Let’s look to the image above (click it for a bigger picture). Jesus is in a modern kitchen together with a woman and with no one else. The woman wears red bikini and red shoes, signifying that she is a whore in the modern era. She is washing the feet of Jesus and drying them with her hair.
Behind her are a washbasin and a bottle of perfume which she will pour out to Jesus’ feet. None sees them, so they can do anything freely in the kitchen if they will.
Perhaps this image shocks you, and you consider it scandalous because you can’t let someone picture your Jesus in such an indecent way. But wait a minute … and relax! Nothing is wrong! This image is a modern artistic expression of the narrative of Luke 7:36-38.
Read this biblical passage calmly. In response to the dinner invitation of one of the Pharisees, Jesus went into the house of the Pharisee and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner (hē hamartōlos), having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.
Read this biblical passage calmly. In response to the dinner invitation of one of the Pharisees, Jesus went into the house of the Pharisee and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner (hē hamartōlos), having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.
She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Clearly, this woman loves Jesus very much. That is part of what Luke relates.
A traditional image narrating Luke 7:36-38
In the Jewish society of Jesus’ time which was regulated by the purity system, such an action of this unnamed woman was extremely offensive to the respected members of the society. The Pharisee views this as humiliating (verse 39). But Luke tells us that Jesus is not embarrassed by the woman’s behavior (verses 44-48).
Who is the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet in this Lukan narrative? We do not know who she precisely is.
Who is the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet in this Lukan narrative? We do not know who she precisely is.
Luke only reports that she is a sinner, meaning that she is a prostitute.
Pope Gregory the Great was totally wrong when he judged in his speech made in 591 that the prostitute in this Lukan passage was Mary Magdalene.
Fortunately, in 1969 after much debate the Vatican removed this prostitute label which had long been attached to Mary Magdalene, by separating Luke’s unnamed sinful woman, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene in the liturgical book of the Roman Catholic Church named Missale Romanum.
We simply don’t know who this unnamed woman sinner actually is. She is to be remembered as part of the public activities of Jesus. Jesus loves women and they love him too. The woman Jesus loves the most is of course Mary Madgalene, his smartest disciple, the apostle of the apostles.
