Simon the Pharisee and the Sinner

Jesus was invited to eat at a Pharisee's house at the end of chapter 7 of Luke. While he was eating a woman (defined as a sinner) poured ointment on Jesus' feet, weeping and drying his feet with her hair. This offended the Pharisee, for in his thinking Jesus should have known what kind of woman this was who wept before him and knowing what kind of person she was. The pharisee thought that if Jesus was a prophet of any kind, he should have discerned what kind of woman this was and avoided contact with her.

There are some interesting notes to this story:
1. The woman felt welcomed by Jesus, enough to pour herself all over his feet.
2. The pharisee has the preconceived notion that prophets can always discern if people are evil or good.
3. Because Jesus welcomed the woman, the pharisee assumed that Jesus did not realize that the woman was a sinner.
4. The pharisee probably looked for the worst in Jesus.
5. Contrary to all appearences, Jesus did undrestand who this woman was.
6. How was the woman accepted into the pharisee's house? This is a mystery. Did Jesus bring her with him into the house? Did she come in uninvited?
7. Many think the lady was a prostitute, but there is no evidence to this in the Gospels. In fact, many suggest that the woman was in fact, Mary Magdalene because of the close parallel in the book of John.

I believe the term "sinners" was used to define anybody who did not fall into line with the religious leaders' groups. There were wealthy sinners such as tax-collectors and others who swindled money by illigitimate means, but on the whole sinners were poor people... the lower classes who knew very little about the Law of Moses and were highly uneducated.

Jesus told Simon the pharisee a parable about 2 people who owed money - one owed a lot more than the other. As both were forgiven of their debts, the one who was forgiven a large debt was far more appreciative than the other.

Jesus may have used money in the parable because he knew that so much of the pharisees' dislike of the sinner had to do with her poverty - the pharisee looked down on woman because she was poor.

There were generally 2 kinds of rich people in Jesus' day. There were those who obtained wealth in bad ways and there were those who obtained riches in good ways. Pharisees obtained wealth in good ways and therefored deemed their wealth as a blessing from God - a benefit of following Him. Poverty then was a sure sign of failure to walk with God. Poverty was a sign of sinfullness.