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Luke 7:36-50
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and 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.
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.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two men 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. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
There are a handful Christian thinkers who are sort of ‘heroes’ to me. The British theologian and Bible scholar N. T. Wright strikes me as the most insightful New Testament scholar in the last 100 years. The late Presbyterian clergyman Tim Keller was more effective than anyone I ever encountered at defending the Christian faith to contemporary Americans. Alistair McGrath seems to me unequalled in his ability to explain how Christian belief can work with scientific understanding.
But when it comes to understanding the mind of Jesus — speaking into the world with his love and compassion for the marginalized — I don’t think anyone equals the Lutheran clergywoman Nadia Bolz-Weber. And one of the things she said not long ago that deserves some special attention from those of us who are followers of Jesus is that the concept of grace is the “load-bearing truth” of the Christian faith. In other words, it’s the one idea that’s so essential that if you remove it, the whole house collapses. I think that’s an absolutely brilliant way to put it. Because if you look at the times and places in which the church has strayed furthest from the way of Jesus, it’s those times when it has allowed self-righteousness to elbow grace out of the center of Christian life.
I say all that because it seems to me that this story is one that revolves around the idea of grace. So it’s a story that strikes me as one that 21st century followers of Jesus should think seriously about from time to time.
The story is about a dinner party that takes place at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. To picture this story clearly, it’s important to remember that in the ancient Near East, people ate their meals around low tables, and they would typically prop themselves up on their left elbow and eat with their right hand. That meant their feet would extend away from the table.
And there’s another aspect of this story that the historians can shed some light on as well. They say that back in that time, when a well-to-do person had a dinner party, it was fairly common for other people from the town or village to hang around at the edges of the room or the courtyard where the meal was being served. Those other people would listen to the conversation and sometimes get to eat the leftovers. The most generous hosts would sometimes have their servants give food to those gathered around – although it was usually not the high-quality food that was served to guests.
At the dinner in the story, a woman steps out of the gathered crowd and stands at the feet of Jesus, weeping. As her tears fall on the feet of Jesus, she gets down and wipes his feet with her hair, and then pours perfume on them. This would be shocking if it happened in our time, but it was no doubt even more shocking back then. Modesty was very important in that culture, and a modest Hebrew woman would never go out in public without her head covered. So you can imagine how the people at this dinner might react.
Now, Luke tells us that the woman “had lived a sinful life in that town.” And I think it’s really interesting to note the traditional Christian interpretation of that description. Almost without exception, the commentaries on the Gospel of Luke say that the woman’s sins were sexual in nature. A number of well-respected commentaries even identify this woman as a “harlot.” Which strikes me as really interesting, since the text says absolutely nothing about the nature of her sins – just that she had led a sinful life. She might have been a thief, or a gossip, or a bad landlord. So the fact that Christian readers are so quick to leap to this conclusion that her sins were sexual in nature probably says more about the authors of the commentaries than it says about her.
But the real point of this story is found in the way Jesus responds when his Pharisee host thinks badly of him for letting the woman perform this surprising and emotional act. Jesus tells a parable about two people being forgiven their debts – one a large debt, one a small debt. The point of the parable is that someone who understands herself to have been forgiven a great deal – a person who understands herself to be beneficiary of God’s grace – that person will be moved to a powerful sense of gratitude for that undeserved gift. On the other hand, a self-righteous person won’t think he needs much forgiveness. He’ll think he’s entitled to forgiveness, so he’ll be a lot less thankful.
Because it’s a truth of human nature that we’re not very thankful for things we feel entitled to.
That’s why I say this story is so important – because it holds up the idea of grace next to the twin concepts of self-righteousness and entitlement. This Pharisee thought he was entitled to God’s favor because he was such a righteous person. But the woman had no such illusion. She understood that the love of God she had experienced in Jesus was a gift of God’s grace – a divine love she could never claim to be entitled to.
It seems to me that one of the real dangers for those of us who have been raised in the church is the same one Simon the Pharisee fell into. That’s the mistake of thinking that we don’t need to be forgiven much, because we really haven’t done much wrong.
But the bad news is that the gospels make it pretty plain that the sins of the ‘religious’ people are ones that really irritated Jesus. Sins like self-righteousness, judging others, turning our backs on those who are in need – these are the sins of the religious, and they are the ones Jesus seemed to hate the most.
But if that’s the bad news, there’s also good news in this passage for us church-going types. Once we recognize that our self-righteousness is a sin in God’s eyes and let go of it, we’re forgiven and sent off by Jesus with same words he said to the woman in this story: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
The more we immerse ourselves in the teachings of Jesus, the more we understand those teachings and try to live by them, the more thankful we become for the gracious forgiveness we get as his followers. This woman’s thankfulness shows us what it means to come face-to-face with our own sinfulness and to understand what a precious gift is the forgiveness we have through the grace of God.
Let’s pray. Lord, we confess that we are sometimes self-righteous and entitled. We ask your forgiveness for these sins. Protect us from congratulating ourselves on our own righteousness and judging others as more sinful. Let your Spirit remind us every day that our new life in Jesus is a precious gift from your grace. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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