The Woman Who Washes Jesus's Feet

The woman who washes Jesus’s feet.

First, we need to recall the culture of Jesus' time.

1.) Honor/Shame Culture (Justice is an honor/shame culture, not a right/wrong or equality culture like here in the West.)

2.) Hospitality Culture: showing hospitality was honorable, not showing hospitality was shameful.

3.) Communal Culture (It’s about “We” not “Me” Example: your neighbor here doesn’t mow their lawn; you might start judging them and bad-mouthing them. But there, a neighbor doesn’t mow their lawn, they go mow it for them, because that individual’s shame is their shame too.)

Next to understand:

Women in the Old Testament were seen as valuable, worthy, honorable, strong, and leaders, etc. However, women in Jesus’ time went from Honor to Shame. Due to the changes in the 400 years leading up to Jesus’s life, women were described negatively, and men could divorce their wives for having their hair unbound, spinning in the street, speaking with any man. Burning dinner was seen as a sign that they were untrustworthy.

In Jesus’ world, women were expected to cover their hair because it was considered a sign of their glory.

Going to dinner at someone’s house was a big deal:

The guest would be greeted with:

1.) A kiss

2.) Washing of their feet

3.) olive oil to wash their hands

4.) A person of importance would even have their head anointed in oil

When eating at a table, they would lie on their left side and use their right hand to eat with, because the right hand is traditionally used to bless others. Their feet would be away from the table, pointing towards the wall. Those who were beggars or poor would be invited but would have to sit against the wall and wait; any food left over, they would be allowed to eat.

A man was allowed to be a Rabbi at the age of 30; they would be vetted by older Rabbis, either.

1.) At Southern Rabbi teaching steps

2.) at Synagogues

3.) at a dinner.

Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: [are they] not in thy book? Psalm 56:8

So, women would put their tears in a small bottle, because God did, and it’s for this reason that Kristi believes this woman had her tear jar with her that night. The tear jar also represented the sum total of their sorrows, all the things that had broken them and weighed them down.

Luke 7:36-50

A sinful woman has an alabaster jar of perfume (perhaps even another tear jar), and she enters the house of the Pharisee who had invited Jesus for dinner, and he wanted to ask him a question. The woman sat against the wall because she was not able to sit at the table. The woman begins to weep. She then washes Jesus’s feet with her tears, uses her hair to wipe them, and finally kisses them. She then washes them with the perfume. The Pharisee notices that Jesus is silent. The Pharisee was surprised because the woman was a sinner.

But then, get this, everyone who is there is watching this whole scene. A sinful woman, who is crying at his feet and then wiping his feet with her glory. She pulls her hair out, her hair, at a fellowship dinner in front of everyone. She is anointing Jesus, and if she did use her tear jar, it would be a double anointing.

Any other religious leader would have lost their mind. They would have said, “Stop that, get it together, put your hair back up....” Simon even proves this by his reaction, as he shames the woman. “If this man were really a prophet…that she is a sinner.” Simon judges both Jesus and the woman. Someone whom he viewed as unclean, touching someone who was clean. Now it’s important to understand that, in those days, no one wanted to be touched by an unclean person, as it would make them unclean. But Jesus…well, an unclean person doesn’t make Jesus unclean; instead, Jesus makes the unclean…clean. Now, how’s that for a twist!

But Jesus looked at the woman and responded to Simon…saying that when he came to Simon’s house, Simon didn’t kiss him, he didn’t wash his feet, nor did he anoint his head with oil, but that the woman did all those things. He then told Simon that he who has been forgiven little, loves little (Simon shaming the woman and not being hospitable to Jesus). Whereas the woman is forgiven much, because she loved much (washing his feet with her tears, wiping his feet with her hair (her glory), kissing his feet, and anointing them with perfume). Jesus just flipped the tables (excuse the pun) on Simon. He lowered Simon for failing to follow hospitality norms of their culture in his own home and lifting the woman up who gave Jesus all she had…her sadness, her grief, her heart.

“Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Luke 7:48-49

Jesus never answered them; instead, he kept his gaze on the woman. Jesus restored the woman’s honor and gave her justice and righteousness.

How beautiful is that? That Jesus came not just to save the world, but to lift up women, us, to restore us from shame. He loved us then, and He loves us now. A Father who gave His all for us, also fights for us, even now. A Father who is faithful to us through the storms we face and loves us in our darkest days is with us, fighting for us every single day.

God Bless,

K. M. Leffler