Ep. 29: The Harlot and the Pharisee

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LUKE 7:36-50

The next recorded event in Jesus’ journey through Galilee followed almost immediately. This concerns the much-forgiven woman who had much sinned. A Rabbi would have reacted very differently to this woman. However gentle and kind he was. He would have taken precisely the opposite direction from that taken by Jesus.

It was in the house of a Pharisee and we see Jesus treating his host with respect. Antagonism towards him had not grown to levels we will later see, so there is a degree of mutual respect here. Interestingly, she is unnamed and perhaps morbid curiosity has associated her history with the name of Mary Magdalene (despite the Scripture not mentioning her name).

Some have mistakenly confused this story with the much later anointing of Jesus at Bethany, because of their similarities; in both cases, there was a ‘Simon’ (perhaps the commonest of Jewish names) and a woman who anointed Jesus. But they were two separate events.

Simon the Pharisee’s invitation to Jesus does not necessarily indicate that he was onboard with his teachings, including the story of the forgiven debtor spoken here. The question in Simon’s mind was, whether he was more than ‘Teacher’ perhaps even a ‘Prophet’. Cue, the entry of the woman …

We must bear in mind the prejudice then against any conversation with women to realise the gall of this woman in seeking access to the Rabbi Jesus, whom so many, including this woman, believed was the Prophet sent from God.

She had brought with her an alabastron (flask) of perfume. This ‘flask’, not necessarily of glass, but possibly of silver or gold, though probably alabaster, was used both to sweeten the breath and perfume the person. The Pharisee would not have been impressed with Jesus over this. After all, if this strange, wandering, popular man, with his strange, novel ways and words were a prophet. He would have known who the woman was, and he should never have allowed her to approach. What Jesus taught next is not, as generally supposed, a parable but an illustration.

To teach Simon, Jesus entered into the Pharisee’s own modes of reasoning. Of two debtors, one of whom owned ten times as much as the other, who would best love the creditor, who had freely forgiven them? A Rabbi would, according to his Jewish notions, say that he would love most to whom most had been forgiven. This was Jewish theology, the so much for so much.

On Simon’s own reasoning, then. He received little, but she received much, because of her many sins. Undoubtedly. Her faith had saved her. What she had heard from his lips, what she knew of him, she had believed. She had believed in ‘the good tidings of peace’ which he had brought, in the love of God and it had saved her. And it was because she was forgiven that she anointed his feet with the outpouring of her heart and, quickly wiping away the flood with her hair, continued kissing and anointing them. He spoke to her and once more with the tenderest delicacy. ‘Your sins have been forgiven … your faith has saved you’. This was in contrast with Simon the Pharisee, who showed little love towards him.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)