Simon

Simon was the Pharisee of whom Luke writes, “One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him” (Luke 7:36). While Jesus was at the table, “a woman in the city who was a sinner” brought an alabaster jar of ointment, wet his feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them (Luke 7:37–38). The Pharisee said to himself that if Jesus were a prophet he would have perceived “who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39).

Jesus answered, “Simon, I have something to tell you” (Luke 7:40), and told of a lender who forgave two debtors, one who owed five hundred denarii and one who owed fifty. Asked which would love him most, Simon answered, “He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most” (Luke 7:41–43). Jesus then set Simon’s welcome beside the woman’s: “I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears” (Luke 7:44), and said, “her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much” (Luke 7:47). To the woman he said, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (Luke 7:50).

Luke tells of this meal after Jesus’ visits to Capernaum and Nain (Luke 7:1; Luke 7:11). It is a different occasion from the anointing at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, two days before the Passover (Matthew 26:2, 6; Mark 14:1, 3).