Luke 7:36–50

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.

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 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. 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.”

Jesus’ three-year ministry had a particular message: Whoever chooses to commit their life to him will receive grace which is beyond their imagination. If this is such a great thing, why would people reject him? Why would people choose NOT to receive the grace? The answer might not be straight forward.

Consider this passage in Luke.

To understand this passage, we may need to understand some of the cultural nuance. Jesus was invited by a Pharisee to dinner. Inviting someone to eat is a personal thing, representing a desire to further relationship. During this time in the Middle East, eating customs were quite different from our time. They needed to recline towards the dining table with their feet pointing outward, not hiding them under a table like we do today. In addition, if one invited someone back to one’s home to eat, depending on how important this guest was, one would provide a series of rituals to “prepare” the guest for the meal. Jesus references these rituals in the passage.

Jesus, a Pharisee named Simon, and “a woman of the city” are the primary characters in this encounter. There is a sharp contrast between Simon and this woman of the city. We might wonder why the woman is un-named. Perhaps Luke wanted to show a contrast between the woman and Simon. Calling her a “woman of the city” suggests she is a prostitute. In fact, in the passage, Luke adds that she is a sinner.

Simon was a Pharisee, a person who had wealth and fame in the city. The woman was a prostitute, and she wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair.

Wiping feet was a chore belonging to the servants of the household. No one would use their own hair to wipe the feet of the guest, no matter how prestigious, because, as we can imagine, feet were very dirty. This woman wept while wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair. She was not using water to wet Jesus’ feet but her tears. This demonstrates how intense her emotion was. She even kissed Jesus’ feet while wiping.

Luke adds one more thing: She wipes Jesus’s feet with an alabaster flask of ointment. This was an expensive fragrance, used to make things smell good. In fact, it may have been the fragrance she used to attract clients as a prostitute. The woman used this ointment to wipe Jesus’ feet.

Simon’s reaction was natural. Why would Jesus allow this prostitute to touch his feet? But Jesus knew what Simon was thinking.

Jesus used a metaphor to address Simon’s reaction. The metaphor was about cancelling the debt of two people who owed money to a moneylender. The one who was most grateful for the cancellation of the debt would be the one who owed more. Jesus used this metaphor to tell Simon the Pharisee that the woman knew she owed much more to Jesus. But the metaphor also revealed that it was not only the woman of the city who owed Jesus, but also Simon the Pharisee, and it was costly to cancel the debt (Jesus’ salvation).

Simon did not see himself as being as bad as the woman of the city. Simon was a Pharisee. The main problem of this religious group of people was self-righteous, believing their action/lifestyle could allow for a relationship with God. Living a virtuous life is not a bad thing if the motivation is right. Jesus told Simon that when he entered his home as a guest, there was no cleaning of feet, no kissing or anointing. Simon did not see Jesus as the guest of honour but just one of his guests. This is the sharp contrast between Simon and the woman of the city.

Jesus points out that a deeper understanding of one’s debt leads to a grateful heart when receiving grace from God. The Gospel is all about what Jesus has accomplished on the cross, providing right relationship with God to those willing to commit their life to Christ. The Gospel is good news. It is not a set of actions one needs to do to get something. It is given freely. It is grace. It is something Jesus has done.

Grace is something that one does not deserve, and yet, receives from an unobligated giver. A true understanding of grace is only possible when one lives out that grace in one’s life. The woman of the city shows us that she understood what grace is about. In the city, no one believed she would have a second chance. Perhaps she thought of herself the same way until she met Jesus. Jesus sets her free.

Being set free is one thing, living out a set-free life is another thing. How did she demonstrate this set-free life? By letting go of her past. She used the alabaster flask to anoint Jesus. The flask was designed in such a way that the ointment inside would not come out unless it was broken. Breaking the flask means she let go of her past. She left her old job. She was new. This change of identity was not from outside, but within. Jesus helped her to untangle from her old self. He exchanged her filthy past with his glorious self. She no longer wanted to hang on to her past because she had something immensely better, being accepted by God.

The Pharisees, including Simon, were serious about having a relationship with God; otherwise, they would not live out a virtuous life. The problem was that he did not see himself as a sinner. He saw himself earning the right to have a relationship with God. He did not need grace because he believed that he deserved to be treated rightly from God. When one believes one deserves something, there is no occasion for gratitude. When one believes one deserves something, one will start to judge others. Do you still recall what Simon thought when seeing the woman of the city touched Jesus? A self-righteous person is a person who takes pride in themself.

The problem is that sin stems from not being grateful. When one feels that he/she is not so bad, one may have a hard time understanding grace. Receiving grace stems from recognizing one’s sinful nature. Some may find this hard to admit. One may not commit any crime, and yet that self-righteous thought fuels one’s judgment towards others.

What’s so wrong with that?

When we want to introduce ourselves to others, we may start by disclosing our names, followed by what we do. Our names and occupation determine part of our unique self. We want to use our works to indicate our value. No matter under what culture, at what time, stating our occupation is like putting a stick on the ground, a way to state/affirm our value. Simon the Pharisee used his lifestyle to tell the world who he was. The woman of the city had no apparent value to others because she was a known sinner.

The Bible teaches us not to seek value elsewhere, but to learn how much God loves us. In fact, our value should come from the love of God. If we want to obtain our value from the love of the world, we will sink with the world in this endless pursuit.

The Bible tells us that we are loved by God, and this love is not merely words, but a living action demonstrated by Jesus, who chose to die to the cross for us. He chose to be forsaken by God so that those who rely on him will never be forsaken by God himself. This is what makes a contrast between Simon and the woman of the city. Only when one is completely satisfied will one want to break away from the past to start something new. We may want to start something new, but this needs to come from the right motivation: a true understanding of the grace found in the cross.

On the cross Jesus was saying of the work underneath your work—the thing that makes you truly weary, this need to prove yourself because who you are and what you do are never good enough—that it is finished. He has lived the life you should have lived, he has died the death you should have died. If you rely on Jesus’s finished work, you know that God is satisfied with you. You can be satisfied with life.

The woman in this story has a personal relationship with God. Simon has an intellectual one. What about us?

Do we see ourselves as complete sinners? In what area do we think we are better than others? Are we constantly having a judgemental attitude towards our surroundings/people/matters?

Are you willing to break the “flask” you hold onto up to this moment? The key is letting go for something better. Do we see we have something better? Do we want right relationship with God more than anything else?

Pastor Mark Liu has served as the Mandarin Ministries Pastor at Richmond Chinese Alliance Church in Richmond, BC since 2019. Spending about 22 years in the secular workplace, he responded God’s call to leave his workplace and come to Vancouver to pursue his theological degree in 2017. Pastor Mark is married to Fiona and together they have three children.

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