Luke 7:36–39 – Then one of the Pharisees asked Him (Jesus) 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.”
I wonder at this story, not at Jesus’ love and compassion for the women (that is remarkable all on its own), but at the incredible narrow-mindedness of the religious leaders of the day. If He were a prophet? Jesus was no ordinary prophet! He, the true Word of God, spoke by the prophets of old to turn the hearts of His people towards Him. Time after time the people rejected God by rejecting His Word through the prophets and often murdered them. Throughout history the raised voices of the prophets have cried out from the very heart of God words like… “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)?” Or, “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh (Isaiah 58:6–7)?”
Jesus arrived on the earth in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4). He brought the fulfillment of the whole Law and Prophets. Jesus was perfect in the Law of God while still looking upon the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. Oh, how Christ must want for us to imitate Him and be servants to humanity! Not subservient weaklings with no backbone for Truth; but true lovers of people through Christ, knowing how to balance our knowledge of what constitutes being a “sinner” with the genuine and patient love that God has for them. If a person has a gun to their head ready to end their life, what sense would it make to pull out another gun, point it at them, and declare, “if you don’t do it I will!” The world is already desperate and heading for grave consequences for sin. We have to remember that we treat sickness with care, not neglect or poison. Our care for the sinner needs to go beyond words of rebuke or condescension; just like when one heals the sick, they need to come to where they are and actually touch the person.
Examine yourself with me, Christian! Where is our allegiance? If it is to Christ, then let’s do what He did. If you say your duty is to fight for justice and to restore values in the world, then you misunderstand why God has you here. You are here to live justly before Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light (1 Peter 2:9). If you feel your mission is to bring conviction to sinners, then where is your conviction to not judge them first before God can work His grace? Remember, that the Pharisee who invited Jesus to dine with Him most likely had extensive knowledge of the Torah (Bible). Immediately He knew that the woman who barged in was, indeed, a sinner. Jesus did not refute this knowledge of her, but rather, confirmed it. The woman also, who had the most clarity in the room about her short-comings clung to Jesus with contrition, knowing He was acutely aware that she was filthy and needed forgiveness. Listen to what He says as He looks down on her, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little (Luke 7:47).” Sometimes what is known by an individual does not matter much compared to what is shown by them. There are those who know what sin is but cannot put it into the right perspective with how God sees it or how it shows before Him. There is a significant difference in those who beat their chests before men or throw money into baskets to show their sorrow for sin and those like the woman at Jesus’ feet or the rich sinner Zaccheus who climbed a tree just to glimpse the Salvation of the World.
Our present culture has too many leaders who know volumes but follow the footsteps of the blind who can’t see the Way before them. How hard is it to see the stories of Christ in the Bible and not understand His mission? More than once men accused Him of consorting with “sinners.” Maybe if those people had known their sinfulness, they would have wondered why Christ was consorting with them. We are not here to fight for God. The battle is the Lord’s, and He is more than capable on His own to stop the mouths of wickedness; indeed, He will! Our fight isn’t against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). Humanity is deceived and lost in sin. If we look at the world with the eyes of the Pharisees, we will never please the Lord. They identified the women correctly as a sinner but completely misunderstood the gift of God and the One who was presenting it. Juxtapose what the Pharisee thought in his heart in Luke 7:39 with what Jesus tells the Samaritan women at the well of Sychar in John 4:10:
Luke 7:39 – “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.”
John 4:10 – “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
If only the Pharisees had known the gift of God and who it was who was with them, then they most likely would have fallen to their knees with the sinful women and cried out for mercy. Instead, we know that as time progressed those same leaders became jealous and bitter and began to cry out for His death. God never compromises His standards for what He considers “holy living.” No matter what any person may think or believe about a particular social topic or lifestyle, God holds the world accountable to the Truth; He has from the foundation of the earth! What is amazing about God’s perfection is that He considers the imperfect person spotless when covered with the sacrificial Blood of the Lamb. Our goal in life is to display the loving-kindness of our God in the great humility of Jesus Christ.
