Simon has invited Jesus to dinner, an honor in that world, and somewhere between the invitation and the meal he has skipped the ordinary courtesies a host owed a guest. There was no water for the road-dust on tired feet, no kiss of greeting, no oil for the head. None of it was extravagant and all of it was expected. Into that half-hearted welcome walks a woman the whole town would have recognized, 37"a woman of the city, who was a sinner," and she does, unasked, everything Simon left undone and more than any host would think to offer. Tears in place of water. Her own hair in place of a towel. Kisses that do not stop. Costly ointment where Simon offered nothing.
Simon's verdict is instant and private. 39"If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him." He takes Jesus' silence for ignorance, but Jesus knows exactly what Simon is thinking and answers with a story instead of a rebuke. Two debtors, one owing five hundred denarii and the other fifty. 42"he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answers well, almost despite himself. 43"The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt." Jesus tells him he has judged rightly, and then turns that correct judgment on the room.
44"Do you see this woman?" It is a pointed question. Simon has been looking at her all evening and seeing only her reputation. Jesus wants him to see what she has done. Point by point he lays her extravagance beside Simon's omissions, no water against her tears, no kiss against her unceasing kisses, no oil against her costly ointment. Then he draws the conclusion the parable set up. 47"her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little."
That sentence is easy to misread. It can sound as if her love earned the forgiveness, as if enough tears bought what she needed. The parable runs the other way. The debtors were forgiven first, freely, with nothing to offer toward the debt, and the love followed as the natural answer to a cancellation they could never have repaid. Her extravagant love is the evidence of how large a debt she knows has been lifted. It is not the payment for it. Simon, who thinks himself forgiven so little, loves so little, because he has never let himself see how much he owed.
Jesus' final words to her settle what has been true the whole time, before she crossed Simon's threshold. 48"Your sins are forgiven." The other guests ask the right question without meaning to. 49"Who is this, who even forgives sins?" It is spoken now as a gift already given. 50"Your faith has saved you; go in peace." She came in carrying an alabaster flask and a reputation the room knew. She leaves with neither, only peace, and a love that comes from understanding what has been forgiven.
Luke does not tell us how Simon responds. His story simply ends, and every Simon still reading is left to answer the open question for himself. Which debtor are you? The one who owed fifty may love less because he has never done the sum.
Prayer
Father, thank you for a forgiveness that comes first, freely, before we have anything to offer toward the debt. Forgive us the small omissions of Simon's table, the courtesies we skip because we have never reckoned how much we too were forgiven. Give us this woman's extravagance, love poured out because the debt behind it was so plainly and gratefully understood. In Jesus' name, amen.