Can you imagine washing someone’s feet with your hair? Ewwww….
🌸 Remember that really challenging Sunday school story about the woman who was a sinner, who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair and an alabaster ointment? 🌸
It’s not too difficult to figure out what kind of sinner she is that has everyone so upset.
🤨 And it’s also not too hard to know how she raised the money to buy the ointment used to wash the feet of the Lord.
But Jesus just tells her, *”Your sins are forgiven,”* in the face of the Pharisees who hide their own sins.
See, to Jesus, it’s not about whether the ointment was bought with illicit funds.
He doesn’t measure the source from which we offer our devotion, but the object towards which we offer our devotion.
This woman clings to Jesus for hope, for mercy, for forgiveness. And she finds it.
The ointment is no longer the measure of how much she loves Jesus, but rather how much Jesus loves her—that is the cornerstone of this story.
The reason for her devotion isn’t simply because she is a better person for having been a bigger sinner.
This woman, who has stood at the very edge of darkness and looked back into the light, recognizes just how far she has fallen.
Naturally, she rejoices to be near to the light, the truth, the way—Jesus.
But, it’s not that she is a better Christian because she was a bigger sinner; it’s about the object of devotion.
She looks to Jesus for forgiveness, life, and salvation, and that is enough.
🔹 It’s simply about where Jesus is. And he is near, offering forgiveness to you, to me, to everyone.
Contributor Rev. Harrison Goodman is the Higher Things Content Executive.
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