Lavish love
A heavy sigh escaped me as I looked over into the kitchen and saw a generous amount of cooking oil spilled all over the counter and floor. I mopped up the mess with paper towels and came to terms with the reality that those floors will be residually oily for some time, even after my best efforts to clean them. The next morning’s Bible reading took me to a narrative in Luke’s gospel of the lavish love of a sinful woman who spilled anointing oil on her Savior.
The account opens with Jesus reclining at a table among others, including His host Simon the Pharisee, in Simon’s courtyard. Simon, being a man of stature and respect, would not associate himself with any sinner lest he be defiled himself. They ate their meal according to the eastern custom at a U-shaped table where guests reclined on their left elbows, lying down. Meaning, Jesus’ unshod feet were set away from the table. This was a public meal, where people could listen to the rabbi’s conversation. Custom implies that an important guest, such as Christ, would have been greeted by the host with a kiss of peace, water would have been poured to clean his dusty feet, and a drop of some sweet-smelling substance would have been placed on the guest’s head. As host, Simon failed to follow the customs for this meal.
Entering next comes the sinful woman, and it can be surmised that all eyes were on her when she walked in. She was a prostitute and well-known for her work. The audacity for her to mix with such esteemed company would have made all in the room very uncomfortable, to say the least. Nevertheless, she enters determined with three gifts: an alabaster flask of ointment, tears, and kisses. All of which she lavishly bestows upon Jesus. Luke paints the reader a picture of this woman continuously weeping over and kissing Jesus’ feet, anointing them with ointment and wiping them with her untressed hair. The pricey flask was most likely earned from her labor. She kisses and lets down her hair, acts normally reserved for indecent encounters. This display was an affront to all those present. All those except, of course, Jesus.
Cynical Simon thinks to himself that if Jesus really were a prophet, He would know what a sinner this woman was. Jesus, being a prophet, reads Simon’s mind and answers him with an illustration. There was a moneylender with two debtors who had failed to pay their debt: one 500 denarii (two years wage) and one 50 denarii (two months wage). The moneylender forgives them both. Jesus asks Simon, “Now which of them will love him more?” Simon, being an educated man, answers this softball question rightly – the one who owed him more.
Ah, but Simon, do you really understand your answer?
Jesus then looks at the woman while he speaks to Simon, asking Simon if he sees her. Do we truly see people as Jesus does? He begs Simon to regard carefully how much this forgiven woman loved Him with her actions. Here, we come to the crux of this narrative.
The pithy parable of cancelled debt had nothing to do with the amounts owed – both debtors were simply that: debtors. However, one was keenly aware of it. It isn’t how much debt (sin) we have incurred that matters, but how deeply we understand it. Someone who understands the depth of their sin and that the “moneylender” not only forgives, but incurs this debt upon Himself, cannot help but be overcome with love for the Savior like she was. Our world continues to diminish the weight of sin and consequently diminishes its understanding of its need for salvation.
Believers have redemption and forgiveness according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. The sinful woman was maybe no theologian but she fully understood lavish grace with her heart, and is why she responds with worship of lavish gifts at Jesus’ feet.
It was no act of worship while I begrudgingly cleaned the oil in my kitchen the other week. My heart swells with the thought of being able to one day cast my crowns at Jesus’ feet, which took the nails when He died for my sins. May we all continue to worship and love Him as honestly as the sinful woman.
(Sarah Bradfield is a member of Bishop Creek Community Church, which meets Sundays at 700 Hobson Ave., the corner of Hobson and Keough, at 11 am. For more information, call (760) 872-7188.)