The last story in Luke 7 focuses on a famous scene where Jesus went to eat at a Pharisee’s house and was visited by woman, as it is described in Luke 7:37, “And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.” The Pharisee, Simon, spoke to himself that if Jesus were truly a Prophet, He would know what kind of woman this was touching Him. So Jesus confronted Him with a parable of a creditor with two debtors—one owing 500 denarii and one 50, neither able to pay. The creditor forgave both. Then Jesus asked, which of the two would love the creditor more? Simon answered correctly the one who was forgiven 500 denarii.
Jesus pointed out to him that since He came into his house, the Pharisee didn’t even offer Him water to wash his feet (presumable the custom hospitality), yet the woman washed them with her tears. Indeed, she didn’t cease kissing them. Simon didn’t anoint His head with oil, yet she anointed his feet with fragrant oil (costly fragrant oil). So having loved Jesus much, He forgave her sins, saying to her, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Simon and those at the table, yet unbelieving, said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sin?” not understanding that Jesus was claiming to be God Himself.
There are several things I feel God is asking us to consider and reveals to us in this story. Beginning with this unique woman and her unique act of reverence and repentance, we are first touched by her sorrow. She is crying so profusely that her tears are enough to actually wash His feet. She committed this basic act of hospitality that Simon neglected, showing us that the repentant sinner actually honors Jesus’ arrival at their table with their contrite heart—cleaning his feet from His long day of travel in the dusty roads of Judea. She honored the humility of the Lord, entering into our dirty world in the form of a human being by humbling herself and kneeling with her head to kiss the feet that left glory to become dusty preaching Truth in the public square.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus says that He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks and the one who invites Him in He will sup with them—just as He was with Simon. But Simon didn’t bring Him into his heart of faith. Simon didn’t believe He was God who forgives sin. The sinful woman did. She had eyes of faith in her heart. She invited Him in to sit at the table in her heart and then washed His feet from the long day of travel with the contrition in her heart. Simon didn’t do this in part because he was self-righteous and did not even recognize that he was a sinner in need of forgiveness. He was like the man thanking God he was not a sinner standing next to the tax collector who beat his breast crying out for God’s mercy.
When the Pharisees showed up to John the Baptist’s baptisms in the Jordan river, John told them to go and bear fruits worthy of repentance. The same reality is shown here. The sinful woman bore fruits worthy of repentance in her act of love, while Simon was doubting the Lord instead in his unbelief blind to the self-righteous pride in his own heart. In Psalm 51, King David repented for his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. He said of God that He does not delight in burnt offerings, but of his own offering he says in verse 17, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” And in Psalm 34:18 he says, “The LORD is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” With her profuse tears, the woman showed she was indeed broken hearted and crushed in spirit and offered Jesus the sacrifice of her contrite heart. She felt bad for her sins and how she had denied Him the reverence due Him in her sin. Her remorse, just like David, broke her heart. And just like David said, God did not despise her but rather forgave her.
While she was broken hearted and contrite, there is more to her sorrow for us to consider. A similar event in the gospel of Matthew, shows a woman who came into the house of a Simon and anointed Jesus’ head with costly fragrant oil and the people started to question why the waste? Why not feed the poor with that expense? But in Matthew 26:10-12 He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.” So we see there is another dimension to this woman’s sorrow. She is not merely sorry for her sins. She reveals to us a prophetic heart of sorrow for His upcoming sacrifice, of which she had no way to know. Jesus only foretold explicitly of his death and resurrection to His disciples, and even they did not understand what he meant.
So, how did this woman know and grieve ahead of time? She had a prophet’s heart. She had the Holy Spirit, sinful though she was, even before the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit was granted after Jesus’ resurrection. In Matthew 16:7, when Jesus asked his disciples who they said He was and Peter answered that He was the Messiah and the Son of the living God, He said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.” God granted her this special grace to single her out for this unique revelation to those around her and those to come—those like us reading her story, remembering her act forever. She shows us that God can give us the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentant sorrow with just the simplest seed of faith in Him as Savior and Messiah. With just a seed of faith and belief, He can help to break our heart for the sins that led our precious, innocent, righteous Lord to suffer and die in our place to bring us home to heaven with Him, forgiven and made holy despite being unclean sinners. Our faith can be so small and our heart so simple, true, and broken that we don’t even have to believe we will receive mercy, but rather offer an open-handed sacrifice of tears, expecting nothing in return.
But God, holy and pure is faithful to do for us just as He has assured us in this story He did for the sinful woman. He didn’t chastise her for approaching Him and touching Him, just as He has thus shown to us we can freely approach Him and draw near to Him intimately sharing our heart with Him. He will receive us just as He received her with love. We need not clean ourselves up first. She had the courage to even enter into the house of the “righteous” in high stations in life to draw near to Him, not allowing herself to be intimidated with the better standing of others before God. Even though she be lesser, she still came forward and even drew near with tremendous intimacy right in front of them all. Jesus received her and reciprocated her intimacy and counted her justified for the great love she showed Him. Assuring her in her emotional turmoil of His mercy, He told her to “go in peace” as He granted her His supernatural gift of peace for the forgiven.
So, let us take to heart the beautiful lessons God has shown us through the unique reverent act this precious woman committed to show us how we too can find mercy in our Lord and Savior. Let us take note of God’s faithfulness to provide her His Holy Spirit in her simple seed of faith and desire to repent and revere. He broke her heart and drew near to her even as she mustered the courage and sacrifice to draw near to Him with costly fragrant oil. Let us invite the Lord in to sup at the table in our heart. Let us humble ourselves and kneel and wash the feet of our Lord from a long dusty day of work sharing the Word of Truth with a lost world, having left glory to come to earth and experience dirty feet. Let us wash them with tears of sorrow for the pain He suffered for our sake, even if we are yet to understand the gospel of His salvation fully, even if we do so with a prophetic heart that hasn’t come into full understanding yet. Let us revere Him with no sacrifice we are required to offer but with tears alone, with a contrite heart. He has shown us He is faithful to meet us with mercy and to say to us just like this woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”