44 Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your home, you didn’t give me water for my feet, but she wet my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has poured perfumed oil on my feet. 47 This is why I tell you that her many sins have been forgiven; so she has shown great love. The one who is forgiven little loves little.”
- Luke 7:44-47
The greater context of this story found in Luke 7:36-50 is that Jesus was eating in the house of a Pharisee (an expert in and protector of scriptural law) when this woman, identified as a sinner, came to the home, found Jesus, and began wetting his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, kissing them with her lips, and covering them with her perfumed oil. How inappropriate!!
The Pharisee looked on in judgment of Jesus for letting such a woman touch him. It wasn’t the way things were supposed to be done.
And maybe we would look on Jesus and this woman in judgment, too. Such attention given to the feet would be seen as quite odd in our modern context. But in this time of walking in sandals being the primary mode of transportation, to care for someone’s feet was a great sign of respect and hospitality. When you wash the feet of your guests, you communicate that you value their life and want them in your home.
But the owner of the home, as Jesus points out, had not offered this hospitality to Jesus while “this sinner” had. Maybe this woman didn’t know the law as well as the Pharisee, but she knew how to love better than the Pharisee.
It is ironic that the church often needs to learn about hospitality from those outside the church when there should be nobody better at showing hospitality than the followers of Jesus. Inside our church walls, we’ve gotten pretty good at teaching scripture and the law. Yet how many would describe feeling more loved outside our walls than inside them?
Prayer: Author of life and love, shape us into a people that are more concerned with showing great love than being appropriate so that all might know they are valued and wanted in our home. Amen.
Written By: Nick Scott