Outcasts: A Sinful Woman

This series looks at five different passages that highlight Jesus' pursuit of those many would label "outcasts."  This week we a woman known for her reputation as a sinner, and we'll see that Jesus not only wants a relationship with the outcast, but that He wants to use them for His kingdom.

This passage is based on Luke 7:36-50.  To read it now, click here.
 
 
 
 
We are in the third week of our series titled Outcasts, where we’re looking at some of the outcasts of the New Testament, some of those people that others, at least the devout Jews of Jesus’ day, would rather not associate with.  The first week we saw the young man who took half his father’s estate and went out to sow his wild oats.  The money didn’t last, and he became destitute, working with pigs, an outcast, finally reaching the point where he decided to go home and see if he could become a servant in his father’s house.  But his father was waiting for him, and welcomed him home with open arms and a fatted calf.  And we learned that God is always looking to welcome people home, even the outcast, maybe even especially the outcast.
 
Last week we saw Zacchaeus, the tax collector, cheater and scoundrel, turned saint.  And we saw how much Jesus loves the outcast.  Jesus invited himself to spend the day with Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus had a chance to come to Jesus, and learn more, to follow Him.  And we saw that Jesus loves the outcast, He came to seek and to save the outcasts.  His heart aches the most for the outcast, the people others have turned their backs on, the people we may want to ignore.
 
This week we see a similar story.  We see a woman who is identified only as a sinner.  We don’t know who she is, we don’t know what her sin was.  We know only that she was a sinner.  And we know that everyone present at the dinner seems to know of her, at least by reputation.  And we know that she is the kind of woman that devout Jews, especially these Pharisee’s who gathered for this dinner, would want to avoid.
 
Let’s take a look at this woman.  Verse 37 gives us our introduction to her, “When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume.”  We know she was local.  That phrase, “had lived a sinful life,” might imply sexual sin, adultery or prostitution, but it doesn’t matter what the sin was – we’ve all sinned, it doesn’t matter what hers was.  She heard Jesus was at Simon’s house.  Simon was a Pharisee, and the host for this dinner party.  He had invited several of his friends over to meet Jesus.  We can assume that they were people like Simon, many probably Pharisees. 
 
This woman wanted to see Jesus.  So, she brought this perfume.  Another thing we don’t know is how she got into the house.  Maybe she knew Simon.  Maybe she just boldly walked in and silently sat behind Jesus.  Maybe the door was open.  I don’t know what construction was like 2000 years ago, maybe he didn’t have a door.  It’s not important how she got in, what’s important is what she did when she got in.  She just stood behind Jesus crying, her tears dripping onto his bare feet.  Then she knelt down, and she wiped his feet with her hair, kissing His feet as she washed them with her tears, and dried them with her hair.  Then she anointed His feet by pouring the perfume she had brought over them, probably rubbing it in, massaging His feet with the perfume.
 
Simon the Pharisee who had hosted the dinner, was muttering to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.”  Oh, I think He knew, and that’s why He was so happy about what she did.  Another lost person finds Christ.  Another outcast finds salvation.
 
I want to pause the story here to point out something that maybe you’ve noticed over the last three weeks.  In each week of our series, God has done something amazing, He has reached out to someone in need, He has forgiven someone who needed forgiveness the most, because they were the worst.  The Destitute.  The Tax Collector / Extorter.  The Sinful Woman.  People who were sinful, and knew that they were sinful. 
 
And here’s what I want to point out – for every outcast that found forgiveness, there was a Pharisee who mumbled about it.  There was a huge disconnect between the Jewish people, and the religious leaders.  You see the Jewish people knew they were sinners, they knew they needed a Savior, they had been waiting earnestly for a Savior, and when Jesus came, they followed by the thousands.  And when Jesus offered forgiveness, they were cut to the heart, they were convicted, they were filled with joy, and salvation came to their houses.
 
But for the Pharisees, they were too prideful to think they needed forgiveness.  The savior they needed would save them from Rome.  They didn’t think they needed forgiveness for their sins, they were the religious leaders – not some lowly sinners.  They were God’s people and filled with pride because of it.  Do you see the problem?  They were filled with pride.  They were a prideful people. 
 
And they didn’t see a problem with it, because it came from their standing in the church.  But folks, your standing in the church is not your standing before God.  And Jesus knew that they were like whitewashed tombs, all pretty on the outside, they looked good, they acted right, they seemed to have it all together, but inside they were filled with everything unclean.
 
The woman came to honor Jesus.  But the Pharisees were so used to receiving the honor themselves, all they could do was complain.  The common Jewish person wanted to hear more about Jesus because they liked what they heard.  The Jewish leaders were filled with judgment and disgust.  They thought they were above those they were supposed to be serving.  They were filled with pride and oblivious to the warnings about pride.  Those warning didn’t apply to them, they were the leaders.  But I think Jesus taught that those warnings applied especially to them.
 
Back to our story.  When they complained, Jesus tells a story, a parable about a man who had loaned money to two people.  One of these owed a lot of money, it would have taken years to pay it all back.  The other didn’t owe as much, he probably could have paid it back easily in a few weeks.  The lender forgave the debts of both men. 
 
Then Jesus questioned Simon the Pharisee, “Which of them will love him more?”  It was a pretty obvious question, and Simon answered correctly, “the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.”  But then Jesus applied that parable to the current situation.  This woman had shown Jesus her great love for Him in what she did.  While Simon had shown little respect for Him. 
 
She was extravagant in her love for Jesus – Simon failed at even the most common courtesies.  “I came into your house.  You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.  You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet.” 
 
Then back to Simon, “her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much.”  Then the dig…  “But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”  Her act of devotion to Jesus was an obvious expression of her love for Him, just as Simon’s lack of devotion was obvious in the things he didn’t do. 
 
Let me give you something else to think about here.  Jesus is using this woman as an illustration to show the Pharisees what the gospel can do in a life fully devoted to Him.  He’s lifting her up as an example to them.  She’s like a billboard for the gospel.  She’s like a living infomercial.  You see, God can forgive anyone.  No one is beyond His reach, no one is too far gone.  No one is too bad for God’s forgiveness.  There is a new start available, even for the outcast, even for the well-known sinner, for all of us.
 
Some people, like the outcast, those who have felt marginalized by others, or by their own mistakes and failures, may feel that Jesus could never love them, because they’ve done too much, they’ve sinned too much, they’ve crossed the line, and there’s no turning back.  They think their past limits them, and because of that, God could never use them. 
 
But I think that our past is more like a spring board, and all the junk we’ve got holding us down from our past, only compresses those springs a little more, and those who have been the worst, can often be lifted the highest.  Think of the Apostle Paul.  In 1 Timothy 1:15, he writes, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.”  He confesses to be the worst of sinners.
 
Remember who Paul was before his conversion.  He persecuted Christians.  He not over presided at their executions, he went from town to town all over the empire to search them out and bring them back to Jerusalem so they could stand trial, just for believing Jesus was the Messiah.  And each time he did this, each Christian he sought after, every person he arrested, each martyr that died, compressed his spring a little bit more. 
 
But though Paul may have been evil before his conversion, he learned that you can never do too much evil to be forgiven.  You can always come back to God.  And when he was forgiven, and that springboard was released, he sprang onto the scene and eventually became one of the most effective of the apostles. 
 
You may feel marginalized.  You may feel like you’re swimming in your sin and you can’t see a way out.  You may feel like the child who made the basketball team only because the coach felt sorry for them, but they sit on the bench game after game, with no chance at ever getting to play.  But the truth is, Jesus can and will use anyone who comes to Him, no matter who they were before they came.  His heart goes out to them.  His heart goes out to you.