Jesus did all of that when Simon, one of the Pharisee invited Him to eat with him. Adobe PDF. [15] King Benjamin taught that while it is important to receive a remission of our sins, it is equally important that we retain that remission “from day to day. Who was a sinner. It is clearly a powerful example of the forgiveness and peace that Christ offers to those who come unto Him. This event occurred in the house of Simon the Pharisee who lived somewhere in Galilee, probably Capernaum, Nain, or Cana. [7], Unlike Simon, the woman in this story is not named. Which adds to the erotic tension! Read more of our “The Women Jesus Loved” series here. Simon is not just one of a group of Pharisees who have fought against the Savior at every turn; rather, the Savior responded to him as an individual who is in need of His help, even if he doesn’t realize it! Jesus’s brother James later taught that “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).[15]. This story is just as much about Simon and the Savior’s attempt to reach out to him as it is about the woman who washed the Savior’s feet with her tears. And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. What would evoke such costly love and worship from this woman? The representation of the sinning woman wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair is not very easy except if one goes back to the oriental context in which Jesus is lying and not sitting. Such things do not occur in an instant. © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. There are two reasons that suggest otherwise. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE Luke 7:36-50 Christ sits at the end of a long table, rebuking Simon the Pharisee and pointing to Mary Magdalen below. She was a sinner, probably a prostitute, and she had heard that Jesus was dining at Simon’s. [10] See Scott, “Path to Peace and Joy,” 25–26. Tia Kim lives in southern California with her husband and three children. Luke 7:36-49 Contemporary English Version (CEV) Simon the Pharisee. I bear testimony that in either situation I find myself, I know “his hand is stretched out still” (Isaiah 9:17), beckoning me to come unto Him. “He who is forgiven little, loves little.”, In sharp contrast, here was this who and what sort of woman bending over Jesus’ soiled feet, washing them with her tears and gently wiping his feet with her hair. We hope you will return each week to see how Jesus loves all of us, including women. But she did not show up to refute false doctrine. Chronologically the first anointing of Jesus occurs in Luke 7:36–50.1This account is different from the somewhat similar passages in Matthew, Mark, and John. On the one hand, it is a reminder, as Elder Scott taught, that everyone has “many sins” that need the healing power of the Atonement. She starts to wash Jesus' feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. See also the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1–10. Love washes. Her doorway is the doorway to hell (Proverbs 7:27; 9:18), and her uncleanness is contagious, so keep your distance. Read terms of download. Every single one. But then President Packer continues: “When your desire is firm and you are willing to pay the ’uttermost farthing,’ the law of restitution is suspended. The irony here is that Jesus chooses to show Simon that He is indeed a prophet, not by judging the woman’s outward actions but by calling Simon to task for his own thoughts. He had invited the Savior as a guest into his home but then had neglected to treat him with the respect He deserved. The Pharisee neglected to observe this social custom. Her experience with the Savior shows Luke’s readers what is possible for all people who allow Christ to encircle them in the arms of His love. See Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. God Has Not Forgotten to be Gracious: One Year of Global Pandemic at SOLA Network. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. What I love about the exchange that follows is that while Jesus clearly chastises him for his thoughts, He uses the moment not so much to condemn Simon but to teach him. She anoints his feet from an alabaster jar and wipes them with her tears and hair. So he went to the Pharisee's home and took his place at the table. For the crippled and blind and lame (14:21). 4:3 ratio. Courtesy of Visual Resources Library. When she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s home, (she) brought an alabaster flask of ointment. She writes at tiajoykim.com. After pouring precious ointment on his feet, her worship overflowed in reverent kisses to his feet. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? The irony, of course, is that Jesus treats Simon in such a way that he does not reciprocate to the woman who enters his house. During the meal a sinful woman came into Simon’s house and washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Words apparently could not adequately convey the feelings of her soul at that time, so instead she expressed her gratitude and love inabject humility by washing His feet with her tears, wiping them with the hair of her head, kissing them, and anointing them with ointment. Grant Building Now which of them will love him more?”. Author’s Note: Text from Luke 7:36-50 (ESV) in bold. Tagged: christian-living, the-women-jesus-loved. Other events in the Gospels show that the Pharisees were famous for their legalistic interpretations of the scriptural commandments and the oral laws that they had developed around them. [5] Recognizing that Jesus was reclining on a couch helps us make better sense of the detail that the woman stood behind His feet when she began to wash them with her tears (see Luke 7:38). Background Study: Pharisees were a legalistic group who often felt they were elite. As a result, she poured out her love for God with an extravagant display of passion that Simon the Pharisee could not comprehend. In addition, Jesus’s use of the parable of the two debtors strongly indicates that the outpouring of love is the result of forgiveness rather than the catalyst for it. Not only did he spend the rest of his life after his conversion administering spiritually to those in need, he was also heavily involved in collecting money to aid the poor in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2:7–10; Romans 15:25–27). [12] Note what Elder McConkie has to say: “Here is a woman who once was a sinner but now is clean. He wants each of them to identify with this woman, but how can modern readers show their love for the Savior? 38 Then she came and stood behind Jesus. Apple Keynote. [8] See Kathleen E. Corley, Private Women, Public Meals: Social Conflict in the Synoptic Tradition (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993), 92, 124. Mary first anoints the feet of Jesus, and wipes His anointed feet, not His washed feet. Behold, a woman of the city. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. When an immoral woman anoints the feet of Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus teaches about forgiveness. Her sins were neither excused nor minimized, but – hallelujah! In fact, there is much that we do not know about her. She must have known he was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (7:34) because little else could explain her brazen act. 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. The story of the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and her hair is one of the most moving accounts in the New Testament. Note the pleading of President Gordon B. Hinckley: It is therefore not surprising that the last direction the Savior has for this woman is to “go in peace” (Luke 7:50). A woman quietly came into Simon’s house, having heard that Jesus was there. Helmut Koester [Hermeneia Series; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002], 290; Dennis E. Smith, "Table Fellowship as a Literary Motif in the Gospel of Luke,” Journal of Biblical Literature 106 [December 1987]: 614). The first is the more obvious of the two. As the story opens, an unnamed Pharisee invites Jesus into his home for a formal banquet. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? In Roman times, formal banquets consisted of two parts: the deipnon (the meal proper) and the symposion (the period of conversation and debate after the meal). Your obligation is transferred to the Lord. Are we at times guilty of inviting the Savior into our homes but then failing to treat Him with the respect He deserves? He used the story of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet in the Pharisee’s house (read Luke 7:31-50) as an illustration of the difference between relating to others in love vs. relating to others through our own knowledge of good and evil. The streets and roads were dusty; and a good host always provided water for a guest to wash his feet, along with a welcome befitting the personage being entertained. But the suggestion of her past life also serves as a powerful sense of hope that Christ’s Atonement can and will heal even one of the most serious of sins (see Alma 39:3–6). Green, The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans,1997), 308. This woman made up for Simon’s thoughtlessness by washing Jesus’ dusty feet with her tears. Gospel Illustration by Jerome Nadal (1507-1580) - HW901E from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. Luke 7: 36-50 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house, and took his place at table. [9] See Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke (I–IX): Introduction, Translation, and Notes (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981), 689. He came to cancel their debts, but they rejected him and grossly underestimated their debt. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. Simon failed to wash Jesus’ feet when he arrived, he did not greet him with a kiss of respect, and he did not anoint Jesus’ head with oil. Some feel that it is to be employed only by those in serious transgression, while the Lord intended that it be consistently used by every one of His children.”[2] Likewise, Elder Henry B. Eyring teaches: “The truth is that we all need repentance. Luke doesn’t record how Simon responds to the Savior’s teachings. Gaye Strathearn, “Simon and the Woman Who Anointed Jesus’s Feet,” Religious Educator 5, no. Societal labels are so often based on external criteria, and clearly Simon views the woman’s actions through lenses of one of these labels. No, God’s kingdom is not for the proud; it is for the poor in spirit (6:20). When Simon, the Pharisee ’ s house, having heard that was... Avoided her and seek out the Savior ’ s fame and maybe had even listened to one of the invites... Washing Jesus ’ dusty feet with her tears and dry them with hair... 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