If you’ve ever read Jesus’ chapter-long denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees found in Matthew 23, you can more appreciate the grace He extended to a Pharisee named Simon who invited Him to dine at his house (Luke 7:36). Jesus, the pure and holy Son of God, amazingly visited the home of a proud, judgmental legalist who was likely leading people astray by his pharisaical teaching. To visit his house and have a meal with him was pure grace on Jesus’ part.
Simon didn’t believe in Jesus. Beyond that, he didn’t even respect Him enough to extend the common cultural courtesies that any guest would have received. Not only did Simon not wash Jesus’ feet or have a servant do it, he didn’t even offer Jesus a bowl of water to wash His own feet. And no “greeting kiss” or “oil-anointing” of His head.
Jesus, however, was full of grace, and He graciously spent time with sinners, including religious sinners. But He didn’t just “hang out” with them. He graciously confronted them regarding their sin while hoping for their repentance.
I’m sure you know the story. A “woman who was a sinner” (Luke 7:37), most likely a prostitute, heard that Jesus was dining at Simon’s house. How she was able to gain entrance is a mystery, but it is unlikely that she was welcomed. She brought with her an alabaster vial of perfume, and she obviously had a plan to worship Him. Unlike Simon, she believed that Jesus was divine, and she was either full of remorse for her immoral lifestyle, or more likely, she was full of thanks that she had been forgiven.
When she arrived, Jesus was reclining on His side, propped up on one elbow while He ate with the other hand, as did everyone else in the room. She could not hold back her tears as she stood behind Him. Those tears fell on His unwashed feet, perhaps leaving streaks on His dusty skin, so she knelt down behind Him and began wiping His feet with her hair. I doubt anyone in the room had ever witnessed anything like it. Surely a prolonged and very awkward silence permeated that room, except perhaps the sounds of sobbing by a former prostitute.
As her tears continued to fall, she kept wiping His feet with her hair. Then she began kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume she’d brought. It was worship. It was love. Jesus did nothing to stop her.
Simon’s observation of the odd scene confirmed his bias, and he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39). He was clueless that Jesus, who by accepting his own insincere hospitality, was also extending an amazing grace towards him. The difference between the prostitute and Simon is that she knew she had been a sinner. Therefore, unlike Simon, she needed no reprimand.
By means of a parable of two debtors, Jesus gently attempted to enlighten Simon to the fact that everyone needs grace because everyone has sinned, although some are certainly greater sinners than others (see Luke 7:40-46). And then the atmosphere became even more awkward as Jesus proceeded to publicly compare all the evidence of Simon’s disrespect with a prostitute’s humble adoration. Simon, at that point, was actually the greater sinner of the two!
And if it wasn’t enough to allow a prostitute to wipe His feet with her hair and then publicly expose His host’s disrespect, Jesus proceeded to announce that the prostitute’s sins were forgiven, something that only God has the right to do. Think about it! Jesus accepted adoration of which only God is worthy, passed public judgment on a Pharisee, and declared a prostitute to be forgiven of her sins! He was either (1) God in the flesh or (2) a very wicked deceiver. Simon, and everyone else in the room, had to make a decision about who He was.
When was the tearful prostitute forgiven? I am persuaded, for several reasons, that she arrived at Simon’s house already forgiven. She had already repented, at least by the time she picked up her vial of perfume to bring it to Simon’s house. She, just like the bigger debtor in Jesus’ parable, had been forgiven of much, which was why she “loved much” (Luke 7:47). In both cases, forgiveness was not the result of love, but love was the result of being forgiven. In addition to that, Jesus said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven,” not, “Your sins are forgiven,” or “I now forgive you.” He seemed to be reassuring her of what had already occurred, perhaps days earlier.
No one can argue that she wasn’t saved by grace. She didn’t earn her forgiveness by her works! Take note that Jesus also publicly declared to her, “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:50), so she was saved by grace through faith.
That is one more proof that under the old covenant, just like under the new covenant, salvation was granted by grace through faith. Her faith, however, was genuine. She wasn’t “trusting that Jesus would get her into heaven” while she continued her rebellion against him, as if that could be “saving faith.” Rather, she believed in Him. That is, she believed that He was the Son of God, and so she started treating Him like the Son of God. She repented of her sin, and she started living to worship Him, not caring what anyone else thought or how much it might cost her. And that is what salvation by grace through faith looks like. That is what it always looks like.
