Big Idea: Jesus’s work of salvation extends to people shunned or ignored by Jewish society; women play an unusually large part in his mission.

Understanding the Text

After the characterization of Jesus as a bon viveur and a friend of the disreputable (7:34), we now find him at a dinner party and befriending a disreputable woman. Two themes from earlier in the Gospel reemerge in this story: Jesus’s openness to and welcome by unrespectable members of society (5:27–32) and his claim to forgive sins (5:17–26). It develops further Luke’s characteristic theme of Jesus’s concern for those who lived outside the circles of privilege and respectability. In particular, this story (7:36–50) together with the following verses (8:1–3) shows that Jesus valued women as much as men, and that women were coming to play a more significant role in his movement than the reader might have thought from the choice of twelve male disciples in 6:13–16.

Outline/Structure

The other three Gospels (Matt. 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; John 12:1–8) tell of a woman who anointed Jesus at Bethany on his final visit to Jerusalem; John identifies her as Mary of Bethany. But beyond the fact of a woman anointing Jesus with perfume in the house of someone called “Simon” (a very common name), this episode has little in common with that one: the setting here is quite different (in Galilee, in a Pharisee’s house, and relatively early in the story), and the theme of the woman’s sinfulness, forgiveness, and love is quite distinctive, as is also the dialogue with Jesus’s host. The problem here is not the waste of valuable ointment, but the moral character of the anointer. The two stories are better treated separately.

The traditional chapter division obscures the significant link between this story and the following account of other women associated with Jesus’s ministry. On the other hand, however, too much was made of the juxtaposition of the two stories when later tradition supposed that Mary Magdalene (8:2) was formerly a prostitute. There is no biblical warrant for that idea. Luke makes no suggestion that Mary was the woman of 7:36–50, and he describes her deliverance in quite different terms.

Historical and Cultural Background

Women had a subordinate place in Jewish society. All of the guests at a dinner such as this likely were males. Rabbis typically took care to avoid being in female company (cf. John 4:27), let alone the company of a woman known to be “a sinner.” Jesus’s contrasting attitude was bound to raise eyebrows. To include female followers not only in his wider circle of supporters but even in the traveling group together with the twelve male disciples (8:1–3) was potentially scandalous. Here, as always, Jesus seems unconcerned by what conventional society might think.

Interpretive Insights

7:36 he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. Jesus was as much at home in “polite” society as in Levi’s house; he did not “belong” to one side of the social divide. For other such invitations by Pharisees, see 11:37; 14:1. At a more formal dinner guests reclined in the Roman style on couches around a central table, so that their feet would stick out away from the table; that is the scenario envisaged in 7:38.

7:37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life. This is probably a euphemistic way of referring to a town prostitute; hence the host’s scandalized reaction in 7:39. Given the Pharisaic concern for ritual purity, she “comes into this scene like an alien, communicable disease.”1

an alabaster jar of perfume. Luke does not mention the value of the perfume, which is the central motif of the other anointing story. This is simply a woman’s more lavish substitute for the plain olive oil that a guest might have expected as a courtesy (7:46).

7:38 she stood behind him at his feet weeping. Clearly she wants to make contact with Jesus, but can get no closer than his feet (see on 7:36). Luke records no words spoken by her; she speaks by her actions, which here are spelled out so as to form the basis for Jesus’s comparison in 7:44–46. In order to wipe Jesus’s feet with her hair, she would have to uncover it and let it down, which no respectable woman would do in company.2 Putting perfumed ointment on the feet is extraordinary; normally, it was the head that was anointed. Her actions taken as a whole could easily be seen as erotic as well as “over the top.”

7:39 If this man were a prophet. The Pharisee repeats the popular estimate of Jesus that presumably he has heard from local gossip. He will address Jesus by the more conventional title “teacher” in 7:40. The impression given is that he has invited Jesus to dinner in order to make up his own mind about the man’s credentials. He is not impressed by Jesus’s failure to rebuke such a suggestive act by an obviously disreputable woman.

7:40 Jesus answered him. Simon’s thought was unspoken. By discerning it nonetheless, Jesus shows something of the prophetic insight that Simon was questioning.

7:41–43 Two people owed money. Like Nathan’s famous parable to David (2 Sam. 12:1–7), this little parable invites Simon to pronounce the verdict that will be turned against him. Its message, that love results from forgiveness, will be important for the interpretation of the potentially ambiguous saying in 7:47. For another parable that uses the cancellation of debt as a symbol for God’s forgiveness of sin, see Matthew 18:23–35.

7:44–46 You did not give me any water. Simon’s welcome to Jesus fell short of the normal social courtesies of footwashing, kissing, and anointing. All these would be expected, and their omission looks like a deliberate social snub. Simon was not a fan of Jesus, but the woman’s actions had more than made up for his discourtesy, and they revealed her, by contrast, as the one who truly valued him.

7:47 her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. A literal translation is “Her many sins have been forgiven because she loved much.” Taken alone, these words could mean that her love was the basis of her forgiveness, but that would be to turn on its head the message of the preceding parable in 7:41–43 and of the following clause, in which little love is the result of little forgiveness. Thus, most versions, like the NIV, find ways of indicating that her love is the evidence of her (antecedent) forgiveness rather than the basis for it.

7:48 Your sins are forgiven. Jesus speaks directly to the woman for the first time. As in 5:20, his declaration provokes theological questions (7:49), but this time the issue is not pursued. Following the logic of the parable in 7:41–43, we must suppose that the woman’s loving actions show that she is already aware of being forgiven, and that Jesus here simply makes it explicit. (The verb is in the perfect tense, lit., “have been forgiven.”) Perhaps we should assume that she has met Jesus, or at least listened to his preaching, before coming to make this gesture of appreciation.

7:50 Your faith has saved you. This formula is used elsewhere of physical healing (8:48; 17:19; 18:42), but the forgiveness of sin is no less “salvation.” This conclusion further underlines that she was forgiven not because she loved (see on 7:47), but because she believed.

8:2 Also some women. The allegiance of these women derived from their experience of healing and exorcism through Jesus’s ministry. Three are mentioned by name, but there were also “many others.” In Matthew and Mark it is not until the end of the story that we are informed that women had been among Jesus’s traveling companions (Matt. 27:55; Mark 15:41), but Luke makes it clear at this early stage. The women are not included in the Twelve, but even so, their presence was a potential cause for scandal in Jewish society at that time.

Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out. Subsequent tradition has built much onto this brief description, notably (since the sixth century) by associating this Mary with the unnamed woman of 7:37. Luke gives no support to this speculation. Mary’s prominence in the resurrection stories indicates that she had a leading role among the disciples, but that is as far as biblical evidence takes us. For Luke, Mary is simply someone who had been the object of a very remarkable exorcism. On possession by multiple demons, see also 8:30; 11:26.

8:3 These women were helping to support them out of their own means. For the dependence of the Jesus movement on the material support of well-wishers, see 9:3–4; 10:4–7. By mentioning the influential social position of Joanna’s husband, Luke indicates that Jesus’s followers included some from the more affluent strata of society. We do not know whether Chuza himself supported Jesus. The sharing of resources mentioned here will be developed more fully in Acts 4:32–37.

Theological Insights

Jesus’s dealings with women and their involvement in his ministry are an important element in Luke’s presentation of the universal scope of the gospel of salvation and of its tendency to overturn the conventional barriers of society. Jesus’s open attitude contrasts with the patriarchal norms of most ancient societies, including Judaism. The book of Acts and the letters of Paul will go on to reveal the significant role that some women played in the mission and ministry of the early church. All this needs to be set against the reluctance in some modern churches to accept the full involvement of women in mission and leadership, and it suggests that a simplistic view of women as essentially subordinate to men (on the basis of Paul’s so-called submission texts) does not represent all the biblical data on the subject.

Teaching the Text

A sermon or lesson on this passage should bring out its central theme, one that appears again and again in Luke’s Gospel: the recipients of God’s salvation are those who come to him humbly, recognizing their unworthiness and need of him. Simon, the self-righteous Pharisee, looks down on the woman as a lowly sinner and shows no reverence for Jesus, failing to provide even basic hospitality for his guest. As Jesus’s parable makes evident (7:41–42), this is because Simon thinks he is good enough for God and needs no forgiveness. The woman, by contrast, shows her profound gratitude because of the forgiveness she has received. The key to the passage is Jesus’s authoritative pronouncement in 7:47: “her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

When teaching the passage, encourage listeners to put themselves in the shoes of the sinful woman. What had she heard about Jesus (or had she actually listened to his preaching?), and how did she already know that she was forgiven? What was her aim in making this unorthodox approach to Jesus in such a public setting? What emboldened her to break social taboo in this way? Would she have been surprised by the outcome?

Other themes may also be important to bring out here. Jesus’s authority to forgive sins is again on display (cf. 5:18–26). This is also a good opportunity to think through Jesus’s attitude toward women more generally than just in this passage. Do listeners have experience of societies (whether Christian or not) in which women are still treated as subordinate to men? Thinking of such situations, encourage them to envisage the feelings likely to have been aroused by Jesus’s dealings with women. What sort of community would Jesus himself have promoted? How far did the early church follow his lead? In view of the prominent and distorted portrayal of Mary Magdalene in some recent popular literature (e.g., The Da Vinci Code), it would be good to take this opportunity to point out how later speculation differs from the New Testament evidence.3

Illustrating the Text

Jesus welcomes those marginalized by society.

Spiritual Song: “The Welcome Table”/“Some of These Days”/“Members Don’t Get Weary.” Called by various names, this nineteenth-century civil-rights song would be worth playing for a congregation or group, as it expresses the longing of the hearts of those who have been neglected and sidelined. Some of the words are as follows:

I’m going to sit at the Welcome table

Shout my troubles over

Walk and talk with Jesus

Tell God how you treat me

One of these days!

How full this anointer’s heart must have been to be accepted by Jesus so beautifully in the house of a hostile Pharisee.

Literature: “The Welcome Table,” by Alice Walker. Walker (b. 1944) tells the tale of an old black woman “nearly blind with age” who has “staggered” her way to a white church on a cold day. Focused on being in church, the woman “brushes” past the pastor, who has said, “Auntie, you know this is not your church?” Everyone is unsettled by her presence, and the women finally ask their “burly indecisive husbands” to throw her out. Bewildered, the old woman stands on the church steps looking down the highway and sees “something interesting and delightful.” It is Jesus coming “at a firm though leisurely pace. . . . There was a sad but joyful look to his face, . . . and he walked with sure even steps in her direction.” The only thing Jesus says to the woman as he approaches her is “Follow me,” and “she bounded down to his side with all the bob and speed of one so old.” She then proceeds to tell him what has happened to her, and that she is “so happy to be out walking along the highway with Jesus,” disturbing the silence only to tell him how “glad she was that he had come” and how “she had often looked at his picture hanging on her wall.”4

Women, some with complex and sinful backgrounds, were part of the group who traveled with Jesus, helping to support him.

Christian Ministry: She Is Safe. This is only one of many ministries around the world designed to come alongside women who have been abused and exploited. They recognize that these are women whom Christ wants to be brought into the kingdom and restored for ministry in the body of Christ. Based in Atlanta, this particular ministry seeks to “mobilize Christians against poverty, oppression, exploitation and spiritual darkness in the world’s hardest places through practical grassroots projects.” Ministry founder Michelle Rickett has coauthored two books, Forgotten Girls and Daughters of Hope.5