Jesus explains what the woman does by washing His feet with her tears and pouring perfume on them: she is demonstrating her love and devotion to Him. She does what Simon exactly fails to do: welcome Jesus. She welcomes Jesus as the One most significant person in her life, as the One who can give her what she desperately lacks. At the end she gets what she needs when Jesus accepts her, forgives her, and gives her His shalom. Because she chooses to come to Jesus in public, she is also restored in public. Jesus gives to her his peace in public, in the hearing of everybody who despises her and condemns her.

She is a woman ready for forgiveness. She is a woman ready for God. She comes to Jesus not empty-handed but full. She brings to him all she has. She displays her love for Jesus excessively. She realizes that more than the perfume she needs Jesus, that Jesus is worth all her riches. The woman teaches us that to long for God is to love God.

The picture of the woman emptying her jar of perfume at Jesus? feet is symbolic of her spiritual transformation. She empties herself in order to be filled. She throws away her treasure in order to be richer.

She brings us back to our conversion, when we realize that the greatest treasure we have is not our material riches, our possessions, our positions, our careers, our human relationships, but God, when we realize all these mean nothing compared to knowing God. The gospel narratives tell of a trader who sells all he has when he chances upon a rare pearl and a man who sells all he has to buy a field of gold.

I have been with InterVarsity for fourteen years, working with old and new faces. Although I also left my career in order to do missionary work, I remain amazed at how my colleagues gave up their ticket to a good life by embarking on the ministry of giving to people. I marvel at the pull and strength of God?s call. Even outside InterVarsity, I meet people whose love for God and His work is simply remarkable.

Jesus explains to Simon that the woman loves much because she is forgiven much. This is one unique feature of the Christian faith. One becomes a Christian when he realizes that he is not only a sinner but a great sinner. He realizes his inability to do anything good apart from God. We come to God not only misty-eyed but weeping a river.

The depth, height and width of God?s love can be understood more deeply in light of the depth, height and width of our sinfulness. The one who sees himself only partly needy also understands God?s love partly. As a result, the love he shows to others is also limited.

It is sad that some people think there are other ways to peace rather than God. They try sex, drugs, alcohol, and all kinds of pleasure.

The woman teaches us that the way home is not something abstract and difficult. It also means denying ourselves of fears and hesitation and garbing ourselves with courage and love for God.

Written by Millicent Guarin

Part 3

“When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee? house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” Luke 7: 37-38 (NIV).

What is the woman exactly doing in Simon’s party? Luke reveals to us her remarkable courage to come to Jesus at a place off-limit to her, at Simon?s welcome party for Jesus. She barges the party because she can?t help it. She sees her once-in-a-lifetime chance to good life and she grabs it.

The woman teaches us how to behave when we find ourselves embroiled in sin, when we fail in our moral obligations and expectations. She teaches us to forsake our shame and guilt and come to Jesus. She is broken in every way but her brokenness does not hinder her from coming to God. Rather, it leads her to Him. Her longing for God is stronger than her distress and misery.

What it is in Jesus that she can not resist? She sees in him a tenderness, a compassion, a love that only God can give. She sees in him the embodiment of the messiah that she has been longing for, the divine power that draws people, gives them hope and meaning to existence. She sees in him the power to lift her out of her predicament, the power to give her life. She sees Jesus as the source of the peace she longs for and the confidence she desperately lacks. She is a person with the sense of the knowledge of God.

Her need of God is stronger than her human fears. She leaves her place of security – her house – and she comes to God. As a result she receives what she seeks. She acknowledges her sin and her need of God and community, recognizes God?s appearance, and takes courage to come to Him. Thus, she becomes not only a convert but an evangelist calling people to repentance and to God.

Some people profess they can live outside of God’s domain and try to demonstrate a kind of strength that defies adversaries, failures, frustrations. They act superhuman. It is not hard to see their kind everywhere – in the home, in the marketplace, in the neighborhood. They live without God.

Sometimes we wonder what stuff they are made of. We wonder how they can pull their lives through. Are they the same in their private moment when they are alone? We suspect they also cry and cringe in pain. They are also afraid. They probably hide their fears and insecurity by sporting a flashy car, maintaining a luxurious lifestyle, or by their wee-hour parties. Once they lose these, their world crumbles and all their pretensions collapse.

They would do well to listen to the woman.

Written by Millicent Guarin