Rev Gav

Prophet

Reflect

Luke 7:36-39

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

Reflect

Jesus attended a dinner with a Pharisee called Simon, and at the beginning, Simon was open to this itinerant rabbi, recognising that Jesus was a prophet. Simon was no doubt excited at the prospect of hearing from a real, live prophet, however things did not go as he expected. A woman came in off the street — someone whom Simon recognised as a sinner — and this woman did the most extraordinary thing. She let down her hair (something you did not do in front of a man in public) and started to touch Jesus in an intimate manner. She washed his feet with her tears, wiped them away with her hair, kissed them, and then finally scented them with perfume — again, all things you did not do to a man in public or private (unless he was your husband), and all this time, Jesus did not say a word! Simon’s eyes must have been popping out of his head, but more than that, he must have been crushed, because this rabbi, Jesus, clearly did not the appreciate the inappropriateness of her actions. The only conclusion Simon could draw was that Jesus could not have been a prophet after all. Gutted.

This woman’s response was the most wonderful reaction from someone coming face-to-face with Jesus. She knew exactly what she was going to do, and because she had brought the jar of perfume with her, we know she had planned to anoint Jesus’ head with it. Anointing someone with perfume in this way was a powerful symbol that you recognised their importance, however, when she got there, she was so overwhelmed that all she could do was kneel at his feet in humility and cry — the emotion pouring out of her. Seeing her tears falling on Jesus’ feet, all she could think to do was to gently wipe them away with her hair, and only when was she had composed herself, was she able to open her alabaster jar of perfume and, rather than anoint his head (which is what might be expected), she stayed on her knees and anointed his feet.

Through this woman, and in Simon, we come across two people with two starkly contrasting reactions to Jesus: one public, emotional, and intimate, the other private, intellectual, and distanced. When we approach Jesus, do we intellectualise it? Do we say, “God, if you knew who approached you, you wouldn’t give me a second thought,” or do we fall on our knees, weep, and pour ourselves out at the feet of God?

Do

Today, why not do something radical? Find a quiet spot, get on your knees and rather than saying something, just ‘be’ in the presence of God.

Pray

Holy God
Forgive me when my response to you
is cold, indifferent, or unemotional.
Let it sink in who you really are,
what you have done for me,
and what you think of me.
I kneel before you, a sinner,
knowing that I owe you everything.
This day and for ever.
Amen.

Think

Why do you think the woman didn’t ask the permission from Simon or Jesus?

Why do you think the woman just went for it in the way she did?