Recently I’ve been reading A Woman of Firsts, the extraordinary story of Margaret O’Shaughnessy Heckler, written by her daughter-in-law and my dear friend, Kim Heckler. The biography offers a rare view into the behind-the-scenes world of American politics from the 1960s through the 1980s, her career spanning five presidencies: Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.
The daughter of Irish immigrants, Margaret Heckler represented the American dream. Against all odds, she mastered the seemingly unbeatable game of being a woman in a man’s world, serving as a congresswoman, a presidential cabinet secretary, and an ambassador—all groundbreaking achievements for a woman of her era. But these accomplishments were not just for herself; she became a champion for others - veterans, minorities and women - as well.
The only newly elected woman appointed to Congress in 1966, Margaret entered rooms where few women were invited before. Her landmark legislation, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, gave women the right to access credit in their own names for the first time in American history. It is hard to imagine today in the United States of America a woman being denied a credit card or a mortgage loan for housing, simply because she was unmarried. Yet in the 1970s, women with steady jobs and income were still considered too risky by financial institutions. Margaret Heckler saw women and worked to ensure that they were able to enjoy basic rights as citizens of our country.
In today’s reading, Jesus sees a woman who is offering Him great honor through eyes of love, while others see her as a sinner and an embarrassment. Gospel writer Luke uses this vignette to expound on Jesus’ relationship with many women who were followers and students of His. Jesus saw them, loved them, and valued them.
Read Luke 7:36-8:18
“You’re Not All That!”
Simon, one of the Pharisees who, in his heart rejected the plan of God for redemption, invited Jesus to eat with him at his home. Attempting to put Jesus in His place, basically declaring, “You’re not all that!” he didn’t show any forms of honor or even hospitable decency to Jesus. He offered no water for Jesus to wash His feet, no kiss of greeting and welcome, no anointing Jesus’ head with oil, which was a common act of honor and hospitality at the time. Jesus nad everyone else at the table noticed the slight, but Jesus, at least, did not mention it.
A woman, a sinner, then enters the courtyard where the group is eating, carrying a very expensive alabaster jar of perfume and approaches Jesus from behind, weeping. Without saying a word, this woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, humbly kissed His feet and anointed his feet with expensive perfume, perhaps her dowry. Had this woman had a previous encounter with Jesus? Had one of her friends or family received forgiveness and/or healing from Him? Regardless, Jesus was obviously a safe person for her. She could be vulnerable, lavish and unorthodox with her emotions and worship.
“Do You See This Woman?”
Nonplussed, Jesus asks Simon, “Do you see this woman? Seriously, do you see her?” Simon only saw her as a sinner, a nuisance, an embarrassment, a temptation or an object of his lust or scorn. The one forgiven much, loves much. The one who realizes how sinful she really is, who receives the offer of forgiveness completely and humbly, loves humbly and completely, with all that she has. Jesus understood better than even the woman what great honor she was offering. Her extravagant gift of worship sparked a lesson about forgiveness at Simon’s table, but it also foreshadowed a second noble offering. Looking ahead to Good Friday, Jesus would be crucified on a cross atop the hill called Golgotha. Because He would die so close to the beginning of the Sabbath, there would be no time to prepare His body for burial, with spices and fragrant oils, at least by the women who loved Jesus, as they had to prepare their homes and the Shabbat meal for their families. Later, on the third morning, those same women would bring aromatic spices to the tomb where His body had been laid, in order to anoint it, but He would not be there. He was already risen! Therefore, this woman was preparing Jesus’ body for burial, on behalf of all the women who loved Him.
And there were so many women who loved Jesus. Why? Because He saw and valued them, forgave and included them on His team of disciples. There was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Herod’s steward’s wife, Susanna and many others. These women were forgiven much and therefore loved much. What they had in the way of possessions, they offered up to support Jesus, the Twelve and the mission.
Parables Introduced
Shortly after, Jesus began introducing parables into His teaching with one of His most famous, “The Parable of the Sower, the Seed and the Soils.” A repeated phrase Jesus would offer following each of His parable lessons was, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.” (v 8) Why this new approach? Jesus was beginning to separate those who had been chosen by the Father to hold and understand the secrets of the kingdom of God from everyone else. Jesus then quotes from Isaiah 6 where God warns Isaiah, His newly chosen prophet to the nation of Judah, to NOT speak clearly to the people; otherwise they might, with their own ability to think and understand, come to conclusions regarding the prophecy and promise before the time of revelation has come. “Looking they they may not see and hearing they may not understand.” (v 10) This isn’t necessarily forever, but just until the Spirit opens the eyes and ears of those chosen by God.
And this includes the women!! Unless their fathers instructed them from the scriptures, these women would not have had access to religious training, yet Jesus is saying clearly, “If you are chosen by my Father and forgiven by Me, the Spirit (and the Holy Spirit alone) will give you wisdom and understanding of these theological truths I’m teaching…even the women, and the uneducated, the previously diseased and marginalized…
Big Picture Questions for Today:
* Do you remember a time in our country when women were denied access to credit? When a woman was unable to even have a credit card in her own name? Can you imagine how the woman who poured out her alabaster jar of precious perfume on Jesus was viewed by the men around her? By her father? Do you read this vignette and find yourself agreeing with Simon, rather than Jesus?
Pray for eyes to see those around you as Jesus does, as image bearers of the living God, dearly loved and valued.
