For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been exploring an incident in Jesus’ ministry recorded in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 7:36-50). A Pharisee named Simon had invited Jesus to dinner, which, in those days, was a semi-public event. As we saw in our previous posts, things didn’t go as planned. An uninvited and unnamed woman showed up, and her shocking, counter-cultural behavior turned Simon’s intended objective for the event on its head. Her unspoken dissertation on love moved Jesus to validate it in a brief parable directed to Simon and ultimately to all of us. This unusual episode is rich in lessons that are desperately needed here and now – and before we leave it, a few more should be highlighted.

A Tense Situation ~
We encourage you to take a minute or two to read the entire account in Luke 7, and as you read, try to remember that the atmosphere was emotionally intense from the beginning. Everyone knew that the dialog in a meeting between this radical young Rabbi from Nazareth and a local Pharisee could be religiously and politically explosive. But even given their heightened expectations, the shock would have been palpable as they watched a woman who shouldn’t even be there approach Jesus and kneel at His feet. Then their capacity for incredulity would have been overloaded when she proceeded to lovingly wash them with her tears, kiss them, and in full view of everyone, even unbind her hair to dry them. 

A tense hush must have accompanied the fragrance of the perfumed anointing oil she rubbed on His feet, and every mind would have been held captive by the incredible display unfolding before them. The question was, what would come next? How would Jesus respond? Surely, no Rabbi of Israel would let such disregard for religious and social decorum go unpunished. Given the intolerable series of social and religious violations, the expression of condemnation would have to be powerful to appropriately address it. Then Jesus finally broke the silence and spoke.

An Unexpected Response ~
But Jesus didn’t  chastise the woman’s behavior and demand that she be restrained and removed. To add to everyone’s astonishment, Jesus didn’t even initially acknowledge her presence. Instead, He directed His attention toward Simon and announced that He had something to say to him. Perhaps the offended Rabbi would criticize the Pharisee for not expelling her, since he was the host. But as was often the case in Jesus’ presence, customary expectations and predictions proved worthless. Jesus’ concern was not about a failure to follow rules, uphold traditions, or maintain social decorum. The issue that needed to be addressed was much deeper than that and had much more potential to bless people and expand His Kingdom. Here’s what Jesus had to say:

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
“There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” (Luke 7:40–42 NKJV)

With only three sentences and a question, Jesus changed the focus of attention and laid the groundwork for a response that no one anticipated. He would use the short parable to interpret the scene in a different context and unveil a deeper significance. Everyone’s expectation would naturally have been that the woman’s behavior would be addressed from the perspective of the established religious and cultural boundaries she was violating. But Jesus made it clear that her actions were an illustration of the profound impact of God’s love. Her silent demonstration of love would endure forever and rise up to challenge all who would hear of what she did, including you and me.

It’s About Love ~
Like the Gospel Jesus preached, the ministry He performed, and the life He lived and demonstrated, the living God we serve has one overriding objective. He wants an eternally enduring, interactive, personal relationship with each of us that is real and that is based on love, not ritualistic performance. In the course of His address to Simon, Jesus revealed how the woman’s actions declared some key indicators of the kind of impact God’s love produces. We cannot address them all, but these are some that stand out:

• • Love is about actions, not emotions. Emotions were obviously involved in the story, but it was what the woman did, not her tears, that defined the love Jesus highlighted. When God commanded us to love Him, He was not commanding us to feel something. The love God seeks, both toward Him and each other, is defined by what we do, not what we feel. If love isn’t behavioral, then it is nothing. God didn’t invite us to join a quest for transient, emotional euphoria. He called us to a relationship that has the power to transform lives and change the world. The question we must ask is not how we feel about God’s love for us, but what are we doing with and for Him because of it?
  • Love is about sacrifice, not acquisition. The woman didn’t show up at Simon’s house empty handed. The oil she brought with her wasn’t cheap, but love comes with a willingness to make sacrifices. Love always does. The oil she purchased was not to promote herself, she bought it and applied it solely to bless and honor Jesus because of what He had done for her. When she was broken, rejected, hopeless, and alone, Jesus loved her in spite of that. When He forgave her sins, He was giving the best He had to give. When she showed up at Simon’s house, she was doing the same thing for Him. Our challenge is to consider where He found us, what He freely offered us, and whether our ongoing response to Him reflects that. 
  • Like genuine faith, love overcomes fear. The one emotion that our story’s leading lady didn’t seem to display was the one that seems to be hamstringing us these days … fear. Normally, for any woman to show up at a function like the one at Simon’s house would have been a frightening prospect, but for a woman with the kind of reputation that the one in our story had, the prospects would have been paralyzing. There’s only one reason fear could neither keep her away nor keep her from doing what she did. The presence of Jesus and the love she had for Him overcame everything.
  • It was her love for Him that Jesus emphasized, not His for her. As John would emphasize later, our love for God is always a response to His love for us. He said clearly, “We love Him because He first loved us (I John 4:19 NKJV)”. What the crowd was witnessing in Simon’s house wasn’t Jesus’ love for the woman at His feet, although His redemptive love for her had obviously been displayed between the two of them earlier. The power that was turning the dinner proceeding upside down was her love for Him. Maybe, instead of more songs about how much Jesus loves us, what the world around us needs to see are more courageous, counter-cultural demonstrations of how much we love Him. The scene that held the crowd spellbound that day, and what Jesus used to convict the self-righteous Pharisee, was a living picture of what loving Him back looks like. 

The woman who displayed such love to Jesus remains a mystery in many ways, and to most of the world, she might seem like just a “nobody” who crashed a dinner. But Jesus saw her as so much more than that and used her to challenge countless millions of us to follow her example. Because of her, many have committed themselves to love Jesus back more openly, to join Him in places where we might not be welcome, to confront cultural norms that seek to isolate us, and to worship Him by giving the best we have. 

As Resurrection Sunday approaches, we’re going to see again what His love for us led Him to do. And like the woman in our story, may God help us to join together at His feet and display to a broken, angry, and violent world what love like that can enable us to do.

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to Tweet & Share from the pull quotes below. Each quote links directly to this article through Twitter.

• • • “The living God we serve has one overriding objective. He wants an eternally enduring, interactive, personal relationship with each of us that is real and that is based on love, not ritualistic performance.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • “The love God seeks, both toward Him and each other, is defined by what we do, not what we feel. If love isn’t behavioral, then it is nothing. He called us to a relationship that has the power to transform lives and change the world.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • “There’s only one reason fear could neither keep this woman away nor keep her from doing what she did. The presence of Jesus and the love she had for Him overcame everything.”@GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • “What the crowd was witnessing in Simon’s house wasn’t Jesus’ love for the woman at His feet. The power that was turning the dinner proceeding upside down was her love for Him.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • “The scene that held the crowd spellbound that day, and what Jesus used to convict the self-righteous Pharisee, was a living picture of what loving Him back looks like.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  

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