Women

WOMEN IN LUKE PART 3

by GLENN PEASE
02/26/21
Free to Share

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

LUKE 7:36-50
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he
went into the Pharisee's house, and took his place at table.
37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner,
when she learned that he was at table in the Pharisee's house,
brought an alabaster flask of ointment,
38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began
to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair
of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the
ointment.
39 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 sort of woman this is who is touching
him, for she is a sinner."
40 And Jesus answering said to him, "Simon, I have
something to say to you." And he answered, "What is it,
Teacher?"
41 "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five
hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
42 When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now
which of them will love him more?"
43 Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, to whom he
forgave more." And he said to him, "You have judged
rightly."
44 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 wet my feet with her tears and
wiped them with her hair.
45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she
has not ceased to kiss my feet.
46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has
anointed my feet with ointment.
47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are
forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little,
loves little."
48 And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
49 Then those who were at table with him began to say
among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"
50 And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you;
go in peace."

Spurgeon points out how delicately Dr. Luke handles the
story of this woman. "The evangelist-" the beloved physician,
"Luke-does not lay bare the minute particulars of this
woman's life's sins, but delights to dwell rather upon the
story of her penitence and its fair fruits, and so makes her to
shine resplendently as a wonder of redeeming grace." He
shows us the three stages in the journey from darkness to
light: Penitence, Pardon, and Peace.

When John Dillenger was riddled with bullets in front of a
Chicago theatre, the paper had a most unusual picture-only
the feet of the dead gangster was shown. The caption under
the picture was-"These are the feet of John Dillenger-who
knows where these feet might have gone if someone had
guided them aright?" Our passage could be portrayed with
a picture of the feet of Jesus saying, "Who knows where they
will go who follow these feet aright?"

This is the story of a good man who was no good, and a
bad woman who was so good. It is of interest to note that
most of the great female sinners were guilty of sins of the
flesh. You have the woman taken in adultery; the woman at
the well living with a man who was not her husband, and here
the prostitute.

The male sinners, on the other hand, that Jesus confronted
were guilty of sins of the spirit. You have the sins of
intolerance, prejudice, the rich young rulers greed, and the
pride of the Pharisees.

In those days the men were in control and so women could
only go astray in the area of the flesh. Men had a monopoly
on the rest of worldliness. Today women can be guilty of all
the same sins of the spirit. So with the advantages of equality
come the greater risks of condemnation. Women have
always been equal in being saints, but now they can be equal
in being sinners.

Do not judge the content by the cover. The Pharisee
judged both the woman and Christ by circumstantial
evidence. He could not see the heart of either. He judged
that Jesus was ignorant because of His acceptance of her,
when in fact, it was His compassion that made Him accept
her, and not His ignorance of who she was. The Pharisee just
slapped a label on her and did not consider that people can
change and no longer be what they have been. He had pride
without pity, and so he treated the sinner as the sin, making
him cold as polar ice. The surest sign that one's religion is
not truly godly is a lack of tenderness toward the sinner. If
you are more concerned about judgment than about
salvation, you do not have the spirit of Christ.

Jesus did not condemn Simon but gave him the rope he
needed to hang himself. Parables and illustrations take
people from the unknown to the known so that people can see
the truth that applies to others also applies to them. Better
than arguing with someone is the method of Jesus which
helps another to see where they are wrong.

HER TEARS

If there is any truly holy water in the world, it is the tears
of the grateful penitent. Jesus would not be sitting at a table,
but would be down on the floor with His feet out behind and
His sandals removed. She intended to bathe His feet with
ointment but her emotions made her use tears instead. She
had not planned on this and so she had no towel, and that is
why she had to use her hair. It was not a mere trickle of
tears, but a torrent of tears. Deep emotion ought to
characterize those who confront the Savior after repenting of
a sinful life. Weeping implies she was deeply repentant, and
one who had been cleansed, and who longed to express her
love for the One who changed her life. To wipe His feet with
her hair gives the impression of a wild head of hair. Here we
see the depth of humility and love. She cared not for herself,
but only for His comfort. The kissing was not customary
hospitality, but an unusual expression of gratitude. This
clearly indicates she already has been delivered from sin, and
was a new woman.

She knelt and wept and with her untressed hair
She wiped the feet she was so blessed to touch.
And He wiped off the soiling of despair
From her sweet soul, because she loved so much.

There is not the least resistance or resentment on the part
of Jesus. Most men in that situation would try to impress the
host and push her away, or at least protest. It is of interest to
note that only this sinful woman and Judas are recorded as
putting their lips upon the Master. It was a scandalous act as
far as the Pharisee was concerned. He doubted that Jesus
could be of God if He could tolerate such familiarity with one
like her. It is likely most of us would tend to feel just like the
Pharisee. A repentant prostitute would not receive a very
warm welcome in most churches. The Pharisee thought that
one is more godlike the further distance he keeps between
himself and the sinner. If this was true, of course, there
never would have been the incarnation. Had this woman
come near His feet she would have gotten a kick in the teeth
for her trouble.

Spurgeon said, "These are blessed words: "At His feet."
That is where we also would stand and weep. That is where
we would sit and learn. That is where we would wait and
serve. That is where we hope to live and reign forever-at His
feet."

Clarence Macartney writes, "There has been a vast
amount of talking and writing about Jesus Christ.....and yet
a single tear of a penitent, a forgiven sinner like this woman,
will tell you more about Christ and His person and His
kingdom and His power and His redeeming love than all
those others put together."

Some have asked the question, how did the Pharisee
know she was a sinner? Edersheim, the great scholar,
suspects that he knew her professionally. However he knew,
he concluded that a truly holy man will have no dealings with
unholy people. This was not the spirit of Christ at all. He
had a great love and compassion for sinners. Being called a
sinner does not imply there were some women in the city who
were not sinners. This woman was a professional sinner, for
she made her livelihood by sin. She was not a respectable
person in that society. Even Jesus says in verse 47 that her
sins were many. Jesus knew just how bad she was.

Spurgeon makes a point of this fact and writes, "Our
Lord allowed her to wash His feet with her tears, but He
knew well what those eyes had looked upon. When He
allowed those lips to kiss His feet He knew right well what
language those lips had used in years gone by; and when He
suffered her to show her love to Him He knew how foul her
heart had aforetime been with every unhallowed
desire.............Yet, glory be to divine grace, she was not cast
out when she came to Jesus, but she obtained mercy, and is
now shining in heaven as a bright and special star to the
glory of the love of Christ."

She was putting Jesus to a real test to see if He really did
love and exult women, or was it just a front. She knew that
in this context He would have to show His true colors. She
would be treated with tenderness and respect, or she would
be booted out as scum. Raymond Calkins writes, "His purity
did not repel her. His goodness did not present an invisible
barrier between Him and her. Oh, there must be a defect
somewhere in what we call our goodness. We are good, but
we are not gracious. We speak the truth, but we do not
speak it in love. We have virtues and we lack insight and
sympathy. .................I sometimes think one of the most
tragic things in the world is the number of unlovely good
people in it. One does not question for a moment the reality
of their goodness. Yet the pity of it is, the more you know
them the less you want to be with them; the less even you
want to be like them."

Elizabeth Fry used this passage of Scripture as her main
theme, and with it transformed many lives both male and
female, and she also transformed the prisons of England.
Edgar Dewitt Jones writes, "Our tendency is to regard a
person who is irreproachable in private life but who may be
unforgiving, self-righteous, and censorious of others, in
higher esteem than a person of kind and generous disposition
who transgresses the laws of what the community judges to
be public and private decency. We are prone to treat sins of
human frailty much more drastically than sins of human
pride, temper, and lovelessness." Jesus never once blasted or
rebuked a fallen woman. He did not favor in any way their
sinful lifestyle, but He never denounced them when He met
them. He only had sharp words of anger and rebuke for the
self-righteous Pharisees.

Dr. William J. Dawson in, The Man Christ Jesus says of
His attitude, "In His alarming system of spiritual pathology,
the first (that is, sins of temper, pride, and lovelessness)
resemble the paralysis of vital organs, the second (sins of
human frailty), an attack of fever. Any man may contract a
fever and after dreadful wanderings in the realms of delirious
imagination may emerge again into a life of sanity. He may
lie blind and helpless at the mercy of the flame that consumes
him, but he may still retain his goodness of heart, his sense
of right, and even his real passion for integrity.

But in the growth of evil tempers there is no crisis and no
cure. They involve not a temporary obscuration of moral
faculties, but their destruction. They are like paralysis, a
decay of vital organs. Frailty of the flesh is curable;
corruption of the spirit incurable."

Jesus is so often the friend of sinners, and they are not
falsely accused sinners. They are the real thing. Jesus had a
different attitude toward sin than most religious leaders of
His day, or any day. Jesus saw the sinner as a victim of sin.
Sin was an enemy of their life and happiness, and it had
entangled them making their life miserable. He desired to
help them get free. His main concern was not how to punish
them, but how to set them free. This clashed with those who
approach to the sinner was how to see that they got what
they deserved. This is the clash of law and grace to this day.
Grace wants to reconcile the sinner, and law wants to punish.
Love grows out of forgiveness and acceptance. Where this is
not real there can be no love. The righteous need so little
forgiveness that they feel so little love. They need to see their
sinfulness on a deeper level in order to have a greater love.

In this text Jesus is dealing with a man and a woman, and
as often is the case they see life from very different
perspectives. Modern studies show that men are more
rational and women more emotional, and we see it here.
Simon is a good man as far as the law goes. He likely has a
good head on him, and Jesus deals with him by the
intellectual means of a parable where he has to make an
evaluation and give a judgment. He is a head man. The
woman, however, expresses herself, not by the head and
words, but by the heart and action. She is motivated by
emotion rather than intellect. Jesus does not reject either,
but recognizes both to be essential. We are to love God with
all our mind and heart. Jesus does not discount the womanly
approach, but recognizes it as legitimate and not as a weaker,
but rather in this case, superior to that of Simon.

Why do you suppose most of the stories of great sinners
being forgiven by Christ are women? It is likely because they
were discriminated against, and Jesus was concerned about
justice as well as compassion, and Dr. Luke felt the same.
See also in Matt. 21: 28-32. Jesus did not hesitate to have a
social relationship with anyone.

Here He was spending an evening with the class of people He
most often blasted, and the class who sought to kill Him.
By the lack of hospitality it appears that this Pharisees did
not really appreciate Jesus, but had another motive for the
invitation. Jesus was being snubbed by the religious and
wealthy leaders, but in that context He was being greatly
appreciated by a sinner. She had to have already repented to
come and expose herself to the eyes of the Pharisee and his
guests. Here is a bold woman who is a known sinner, and she
had the audacity to enter a Pharisees house. She was
obviously highly motivated. Maclaren points out that the
expensive ointment was likely part of the spoils of her sinful
employment. A bad woman with stolen goods, as it were,
and she is drawn to Christ. It is hard to grasp the paradox,
for evil hates the light and flees from it, and yet sinners were
attracted to Jesus like the sick to a physician. She had in her
a desire to be forgiven and made clean.

There are many who feel that this woman was Mary
Magdalene. Christian poetry and art often say so. Others
say it was Mary the sister of Lazarus. (John 11:2)
Magdalene is the most popular view, but the fact is there is
no basis whatever, and all the evidence is opposed to it.
Mary Magdalene had 7 devils cast out of her, but this is no
basis to believe she was a prostitute. This woman is
unnamed for a good reason.

Simon had all people in pigeon holes. He had a code of
conduct by which he knew just how to act toward each
person. Jesus dealt with people as persons, and it didn't
make any difference what pigeon hole they fit, for they were
all sinners who needed His love and forgiveness. Lockyer
said, "Contact with a sinner no more contaminated him than
the sun is fowled as it shines on a dung heap." Simon said if
He knew what she was He would have nothing to do with
her, but Jesus not only knew what she had been, He knew
what she could become. It is the future that motivates
Christ and not the past. To be like Christ we need to treat
people in the light of their potential, and not on the basis of
their failures of the past.

Jesus uses a parable to teach Simon. Dr. Luke is a great
parable lover. He has 35 of them in his Gospel, and 19 of
them are unique to him, and this is one of them. Jesus
illustrates sinners as debtors. All are equally in debt, but not
all are in debt equally. When we sin we are in debt, for there
is a penalty to be paid. All have equally sinned, but not all
have sinned equally. Some are greater sinners, and when
they are forgiven they usually have a greater gratitude. Jesus
admits that the Pharisee was a better man than she was as a
woman, yet she loved more for she could sense His love more,
for she had so much more to be forgiven. Jesus does give
Simon credit for a less sinful life, but it did not make him a
better person than her.

We see here that there are different degrees of love. This
could lead to a false conclusion that says if only a great sense
of sin can lead to a great love, then one is better off living in
great sin like this woman before conversion, for great
forgiveness is not possible if one lives a good life and does not
greatly sin. Both Simon and this woman had nothing to pay
off their debt, and so they were alike in this in their inability
to pay. People can prevent their debt from getting greater
than it might otherwise be, but they cannot pay off the
existing debt. Jesus freely forgives both. It is not harder for
Him to forgive the big debt than the little one, for all are
equally covered by His atonement. The fact is the greatest
sinners often make the greatest saints because of their greater
gratitude. The Prodigal is a hero, and not the elder son who
never ran off to sin.

We learn from this account that it is possible for a woman
to be a worse sinner than a man. But we also learn that it is
worse to be a lesser sinner who won't admit it than to be a
greater sinner who will. Simon thought because he was a
lesser sinner that he was not in debt. You might point out
that you do not owe Sears or Wards nearly as much as other
people, but this does not cause them to regard your debt as
no responsibility. True, there are others who owe more, but
you are still in debt, and if you don't pay, it is you who must
suffer the consequences. And also, it is true that the terrible
sinner is not less forgiven than the lesser sinner.
Simon's problem was he could not change his thinking
about people who have changed. He had a label on them,
and the label would stay even though the contents had
changed.

Jesus was fully conscious of being neglected and not being
given the common acts of hospitality. He was not indifferent
to how He was treated. Jesus calls him to look at this woman
who, though a sinner, was more loving and hospitable even
though he was not her guest, and this was not her home.
Jesus appealed to His sense of logic, and He came to the right
conclusion in the abstract example. Now let's see how you do
in real life. Look at this situation again Simon. Is it possible
that this woman who is a great sinner is closer to God than a
Pharisee? Simon could pass a test intellectually and get an A,
yet flunk the real life test. Jesus gave her the A and said she
was superior to him. Simon did not experience the grace of
forgiveness because he felt superior and in no need of it.
She loved much because she was forgiven much.

Maclaren writes, "He does not mean to say that her love was
the cause of her forgiveness, not at all. He means to say that
her love was the proof of her forgiveness, and that it was so
because her love was a consequence of her forgiveness." One
of our greatest sins is in not realizing how much we have
been forgiven, for this leads to a lack of love. It is hard to say
thank you with zeal if you have no great awareness of the
value of the gift received. Spurgeon wrote, "It is, dear
friends, a deep sense of our sinfulness, coupled with the
perfect consciousness of our forgiveness, that will work in us
intense love to Christ." Again Spurgeon writes, "The Lord
has made the first to be last, and the last to be first. Simon
thought himself far in advance of this woman; but now that
Christ had explained their true position, I should think he
began to see that the woman was far ahead of him."

Jesus did not condemn the sinner, for He knew what
modern psychology has learned. Dr. George Benson, a
Christian Psychoanalyst says that often the condemnation of
a sinner only helps the sinner go on sinning. They often hate
themselves and rather than deal with this issue of self-hate,
which is the real problem, they do evil and make others mad,
and thus get their enemy outside of them where they can
fight, and feel better about it. A rebel in a Christian home is
often guilty with self-hate, but does what is rotten to get his
family mad and screaming so he can have an external battle
rather than an inner battle. He can then blame others for his
problem, and not face his real inner problem.

If you give genuine acceptance it deprives a guilty person
of the ability to fight outwardly, and they are forced to look
in and see they are the problem. This will lead either to
repentance, or to anger at you for showing them they are
their own worse enemy. The battle with self-hatred that
leads one to get others to reject him is seen in Peter in Luke
5:3-8. He felt sinful in the face of a great blessing
undeserved, and he asked for rejection. It is healthy to feel
unworthy in the presence of Christ and His power. But if
one does not overcome it by feeling the acceptance of Christ
in spite of your unworthiness, then one is in for real
psychological battles.

Condemnation and rejection are only fitting when love
and acceptance is rejected. Someone wrote this account: "A
friend of mine, an elderly Quaker lady, entered her Paris
hotel room to find a burglar rifling her bureau drawers
where she considerable jewelry and money. He had a gun
which he brandished. She talked to him quietly and told him
to go right ahead and help himself to anything she had, as
obviously he needed it more than she did if he had to be
stealing it. She even told him some places to look where there
were valuables that he had overlooked. Suddenly the man let
out a low cry, and ran from the room taking nothing. The
next day she received a letter from him in which he said,
"I'm not afraid of hate. But you showed love and kindness.
It disarmed me."

Chester Warren Quimby in Jesus As They Remembered
Him writes, "At no place is the sympathetic mind of Jesus
shown more graciously than in His dealing with wayward
women. He treated them with the same respectful courtesy
that He would have given His mother or sisters. Before Him,
they found themselves to be gentle women. He never let
Himself be fooled. They knew He perceived what manner of
creatures they were. Yet from Him came no scorn, and no
rebuke. Always He approached them with the same high
respect others accorded only true gentle women. These
women were read and known of all men. They knew what to
expect from men: from the pious, snubs and scorn; from the
lewd, ribald jokes; from the lascivious, demands for physical
satisfaction; and from their respectable sisters, cruel gossip.
Then they faced this strange, clean man. Though He knew
all, there were no insinuations, no contempt, no sly smiles.
Jesus saw that under their bizarre manner they longed for
true womanhood. While in His presence, they were again
gentle women.

Spurgeon says this women is Mary of Bethany, and if he is
right we have a prodigal daughter in the Bible, and she had
her elder sister just as the Prodigal son had his elder brother.
Note, it was not her love or her tears of repentance that
saved her, but her faith. It was a faith that acted in love. Note
also that Jesus always says go. You cannot stay in one place
even if it is with Jesus. Depart from me into life and live with
the effects of being with me everywhere and everyday. Go in
peace for you are forgiven and accepted and need not live in
fear and doubt and self-hatred for your folly and sin of the
past. You are now in the ark of God and can face the storm
unafraid. The Pharisees may still gossip about you, but all is
well between you and God.

Oh cease my wandering soul,
On restless wing to roam;
all this wide world, from pole to pole,
Hath not for thee a home.
Behold the ark of God,
Behold the open door;
Hasten to gain that blest abode
And roam, my soul, no more.

Kahlil Gibran in Jesus, The Son Of Man has the woman
describe what happened to her soul when she first met Jesus.
"It was in the month of June when I saw Him for the first
time.....I was dead. I was a woman who had divorced her
soul. I was living apart from this self which you now see. I
belonged to all men, and to none......

The He looked at me, and the noontide of His eyes was
upon me, and He said,......"Other men see a beauty in you
that shall fade away sooner than their own years. but I see in
you a beauty that shall not fade away, and in the autumn of
your days that beauty shall not be afraid to gaze at itself in
the mirror, and it shall not be offended.
I alone love the unseen in you.....
And then He walked away.

But no other man ever walked the way He walked. Was it
a breath born in my garden that moved to the east? Or was
it a storm that would shake all things to their foundation?
I know not; but on that day the sunset of His eyes slew the
dragon in me, and I become a woman.......

The heroes of the Old Testament were bold and mighty men
of battle, but when we come to the New Testament Jesus
changed all that. He was not weak, but He combined the
best of manliness with the values of womanliness. None was
ever more courageous, yet none was ever more kind, gentle
and compassionate. Strength does not exclude tenderness.
This is the new ideal of manhood. One can be strong and yet
tender. Jesus was the first true gentleman.