Visiting Simon the Pharisee 

Simon invited Jesus and his personal associates, Peter, James, and John, to his home for a social meal. Simon was an influential Pharisee of Jerusalem who had watched the Master and became impressed with his teachings and more with his personality. He was willing to risk severe criticism to meet with Jesus. The Pharisees often announced their philanthropy, so when they hosted a banquet, the doors remained open. Even street beggars would crowd behind the seating couches, hoping someone would share scraps.

A woman of unsavory reputation, who had recently become a believer in the gospel, came in. She was well known throughout Jerusalem as the former keeper of a high-class brothel located in a prominent spot by the temple court of the gentiles. When she accepted the good news, she closed the business and encouraged her employees to seek another way to make a living. The Pharisees still held her in contempt and compelled her to wear her hair down — the badge of harlotry.

This woman went to stand behind Jesus and began to anoint his feet from her jar of perfumed lotion while her tears of gratitude fell upon his feet, which she dried off with the hair of her head. She remained there weeping and kissing his feet.

Simon reasoned that if Jesus were a prophet, he would immediately perceive this woman as a notorious sinner. Jesus, knowing Simon’s thoughts, offered a story. A certain wealthy moneylender had two debtors, one owing five hundred denarii and the other fifty. Neither had funds to pay him back, so he forgave them both. Which do you think would love him the most? Simon answered, he whom he forgave the most. Jesus complimented Simon that he judged rightly.

Jesus then said: "Simon, take a good look at this woman. I entered your house as an invited guest, yet you gave me no water for my feet. This grateful woman has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss of friendly greeting, but this woman, ever since she came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil you neglected to anoint, but she has anointed my feet with precious lotions. And what is the meaning of all this? Simply that her many sins have been forgiven, and this has led her to love much. But those who have received but little forgiveness sometimes love but little." And turning around toward the woman, he took her by the hand and, lifting her up, said: "You have indeed repented of your sins, and they are forgiven. Be not discouraged by the thoughtless and unkind attitude of your fellows; go on in the joy and liberty of the kingdom of heaven."

The Pharisees murmured – who does this man think he is to forgive sins? As Jesus rose to leave, he said to Simon, "I pray for you that you may surrender to the light and undergo transformations of mind and spirit that are as significant as the profound changes that the gospel of the kingdom has already brought about in the heart of your unexpected and unwelcome visitor. I hereby declare to all of you that the Father has opened the doors of the heavenly kingdom to all who possess the faith to enter. No man or group of men can close these doors, even to the most humble soul or supposedly most flagrant sinner on earth, if they genuinely seek an entrance."

That evening, Jesus continued talking about the woman with the beautiful spirit of repentance that allowed no impediment to her entrance into the kingdom of heaven. He said, "My children, if there exists a true and living connection between the child and the Father, the child is certain to progress continuously toward the Father’s ideals. True, the child may at first make slow progress, but the progress is none the less sure. The important thing is not the rapidity of your progress but rather its certainty. Your actual achievement is not so important as the fact that the direction of your progress is Godward. What you are becoming day by day is of infinitely more importance than what you are today.

"This transformed woman whom some of you saw at Simon’s house today is, at this moment, living on a level which is vastly below that of Simon and his well-meaning associates, but while these Pharisees are occupied with the false progress of the illusion of traversing deceptive circles of meaningless ceremonial services, this woman has, in dead earnest, started out on the long and eventful search for God, and her path toward heaven is not blocked by spiritual pride and moral self-satisfaction. The woman is, humanly speaking, much farther away from God than Simon, but her soul is in progressive motion; she is on the way toward an eternal goal. There are present in this woman tremendous spiritual possibilities for the future. Some of you may not stand high in actual levels of soul and spirit, but you are making daily progress on the living way opened up, through faith, to God. There are tremendous possibilities in each of you for the future. Better by far to have a small but living and growing faith than to be possessed of a great intellect with its dead stores of worldly wisdom and spiritual unbelief."

Jesus earnestly warned his apostles against the foolishness of the child of God who presumes upon the Father’s love. He declared that the heavenly Father is not a lax, loose, or foolishly indulgent parent who is ever ready to condone sin and forgive recklessness. He cautioned his hearers not mistakenly to apply his illustrations of father and son so as to make it appear that God is like some overindulgent and unwise parents who conspire with the foolish of earth to encompass the moral undoing of their thoughtless children and who are thereby certainly and directly contributing to the delinquency and early demoralization of their own offspring. Said Jesus: 'My Father does not indulgently condone those acts and practices of his children which are self-destructive and suicidal to all moral growth and spiritual progress. Such sinful practices are an abomination in the sight of God."