Luke 7:37 Commentary and Bible Study

But then we read that there was an uninvited guest when the Lord Jesus Christ went to dinner. ‘And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner’ came to the house. The words indicate that she was a prostitute, and she was evidently under conviction of sin. Once she heard the sermon of the Lord Jesus – ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’; come, all you who long to be clean, and I will forgive you; I will give you peace and I will give you a new life – she wanted to go to him and seek those things, and so she overcame all her prejudice and entered the house. Now Capernaum probably, like many cities today, although it was small, would have had two general districts: an upper-class district, and a lower-class district. They would have had the same kind of distinctions that you tend to find in all cities, only in those days people didn't usually cross from one to the other; the lines drawn across society were much more rigid in ancient times, and so it would be most unusual. She would have been out of place to cross from her quarter of town into the area where the Pharisees lived: that was the great prejudice that this woman had to overcome. But she so wanted to be where the Saviour was; she so wanted to meet with him and to pour out her gratitude, to receive this new life, this forgiveness, that she would cross town to the upper-class quarter, and go into this Pharisee’s house. The town prostitute, a notorious woman, someone at the opposite end of the social spectrum, would go to the house of the most senior Pharisee in the town. We need to imagine that to get an idea of the atmosphere in the house.And she came prepared; she knew what she was going to do. She brought with her something precious, which she was going to use as a token of her gratitude. The gift that she brought, an alabaster box of ointment, was something precious to her, but she would not hold back from giving it to the Lord, for she was sure that what he would do for her could never be repaid. We can never purchase the favour of God, or the kindness and goodwill of the Saviour towards us, and we can never repay him for all that he has given us in salvation, but it is right that we show the Lord how much we appreciate all that he has done for us. She came with a sense of the blessing to be found in Jesus Christ, and she believed on the basis of his promise that he would receive her in spite of her sin.