one side, feet behind them. That’s how the woman had easy access to Jesus’ feet.
5. Nobody asked this woman to leave and nobody stopped her from anointing Jesus’ feet, even though it’s clear they knew her and her reputation. That’s intriguing to me. Simon didn’t rebuke her or remove her when she touched Jesus, an act that a Pharisee should never have let happen to a rabbi.
6. Simon saw this as a test. Would Jesus know secret information about this woman? He would, if he was truly a prophet. Well, the joke’s on Simon: Jesus demonstrated Simon’s expectation of a prophet knowing private things by responding to Simon’s interior thoughts.[9]
7. What are these tears? Sorrow? Regret? Joy? Relief? Love? Hope? The Bible doesn’t say. Yes to all? I remember after watching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and A Monster Calls, I sobbed what I will call beautiful and terrible tears. How can they be both? They just can. It tore my heart and filled my soul. Some of my best soul-cleansing cries not involving movies have been on the other side of repentance when I am overwhelmed first by what I have done, and then by the goodness, grace, mercy and love of God and others who forgive me, love me, and truly believe that my history is not my destiny.
8. Some think that “washing his feet with tears” was more than just tears in the moment. Keeping tears in a bottle, or a container, was a thing.[10] This bottle was a history of the hardship of one’s life. When a person was buried, the tear bottle was buried with her. If these were tears from her tear bottle, it tells you how deeply this woman was invested in Jesus.
9. Drying his feet with her hair sounds odd to us, but in that culture, a woman’s hair was her glory. She was indicating to everyone there that her own glory was good enough only to wash Jesus’ feet.[11] I don’t know what the equivalent is today. Whatever it is, it has something to do with laying down our pride and perhaps offering that which the world sees as making our name great and surrendering it for the purposes of making Jesus’ name great.
10. Kissing the feet of someone was unusual, but not unheard of.
· When Rabbi Papi (360 AD) got a man acquitted of murder, the man kissed his feet, and paid his taxes for him for the rest of his life.
· Rabbi Yannai and Rabbi Jonathan (220 AD) were hanging out when a man came up and kissed Rabbi Jonathan’s feet. Jonathan explained that the man was having trouble with his son, so Jonathan told him get some men to rebuke and correct his son. When the matter turned out well, the man had showed his appreciation by kissing his feet.[12]
· “The kissing of the feet is clearly not a kiss among equals or a kiss of familiarity, relation, or intimacy. It is a kiss of profound thankfulness and indebtedness. It is a kiss used to express that one’s life is much improved because of the one being kissed, or even that one owes his/her life itself to the one being kissed. It is a kiss reserved for a savior.”[13]
11. Jesus seems to have met her before. He says she loved much because she had been forgiven much. For you grammar nerds, the verb tenses matter in this story. She ‘used to be’ a ‘sinner,’ though Simon clearly thinks she still ‘is.’ Her sins ‘have been forgiven,’ an indication of something that already happened. Her love was the effect of her being pardoned, not the cause of it. The woman’s acts of reverence to Jesus honored him as the one who had brought God’s message of grace to her. The tears and the perfume are a response of thankfulness and love. She is one of His children.
"Thanks to thee, most blessed sinner: thou hast shown the world a safe enough place for sinners - the feet of Jesus, which spurn none, reject none, repel none, and receive and admit all.”[14]
Jesus offers her something the Pharisees never could: hope. If tradition is correct, she became one of his disciples - not the 12, but there were many more that traveled with him, including women (see Luke 8:1-3). In Luke 10:1, Jesus sent out 70! As a follower/disciple of Jesus, she was taken care of in a way she was not before, not just spiritually but practically.
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It’s often said of stories that readers connect well to the power of a story when they find themselves in the story. So let’s look at the two characters other than Jesus and see if we recognize ourselves.
THE PHARISEE
How hospitable are we to Jesus? Jesus isn’t going to walk in the front door of our house, but he’s knocking on the door of our hearts. (Revelation 3:20.) Do we let him in to clean house? Do we, like Simon, let him in but refuse to show hospitality, reverence, and humility? “Fine, I guess you can be here. Try not to touch anything.” Jesus isn’t someone to be dabbled with, like a hobby or a pet or a toy. He’s not a curiosity to amuse us. He’s a savior set on saving; a shepherd set on directing and caring for us; a King setting up a Kingdom.
Do we see the greatness of our Debt Forgiver? If I am hiking along the Boardman and I wander off the trail a couple yards, I’m not going to be impressed if someone comes running up to me, grabs me by the hand and says, “I found you!” Yeah, I wasn’t that lost. If I am two days off road into an Alaskan forest, with no supplies and suffering from hypothermia, whoever finds me is going to have my life-long gratitude.
How honest are we about how lost we were or are? How honest are we about our need for a Savior? This incident reveals that our response to Jesus comes from experiencing His gracious love for us, demonstrated by paying the debt for our sins and bringing new life to our dying souls. (1 John 4:19)
When we refuse to take our lostness seriously, we won’t see the value of our Savior clearly. This doesn’t mean we have to beat ourselves up everyday. This could go off the rails and turn into a shame-based life if all we do is walk around telling ourselves on repeat that we are losers.
We don’t have to be pulled out of a pit every day to remember the days we are pulled out of a pit. We don’t have to be undone every day to remember the days we were undone – and restored. We don’t have to be crushed every day by the weight of our sin to remember the days we were crushed – and Jesus took the weight and lifted us up. Those who know they are forgiven much love much. Let’s not look away from the messy and uncomfortable and crucial process of repentance.
What ‘sinners’ are we refusing to love into the Kingdom of God?
The Pharisee knew about the woman. She seemed more like a tool in his test of Jesus than a human being deserving of love - which would have been demonstrated by taking care of her financially and bringing her into the care of the community of God’s people rather than forcing her to the fringes and ignoring her.
· What sinners do we think are such great sinners that we have lost our love and concern for their physical and spiritual well-being?
· With what sinners have we contented ourselves with “othering” them in their uncleanness and sin and keeping them at arms’ length lest they dare get to close to us and make us dirty?
· Who is it we have stopped loving so much that we have stopped going to them and demonstrating, with our words and lives, the good news of the person of Jesus and the community of His church?
Honestly, as I scroll throught the news, I see such fear, anger and disdain directed toward certain individuals and groups of people right now by Christians. When the people of Jesus put those vibes out, why would we expect others to think Jesus feels any differently about them? And where is the compelling good news of the Gospel in that?
There is campaign right now seeking to boost Jesus’ PR. It’s called “He Gets Us.” I am not here to criticize them; I appreciate their hearts. But you know what? If people already knew that from their interaction with the people of Jesus, we wouldn’t need that campaign. And if someone believes the ads and joins a local church but doesn’t experience from the people of Jesus what the ad promised was true about Jesus, the ad won’t matter.
What sinners are we refusing to love into the Kingdom? If we see ourselves in the story in the person of the Pharisee, we’ve got some repenting to do. To use Jesus’ analogy last week, the music is a dirge, and it’s time to mourn.
THE WOMAN
What brought her to Jesus? The merciful kindness and love of a Savior. Maybe this is you. You have experienced the grace and forgiveness of God, and perhaps experienced it flowing through others. Her response of love, service and adoration makes sense to you. You were the hiker two days out in the wilderness.
When I get my checkups with the doctor who fixed my heart, I have this unavoidable feeling of tenderness and thankfulness. I’m always like, “Hey, thanks again,” which feels totally inadequate. And he only saved my physical life, and only once. But the one who saves our souls and continues to save, deliver, and heal? The more we see and understand the profound gift of God’s redemption, the more we live in such a way that our lives give out a constant testimony of “Hey! Thanks again!”
Or…maybe this isn’t you, but it’s who you want to relate to in the story. You haven’t experienced this, and you are desperate to know that you are valued and loved by God, and you want to experience forgiveness, restoration and peace that has been so elusive.
Good news: Jesus offers that to you.[15] “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
What tears do we bring? Repentance? Weariness? Cynicism? Bitterness? Loneliness? Disillusionment? Pain? Sorrow? Joy? Relief? Beauty? Longing?
I suspect we store up those tears; we just do it in our hearts instead of a bottle.
Sometimes it’s just memories, things we hold close because to lose them, even if they are painful, feels like a loss. Life in its fullness has been beautiful and terrible, and we don’t want to forget who we were and who we are, because the entire story matters. That seems like a good and healthy thing.
But sometimes it looks like this: “Do you know what all I’ve been through? I deserve…” Then that bottle of tears become an identity, an obsession, a prison, an addiction, a card to play to excuse and avoid and defend and demand.
I wonder what it looks like to pour that bottle out at the feet of Jesus. It’s giving up the right to have the final word, to get revenge, to demand pity, to hide behind our history, to cling to the toxic safety that we know and therefore feels comfortable.
What tears do we bring? How might we pour out those tears to Jesus?[16]
With what acts of adoration do we seek to make his name great?
The perfume was a costly act of adoration. We aren’t going to pour out perfume literally like she did, but there are other ways. In 2 Corinthians 2:14, Paul wrote,
“Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”
He told the church in Philippi that he had,
David wrote in the Psalms 141:2,
“May my prayer be like special perfume before You. May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening gift given on the altar in worship.“
It’s in costly but sweet-smelling offering of our lives, our fellowship, and our focus that we best respond to the love of our Savior.[17] We tell others about Jesus; we offer our testimonies; we live honestly so others can see the ongoing work God is doing in us; we enter into the family and church community rhythms of repentance and forgiveness; we seek, as image bearers, to more clearly embody truth, justice, mercy, love.
We have been forgiven much, and it’s glorious. May we love God and others much in return.
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[1] https://www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/bible-contradiction-sinful-woman-luke-7-36-50
[2] “The widespread belief that she was Mary Magdalene has absolutely not a single jot or tittle of evidence in Scripture. Nor can there be said to be anything like even a tradition in its favor. The earliest Fathers of the Church are silent. Origen discusses and rejects it. Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine are doubtful. It first gained general acceptance through the authority of Gregory the Great.” (Ellicott’s Commentary)
[3] “Refers here to the time past, though lately past; she had lately been infamous and notorious, but it appears by what follows that she was not so now, other than in the opinion…of the people.’ (Matthew Poole’s Commentary)
[4] “Among the ancients the kissing of the feet was a proof of deep veneration, which was manifested especially to Rabbins.” (Meyer’s NT Commentary)
[5] ‘This was doubtless one of the implements of her guilty condition (Proverbs 7:17, Isaiah 3:24), and her willingness to sacrifice it was a sign of her sincere repentance.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)
[6] Jesus emphasized that Simon never understood the depth of his guilt. If he had, he would have viewed Jesus as the woman did.
[7] “Turning again to the woman, in her deep penitence, and at the same time in her deep joy - joy springing from her newly found peace - he formally renews to her the assurance of that pardon which she already was conscious of…” (Pulpit Commentary)
[8] See an extensive discussion on faith as a gift from God at https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm
[9] Jesus had already shown he had prophetic insight into people’s lives. #Samaritanwoman
[10] In Psalm 56, David mentions the tear bottle.
[11] https://confidenceandjoy.com/washed-his-feet-with-her-tears/
[12] https://breadforbeggars.com/2013/06/a-kiss-on-the-feet-a-gospel-commentary-by-nathan-biebert/
[13] https://breadforbeggars.com/2013/06/a-kiss-on-the-feet-a-gospel-commentary-by-nathan-biebert/
[14] Bernard, as quoted in Vincent’s Word Studies
[15] Great song for meditation: “Your Kindness,” by Leslie Phillips
[16] Great song for meditation: “Tenth Avenue North, “Greater Than All My Regrets”
[17] Great Song for meditation: “My Jesus,” Anne Wilson