Do You See This Woman? Seeing Through Jesus’ Eyes

Do You See This Woman? (Luke 7 v 44)

Reflection on Seeing Through Jesus’ Eyes

I was reflecting recently on the stories of two women in Luke’s Gospel. We are not told the
name of either of them. One is seen but not really seen, while the other is not really seen at
all, except by Jesus.

The First Woman – The Anointing at the Dinner

We meet the first of these women in Luke 7:36-50. Jesus is the guest of honour at a dinner
party thrown for him by a Pharisee by the name of Simon. As they recline at the dinner table a woman enters uninvited. She is a gate crasher! Luke describes her as “a woman in that town who lived a sinful
life!” (v37). We don’t know the nature of her sin, but she was clearly known to Simon and his guests. She proceeded to enact an extravagant display of love and affection for Jesus. Standing behind him, with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume in her hands, she wept. Her tears drenched Jesus’ feet, so she let her hair down, used it to wipe his feet dry, kissed them, and then poured her perfume over them. The sweet smell of pure nard filled the room, but to Simon and his friends, her actions stank like rotten eggs! They turned their noses up at her. Simon muttered to himself that if Jesus
really was a prophet, then he would know the kind of woman she was and would never allow her to touch him in this way. In response Jesus tells Simon a parable (v41-42) inviting him to reflect on the nature of grace received and the resulting response of love. Jesus then utters the killer line: “Do you see this woman?” (v44). Of course, Simon saw her – he had seen her many times and had made up his mind about her inferior moral and spiritual worth. But with this piercing question, Jesus is challenging Simon. Yes, Simon saw the woman, but he didn’t really see her. He saw what he wanted to see. He saw her only as an immoral sinner, undeserving of attention, approval and affection. He didn’t see her as Jesus saw her – yes, as a sinner, but also as a dear woman created in God’s image, infinitely valuable and precious - a woman who clearly, prior to this encounter, had already met
Jesus, had experienced his grace and forgiveness, and was now wanting to express her gratitude and love as a response to what she had received (v47). Simon had wanted to publicly embarrass this woman, but in the end, it was he who was embarrassed in front of his dinner guests by Jesus’ gentle rebuke for his failure to see others as Jesus saw them.

The Second Woman – The Widow’s Offering

We meet our second woman in the outer precincts of the Jerusalem Temple in Luke 21:1-4. In that area of the Jewish place of worship there was a line of offering receptacles. These were shaped like trumpets with an open mouth and a long neck leading to a large collecting box at the bottom. Here worshippers would deposit their monetary offerings for the upkeep of the building. The bigger your offering, the louder the noise as your coins rattled down the trumpet neck into the box. And the louder the noise, the greater the admiration of the onlookers and the more inflated the reputation of the giver. Jesus and his disciples sat observing the queue of rich donors dropping in their gifts, competing to be the most generous. And then he saw someone in the line, almost invisible, hardly noticed, except by Jesus. A poor widow. Maybe the wealthy donors looked down their noses at her, maybe she kept getting pushed to the back.

I mean, what could she possibly offer to God that would be of any real value? Whatever she could offer wouldn’t make the slightest difference to the temple finances. Maybe their assumptions were confirmed as she finally made it to the front of the queue, opened her purse, and dropped in two lepta – the smallest, most insignificant coin, both in physical size and monetary value – the observers probably had to strain their ears to hear even the slightest tinkle as her offering slid down the trumpet into the box. But Jesus saw this godly woman, really saw her. Not as a worthless widow, but a faithful, generous, sacrificial lover of God, whose gift exceeded by far those of the rich, because she gave all she had to live on (v3-4). She could have put one lepta in and kept the other for herself, but she gave them both! In doing so, she demonstrated her absolute trust in God to provide all she needed.

Final Reflection – A Call to Truly See

So, two women, both of whom expressed extravagant love for God – one with perfume and kisses, the other with her entire household income. Both were seen by others, merely externally, and wrong judgements were made about their true character on the basis of their appearance. But Jesus really saw them – saw their hearts and their abundant love – and commended them both as examples of faithful discipleship.

So, as we go into a new week, let’s allow Jesus’ question to Simon echo in our hearts: “Do you see this woman?”, and let’s seek his grace to really see the people around us, to see them as Jesus sees them, and to see ourselves as Jesus sees us. And let’s follow the example of these wonderful women, showing our extravagant love and affection for Jesus because of all he has done for us.

Blessings, Rev Rob