(Luke 7:26 - 8:3) – One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and
took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's
house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her
tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the
Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what
kind of woman this is who is touching him-- that she is a sinner." Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have
something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak." "A certain creditor had two debtors;
one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which
of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And
Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see
this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them
with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my
head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven;
hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." Then he said to her, "Your
sins are forgiven." But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even
forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The
twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from
whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided
for them out of their resources.
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Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to his home for a meal. Such an act would have been a public declaration
of Simon's openness to friendship and alliance with Jesus. The meal would have been publically visible and accessible
to the community, with guests reclining around a U-shaped table in the open courtyard of Simon's home. Simon would have
been correct and cautious in his hosting, observing all of the proprieties of cleanliness and purity that were characteristic
of the Pharisees. A proper meal.
Into this careful setting comes scandalous behavior. A "woman
in the city, who was a sinner" – one who did not practice the observance of the Pharisees' religious scruples and
purity – presents herself uninvited and stands behind Jesus, weeping. She brings a very valuable alabaster jar
filled with oil, and she anoints Jesus' feet. This is unheard of. It was appropriate to anoint kings, priests
and prophets on their heads. Often the body would be anointed as an act of hospitality and daily care after a ritual
bath. To anoint only the feet was scandalous to social convention. Anointing feet might be an act of intimate
care for a husband or a father, or it might be something that happened in a brothel, but never would someone anoint another's
feet with oil in public. Never.
Continuing to weep, she "began to bathe his feet with her tears..."
Very probably this unnamed woman brought with her another jar, a vase in which she had collected her tears. It was a
tradition in the Middle East for women to collect their tears in tear vases: sometimes a single vase for all tears, sometimes
one vase for tears of sorrow and another for tears of joy. These vases could become heirlooms, passed down from mother
to daughter over generations. Imagine this woman emptying her inherited tears of sorrow and joy upon the feet of the
man Jesus.
The story tells us that she also began to dry his feet with her hair. In the Middle East, no woman
would display her hair to any man except her husband. To show her hair in front of other men was comparable to bearing
her breasts. That scrupulous tradition continues with the head scarves worn by Muslim women and the hair bags of Orthodox
Jewish women. 1
No wonder the Simon the Pharisee reacted negatively. Anyone would have.
This woman had behaved indecently. Simon knew what anyone else observing this scene would know – the man Jesus
was no prophet; a prophet would not allow such unclean and scandalous behavior.
Yet Jesus is unembarrassed
and is not scandalized. Unlike Simon, Jesus does not distance himself from her. He sees the extravagant generosity
and gratitude behind her act, and he accepts her with a divine pronouncement of forgiveness and affection.
There
is a version of another legend of a woman's scandalous yet generous behavior. It happened a thousand years after the
story of the woman with the alabaster jar. It also started at a dinner table, when a man that this latter-day woman
loved, or at least had vowed to love, announced a new tax on the townspeople. "My Lord," she urged, "can
you not be generous?" He flung his cold reply to her, "It is very easy to be generous with what is not yours."
It had been easy for her to give to the poor, for her husband was rich; easy to give away food, for her table was
full; easy to nurse the sick when she lay on linen bedsheets; easy to ask for tax relief and be seen as a town's savior.
His words struck her like a fist: "You only give what is mine. You never give what is yours." It was
true. All that she had was his property; even her clothes. The only thing that was truly hers, was her self.
There a bargain was struck. He would take back the tax, if she would give what was hers, not his.
In
the morning, she mounted her white mule, handed away the cloak that covered her, and began her ride, defended only by what
was undeniably her own – her long hair, freed from its braids and flowing like the hair of a loose woman. It was
scant protection from the eyes that might see her.
With the pounding of her heart, she did not notice at first,
the quiet. But as her ride turned toward the market square, she heard the silence. She raised her lowered head
to find the street empty, every window-shutter closed, every door shut fast. The people had given their gift to her,
the only gift they had to give, in return for her extravagant gift of what was her own.
Humbled, grateful, Lady
Godiva of Coventry rode home where her beloved stood, waiting with her cloak, seeing her anew. Seeing how they loved
her, he saw her with grateful, loving eyes which filled with tears as he helped her down, he repented of the new tax. 2
There is a third story of shameless, naked, scandalous generosity. It is the story of God's love for us –
God's unqualified forgiveness and infinite love.
God invites us into the naked freedom of shameless love and scandalous
generosity. God pours out divine love and infinite forgiveness with extravagant abandon, recklessly loving sinner and
Pharisee, outsider and insider alike. God invites us not to be embarrassed, either by our own scruples and selfishness
or by God's radical hospitality.
The woman with the alabaster jar somehow knew of this forgiveness and love,
and she poured out her appreciation in an extravagant act of gratitude. But Simon was too busy keeping score and justifying
himself to understand, and to be equally forgiven, loved and free.
Lady Godiva's husband was also good at keeping
score, monitoring what was his and what had not been earned and therefore might not be given. His eyes could only be
opened by the generous gifts given by those who had little to give but their love.
God invites us to let down our
hair, pour out our tears, and strip off our inhibitions in order to let God love us with utter abandon, so that we might respond
by loving the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength, and loving
our neighbor as ourselves.
As we accept God's extravagant loving mercy toward us, so we turn and give God's
extravagant loving mercy to others.
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(1) the information about tear vases and hair comes from my friend Paul McCracken
who guided our tour of the Holy Land. Paul writes a weekly commentary on the scripture for the Jerusalem Institute for
Biblical Exploration. This week's commentary offers a link to a photo of a tear vase at http://leighdelozier.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/cropped-vase.jpg
(2) from an adaption
by the Rev. Rosemary Beales of St. John's Episcopal Church, Ellicott City, MD, of the story published by Sara Maitland and
Wendy Mulford in Virtuous Magic: Women Saints and Their Meanings (NY: Continuum Publ.,
1998) p. 324-332; in Rosemary's sermon Do you SEE this Woman, http://www.goodpreacher.com/backissuesread.php?file=11326
