Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/40b6b1e6/of-jesus-women...

Imagine you arrive at the dinner party a little late. As you enter the dining area, you see Jesus reclining at table with the others--in the middle-eastern style, legs sort of to the side, feet behind. A woman walks in, approaches Jesus, and kneels near his feet.  Right then--he should stop her, but he does not.  Peculiar.  Luke says she is ‘a woman who has lived a sinful life’, likely a prostitute, who has found her way to Jesus. 

The setting: a dinner where Jesus had been invited into the home of a Pharisee.  Dinner at a Pharisee’s home?  Wait, weren’t these the guys who were constantly looking down their pious Jewish noses at Jesus?  Yup.  Same ones.  Weren’t these the ones who were trying to trap Jesus and discredit him in conversation?  Yup. Same guys.

We know that word is out about this miracle-working, compassionate teacher who even has the power to forgive sins--then it is not surprising our lady has to get to him!  Before she goes, she grabs her most prized possession, a vial of expensive perfume. 

Once to Jesus, the nameless woman begins to weep over her life, wishing she could change her bad choices…then as her tears fall, she wipes them with her hair, even pouring her precious perfume out on Jesus’ feet.  (The perfume was valued at a year’s wages)  What a scene it is!

People are looking from side to side and Mr. Simon Pharisee thinks to himself that if Jesus really is who he claims to be, He knows this woman’s character and will rebuke her so that he is not defiled by her.  But instead Jesus turns and addresses him with this illustration: Simon, I have something to tell you. . . two men owed money to a certain moneylender.  One owed him five hundred denarii, (a denarius was a coin worth about a day’s wages), and the other fifty.  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both.  Now which will love him more?  Imagine the pause that hangs over the guests as they ponder such an analogy.  Jesus then sums up his visit to the Pharisee’s home - you didn’t even offer me water to wash my dry dusty feet (a common courtesy), and yet this woman has shown me her heart and given me her all.’  Jesus turns back to her and says, Your sins are forgiven you.1

Friends, at this point, you know you could probably cut the air with a knife!

As for not spurning this woman . . . well, Jesus was not restrained by societal rules. Actually, he violated social mores in every single encounter he had with women recorded in the gospels.2 With regard to his treatment of women, Jesus was a revolutionary. In the first century at every synagogue service, Jewish men prayed, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, who has not made me a woman.” Women sat in a separate section, were not counted in quorums and were rarely taught the Torah. In social life, few women would talk to men outside of their families, and a woman was to have no close contact with any man but her spouse.3 And for rabbis? They were forbidden to speak to women in public.

Ah, the woman’s extravagant outpouring of her most valued possession expressed her great love for Jesus.  Nothing short of beautiful. The lights go down on the scene with Jesus saying to our lady:  Your faith has saved you; go in peace.

As Jesus heads out teaching the good news, Luke details those who go with him. Besides the 12 disciples, there were "women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples."4 Exactly how many women, we do not know. But they had been so changed by Jesus, they financially supported Jesus and his work. Remarkable.

"Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man - there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as "The women, God help us!" or "The ladies, God bless them!"; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything "funny" about woman's nature."5

And so we learn from the historical account of Jesus that he loved and welcomed women, and they loved him. Listen to me: any misogynistic traits attached to Jesus have been to spin a narrative to fit someone's own bias. Jesus loved women...and they knew it. They loved being near the Lord.

You and I must discover the Jesus Christ of history, captured in the pages of Scripture-for ourselves. Jesus, our Messiah and Savior, who is coming again.

Listen - smile inside or sing along: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_sI9lkowA

Jesus Christ - our Lord and best Friend,

Christine - PastorWoman.net

Luke, #35

1 - Luke 7.36-48

2 - Walter Wink

3 - The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey - OUTSTANDING BOOK.

4 - Luke 8.1-3

5 - Dorothy Sayers, Are Women Human?