I love sitting around a table talking with friends and family. I find it absolutely amazing how a dinner table can bring people together. Luke Chapter 7 ends with a dinner hosted in the house of Simon the Pharisee. How I would have loved to have been there. Attendees were the host Simon, Jesus, probably some of His disciples, and what Luke calls “other guests.”
Everyone is reclining and relaxing at the table when a strange thing happens. A woman who had lived a sinful life shows up with an alabaster jar of perfume. She begins to weep, and her tears begin to fall on the feet of Jesus. She wipes them off with her hair, kisses them and pours perfume on them.
This action serves to irritate the host. “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.’” [Luke 7:39]
Jesus knows what is in the heart of this man and he begins a lesson on love and debt and forgiveness. Inside that lesson is one phrase that always sends chills through me. “Therefore I tell you her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
At this meal, Simon is irritated by the woman and the other guests are offended by Jesus’ words of forgiveness, but I always wonder what happened when the woman saw Jesus turn to her and heard Him say, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
I am always awestruck by this woman’s actions. What courage would it take to come into the home of a Pharisee when she was known around town as a sinner and probably shunned by all, at least by all of the religious self-righteous? What courage would it take to come up to Jesus and begin to anoint His feet? Had she heard of His kindness to other sinners? Was it despair or hope that drove her to do this, or maybe even both? I want to talk to her; I want to hear from her lips what drove her to the Chosen One and what it was like walking home from that meal.
Those who have been forgiven much, love much.
