I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven. . . for she loved much. Luke 7:47

Last time, we talked about a woman anointing Jesus in the early part of his ministry who tradition tells us was Magdalene—the woman who became the first one to see the resurrected Jesus. She slipped into a dinner party at the house of Simon the Pharisee and wept Jesus feet clean and dried them with her hair; then she anointed his feet with expensive perfume.

Jesus was pleased by her actions. But the host and his invited guests were not so pleased by this unorthodox display of adoration. Were they uncomfortable? Mary was lost in the deep worship of Jesus. Perhaps a genuine display of Mary’s raw emotion troubled them. They had their own emotion: Anger.

After all, there are other ways—proper and acceptable ways—to honor Jesus. But this was too extreme. It’s certainly not the way any of them would have worshiped Him—had they worshiped Him—which they hadn’t. As he points out later in the story, they hadn’t even treated Him with the common courtesies of the day. But when someone makes us uncomfortable, our discomfort often comes out in ‘indignation’ . . . that’s a spiritual word for ‘anger’.

“If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Simon the Pharisee said to himself. After all, she WAS a sinner. And Jesus knew exactly what kind of woman she was—but He knew exactly what kind of a man Simon was . . . Now that might have been a scary thought for Simon had he stopped to think about it. But it doesn’t appear that he stopped to think this one through.

You see, Jesus saw something in this woman of great worth. He saw something worth dying for. Somehow Magdalene intuitively knew who He was . . . she’d been possessed by seven demons, after all, so she had to know what He could do. Jesus saw her hunger, her longing, her need, and her faith. But He also saw something else. Her worship. He experienced Mary’s unbridled display of passionate worship designed for Him alone.

Jesus said, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven. . .for she loved much.”

“. . .for she loved much” Whoa.
Pollster George Barna studied born-again Christians who have confessed their sins, asked God for forgiveness, accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, are confident of their salvation solely because of the grace extended to them by God, and regularly participate in the life of a Christian congregation in Bible-preaching, engaged church—Christians in the best sense of the word. What did Barna find about the worship of these people? He found:

“Attendance at worship services is by believers’ own admission the only time they worship God.”

Yet a walloping “80% of believers do not feel they have entered into the presence of God or experience a connection with Him during their church’s worship services”.

Knowing that, it’s not surprising to learn that “half of all believers do not feel they have entered into the presence of God or experience a genuine connection with Him during the past year.”

Recognizing that these statistics are talking about you, me, and those we attend church services with . . . compare them to the woman anointing Jesus’ feet. Then compare them to the people who stood by while she worshiped. Are we more like the woman, or more like Simon and his guests?

I don’t mean to make this a guilt trip at all. But I find it vaguely haunting that we have an example here and we don’t want to miss it. What keeps us and our church-mates from a display of worship on a par with this woman? Apathy? That’s what kept Simon the Pharisee away. Man-pleasing? That did the trick for most of the others—who would want their spiritual leaders giving them ‘the eye’ of disapproval? Imagine how the church-mates would talk . . .

I suspect this woman spent the rest of her life dreaming up new ways to lovingly communicate her adoration to Jesus. One thing we can be sure of is this: Magdalene, from this time forward, without looking back, followed Jesus. Luke says that just like John and Peter (who she led to the tomb), she was with Jesus from that point onward.

Unlike John and Peter, the resurrected Jesus revealed Himself to her, first. I wonder why?