Lent Day 27: The Women Who Anointed Jesus Part 2

Anointing the feet of Jesus in the house of Simon, the Pharisee [1]

Today I will be looking at the Lukan version of the story of Jesus being anointed. This version stands in sharp relief to the other three versions in several ways.

1. This story takes place in the north, the city of Nain in the region of Galilee rather than in Bethany (in the southern region of Judea). 

2. It takes place in the home of Simon the Pharisee (rather than Simon the leper). Pharisees make up a group often identified in the gospels as being intellectual sparring partners with Jesus.

3. The woman who anoints Jesus here is neither simply an unnamed woman nor identified as Mary of Bethany (as in John's version). She is identified as a sinner. It's hard to know exactly what is meant by this descriptor. Is she a sex worker? There is an insinuation that she is.

Again, an unnamed woman comes into the place where Jesus is at table. She is carrying an alabaster jar of costly ointment (as in Mark and Matthew). It was common in this place and time for people to recline at low tables, and the description of the woman's location makes it clear that this was the setup. She is described as being behind Jesus, at his feet (which would be difficult if he were seated on a bench or in a chair). She is weeping, and begins to bathe Jesus' feet with her tears, and wipe them dry with her hair. Only then does she anoint Jesus' feet, kissing them as she does.

In Jesus' day and time, it was considered entirely inappropriate for a woman to touch a man to whom she was not married. The Pharisee reacts to the woman's actions with shock and an interior monologue in which he condemns the woman as a sinner, and muses that Jesus must not be a prophet after all--if Jesus were any kind of legitimate prophet, surely he would have know about her? Simon is reading the woman's gestures as erotic, seductive. He is reading them wrong.

Jesus addresses Simon by name, announces his intention to speak, and Simon respectfully urges him to do so: "Teacher [Rabbi], speak."

Jesus tells the parable of the two debtors and the creditor.

A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” (Luke 7:41-43)

Jesus goes on to point out the difference in the treatment he has received from Simon--in whose home he is a guest--and the unnamed woman. Simon has not fully or appropriately received Jesus: for everything he did not do, Jesus names a parallel thing the woman did do.

Simon did not give Jesus water to wash his feet; the woman washed them with her tears.

Simon did not greet Jesus with a kiss: the woman continually kissed Jesus' feet.

Simon did not anoint Jesus' head with oil: the woman anointed his head with ointment.

"Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
(Luke 7:47-48)

Jesus is shown, not only to be a prophet, but to be a greater prophet than the Pharisee could have imagined. 

This story of anointing is in some ways very like the other stories, but it is still fundamentally different. Gone is the anointing as preparation for burial, replaced with a story of forgiveness and gratitude. Gone is the setting of Holy Week; this story plays out early in Jesus' ministry. Gone is the simple prophetic gesture of a woman anointing Jesus in affirmation of his mission; it is replaced with a powerful gesture of gratitude.

One last thing; this passage is followed immediately by a description of Jesus setting out on a journey with the twelve, and also with several women who are financially supporting them. The women are named as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and others. The proximity of Mary Magdalene's appearance to the story of the "sinner" who anoints Jesus has been used to suggest that Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus in Simon the Pharisee's house, but there is no evidence to support this. Mary is also described as having had seven demons cast out of her by Jesus. An early medieval pope used this fact to claim that the seven demons represented the seven deadly sins, and therefore Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, and furthermore, the woman who anointed Jesus in this passage. Again, there is no direct evidence of any of this in the gospels. The only Mary who is said to have anointed Jesus in scripture, was Mary of Bethany.

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[1] Campi, Antonio, 1522 or 1523-1587. Anointing the Feet of Jesus in the House of Simon, the Pharisee, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56164 [retrieved March 31, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonio_Campi_001.jpg.