Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: Luke 7:36-50

Today’s reading gives us a glimpse of Jesus receiving love through physical touch, from a woman who seems to have had a rather questionable past. As her dramatic gesture unfolded, Jesus’ host muttered under his breath: ‘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.’

But Jesus defended her expression of love through a parable designed to reveal what He then said plainly in v.47: “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – as her great love has shown.” Her actions displayed great love, and that great love was the result of receiving great forgiveness.

Jesus was making the important point that the reason for the woman’s physical expression of love was her awareness of her past sin, her genuine repentance from that sin, and her return home to God through Jesus’ ministry. She had been “forgiven much”. Her tears, her washing of Jesus’ feet with her hair, and her application of perfume to His feet were all expressions of her love in response to her sense of forgiveness and liberation. These were reasons to rejoice with her, not to reject her. So Jesus received her expressions of love with great grace.

Jesus shows us how important it is to receive appropriate expressions of Christian love from others graciously.

Lord, help me not to judge others or reject their appropriate gestures of love. Help me to graciously receive the expressions of love others offer me, for their sake and mine. Amen.