Alabaster

It’s all here in Luke 7: v36-50. The scene is set. Jesus, unafraid to dine with sinners (although in typical Hypocrite fashion, the Pharisees didn’t think the sinners were themselves) reclines at the table. Knowing his identity, knowing his purposes, knowing the mission, he relaxes all the while knowing what was to come. It says next that a women learned that Jesus would be dining that night at the Pharisee’s house. She could have stayed home. She could have given in to fear. She could have given into shame and guilt and unworthiness. She could have saved and preserved the frail strand of self-image she had left, could’ve saved herself all the embarrassment. But that’s just it. There was nothing left of her.
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She was over the shame. She didn’t care any more what others thought. The craving for love, acceptance, healing mercy, and the hope of salvation in her heart was far greater than the voice of condemnation in her head. She knew where to go, and she knew who to see. She looked and begged for all these things elsewhere in her life, but this illegitimate search for love and false hope was over. This night was going to be different, at least she hoped and believed. This hope and faith and belief is what ends up saving her. Such poetic beauty, and shows the heart of Jesus.
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I wonder what that walk up looked like as she made each step closer and closer to the house. She of course heard the chatter from outside as she took each step closer to the door. Each step an act of faith. Grabbing the handle, entering in she was now public. If you’ve ever been riddled with fear and shame as I have once been you know everything inside you tells you to retreat, go private, isolate. But the Light and the hope of Freedom and Mercy calls one to step out and grab the handle, and enter in for salvation lies behind the door called Dread.
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Heads turn, the chatter stops. And the text says “As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.”
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This completely Blows. Me. Away. It’s the ultimate sign of being ALL IN. Completely vulnerable. Asking. Hoping. Believing. She could not be more public about her desire for Christ than she is at this moment. She was completely trusting. She had not only poured out all the oil she had (as if to say there is no back up plan, this is it) she had poured out her heart. Jesus saw everything. He could see as she took each step outside drawing near to the house, he felt her grab the handle as if grabbing for his life, he could smell the oil and aroma on his feet and felt each of the tears as all a cry for mercy.
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Every other thing or man she had ever hoped in left her empty, broken and shattered. If this Jesus she heard and believed in did not come thru, I resolve to say the weight of being abandoned, humiliated, and most of all without any hope to this degree would have emotionally and spiritually killed her.
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But Jesus was and IS who he says He is. And was for her in this dramatic moment. Verse 39 continues in the text “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner.”
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Jesus knew this woman. Oh yes. Jesus could have easily recited Psalm 139 on how he knew this woman before she was born, and how he knit her together in her mother’s womb. But rightly instead chooses not to focus on his handiwork and how well he knows who is touching him, but rather on love and forgiveness. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
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Then Jesus said to her, (which comes the game changer, the life altering, life breathing, soul awakening words that radically wash over her soul much like the alabaster jar of oil she had washed on his feet) “Your sins are forgiven. …”Your Faith has saved you; go in peace.”
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It’s all here. Shame turns to Joy. Fear bows to Boldness. Isolation turns to Public. Abandonment turns to Acceptance. Hope is Affirmed. From Death to Life. Brokenness to Wholeness. And Love and Salvation is found in the selfless, most humbling display of this woman’s FAITH, and the Grace and Mercy of Christ.
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In one evening the FAITH that was in her heart and shown by action thru “great love” collides powerfully and beautifully with the Heart of Jesus, and she is changed eternally.
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The transformation, The Heart of Jesus, The Picture of Salvation.
It’s. All. Here.