Commentary on Luke 7:36-50
The woman bathing the feet of Jesus and anointing them appears in all four gospels: Mark 14:3–9, Matthew 26:6–13, John 12:1–8, and Luke 7:36–50. For an incisive comparison between Luke’s version and the other three gospels, see Jane Schaberg’s analysis (pages 285–86) in The Women’s Bible Commentary (SPCK, 1992).
A couple of key insights from Schaberg are as follows. The woman in Luke is not Mary Magdalene, and she is not a prostitute. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in the first two verses of Luke 8, which probably contributed to the association of the woman at the feet of Jesus with Mary. It is also true that Luke 7:37 designates the woman at the feet of Jesus as a “sinner,” and the kissing and wiping of his feet with her hair as suggestive. But as Schaberg points out, Eastern Christian traditions take as a matter of course that the woman in Luke 7 and Mary Magdalene of Luke 8 are not the same person. Furthermore, as Schaberg also asserts, the ardor of the woman’s attention to Jesus is commended by him as a sign of her gratitude for being forgiven of many sins, sins which are never explicitly named in Luke.
What I want to highlight in Luke’s version of the episode is the refusal of Jesus to play into the Pharisees’ judgment of the woman based upon who belongs at the feet of Jesus and what appropriate interaction with him ought to be. Fast-forwarding from Luke to thinking about worship inside churches today, how often are we also quick to judge what kinds of people belong in the house of God and how they should act?
To put it another way, what counts as sincere and genuine adoration of Christ? And what amounts to scandal or what is shameful? Whom do we picture as the ideal worshipper of Christ? And is there room for what Schaberg describes as lavishness, “extravagance,” eroticism, and “sensuousness”? Why is it that we often associate strong piety with prudishness?
The sinful woman in Luke creates a moment of reflection not only on who belongs in church and what constitutes faithful worship; she also breaks open possibilities for imagining what might be possible in terms of acts of devotion. Historically, baptizands were nude in the early centuries of Christian rites of initiation, in part to reflect their being born again. Can you imagine the uproar that would be caused if naked baptisms occurred with frequency now, especially if those baptized were adults as they often were in antiquity?
In the late middle ages of the 14th century, Catherine of Siena, who is later canonized in 1461, dreams of Christ wedding her as her mystical bride with the union sealed by a ring made of foreskin from the circumcision of baby Jesus. Catherine of Siena was made patron saint of Rome in 1866 by Pope Pius IX, and of Italy, alongside Francis of Assisi, in 1939 by Pope Pius XII. She was the second woman to be designated a Doctor of the Church, a few days after Teresa of Avila, by Pope Paul VI in 1970. In 1999 Catherine of Siena was declared Patron Saint of Europe by Pope John Paul II. It’s not as if the mysticism of Catherine of Siena was covered up. She was celebrated again and again. What has happened to the institutionalization of that kind of liturgical ingenuity now?
Perhaps a close public and interreligious corollary might be religiously themed performance artwork such as Jacolby Satterwhite’s A Metta Prayer. Satterwhite’s piece draws upon a Buddhist prayer of lovingkindness to express love, joy, and resilience in the form of digitized prayer dancing, preaching, and posing that stands against violence toward LGBTQIA+ persons. It may seem too fantastical to homiletically modulate artwork like Satterwhite’s. The point here is not to see his work as a model or a technique to replicate, but as a contemporary point of inspiration for more daring, boundary-breaking, deeply contemplative, and transformation-aiming acts of devotion, just like the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus with oil and dried them with her hair.
How can we bring more artistry, and especially more poignant and even extravagant expressions of embodiment, sensuality, togetherness, and intimate righteousness into our preaching?
Making an attempt is not about putting on a sermonic show or making a sermon salacious. Rather, when we take the risk to bring the fullness of our desires to the feet of Christ—having the courage to discuss candidly taboo topics like sex (as an example) and refusing to limit our homiletic explorations of such topics to mid-20th-century picket-fence Victorian and American moralism, but rather diving more deeply into the realities of what is happening in our world and what has been happening from antiquity, such as polyamory—then we will be able to touch a far wider range of personal lives with the permission to be free in Christ. If we choose instead to cordon off what is appropriate for pulpit speech, we should not expect broad interest or relevance in what we have to say in the name of Christ.
Referenced
Jane Schaberg, “Luke,” The Women’s Bible Commentary, ed. Carol A. Newsome and Sharon H. Ringe (SPCK, 1992).
The Great Hall Commission: Jacolby Satterwhite, A Metta Prayer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/jacolby-satterwhite.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Forgiving God,
Too often we take your forgiveness for granted. Too often we cling to our sin, believing that it is our right to harbor resentments and hatred. Be merciful to us, and show us the depth of healing that is offered when you forgive, for the sake of the one who recognized total surrender to forgiveness and offered it willingly, Jesus Christ our healer. Amen.
HYMNS
Take my life, that I may be ELW 583, 685, H82 707, UMH 399, NCH 448
Forgive our sins as we forgive ELW 605, H82 674, UMH 390
CHORAL
Forgive our sins as we forgive, James Laster
February 23, 2025