This Sunday's Gospel reading is one of my personal favorites as it paints such a powerful picture of repentance. This woman's desire to see her life have meaning and turned round. Perhaps it is no surprise that in the Greek, the word 'repentance' is the word 'metanoia' and is about quite literally turning one's life around...I also really love the way that Jesus sensitively and yet powerfully deals with Simon the Pharisee and teaches him how to live out the Law...
I also love how, having done the wordle, words that lie at the heart of the action of God in this Gospel are - Jesus, woman, forgiven, feet, ointment, sin and house.
The ointment of the Gospel is poured on the life of this woman by Jesus, forgiving her sin and turning her life around. But what of the feet reference you might ask? Well, perhaps simply, she walked in there weeping and longing for recognition, forgiveness and hope, and she walked out of there a changed woman and her witness must be somehow directly affected and impacted the lives of Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Chuza, Susanna and many others...
The reading is from Luke 7:36-8:3...
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus* to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 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 kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’ Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’ ‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii,* and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus* said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ Then turning towards 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 bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’ Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ 50And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them* out of their resources.
