Ooh, That Smell!

Humans possess five senses with which to engage the outside world – sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. If we desire to shut out the world, the gateway to each sense can accommodate our wishes – with one exception. If we do not want to see, we can close our eyes. If we do not wish to hear, we can plug our ears. If we do not want to touch, we can keep our distance. If we do not want to taste, we can shut our mouth.

Smell is the exception. It is the one sense that is impossible to escape. In the presence of an offensive smell, we may hold our nose, but we still must breathe. And breathing allows an odor – though stifled – to enter through the mouth. The one sense that we cannot ultimately escape or shut off is our sense of smell.

The participants in Luke’s story of Jesus’ dinner with a Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50) could not escape a pervasive and overwhelming smell. In the midst of a pleasant meal the strong fragrance of perfume wafted throughout the entire room, drawing attention to a single woman with a notoriously bad reputation in the community. What the woman did with the perfume was considered shockingly inappropriate to almost everyone attending the dinner.

Only one person at the dinner was not offended – Jesus. To him, the odor was not a disgusting stench but the sweet savor of love.

The Invitation

A prominent Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to dine at his house. Apparently, Simon possessed some measure of respect for Jesus. He was even willing to entertain the possibility that Jesus might truly be a prophet.

Even though Jesus was often opposed by the Pharisees, he accepted Simon’s invitation. Jesus was no respecter of persons; he would dine with the outcasts and marginalized (cf. 7:34) as well as the religious elite and empowered.

In order to accurately picture the scene we must understand Jewish dinner customs. Jesus, along with the other dinner guests, gathered around a low table in a reclined position with his left arm supported by a cushion, leaving his right arm free to eat. His legs would be sprawled out behind him, away from the table. With such a prominent guest at the banquet, the house would remain open to visitors to listen in on the conversation. As long as they remained quiet and away from the table and its cushions, the uninvited could observe the discussion between the host and his guests.

The Sinful Woman

Among those uninvited ones at Simon’s dinner for Jesus was the town sinner. Whether she was a harlot or not is uncertain, but whatever her sin, she possessed a notoriously bad reputation in her community. She was not just any sinner. Simon considered her an extraordinary sinner. His evaluation was not just a matter of a Pharisaical over-scrupulousness. In her town it was public knowledge. Wherever the woman went, her reputation preceded her. As the “town sinner” she would have been the recipient of cutting criticism, cruel insults, and crass jokes. When people passed by her, they would spit upon her and pronounce a curse. Her life was an endless cycle of being shunned by good people and used and abused by the worst. Morally speaking, as far as her community was concerned, she “stank to high heaven.”

What was this kind of woman doing at a Pharisee’s dinner? Apparently, her original intention was to express her grateful love to Jesus by anointing his head with perfume. She did not plan on being the center of attention. Most likely she hoped to anoint him either before or after the dinner. This plan changed, however, when she was finally in Jesus’ presence. Sometime during the dinner discussion, the woman was overcome with emotion. This triggered a series of actions that pushed her into the center of everyone’s attention. Tragically, each attempt she made to correct her actions made things worse rather than better.

While standing behind Jesus and overwhelmed with emotion, her tears of joy dropped upon Jesus’ outstretched feet. In an attempt to correct this, she undid her hair, fell to her knees, and tried to dry up the tears with her hair. She was certainly aware that it was a shameful thing for a woman to let down her hair in public – an act suggesting sexual availability – and yet it did not deter her. While wiping up her tears from Jesus’ feet with her hair, she began kissing Jesus’ feet – an expression of deep respect that could easily be confused as conveying sexual overtones. Overwhelmed with emotion she opened her alabaster vial of perfume, hoping to make a bad situation good by accomplishing her original intent. But instead of anointing Jesus’ head, she anointed his feet.

If her previous actions had not captured the attention of everyone in the room, this final act certainly did. The smell of the costly perfume would pervade the entire room, drawing all eyes upon her. There, at Jesus’ feet, was a woman of sinful reputation, weeping, wiping with her hair, caressing with perfume, and kissing with her lips. This was shocking behavior that shattered social conventions and offended religious scruples. It was even more scandalous in light of the woman’s known reputation. If she was a harlot – which is the most likely case given her reputation – the perfume she used was a tool of her trade, and was purchased with the profits from her trade. Whether this was the case or not, the woman’s behavior was clearly provocative and would raise eyebrows even today. To the dinner guests, her act appeared as a tasteless, vulgar show of affection. Was the harlot attempting to seduce Jesus to be her lover – at the dinner table, of all places? And, why wasn’t Jesus doing anything to stop it? It seemed that everyone was shocked and offended by the woman’s behavior except for Jesus.

It was impossible for Simon to hide his disgust. The look on his face spoke volumes about the thoughts of his heart. As a Pharisee, Simon was intensely religious, committed to the careful observance of every detail of the law. He had dedicated his life to maintaining ritual purity as an expression of deep devotion to God. Didn’t Jesus share his sensitivities? Why wasn’t Jesus doing anything to stop this rude and offensive display?

Simon now had his answer about Jesus’ status as prophet. Obviously, he was not a prophet. From Simon’s perspective, Jesus did not even possess the ability to recognize and rebuke sinners. Even worse, Jesus did not appear to possess the moral sensitivities to call a halt to this vulgar display. Though he had been open to Jesus being a prophet, he was no longer: “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 7:39b)

The Parable

Paradoxically, at the very moment that Simon gives up on Jesus as a prophet, Jesus takes the mantle of a prophet and pronounces God’s word to the one who needs to hear it most – the religious, devout, morally-upright, ceremonially-pure Simon.

Jesus is not acting harshly. He wants his message to get through. Like the prophet Nathan before him, Jesus uses a parable to deliver truth in a form in which Simon may receive it. Jesus’ goal is not to “humiliate Simon in front of his guests. Rather, Christ is respecting Simon, while challenging him to re-think his position and re­imagine the Other.”[1] With the sound of the woman weeping in the background, Jesus tells his spiritual story:

“A certain moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii [a twenty-month debt], and the other fifty [a two-month debt]. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged correctly.” (Luke 7:41-43)

Simon, although perhaps with great reluctance (“I suppose…”), gets the point. Devotion is proportional to the debt from which one has been relieved. With the forgiveness of great debt comes great devotion. With the canceling of little debt comes lesser devotion. Certainly, both debtors are “graciously forgiven” and thus indebted to the moneylender. Though both are equally forgiven, the gratitude, devotion, and love of the one who has been released from the greater debt will most likely be greater.

The “Greater Love”

Simon’s correct answer leads Jesus to apply the principle to the present situation. For the first time in the narrative, Jesus turns toward the woman and while doing so he speaks to Simon. His question is provocative: “Do you see this woman?”

Jesus then contrasts the woman’s greeting with Simon’s. Jesus does not do this to undermine Simon’s hospitality. None of the actions he lists were required of Simon. Jesus simply shows how the woman took extra steps to greet him – extra steps that demonstrate her “greater love.” In a sense, she redresses Simon’s failure; she lavishly provides where Simon offered only the basics.

Jesus does not criticize Simon for being inhospitable, for these courtesies were not necessarily an expected part of ordinary hospitality. Jesus’ point is not that Simon was rude but that the woman showed “extraordinary” love. One would greet “friends” by kissing them on the head, but the woman kissed Jesus on the feet (v. 46). On a special occasion one might put inexpensive oil on a guest’s head, but the woman poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet (v. 46).[2]

In a strange turn of events, the woman becomes a model of deep devotion. This is the reason Jesus allowed her to continue even though by all appearances what she was doing was scandalous. She was expressing love that arose from a deep gratitude for divine forgiveness. She did not do the socially-acceptable thing, the “right” thing, the “safe” thing – but, according to Jesus, she “loved much.” Jesus knew that she had experienced God’s love and forgiveness by the great love she showed. “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven, (and I can tell you this) because she has shown great love.”

It is important to note what Jesus does not do: Jesus does not deny that the woman is a great sinner. But Jesus had no words of rebuke or correction for the woman. He thought of her as a sinner – but more than a sinner, much more. In contrast, Simon only saw her as a sinner. Because of this, he was unable to see the actual woman, much less interpret her acts as joyful expressions of love to God. He could only see her sin.

So Simon is both right and wrong about the woman.  His original premise was correct: she has committed great sins.  But his mistake was seeing only her sin and not her.  Her sin became the basis of the story Simon wrote for her.  What Jesus has done is to open up the possibility of writing a new narrative for both her and Simon.[3]

Jesus invites Simon to see as he sees – to see as God sees. “Do you see – really see – this woman? Or do you only see a label, a category, a sin?” To Simon, the woman was not a real flesh and blood person, with real feelings, real problems, real desires, hopes, wishes, dreams, passions, and possibilities. To Simon, she was no more than a label: a sinner and nothing more.[4] He reduced her to an “it”; a human stain that threatened to spread its impurity to all within its reach.

And now the sinner was making him look bad. Jesus had unfavorably compared him to a notorious sinner. Jesus’ response completely turned the tables, placing Simon in a negative light and the woman in a positive light.

This comparison made Simon angry. But Jesus offered it in hope that it would spur him to rethink his own self-perception and God-perception. In order to truly “open his eyes” Simon had to see himself and God in a whole new light.

The most fundamental change that Simon needed was to remove the blinders of spiritual pride. In a strange turn of events, Jesus the prophet had put his finger on Simon’s real problem: the spiritual pride that made him content with his own self-righteousness and caused him to look down on others.

He had worked so hard to obey God’s law that he no longer saw himself as a sinner.  He saw the great gulf that separated the sinful woman from himself, but he could not imagine the great gulf that separated him from God.  If he perceived himself in need of grace at all, he was sure that God could dispense such small grace with little effort.  The woman, on the other hand, was such a spiritual wreck that Simon could not imagine her redemption.  What could God do with such a person?  Why would God bother?[5]

Simon had just enough religion to hate, but not enough to love. He had received just enough grace to taste God’s goodness, but not enough to reflect it to others. He had experienced just enough forgiveness to remain judgmental of others. His religion was a religion of walls, not bridges. A religion of folded arms rather than open embrace; a religion of precise rules, not passionate love.

More Than a Prophet

After addressing Simon, Jesus proclaimed to the woman that her sins had been forgiven. The hushed whispers that had previously passed through the room concerning the woman now shifted to buzz about Jesus: “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” By doing this Jesus was acting with God’s authority and apart from ritual sacrifice.[6]

Jesus, unconcerned with the response of the crowd, addressed the woman one final time, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Jesus clearly saw what others did not: the genuine faith of the sinful woman. He knew that she had experienced God’s forgiveness. She proved it through her love.

Even though she had found true peace in the grace of God, things would probably change slowly – if at all – for the woman in her community. The label of “town sinner” would be hard to shake. It would take many years for others to recognize the authenticity of her faith. Few would be able to see with the eyes of God – the eyes of Jesus.

Fred Craddock notes that the story leaves us wishing for a place where the woman could know true love and acceptance – where her deeds of devotion would be embraced rather than ridiculed. He writes,

Where does one go when told by Christ “Go in peace”? The price of the woman’s way of life in the city has been removal from the very institutions that carried the resources to restore her. The one place where she is welcome is the street, among people like herself. What she needs is a community of forgiven and forgiving sinners. The story screams the need for a church, not just any church but one that says, “You are welcome here.”[7]

Like all good prophets, Jesus was concerned about matters of the heart. He was not blinded by superficial demonstrations of piety. The moral acts and religious scruples of Simon and his company did not receive the commendation given to the sinful woman’s “vulgar” display of devotion. Though she did not appear as “right,” “safe,” “conventional,” or “pure” as the others at the party, the sinful woman was “right” and “pure” in the one area that mattered – in love for God. In the words of Jesus, “she loved much.”

Jesus reveals the fullness of God to us. In Jesus, we realize that God values love over law, relationship over rules, people over principles. He saw beyond the community’s labels and religious scruples. Jesus’ approach to sinners was in striking contrast to the Pharisees of his day.

If we desire to reflect God’s heart to others, we will see as Jesus sees. We will not forget that the smell that made everyone sick at the dinner party was really the sweet smell of adoring sacrifice – a smell that speaks of love, much love.

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2005