I heard a sermon this morning preached from Luke 7:36-50. (Disclaimer: read it before you read this post...or it won't make any sense! Just in case you aren't within arm's reach of a Bible, here is a link to the passage.) There is a lot that could be said about this chapter, but the woman in particular stood out to me. While I so often read that passage and admire her humility or absentmindedly admit that I should love as she does, I've never actually been convicted about it until this morning's sermon. Here are my thoughts:
This nameless woman, simply because she was just that: a woman, was unwelcome at the gathering Jesus was attending. The pharisees looked down their noses at her while the tax-collectors scoffed as she entered. All eyes were on this "woman of the streets", a prostitute, someone as socially low as you could be at the time. Many probably tried physically forcing her to leave the room, others were too shocked to speak. But she, indifferent to the others, immediately went to Jesus and stood at his feet. In her hands she held an alabaster flask of perfume, probably the payment for her "profession" and the most valuable thing she owned. Her heart overwhelmed by the weight of her imperfection, she- weeping- kneels at the feet of Jesus. This action itself would have been enough to have her thrown out of the house and punished, but she goes further. Bending over Jesus' feet (the most defiled and unclean part of the body to the Hebrews), she lets her tears fall on them. As the others watch in astounded silence, she lets down her hair (a woman's glory according to Paul in 1 Corinthians) and washes the feet of a total stranger with her hair and tears. Not only that, but she pours her perfume, her most prized possession, on this man's feet, kissing them over and over.
Completely appalled by her behavior the pharisees think to themselves that if Jesus were truly a prophet as he claimed to be, he would know what a worthless, despised sinner was kissing his feet. But Jesus, knowing the pharisees' thoughts, asked them, "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 dried 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. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven- for she loved much..."
She loved much.
The pharisees with all their wealth and party-throwing and "good-deeds" were mere hypocrites in the eyes of Jesus. But the woman, a nameless, penniless prostitute, with only her tears to offer, was considered worthy of love. I'm reminded of Isaiah 1:18- "...for though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow".
This woman in Luke 7 was an unlikely hero- despised by everyone around her, impure, filthy, an emotional wreck- but she had one thing that set her apart. She loved much. And this love, this pure, white-as-snow love, made her worthy of being loved. May we all become more like this despised woman- offering our tears and possessions at the feet of Jesus- the only one who makes us able to "love much".
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