Your faith has saved you; go in peace

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’ Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’ ‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ Then turning towards 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 bathed 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 stopped kissing 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 were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’ Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

- Luke 7:36-50

After Jesus' preaching regarding the justification of wisdom's children, in both he and John the Baptist, a Pharisee has invited him to eat in his home. This is an indication that there are Pharisees who wish to honor Jesus and understand him better. But something remarkable happens at this dinner. A woman shows herself at the dinner, and brings a jar of ointment. She stands behind Jesus, weeping at his feet, bathing them with her tears and drying them with her own hair. Then she anoints his feet with the ointment. One would guess this is a rather remarkable sight.

So this woman fills an important function in terms of Jesus' teaching. She is unwittingly an obstacle, or at least a form of teaching, for the Pharisees at this meal. Jesus' host is shocked. First of all, he believes that if Jesus is truly a prophet, he would know what type of woman is touching him, and that she is a sinner. So, in the Pharisee's eyes, Jesus has failed to set himself apart from the sinful, to live a consecrated life to holiness.

But Jesus has a teaching mission, and so he instructs the Pharisee in the thinking of salvation. Jesus uses the example of a debtor and the forgiveness of great debt to compare his relationship with the woman, and with those for whom righteousness means there is less to be forgiven. The sinful woman owes renewal and regeneration to Jesus' forgiveness; Jesus has given her a chance at a life of redemption, and not in slavery to sin or the perception that sin is a stain from which one is never freed but remains tainted. Her love for Jesus, then, is boundless, and she empties herself to Jesus just as she empties symbolically the expensive jar of ointment on his feet - showing Jesus boundless honor.

I think it is a beautiful sort of poetry that, as through her faith in Jesus she has been "cleansed" and healed, so she symbolically washes his feet with her tears and anoints them with ointment; and we have a beautiful picture of reciprocated love in this action. I recall that Jesus' feet will bear the marks of nails as he himself will be wounded in his own identity as stumbling block. He awaits our love as he offers us his own.

Jesus is a debt collector of a certain kind. In Jesus' judgment, the debts are recorded and recalled. However, we each have some type of coupon for redemption in that judgment. There is the coupon of mercy held out to each of us, and each of us - regardless of human judgment - can be eligible for that mercy. In this way Jesus has claimed another outsider, another one cast out from the society, another one who will become his devoted and loving follower, whose life is redeemed through service to Jesus - because of her great faith in him and his capacity to forgive. She will be the one who is "set apart" for service to God. This is love's work in the gospels, drawing those whose need is great into relationship with God.

A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ's service.
- C. T. Studd (1860-1931)