“And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.”
Luke 7:37-38
What was it about Jesus that attracted sinners to His presence?
Here is a woman, a sinner, and all that, upon learning the whereabouts of Christ, enters His fellowship with a gift and tears.
Her heart, clearly broken, kneels at the feet of Christ. The exact understanding of what He was to her is mysteriously unknown; however, she pressed into what she thought He might be.
Previously, as Jesus and His disciples were making their way through a city called Nain, they came upon a group of people departing through the city gate. It just so happened that this procession was a funeral carrying the only son of a widow. “When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.'”1 Moments later, the dead man sat up–resurrected–and began to speak. The people, fearful and recognizing the miracle they had just witnessed, exclaim, “God has visited His people!”2
Immediately following this encounter, Jesus reported to a delegation sent from John the Baptist regarding his inquiry into Christ’s identity, “…the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who does not take offense at me.”3
The words that fall from Christ’s lips are brimming with fulfillment from the prophet Isaiah.
Indeed, this is the God who promised to…
“Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
Say to those with anxious heart,
‘Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.’”4
This is the One who vowed to fashion streams and highways in the desert so that there will be: “everlasting joy upon their heads…[and] they will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”5
Truly, this is the One who “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”6
Upon learning of Christ’s location and understanding her need, where else would this woman in the city go?
She came to Him. The Lord. The Savior of Israel. The Seed of Abraham and the blessing to the nations. The God-man, Jesus Christ.
Where else would anyone go? Who else would anyone pursue?
1 Luke 7:13
2 Luke 7:16b
3 Luke 7:22b-23
4 Isaiah 35:3-4
5 Isaiah 35:10b
6 Hebrews 1:2