Jesus and the sinful woman

I recently went to a church event on redeeming female sexuality. One of the speakers mentioned a verse in which Jesus talks to a man while looking directly at a woman (who is nameless). The verse is Luke 7:44 and it’s from the passage often subtitled ‘A Sinful Woman Forgiven’.

If one is not given to clicking, the passage follows below in English Standard Version with verse 44 highlighted:
A Sinful Woman Forgiven36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining 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 this, 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, “Say it, Teacher.”

41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” 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.”

What I want to talk about is some of my off-the-cuff interpretations of that passage based on reading it in about twenty available English versions (yay www.biblegateway.com). There are three different lights in which one could interpret the woman’s actions that I would focus on.

A) She was a whore.
B) She was falsely accused of being a whore.
C) She was a supporter of Jesus, spoke too boldly and through rumor/dislike came to be considered/known as ‘a sinful woman’.

In case A, one can see that if she were a whore, then there is a really fascinating reclamation of her sexuality in her actions towards Jesus. In coming to Christ for redemption and using a physical, sensual intimacy to show her love, the holy tenderness of Christ for even that corrupted love is revealed. Jesus says bluntly, ‘She loved much’, and through holy grace He reveals her show of physical intimacy to be in fact a display of spiritual intimacy and connection with Christ. She is down at his feet, anointing and wiping up her tears with her uncovered hair– her gestures are deeply, deeply intimate and distinctly non-sexual. But they so easily *could* be sexual, and yet grace pulls this nameless woman from such an abyss into healing. The woman came to give her love to whom could truly accept it, and her– Christ only.

In fact, her namelessness in this scenario can be seen as a way of showing that Christ is there, waiting with complete forgiveness and love for all the whores who are dismissed as nameless ’sinful women’ by society, not fit to acknowledge as fellow humans, only considered merchandise and meat. This scenario serves to reveal the hypocritical rudeness of the Pharisee Simon through contrast. Simon is named, and has a position. But in naming this hypocrite and pointing out his self-righteousness sin problem, Jesus illustrates the depth of his love. He will name you as sinner and call out your hypocrisy if you take too much pride in your ‘good name’. But if you have no ‘good name’ and come to Him unadorned, vulnerable and nameless, as so many must come, he is waiting to save you from the pain of sin.

Christ turned away from the big shot with the fancy name and title to instead look at the woman, to show that no matter who you are in the secular world, you get his full gaze and love when you come seeking full repentance.

Now those are just some thoughts about case A. Case B offers a different interpretation of the woman and the Pharisee’s actions.

In case B, if the woman is falsely accused, her actions get more interesting. Now you have a woman who can be seen as an active agent in redeeming whore-like sensuality. It then becomes a situation of a woman coming to Christ as a show of faith. Faith that Jesus will provide her with strength to weather the falsehood levied against her, faith that she will admit to and repent before Jesus of her non-sexual sins out of love for Christ. Faith that she will repent in what would be her own sin of self-righteousness. In this interpretation, ‘She loved much’ becomes an expression of risk. She loves so much she will risk her justified anger at false accusation, risk her own desire to be judgemental, risk her temptation to play the whore since she was accused of such. There is so much risk for her, and yet she falls down before Christ and puts it all before Him, literally at His feet. And He turns it all into intimate, holy love and forgiveness.

Her repenting of hypocrisy and self-righteousness can then be seen as a arrow directed right at Simon the Pharisee’s inability to admit his own sins. Additionally, in this scenario, her namelessness could represent all the Christians who are humble enough to shed their good names and any soiling those names took to come before God meekly begging forgiveness. And for Jesus to turn to those who are rendered nameless, robbed of their own good names serves as its own subtle rebuke to those who did the robbing with their deceitful betrayals.

Considering how easy it is to rob a woman of her name (as currency and power) by even hinting she is sexually immoral, Christ’s willingness to turn to her with full force of gaze is even more powerful and striking. And on that high note, on to the third scenario, option C.

Admittedly, the third scenario is a bit left-field, but not entirely implausible. When Jesus was walking the earth, views on Him ranged from ‘crackpot troublemaker!’ to ‘Son of God!’. And even that early in Luke, people are coming to worship Him as Lord. So it is at least conceivable that a woman could come to be filled with the Holy Spirit and run around praising Jesus in some bold fashion for that era. And if she did such, she could easily be labelled sinful or devoted to sin.

More on that third possibility later today. It’s time for bed now.