‘And behold, there was a woman who was in the city, a sinner; and when she knew that he was sitting at a meal in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster cruse of ointment, and standing behind at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.'
And then there was a sudden interruption. It was clearly not a large house, and there were apparently few servants, for through the doorway there came a woman with unbound hair. It was in fact quite normal for the doors to be left open as an act of charity so that people could enter the house while the meal was going on, hoping either to receive a hand out, or some pearls of wisdom from the learned men sat at table.But wa woman like this would not have been welcomed. Unbound hair would be seen as a disgrace in a woman, and would indicate her profession. She had heard that Jesus was sitting at a meal in the Pharisee's house, and she came bringing an alabaster cruse of precious ointment.
Everything was against the woman, and she would know it. She had been dealing with Pharisees for years. She knew that her touch was unclean, she knew that her precious ointment had been bought with immoral earnings (or would be seen as so), she knew that she should not enter a Pharisee's house. But she was determined. No doubt she wanted to anoint Jesus' head with her ointment. And she did so because of her faith in the fact that He would be her Saviour (Luke 7:50), and because of a consciousness of sins forgiven through her previous contact with Him. It was because she knew that she was now clean that she felt that she could do what she did.
So entering the house she made for where Jesus was lying on a couch by the table. He would be lying on one elbow with His feet extended backwards. And she took in the situation at a glance. It was clear that Jesus' feet were still dirty from the road. It would take her by surprise. To her he was the most important person in the room, and she would not be able to believe that they had not had the courtesy to arrange for His feet to be washed. Perhaps that was why she began to weep as she realised how her beloved Master was being treated, or perhaps she was already weeping. But it altered her whole approach. Reaching down she wiped the dust of His feet with her tears, and then she wiped them with her hair. Then she kissed His feet, and poured on them the precious ointment that she had brought. How dared they treat her beloved Master like this? And to everyone's surprise Jesus appeared unmoved and made no effort to prevent it.