The woman came up behind Jesus. She was weeping, probably over her sinful past. She wet Jesus’ feet with her tears. She then dried his feet with her hair, and poured the ointment from her jar on them. It is estimated that the contents of the jar were worth a year’s wages. This was no small act of devotion. It was big, very public (and therefore humiliating), and expensive.

As this story develops, we learn more about the Pharisee and the woman. The Pharisee thinks that Jesus might be a prophet. He may well have invited him to dinner because of the honor he would gain. In that world, honor and shame were crucial cultural values. Honor was a limited commodity. Having a meal with Jesus would likely include his honor quotient. We don’t know this but it is a fair guess. However, Jesus described the  Pharisee’s failure to show Jesus proper hospitality. In that world, people walked everywhere, and there were no paved asphalt roads. People wore open-toed sandals. The wealthy might have had fancy sandals, maybe Gucci, but everyone wore sandals. The Pharisee did not provide for the washing of Jesus’ feet to get the dirt and whatever other guck was on them. He did not give Jesus a friendly kiss on the cheek (Luke 7:44). This was the same sort of common gesture that Paul and Peter transformed into the “holy kiss.”

By contrast, the woman wet Jesus’ feet with her tears. She would have had to be very close to Jesus’ feet and could have seen the dirt that clung to them. She must have been crying a lot to have enough tears to wash Jesus’ feet. The act of washing someone else’s feet was a menial task. It was often left to slave to perform. She demonstrated her sorrow over how she had lived. Then, humiliating herself even more, this woman dried Jesus’ feet with her hair. Slaves were not expected to sink that low. Finally, to show how sorry she was and how much she wanted to be accepted by Jesus, she poured expensive perfume on his feet. Some have suggested that this was her dowry. The Pharisee and the woman act in dramatically different ways.

One would not normally tolerate someone who was a known “sinner” touching him or her. That would be dishonorable and perhaps lower a person’s purity. Ritual purity was crucial in Jesus’ world. It was one of the core cultural values of the day. The Pharisee knew about this woman and her activities. He thought to himself that if Jesus was really a prophet, which is what Jesus acted like, Jesus would not allow her to touch him. It could have made Jesus ritually unclean. Therefore, the Pharisee concluded that Jesus must not be a prophet after all. He apparently didn’t know about the woman’s lifestyle.

Although the Pharisee only thought this to himself, Jesus knew what he was thinking and challenged him. Jesus told a parable about two debtors who owed money to a moneylender. One of them owed a relatively small amount. The other owed a “ginormous” amount that could probably never be paid back.  Neither could pay the debt. Therefore, the moneylender forgave both debts. Jesus asked the Pharisee which of the two debtors would love the moneylender the most. The Pharisee replied that, “I think the one who had the greater debt that was canceled” (Luke 7:42). Jesus basically said, “Exactly!”

Jesus then compared the loving actions of the woman to those of Simon. The woman was forgiven much and therefore, loved Jesus much. The Pharisee, who probably felt little need for forgiveness, was forgiven little, and therefore loved little. Simon did little to show basic courtesy to Jesus, less than was proper. The woman, on the other hand, lavished her love on Jesus. He tells the woman that her sins are forgiven, v. 48. This offended not only the Pharisee but the other guests as well. Jesus made a habit of doing this. Read through Luke 14 for more examples. Lastly, Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Those were probably the best words that the woman had ever heard!

Over the years, I’ve confessed innumerable sins to God, and based upon 1 John 1:9, I believe that I have been forgiven. If we have been forgiven much, regardless of the particular sins, we should love Jesus greatly. For my own part, I can’t love him enough in response to the forgiveness he has provided for me. I pray regularly that God would grant to me as much love for him as he has forgiven me. That would be an immense amount of love for Jesus, and that’s what I want. Paul declares that everyone has sinned. Everyone is eligible for forgiveness. A believer in Jesus needs to ask for and receive this undeserved forgiveness. If you consider how much you have been forgiven, how much do you love Jesus? Jesus told his followers to love God with their entire being, heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matt 22:37, which quotes Deuteronomy 6:5). May we all grow to love God with all that we are. This passage makes me think of this song: Your Kindness Our love for God will flow out of true gratitude to God for his abundant forgiveness.

So yes, we all owe a great debt, and we all seek to love God more. How can this be accomplished? There is some merit to the thought that God is the source of all true Love. When we open our hearts to Him, he can fill us with his Love. In doing so, not only do we have more Love to give back to God, but His Love overflows from us to touch those around us – so we become conduits for Him to pour His Love out into the lives of everyone we encounter.