For She Loved Much

Luke 7:45-47

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.”

 

In these verses we are introduced to a broken, sinful woman who shows us how to love GOD. 

 

It’s a broken, sinful woman — not an educated, upstanding religious man — who shows us how to love God.

 

The scene opened when a Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner. Luke used the dinner setting to introduce the sinful woman who broke a few social taboos. First, the woman dared to arrive at a dinner gathering of males. The ancient world was based on a gender-segregated, male-dominated society. No proper woman would cross this boundary. This woman did.

 

The woman is a sinner but not necessarily a prostitute, who hers that Jesus is at the Pharisee's house and comes seeking forgiveness.  She cries and her tears wet Jesus' feet, which she dries with her hair!  Jesus sees her heartfelt repentance and forgives her sins.   

 

The point was clear. Jesus compared the woman’s sincerity with the host’s shallow (or non-existent) show. In doing so, he rejected the Pharisees’ fellowship and accepted that of the woman. She would be allowed into the Kingdom, because her sins were forgiven. Why? Because she demonstrated the type of love that was the hallmark of the Kingdom. She willingly washed the feet of the Master to show she was his servant. She kissed them as a sign of her fellowship with him. She anointed them as a preparation for his death and resurrection. Such actions would cause scandal, but they would show her faith and her salvation.

 

It is difficult for us to understand a GOD who forgives without merit, who loves us regardless of our sins, who keeps calling us home to the fullness of life that only GOD can give.  Take the chance to risk great love, instead of standing aloof in judgment so that you may know the great love to which you are invited.  .