We have in any case seen that all four gospel writers touch on the issue of money. Matthew, Mark and John approach this motif from the point of view of waste or extravagance as observable in the woman’s, or Mary’s, lavishly pouring otherwise expensive ointment on the head, or feet as the case might be, of Jesus; especially when this situation of waste is juxtaposed with the existence of poor people in society who could very well benefit from the material cost of the ointment. We related this to present day socioeconomic issues. Money is a major issue in all the books of the bible. In several passages, the love of money is seen to be in marked opposition to the Christian faith and conduct. Statements like: “you cannot serve both God and money,” (Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13) or “the love of money is the root of all evil,” (1 Tim. 6:10) seem to point to the need for Christians to be vigilant in their dealings with money.
In the Parable of the Dishonest Steward, we see Jesus encouraging Christians to use material wealth to gain spiritual capital. This sort of exchange seems to be similarly recommended in this pericope. The woman, or Mary, or sinful woman as the case might be, is not interested in how expensive or not the ointment is. All she is interested in is pleasing Jesus, and ensuring that her sins are forgiven. Convicted of her sinfulness and cognizant of her great need for salvation, the type that Jesus affords, the woman is ready to throw away all the expensive oil in her possession to obtain in return a shot at heaven, through her sins being forgiven. This is unlike the case with Simon the Pharisee, and the Pharisee in the Parable named after him and the Publican.
According to Fitzmeyer, “The sense of the Lucan passage as a whole is not difficult. Repentance, forgiveness of sins, and salvation have come to one of the despised persons of Israel (the sinful woman); she has shown this by an act of kindness manifesting a more basic love and faith, love shown to Jesus and faith in God himself; implying that the forgiveness shown her is the result of her love.” Fitzmeyer goes further to state: “The parable of the two debtors, inserted into the pronouncement-story, not only carries its own message about the relation between forgiveness and love (that the sinner turns out to be the one who manifests to God greater gratitude than the upright, critical Pharisee), but also allegorizes the narrative: repentance for the sins of the woman's life has made her more open to God's mercy than the stingy willingness of the host who wanted to honor Jesus with a dinner.” The foregoing reiterates our earlier thesis concerning the superiority of spiritual works of mercy to corporal ones.
The foregoing also bears relevance in the parameters by which we judge others. The Jerome Biblical Commentary states in this regard: “While Simon silently condemns Jesus for not divining the character of the woman, Jesus proves himself to be a prophet by reading the secret thoughts of Simon.” Whereas Simon judges the woman by her reputation, Jesus judges by the unseen state of her heart. According to Fitzmeyer, Jesus is able to contend with the physicality of Simon, and to chide him for his meanness when he is confronted with the superabundant love of the woman. The Catholic Commentary on Scripture in turn states exactly thus: “A further conclusion Simon is left to draw for himself: he has treated the woman with contempt as one separated from God, but if Jesus may conclude from the woman's behavior that God has forgiven her, Simon too may conclude from his own behavior toward Jesus that God has not forgiven him.” Again, the Catholic Commentary on Scripture further states: “Simon objects that Jesus must be ignorant of the woman's character; Jesus replies that he knows very much about her, even that her sins have been taken away. Faith here and elsewhere in Luke is not mere intellectual assent to truths about God under the influence of the will, but an attitude of the whole man toward God; a compound of faith, hope and charity.”
The Jerome Biblical Commentary sin this regard is of the view that Jesus in his participatory relationship with the people of faith symbolically gives us of himself, when he reclines with the people of faith at table. Guijarro states in this regard: “Two peculiar elements of the Markan account of the anointing of Jesus in Bethany—the anointing of the head and the mandate to remember—suggest that the evangelist has transformed this memory into a rite by which Jesus is anointed as Messiah. This new ritual redefines the traditional rite of royal anointing to give new significance to the messianic character of Jesus. The mandate to remember the woman’s gesture and the critical moment in which Mark has placed the scene reveal that this new understanding of what it means to be the Messiah is key to the true identity of Jesus and of his followers.”
In the Parable of the Dishonest Steward, we see Jesus encouraging Christians to use material wealth to gain spiritual capital. This sort of exchange seems to be similarly recommended in this pericope. The woman, or Mary, or sinful woman as the case might be, is not interested in how expensive or not the ointment is. All she is interested in is pleasing Jesus, and ensuring that her sins are forgiven. Convicted of her sinfulness and cognizant of her great need for salvation, the type that Jesus affords, the woman is ready to throw away all the expensive oil in her possession to obtain in return a shot at heaven, through her sins being forgiven. This is unlike the case with Simon the Pharisee, and the Pharisee in the Parable named after him and the Publican.
According to Fitzmeyer, “The sense of the Lucan passage as a whole is not difficult. Repentance, forgiveness of sins, and salvation have come to one of the despised persons of Israel (the sinful woman); she has shown this by an act of kindness manifesting a more basic love and faith, love shown to Jesus and faith in God himself; implying that the forgiveness shown her is the result of her love.” Fitzmeyer goes further to state: “The parable of the two debtors, inserted into the pronouncement-story, not only carries its own message about the relation between forgiveness and love (that the sinner turns out to be the one who manifests to God greater gratitude than the upright, critical Pharisee), but also allegorizes the narrative: repentance for the sins of the woman's life has made her more open to God's mercy than the stingy willingness of the host who wanted to honor Jesus with a dinner.” The foregoing reiterates our earlier thesis concerning the superiority of spiritual works of mercy to corporal ones.
The foregoing also bears relevance in the parameters by which we judge others. The Jerome Biblical Commentary states in this regard: “While Simon silently condemns Jesus for not divining the character of the woman, Jesus proves himself to be a prophet by reading the secret thoughts of Simon.” Whereas Simon judges the woman by her reputation, Jesus judges by the unseen state of her heart. According to Fitzmeyer, Jesus is able to contend with the physicality of Simon, and to chide him for his meanness when he is confronted with the superabundant love of the woman. The Catholic Commentary on Scripture in turn states exactly thus: “A further conclusion Simon is left to draw for himself: he has treated the woman with contempt as one separated from God, but if Jesus may conclude from the woman's behavior that God has forgiven her, Simon too may conclude from his own behavior toward Jesus that God has not forgiven him.” Again, the Catholic Commentary on Scripture further states: “Simon objects that Jesus must be ignorant of the woman's character; Jesus replies that he knows very much about her, even that her sins have been taken away. Faith here and elsewhere in Luke is not mere intellectual assent to truths about God under the influence of the will, but an attitude of the whole man toward God; a compound of faith, hope and charity.”
The Jerome Biblical Commentary sin this regard is of the view that Jesus in his participatory relationship with the people of faith symbolically gives us of himself, when he reclines with the people of faith at table. Guijarro states in this regard: “Two peculiar elements of the Markan account of the anointing of Jesus in Bethany—the anointing of the head and the mandate to remember—suggest that the evangelist has transformed this memory into a rite by which Jesus is anointed as Messiah. This new ritual redefines the traditional rite of royal anointing to give new significance to the messianic character of Jesus. The mandate to remember the woman’s gesture and the critical moment in which Mark has placed the scene reveal that this new understanding of what it means to be the Messiah is key to the true identity of Jesus and of his followers.”
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