Luk 7:38-50 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord is confronted with two persons. One is a man with an impeccable walk of life, a theologian. The other is a sinner, someone openly known as such. This confrontation takes place in the house of a Pharisee who wants to see the Lord up close and has asked Him to dine with him. The Lord accepts the invitation, for there He must do a service of grace and teach grace. A sinner seeking forgiveness, seeks Him. No doubt she has confessed her sins to God, but she has no knowledge of forgiveness. She feels He is full of grace and she knows she has to be with Him to get forgiveness. She finds Him. She is not deterred by the knowledge that she has to enter the house of a Pharisee. It’s about Him and He’s there. Then she must be there too. A repentant sinner and a Savior belong together. She is prepared for the meeting because she has an alabaster vial of perfume. Her tribute to the Savior and the appeal to His grace begin with tears. She takes the humblest place, at His feet. Five times in this gospel we find people at the Lord’s feet, each time with its own characteristic. Here is a sinner who is sent away in peace. We also see a former demon-possessed man sitting at the feet of the Lord who is sent from there to testify of Him ( ). We come across Jairus, a man in deep sorrow, who throws himself at the Lord’s feet and finds comfort there ( ). We meet Mary who sits at the Lord’s feet and is introduced by Him into His thoughts and enjoys the good part there ( ). Finally, we find a healed leper at the Lord’s feet, a place where he brings worship ( ). With her tears, the woman begins to wet the Lord’s feet and she dries them off with the hairs of her head. Then she kisses His feet intimately and anoint them with the perfume. She is deeply impressed by His feet, for these are feet that bring her peace ( ). She is looking for that because she knows she is a sinner. Her tears speak of her repentance. The hair of her head, which is long enough to dry his feet with it, speaks of her dedication ( ). Her kisses speak of her love. The perfume speaks of worship. The woman has Godly knowledge of Christ. For her this knowledge is not a doctrine, but has a deep effect in her heart. She feels Who He is. Grace gives a deep conviction of what sin is, with the inseparable awareness that God is good. Whoever so attaches himself to the Lord Jesus finds the true light.

‏ Luke 7:38-50

A Woman Who Is a Sinner Comes to the Lord

The Lord is confronted with two persons. One is a man with an impeccable walk of life, a theologian. The other is a sinner, someone openly known as such. This confrontation takes place in the house of a Pharisee who wants to see the Lord up close and has asked Him to dine with him. The Lord accepts the invitation, for there He must do a service of grace and teach grace.

A sinner seeking forgiveness, seeks Him. No doubt she has confessed her sins to God, but she has no knowledge of forgiveness. She feels He is full of grace and she knows she has to be with Him to get forgiveness. She finds Him. She is not deterred by the knowledge that she has to enter the house of a Pharisee. It’s about Him and He’s there. Then she must be there too. A repentant sinner and a Savior belong together. She is prepared for the meeting because she has an alabaster vial of perfume. Her tribute to the Savior and the appeal to His grace begin with tears. She takes the humblest place, at His feet.

Five times in this gospel we find people at the Lord’s feet, each time with its own characteristic. Here is a sinner who is sent away in peace. We also see a former demon-possessed man sitting at the feet of the Lord who is sent from there to testify of Him (Lk 8:35). We come across Jairus, a man in deep sorrow, who throws himself at the Lord’s feet and finds comfort there (Lk 8:41). We meet Mary who sits at the Lord’s feet and is introduced by Him into His thoughts and enjoys the good part there (Lk 10:39). Finally, we find a healed leper at the Lord’s feet, a place where he brings worship (Lk 17:16).

With her tears, the woman begins to wet the Lord’s feet and she dries them off with the hairs of her head. Then she kisses His feet intimately and anoint them with the perfume. She is deeply impressed by His feet, for these are feet that bring her peace (Isa 52:7). She is looking for that because she knows she is a sinner.

Her tears speak of her repentance. The hair of her head, which is long enough to dry his feet with it, speaks of her dedication (1Cor 11:15). Her kisses speak of her love. The perfume speaks of worship. The woman has Godly knowledge of Christ. For her this knowledge is not a doctrine, but has a deep effect in her heart. She feels Who He is. Grace gives a deep conviction of what sin is, with the inseparable awareness that God is good. Whoever so attaches himself to the Lord Jesus finds the true light.

The Lord Has Something to Say to Simon

Not only the woman is revealed in the light. Simon is also in the light and is revealed. With him we see the opposite of what characterizes the woman. With him there is no faith. God is revealed in the flesh in his house and he sees nothing. He observes coolly and possibly triumphantly that the Lord cannot be a prophet, otherwise He would have known who is touching Him. For this Pharisee there is nothing worse than being touched by a sinner. But Simon did not touch the Lord Jesus either, as the Lord confronts him later with!

Simon thinks the Lord does not know what kind of woman it is that touches Him. Simon also does not know that the Lord knows both the woman and him completely. The Lord responds to something Simon thinks. He knows the thoughts of every human being. He has something to say to Simon what is for him personally. Simon takes the right attitude. He is curious what the Lord has to say. That is indeed why he invited Him. He also calls Him “Teacher”, not because he acknowledges Him as such for himself, but because the Lord is known as such.

In a parable the Lord presents three people to Simon. One is a moneylender or creditor, the other two are debtors, but with a different debt. One has a great debt, the other a small debt. Neither the debtor with the great debt nor the debtor with the small debt is able to pay. Then the moneylender graciously forgives them both their debts. The question to Simon is which of both debtors will love the moneylender more.

The Lord wants to teach Simon through this parable that while he may have committed less sins than the woman, he is as incapable of paying as the woman is and therefore, like her, in need of forgiving compassion. Moneylender do not generally evoke feelings of love, but forgiveness does. Even Simon can judge that correctly. He therefore gives the right answer.

The Lord Compares Simon With the Woman

Then the Lord speaks to Simon about the woman. Without her having been aware of it, this poor woman was the only one to act as would be appropriate in this circumstance. This is because she values the all-encompassing importance of Him Who is present there. If the God-Savior is present, what significance do Simon and his house have? The Lord’s presence makes everything else forgotten.

The Lord looks at the woman and teaches Simon a great lesson. He points Simon to the woman. Certainly, he has seen her, but with totally different eyes than the Lord. The Lord is now going to tell Simon how He sees her and appreciates what she has done to Him. He also tells how He sees Simon and how He experienced what Simon did not do.

He came into his house, but Simon withheld all customary kindness from Him as a Guest. He did not discover in Him what the woman has discovered in Him, and remained indifferent and cold toward Him. The Lord has missed what Simon only as the host should have done to Him. The woman has more than excellently compensated for this, to Simon’s great shame.

The woman’s tears have been a great refreshment for Him on His weary journey through the wilderness. There is nothing more invigorating to the Savior than expressions of sincere repentance for sins. Drying His feet with her hair is also an act He greatly appreciates. He sees her longing for dedication. By drying the tears with her hair, her tears are absorbed in her hair, they are as it were identified with it. This is an indication that in her dedication the woman has always remained aware of her origins. In the kissing of His feet she has shown her love in the most intimate way and persistently, while with Simon there was only coldness. The Lord also missed Simon anointing His head, but the woman more than made up for this by anointing His feet with perfume.

The Woman Goes in Peace

The Lord concludes His teaching to Simon by declaring that the woman has acted out of love for Him and that she loved Him much. The multitude of her sins had led her to Him, for she knew that she could get forgiveness from Him for all her sins. Her love for the Lord was great because she knew that His love was greater than all her sins. That is why she gets what she is looking for: forgiveness of her many sins.

What she has seen in the Lord, what He is for sinners like her, has by grace made her heart willing to go to Him and has awakened in her the love she had for Him. She thought only of Him. He had taken possession of her heart to the exclusion of all other influences. Therefore she had entered the house of the haughty Pharisee, for He was there. His presence answered every difficulty. She saw what He was for sinners and that the most wretched and lowest sunken human being found refuge with Him.

By grace, the poor woman has felt that there is a heart that she can trust when there is nothing else left. And that is the heart of God! God conceals the transgression and seeks love by it, He arouses love by it (Pro 17:9a). This love is in the woman’s heart and that is why she came to the Lord Jesus to ask Him for the fervently desired forgiveness for her many sins she had already confessed to God. Her love drove her out to Him. God also seeks this love with us.

After teaching Simon, the Lord turns to the woman and declares that her sins have been forgiven. After her heart was overwhelmed by the love of God, her conscience is now also reassured.

In turn that provokes a reaction from those present. They talk among themselves about Who He Who even forgives sins. They talk about forgiveness as a theological issue, as is so often the case today. But only the heart that is convinced of sins and desires forgiveness sees Who He is. When the Lord speaks to Simon about the woman, He speaks about everything she has done to Him in love. He says to the woman that her faith has saved her; He doesn’t speak about her love she has abundantly shown to Him.

The woman is the only one of the whole company who goes away in peace.