Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Luke 7:36-39 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 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. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner."
FAITH COMES BY HEARING THE WORD OF GOD
How did this woman come to be there at Simon's house? The Gospel of Luke was written chronologically. Looking back through the book, we know that Jesus taught publicly on many occasions prior to the account given here. We read in chapter four, "And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all." In chapter five we read of Jesus preaching in a house that was so crowded that a paralytic had to be lowered through the roof so that he could get to Jesus and be healed by Him. Rather than healing him outright, Jesus took this opportunity to show the crowd that He could forgive sins as well as heal this man's body. Jesus publicly raised the widow's son at the village of Nain in chapter seven. We also read there that "this report about him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region." Throughout these first seven chapters of Luke, we are told that Jesus preached in the synagogues.
What had moved this woman to come to the house of the Pharisee and throw herself at Jesus feet? It was not only because she felt badly about her sinful life. She had been brought to the knowledge that Jesus Christ was her Savior who had come to redeem her from her sinful life. No doubt she had heard Jesus preaching, or at least, she had heard Jesus' saving message, and the Holy Spirit had worked faith in her heart by that Holy Word that she had heard. As it is written in Romans 10:17, " ... faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
She had been brought to faith in Christ as her Savior from sin and so she came to the Pharisee's house, threw herself at Jesus feet and began weeping and washing His feet. We read in verse 39, "Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This man, if He were a prophet, would know what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner." While we do not know what her sin was specifically, we can assume, from the context, that she was an adulteress, possibly a prostitute. We know from the Pharisees thoughts that she was a recognized sinner.
When Jesus had heard Simon, the Pharisee's private thoughts, He told Simon a story. "There was once a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?" Simon answered the obvious: "'I suppose the one whom he forgave more.' And He said to him, 'You have rightly judged.'"
Having heard the saving message of Jesus Christ, the woman had been brought to the joyful knowledge that, in Christ, she had forgiveness for all of her sins. God's undeserved love had been poured into her heart, just as in ours, and she, and we, respond in love for Him who first loved us.
