Kingdom Journey: Day Monday, March 13, In the last story of the chapter verses , Jesus is in a house with a number of religious people and a prostitute comes in and washes His feet with her hair. With saffron scarves and lavender veils, dangling earrings and a dab of perfume, she dresses herself for show. A leer. A scowl. A wink. A sneer. All sorts of looks, except one. She is a prostitute. How many times has her heart ached to be wanted for more than one night?
To be valued instead of evaluated? To be prized instead of priced? Her scarlet letter will never rub clean. For she will meet love. She will meet kindness. She will meet Jesus. Into this refined religious party comes a woman, a prostitute, unclean and out of place.
Luke The thirty years I ministered in Detroit, our church worked with many prostitutes. We saw the hurt and brokenness and longing to be whole again. They all wanted freedom but were afraid. Many were scared to leave the business because of retaliation by their pimp. That is this woman in Luke 7. While men were looking at her, I too want us to look at her. Her Back The best seats at this kind of party were at the table and reserved for the host and his friends. This woman did not have a shot at getting near Jesus.
While these kind of parties can have bystanders, they must stand with their backs against the wall as observers. This woman was one of them. Her back was on the wall. She must have thought about what happened earlier in her town, that a funeral was interrupted when Jesus resurrected the body.
And now she is close to Him. If he raised someone from the dead, he must certainly be able to free her from her life and her choices. She has a decision to make: does she take her back off the wall and give Jesus a chance. She chooses well—she takes her back off the wall. Her Hair Today if we want to know if someone is married, we look at their left ring finger. It was their hair.
