Event 57 — Anointed by a Sinful Woman
At a Pharisee’s dinner, a woman the whole town knows as a sinner weeps at Jesus’ feet and pours out a fortune in perfume. The host sneers — and Jesus tells a story that turns the room upside down.
Those who are forgiven much, love much
Jesus accepts a dinner invitation from Simon, a Pharisee — and the evening is interrupted by the last person anyone expected. A woman “who was a sinner,” known in the city for her reputation, slips in, stands behind Jesus weeping, and washes His feet with her tears, drying them with her own hair and anointing them with costly perfume. It is a scene of raw, humble, extravagant love. Simon is disgusted: if this man were really a prophet, he thinks, He’d know what kind of woman is touching Him. So Jesus tells a short story — two debtors, one owing ten times the other, both forgiven freely. Which will love the lender more? The one forgiven more. Then Jesus turns the lens on the room: Simon, the respectable host, offered none of the customary courtesies; this woman has not stopped pouring out love. Her many sins are forgiven — and her lavish love is the proof of it. “Your faith has saved you,” Jesus tells her. “Go in peace.” The one everyone looked down on goes home justified; the one who looked down goes home exposed.
The text
Underlined words (like alabaster vial of perfume) link down to their original-language card in Word secrets below.
36Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, 38and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. 39Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, 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.”
40And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” 41“A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” 43Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.”
44Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.”
49Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” 50And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Luke 7:36–50 (NASB95)📖 Is this the same as the anointing at Bethany?
No — this is a separate event. Luke places it in Galilee, early in Jesus’ ministry, in the house of a Pharisee named Simon, with the theme of forgiveness. The anointing at Bethany (John 12; Matthew 26) happens days before the cross, in Judea, where Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus for burial. Similar act, different woman, different time, different point.
👀 Read it like a detective — observe before you interpret
Before asking what it means, notice what the text actually says:
- Two characters set in sharp contrast: the respectable Pharisee and the woman “who was a sinner” — the word “sinner” is repeated three times.
- A point-by-point list: Jesus lines up three courtesies — water, a kiss, oil — that Simon withheld and the woman lavishly supplied.
- Cause-and-effect words: “for she loved much… he who is forgiven little, loves little” — watch which way the cause runs.
- The guests’ question: “Who is this who even forgives sins?” — the same scandal as the paralytic (Event 43).
- The bookend verbs: she weeps, wipes, kisses, anoints — four verbs of pouring-out love, against Simon’s cold internal sneer.
What the original words mean
Five details behind a scandalous act of love.
A sealed flask of expensive scented oil — the kind of thing a woman might own as her single most valuable possession, even her security for the future. Pouring it out on Jesus’ feet was a stunning act of abandon: she spends what she cannot get back, holding nothing in reserve.
↑ Back to the passageA respectable woman kept her hair bound up in public; to let it down before men was shameful, even scandalous. She doesn’t care. Her grief and gratitude have swept away every thought of her reputation — she will use her own glory, her hair, as a towel for His feet.
↑ Back to the passageA denarius was a day’s wage, so the debts are about twenty months’ pay versus two. Both are beyond repaying; both are forgiven outright. The math makes the point: the size of the canceled debt shapes the size of the answering love. Simon walks himself right into the verdict.
↑ Back to the passageRead carefully so the gospel stays the gospel. Her love does not earn the forgiveness; it proves she has received it — the very next line says “he who is forgiven little, loves little.” The lavish love is the visible evidence of a debt already canceled, like a receipt. Verse 50 makes it explicit: it is faith, not the perfume, that saved her.
↑ Back to the passageThe same words Jesus speaks to the healed and the rescued throughout Luke. It was her faith — her trust that this Jesus could and would receive her — that saved her, and love simply poured out the overflow. She came in a sinner; she leaves “in peace,” reconciled and whole.
↑ Back to the passageA dinner, an interruption, a story, a verdict
Reading the Gospel well — the key question: “What is this episode telling us about Jesus?” Two things blaze out. First, He receives the outcast that the religious expert recoils from — He is the friend of sinners who is not defiled by her touch but welcomes it. Second, He claims to forgive sins, prompting the table to ask, “Who is this?” Only God can forgive sins — so the scene quietly tells us who Jesus is. Luke pairs it with the next scene (the women who followed and funded Him, Event 58): grateful, forgiven people become Jesus’ most devoted followers.
🏺 Reclining dinners, and the courtesies Simon skipped
At a formal meal, guests reclined on low couches around a table, leaning on one elbow with their feet stretched out behind them — which is exactly how the woman could reach Jesus’ feet from behind while He ate. Such dinners were also semi-public; uninvited townspeople could stand around the edges to listen, so the woman’s presence wasn’t a break-in. A gracious host gave an honored guest three things: water to wash dusty feet, a kiss of greeting, and a touch of oil for the head. Simon, pointedly, gave Jesus none of them — a cool, calculated lack of honor. The woman, uninvited and unwelcome, supplied all three and more: not water but tears, not one kiss but many, not cheap oil for the head but costly perfume for the feet. Jesus notices every detail.
📜 Why “who even forgives sins?” is the real scandal
The guests’ muttered question — “Who is this who even forgives sins?” — is the same shock we saw when Jesus forgave the paralytic (Event 43). In Jewish understanding, sin is ultimately against God, so only God can forgive it. A priest could pronounce that God had forgiven; but Jesus simply says, “Your sins have been forgiven,” on His own authority, to a woman, at a dinner table. Either it is the highest blasphemy, or He is doing something only God can do. Luke has been building this case all along (the authority to heal, to cleanse lepers, to still storms), and here it reaches the most personal level of all: the authority to wipe a guilty record clean and send a broken person home in peace.
The Interpretive Journey
Good study doesn’t stop at “what it meant back then” or jump straight to “what it means to me.” It travels the distance carefully — from the original audience, across the differences, to the timeless principle, and only then home to us.
What it meant to the first hearers
What did the text mean to the biblical audience?To Luke’s first hearers, the shock was social and theological at once. A Pharisee was the gold standard of religious respectability; a woman known in town as “a sinner” was its opposite. For her to loose her hair and touch a rabbi in public was scandalous; for Jesus to let her — and then announce her sins forgiven — was more scandalous still. The parable of the two debtors would have landed cleanly: in their world a canceled debt created a lasting bond of gratitude, so everyone understood that the one forgiven more would love more.
Measure the differences between them and us
What separates the biblical situation from ours?We don’t share the honor-and-shame customs of reclining dinners, foot-washing, or bound-up hair, and “Pharisee” is not a live social category for us. We may also miss how radical it was to forgive sins outright. But the human realities cross easily: self-righteous contempt, public shame, and the longing to be received still look much the same. The danger to watch is reading ourselves as the grateful woman when we may be sitting in Simon’s seat.
The timeless theological principle
What truth crosses over from then to now?Forgiveness is received by faith, not earned by performance — and those who grasp how much they’ve been forgiven love God lavishly in return, while those who think they owe little love little. The measure of our love for Jesus tracks the depth of our sense of being forgiven by Him.
How it fits the rest of Scripture
Does this principle hold across the whole Bible?It runs right through Scripture. “By grace you have been saved through faith… not as a result of works” (Ephesians 2:8–9); “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19); the tax collector who cried “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” went home justified, not the Pharisee (Luke 18:9–14). Grace received, then love returned — never the reverse.
How we live it out today
How should we apply it now?First, make sure you’re receiving forgiveness by faith, not trying to earn it — come empty-handed like the woman, not self-satisfied like Simon. Then ask the diagnostic question: does my love for Jesus look lavish or measured? Cool, dutiful religion is often a sign of a heart that thinks it was only forgiven a little. And watch for Simon’s sin in yourself — the quiet contempt for “those kinds of people” that God may be ready to welcome before us. Concretely: thank God this week for a specific debt He has canceled, and show unguarded kindness to someone the respectable would look down on.
Consult the biblical map
| Passage | Connection |
|---|---|
| Luke 18:9–14 | The Pharisee and the tax collector — the humble sinner, not the proud, goes home justified. |
| Ephesians 2:8–10 | Saved by grace through faith, not works — love is the fruit, not the price. |
| 1 John 4:19 | “We love, because He first loved us” — the direction the woman’s love runs. |
| Mark 2:5–12 | The paralytic forgiven — the same scandal: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” |
Resources to explore
Play the video here, then dig into the text with study tools and trusted reference works.
🎬 Watch & listen
- Video: BibleProject — Luke 1–9Overview with study notes and downloads.
- Podcast: An Overview of LukeLuke’s heart for the forgiven and the outsider.
📖 Study tools (free)
- STEP Bible — Luke 7:36–50Free interlinear, Greek words, and concordance (Tyndale House).
- NET Bible — Luke 7 with translators’ notesSee the translation decisions behind each verse.
- Luke 7:47 interlinear + Strong’s“Forgiven… for she loved much” in the Greek.
📚 Reference shelf
- Craig Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary: New TestamentBackground on dinners, foot-washing, and honor customs.
- Green, McKnight & Marshall, eds., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (IVP)Articles on “forgiveness” and “sinners.”
- Kenneth Bailey, Jesus through Middle Eastern EyesHow an honor-and-shame culture heard this scene.
Discussion questions
- Picture the dinner in its own world: a reclining meal, an uninvited woman, her hair down in public. How would Simon’s guests have felt the shock of the scene?
- Jesus says her love flows from being forgiven, not the other way around. Why does it matter so much to keep the cause and effect in that order?
- Simon offered Jesus none of the basic courtesies. How can “respectable” religion grow cold and distant without ever noticing?
- Walk the Interpretive Journey: what is the timeless principle here, and are you more tempted to sit in the woman’s place or Simon’s?
- Only after all that does the question reach us: “he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Does your love for Jesus look lavish or measured — and what would change if you felt the full size of your forgiven debt?