A few days back the daily reading was the story of the woman who cleansed Jesus feet with her tears and hair. – Luke 7:36-50. I’m still pondering this. Perhaps breaking down the story will help to clarify my mind:

Parallel stories are found in Matthew 26:6-13 where this story or a similar story takes place in the house of Simon the leper and it’s the disciples who are rebuked. The story in Mark 14:3-9 is almost identical to Matthew’s telling. John does not recount this story at all.

In the Lucian story Jesus is invited to dinner by a Pharisee named Simon and according to Matthew and Mark, he is a leper. As we know, Jesus spends most of his rebukes and criticisms on the Pharisees. If it’s true that God is a loving father that disciplines his children and that Jesus is the personification of the Father then I can’t help but think that Jesus chided the Pharisees as he did because he loves them, not because he hates them.

We know that the Pharisees were of the ruling class. Israel was under Roman rule but they allowed Israel a degree of autonomy. Under this shadow of foreign authority existed the Sanhedrin, the counsel of local government which was made up of Pharisees and Sadducees. It was the Sadducees that held the greater power by virtue of their being the one per centers of their day. The Pharisees, though well off, were much more middle class. A similar picture would be the British Parliament. The Sadducees would make up the Upper House of Lords and the Pharisees would make up the Lower House of Commons. A little like the senators and representatives of our congress. It is interesting to note that Jesus had very little interaction with the Sadducees.

A woman, who was a “sinner” found out about the dinner. Tradition tells us that this was Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons were cast out, who was first to see Jesus resurrected from the grave and the first to tell the disciples about it. She may have been but the Scriptures never tell us that.

She brings a jar of spikenard, an essential oil, possibly lavender, that Mark tells us was worth three hundred denarii, a denarii being the daily wage for a laborer. This she brings in an alabaster jar which was apparently sealed. After washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair she breaks open the jar and anoints his feet (Matthew and Mark say she pours it on his head).

At this point, I think it’s important to consider that the parable Jesus speaks to Simon is not so much for his benefit as for ours. In fact, this story, start to finish, is for our benefit. It was very likely one of the Gospel stories told and retold from church to church where ever Christians congregated in the early days before it was formally written and canonized as Scripture.

Jesus knew what the Simon was thinking. Perhaps he knew by divine insight but it’s just as likely he overheard him murmuring to another guest or perhaps he read the Pharisee’s body language. In response, Jesus tells the parable of the two debtors, one owing fifty denarii and the other five hundred. Neither could repay and both were forgiven their debt. Jesus then asks, “Which will be more grateful?” After his answer, Jesus then reveals to Simon the depravity of his heart by thinking he had little or no need of forgiveness.

There is a submission that is based in resignation to one more powerful. This is the weakling’s obeisance to the bully, Lee’s surrender to Grant or East Germany’s “alliance” to the Soviet Union. It is based in force and force only. When that force is diminished the weaklings exact their revenge.

This is, unfortunately, the way many people understand the Christian concept of submission to God. They see an Old Testament god of wrath exacting judgment and punishment on his peon slaves from whom he demands worship. Granted, the world was a pretty rough place four thousand years ago but if that is all you get out of reading the Exodus story you need to re-read it.

Submission to a greater power is absolutely not what the Bible teaches about our submission to God or to Christ. God does not rule by power but by authority. God is powerful but it is contrary to His nature to force His will on anyone.

We do not submit to God because we fear Him but because we recognize His authority and we come to a place of understanding that He deserves our submission and worship. We surrender, not because He has conquered our flesh but because He has conquered our heart.

This sinful woman exemplifies Christian submission. She is not begging or sucking up. She is not attempting to exchange her sacrifice of nard for Jesus’ favors or forgiveness. She recognizes who he is. Her heart has been conquered. She acknowledges his authority over her and pours out a year’s wages, perhaps all she owned, on his feet in worship. “Your faith has saved you”, Jesus said, but it was not faith in His forgiveness, it was her faith (trust, confidence, assurance, rest) in Him.

In a very real sense, Jesus does not forgive sins, He forgives sinners. 

- Rogelio Bueno