LOVE THRU THE EYES OF JESUS
(9-minute read)
Many believers today lead busy lives pursuing individual goals and ambitions. Increasingly, we find the rituals of human connections impractical and unnecessary. If we can help it, we skip in-person celebrations and gatherings. Notably, prominent classical sociologist Emile Durkheim found that there is a moral remaking that takes place when people gather for events like birthday celebrations, wedding ceremonies, and communal events. Such events bring people together in the upholding of shared values, and strengthen our bonds with each other. Durkheim asserted that society (including the church) are our moral regulators, and anomie (or deviations from what is normal) happens when there is a lack of inter-personal connectedness outside the family. Tellingly, depression and loneliness are reaching epidemic levels globally, including among believers.
It should not surprise us that many of Jesus’ most compelling conversations happened at social gatherings like a wedding, a funeral and over meals with friends and acquaintances. So before we pass on another invite or push away an opportunity to demonstrate godly love to each other, let’s consider what we might be missing — a chance for personal growth, mutual connection, or simply working on being relatable.
There is an account of a social event that Jesus attended that is simply titled in different versions of the Bible as ‘Jesus Anointed By a Sinful Woman’ or ‘A Sinful Woman Forgiven’ in Luke 7:36-50.
When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him,
He went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
There was an invite, Jesus accepted it and He showed up as an invited guest. He could have declined the invite for many reasons, foremost of which was that the Pharisee was not His follower and so it would have been a ‘secular’ event (as many believers today like to call events that do not include a prayer before meal, or majority believers). However, the Lord showed up, mingled with the other guests as much as He could, and quickly made Himself comfortable. Nothing unusual about it… so far.
Soon after, another guest appeared. This was an uninvited woman with a dubious reputation, and for something that happened in her past, she was stigmatized as ‘a sinful woman’.
A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house,
so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 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.
The unnamed woman was a resourceful person – she heard about where Jesus was going to next, and even knew the address of the host who had invited Him. Whatever moral failures she was guilty of before, she was clearly a person of means and not unfamiliar with the social etiquette and decorum of the day. The feet-washing and anointing with perfume that she performed on the Lord were not out of place for guests when they entered the homes of their hosts. Without a formal invitation to join the gathering, her only entry permit was her determination to see Jesus. Hence, she approached Jesus with the twin resolve of desperation and desire.
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.
What the Pharisee thought about her attention on Jesus characterized his disdain for the Lord. While he pretended to be a generous host, his hospitality fell short in ways that was intended to embarrass Jesus. He also did not believe that Jesus was a true prophet because in his opinion, prophets had access to information from God that would keep them from mixing with sinful people.
Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
Intrinsic to Simon’s invite was a cover up and an exposé. What he had planned was not a social event to honour his guest but one staged to trap Jesus and expose Him as a fraud. (Whether he enticed the woman to make an entrance the way she did, we will never know.) Meanwhile, Jesus played up the role of an honoured guest with all the social graces expected. And whatever nefarious plot that Simon staged, the Lord turned it into a powerful exposé and a lesson to Simon and all his guests.
Do you see this woman? I came into your house.
You did not give me any water for my feet,
but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing My feet.
You did not put oil on my head,
but she has poured perfume on My feet.
Jesus’ response to Simon’s antics pierced the moral conscience of all who were present. It was a different moral remaking than what Simon had in mind! Everything that the woman did was in stark contrast with what Simon, as a host, did not do. At this point, let’s not forget that our God is the Lord of Hosts who knows what true hospitality looks like. “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” (Psalm 23:5 NLT).
Jesus pointed out his host’s social lapses by pronouncing ‘You did not’ on three counts – provide water for a guest coming in from the outside to wash His dusty feet, welcome Him with a customary kiss, and anoint His head with oil as a sign of respect.
Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven - as her great love has shown.
But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.
Simon could have exploited the woman’s vulnerability and let her in to trap Jesus, knowing that the Lord would not ignore her. He had expected her disrepute to be an embarrassment to Jesus even though everything she did for the Lord was appropriate for the occasion. His plan showed a lack of concern for Jesus and the woman’s feelings.
Knowingly, the Lord put an end to his host’s insidious plan to trap Him, and gave the woman much more than she (or anyone else) would expect. He acknowledged that she demonstrated ‘great love’ that His host did not possess, and offered her forgiveness of her ‘many sins’.
It should not be a surprise to us that the words ‘many sins’ and ‘great love’ appear in one sentence and one person. Lest we forget, we, too, are people with ‘many sins’ and also ‘great love’ for Jesus.
Finally, “Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Jesus was not telling her to take immediate leave of the place where she had trespassed, but it was a pronouncement of her restoration, and an invitation to her to move forward in her God-given wholeness, purpose and destiny.
In this encounter alone, Jesus taught us three things about what His love is capable of seeing:
IT SEES BROKENNESS NOT JUST SIN
While Simon saw in the woman unforgiveable sins, Jesus saw a brokenness that even she thought was irreparable till she met Jesus. He showed her a stubborn love that did not give up on her even when society decided to give her a stigmatizing label. This tells us that God’s love is inexhaustible, and no one can change God’s mind about loving us.
Importantly, God’s love is a gift, not a reward. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10).
Yet, on our own and left to ourselves, we can be our own worst critics. We feel like imposters whenever we take effort to approach Jesus because we hang onto misgivings about our past or current shortcomings. The critic in us often sounds like Simon judging the sinful woman. Instead of adopting the posture of hosting Jesus, we spend an inordinate amount of time judging our self-worth.
But the Bible assures us that love through the eyes of Jesus does not condemn us (Romans 8:1-2 NLT). Whatever hurts and heartaches we experience resulting from a failed marriage, bad choices and decisions, abuse and mistreatment, we have God’s Word that He will not ignore us in our pain. (Psalm 34:18 NLT).
We have God’s Word against any self-loathing!
IT SEES DEEP GRATITUDE NOT JUST TEARS OF REPENTANCE
Likely from a prior encounter with Jesus, the woman demonstrated her deep gratitude towards the Lord through wordless gestures using her hands to touch His feet, her lips to kiss Him, and her perfume to anoint Him. After she put her devotion to Jesus on full display, no one could accuse her of paying lip service to the Lord.
We must be careful not to over-use the word ‘so grateful’ and ambiguous grand narratives when talking about our gratitude towards God. Instead, we need to learn to make our gratitude simple and relatable, “I was confused and did not know what to do, but after praying, God showed me my real fears. Something I had not been aware of before.”
Many people raise hands and sing praise songs to God with gusto but inside their hearts, they harbour a fear of intimacy with Him and with other believers, they are embarrassed to have their spiritual convictions seen among unbelieving friends and family, and they are afraid to reveal their vulnerabilities and their need for God in the ordinary moments of life. Highly guarded, they are rarely amazed by what God can do. Yet, true gratitude acts with abandon and a refreshing disregard for creating impressions - like what the woman did for Jesus when she showed up in an unlikely gathering, and did what no one expected her to do.
IT SEES RESTORATION NOT JUST FORGIVENESS OF SINS
God’s love does not have any expiration date yet some of us are stuck in our past. We live on yesterday’s grace (like eating moldy bread) and relive past experience over and over again simply because we will not introduce changes even when they are necessary for our lives and relationships to thrive.
As a result, our lives lack signs of real progress. While there are superficial changes like where we live and how we spend our recreation time, nothing really changes inside us.
The Bible tells us that God has set us free through His Son and we are free from the shackles of sin and the misgivings of our past! (John 8:36). On top of that, God’s forgiveness restores us to move forward. Progress is a sign that we are living in God’s restorative grace and power. Playing it safe, sitting on the fence, vacillating because we want to keep our options open are all not characteristic of healthy Christian living!
Each day, ask yourself what is it about God’s love that still amazes you. Begin to love through the eyes of Jesus. Begin to catch up on life with Jesus while it is still today.
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 5 April 2025.
