Some time after this, on one of those days while Jesus was teaching in lower Galilee, a Pharisee, by the very common name of Simon, invited our Lord to a feast. Why he invited Him is not stated. Possibly he may have been impressed with the character and teaching of Christ, and disposed, in a social way, and at his own table, to give Him a further hearing, thinking, perhaps, by coming in personal contact with our Lord, aside from the throngs which attended upon His ministry, he could the better satisfy himself as to the merits of this new Teacher in Israel, and so invited Jesus to dine with him. Our Lord had not yet broken with the Pharisees, and was still anxious, if possible, to conciliate them, if by any means He might win them, and withal, willing to show his good-will, accepted the invitation.
However gracious the invitation may have been given, it is quite clear that the hospitality was meant to be qualified. These Pharisees who loved the uppermost seats at feasts, knew how to entertain. But in this feast, all the ordinary attentions which were usually paid to honored guests were strangely omitted. There was no servant with basin of water and towel for the weary and dust-covered feet, no anointing of the head, no kiss of welcome upon the cheek, nothing but a somewhat ungracious admission to a vacant place at the table, and the most distant courtesies of ordinary intercourse, so managed that this Guest from among the common people might feel that he was receiving honors in the house of a rich and influential Pharisee. Many a poor man’s head has been turned by such feigned and mock courtesies. It would have been a thousand times better to the head and heart of Simon if he had never invited the Lord, than to assume in His presence what he was not at heart.
Our Lord must have keenly felt these omissions. But, since he had been invited, He made the best of this empty show at hospitality, only we may be quite sure He was clothed in His usual gentleness and modest dignity. We may well believe our Lord showed no signs of being piqued at the slights put upon Him, nor embarrassed in the presence of His host and the distinguished guests present. While Jesus cared little for show or etiquette, yet it was but natural that He should have keenly felt these omissions so gracefully shown to the others at this feast.
But before us rises another scene. “Behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment.” How thoughtful these women are! This one was not satisfied with merely following the throng, but she takes with her the most costly gift at her command. What a contrast between her and Simon, who haughtily thought within himself that anything was good enough for this lowly Prophet of Nazareth.
When this woman, whose character seemed to have been well known, too well indeed for her own comfort, reached Simon’s house, she found the door thronged by a crowd of people who had doubtless followed Jesus, and now stood, and looked, and listened—for privacy seems a thing impossible in the free and easy life of Orientals. For a moment she lingered amidst the throng. While there, men, as they passed in to the feast, gathered their robes as they passed her, lest by a passing touch she should defile them. As she sees the scanty preparations, the cold reception, her woman’s heart is made indignant. “Would that I were worthy to ask Him beneath my roof, or would that I could bid Him come and sit at meat with me; all that I have were His to minister in any way to His comfort. But I, alas, am so far down and He so holy—there is no chance for me.” So she thinks.
Then lo, that face is lifted, the eyes meet hers. He, all pitiful, reading her heart looks an invitation that she can not resist. And then in the presence of the Pharisees, as they start with horror, every man shrinking from this infamous intruder, every face filled with scorn, she hurries across to the side of the Lord Jesus and falls at His feet. She pours forth her penitence in a flood of tears; then, startled that she should thus have bathed His feet, she loosens her hair and wipes them with reverent hands, and tenderly kissing His feet, she draws from the folds of her dress a pot of unguent, and pours its fragrance upon them.
Who she was or how she had come to know Jesus, or when she had been moved by his preaching and converted by the grace of His words we do not know. It is quite likely, having been attracted like others to be one of His auditors somewhere, she had heard His gracious words of love and pity, and had gladly on her part accepted their healing influences.
But when the Pharisee saw the marked attention of this woman of the street to his Guest, he commenced talking to himself in his heart, “This man, if He were a prophet,” he muttered to himself, “would know who and what manner of woman this is that is thus lavishing her love upon His feet, for she is a sinner, whose very touch is pollution.” No doubt Simon was shocked beyond measure, especially when he saw Jesus allowed it, and was glad at that moment that his cold caution at the commencement of the feast had prevented him from giving Jesus too cordial a welcome. “I am glad now I did not compromise my honor or forfeit the good opinion of those of my set; that I wasted none of my perfume upon His head; that I gave Him no kiss of welcome; yea, even that I did not bid a servant wash His feet. Such acts of hospitality would, in a measure at least, have committed me, in the eyes of the people, to Him as a friend, and would have exposed me to the criticisms of my brethren. I fear I have already gone too far, but will get out of it as quickly as possible, and when I extend another invitation He’ll know it. In my opinion, He is not only no prophet, but is altogether too free with the common people to make Him desirable among my fellow Pharisees.”
To be sure, Simon did not utter these thoughts aloud, but his frigid demeanor, and the contemptuous expression of countenance, which he did not take the trouble to disguise, showed all that was passing in his heart. He little realized that Jesus had read his thoughts as unerringly as if he had written them upon the walls of his dining-room, and at once proceeded to lay open the heart of His host to himself in a manner he had never thought it possible, and He did it by first relating a little parable, and thus addressed the Pharisee:
“Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee!”