Amy C Walters

A Sinful Woman Forgiven | Luke 7:36-50

Simon’s unwanted party guest makes him uncomfortable and reveals the coldness of his heart. But a sinful woman’s extravagant display reveals her love for Jesus and teaches us a little bit about worship.

Two of the main characters in this story could not be more different. Simon, the host, is a Pharisee who seeks to keep the law perfectly. The party crasher is an unnamed woman known for her sinful behavior. But the differences go even deeper than their characterization. They both respond very differently to Jesus and those responses reveal something about their hearts. 

Let’s first look at how Simon treats Jesus and responds to him. Simon has invited Jesus to his house for dinner and yet it appears that he has offered less than the bare minimum of hospitality. Simon doesn’t greet Jesus with the customary kiss and he doesn’t even provide water for Jesus to wash his feet. 

We also get a glimpse into Simon’s mind. When he sees the unnamed woman washing Jesus’ feet, he says to himself, “If this man really were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she’s a sinner.” So Simon even doubts Jesus’ legitimacy as a prophet. 

Altogether, Simon’s response to Jesus is quite cold.

In contrast, we have the party-crashing woman. She arrives with an alabaster jar of perfume–an expensive jar with expensive contents–and she pours it out on Jesus. She is weeping so much that the tears are falling from her eyes and landing on Jesus’ feet, getting them wet enough that she wipes them with her hair. And she’s kissing Jesus’ feet.

Now, if Simon did not provide water for Jesus to wash his feet, they are probably really dirty. But it doesn’t seem to matter to the woman. Her response to Jesus is extravagant love. 

How do you think it felt to be one of the guests witnessing this? It would be a multi-sensory experience. You would see her and what she’s doing. You would hear her weeping and kissing his feet. You would smell the perfume. You cannot escape the display that’s going on over there.

If I were one of those guests, I think I would feel really uncomfortable. We’re eating here, it’s hard to have a conversation when all of that is going on. It would just feel inappropriate and awkward. 

What did it cost the woman to go to Simon’s house and show her love for Jesus? We’re told that she is a well-known sinner. She has a reputation. And people with a reputation as sinners don’t like to hang out around religious people. They feel judged and rejected. There’s probably a feeling of shame. 

It’s risky to come to a place like that. She risks her dignity, that maybe they’re gonna reject her and throw her out of the house. Or maybe they’ll call her names or say things to her to shame her.

It also costs her this perfume. This is her wealth right here in this jar that she has broken and poured out in worship to Jesus.

So why does she risk and spend so much to respond to Jesus in this way? Because he has canceled her huge debt of sin. She is responding to Jesus out of deep love for him. 

Now, the order can get confusing here. At first glance, it can seem like the woman was forgiven because she loved Jesus. But Jesus goes on to tell her at the very end of this story, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” Her faith that Jesus had the authority and willingness to forgive sins, that is what saved her. And this love response is evidence of that forgiveness that she has experienced. 

This woman also teaches us some important things about worship. First, she shoes us that worship can be costly. She brought this expensive bottle of perfume and poured it all out. This was a costly act of love and worship for her, and in her mind, it was all worth it because of what Jesus had done for her. Our worship sometimes involves us giving things back to God.

Hebrews 13 also tells us that we bring a sacrifice of praise to the Lord. Praise can be costly. Sometimes it’s your dignity. Sometimes it’s your time. Sometimes it’s your money. But worship can be costly.

Worship also is motivated by love. Her love for Jesus has brought her there. 

We learn, too, that worship is unashamed. She came to that place and endured the judgment and ridicule of those other guests and of Simon. And it didn’t matter to her because she was there for Jesus. She didn’t care what those others thought, how they responded. They weren’t the focus anyway, Jesus was. 

Worship, too, is focused. Her attention is fixed on her Lord. 

This is something that we really struggle with these days: focus. We have so many distractions, like the phones in our pockets and in our hands that take up so much of our time. And we can really struggle to put those down and give all of our attention to Jesus. 

Think, too, about the appropriateness of this act. We had talked about how, if we were some of the other guests there, this might feel totally inappropriate. And yet, if this woman had waited for a more “appropriate” time, then Simon and these other guests would have missed it. They would have missed the lesson that Jesus teaches through this woman’s example.

Worship also has the ability to teach others the truth. In this woman’s worship, she is revealing who Jesus is to the others around her. 

We pull all of these things together to come to our key truth for today. It’s a really long one, but I think every element is important: the appropriate response to our canceled debt is extravagant love and worship. 

We see this in this contrast between the woman and Simon. Simon who is so stingy and cold. Simon who clearly is arrogant and prideful because he doesn’t think he has much to be forgiven of. And then this woman who comes without shame, totally focused on Jesus, giving expensive perfume and worship to him, so full of love that she is overflowing with it.

That is the right response to what God has done for us in forgiving us our debts. As we talked about in the previous post, we are all debtors. And when we come to realize this, it should overflow in love and worship for God. 

Have you ever thought that you should love Jesus more? Maybe you know it in your mind but you don’t feel it in your heart? I wonder if coming to a full realization of the weight of your sin might be what’s missing.