“Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?” –Luke 7:44

This will be our last Lenten meditation, as next week we’ll be in Easter! As your Lenten journey comes to a close, spend some time with the “unseen” woman in Luke 7:36-50, and then prayerfully consider the following.

During Jesus’ time, dinners were a chance to show off status and power. Hosts would invite influential people who sat in a U-shaped seating arrangement based on social status. Guests would recline on cushions next to the table propped on their left elbows. It was an understood custom that uninvited people would also come into the dining area and wait along its perimeter, hoping for scraps or leftovers. Sometimes the elites at the table would even make them the butt of jokes; it was the price they paid to eat that day. Paraciti, they were called.

You are a woman whose circumstances have forced you to sell your body to survive, and society has jailed you in that identity. Everywhere you go, you are known only as a sinner, judged and unwanted, unless it’s a man who wants you for his own purposes. No one has really seen you for years. But you’ve heard about Jesus, how he heals and forgives sins, and something in you knows—already and absolutely knows—that he forgives you, too. Knowing he is at Simon’s house, your heart compels you to go to him, taking the most valuable thing you own. Imagine what it would be like to walk into that space, where some of the dinner guests are probably your “clients.”

You see Jesus. Going to him, you break open your valuable jar of perfume, and something in you breaks open as well. While you weep at his feet, you’re unaware that Simon is disgusted with Jesus. But Jesus is aware.

As you continue to pour love and gratitude on Jesus, you hear him instruct Simon about love and forgiveness. Then you see Jesus turn towards you—not away!—and hear these words: “Do you see this woman?”

Jesus sees you. You! And now the seeing has come full circle, for you had seen before you went to Simon’s house that Jesus is the Lover and Forgiver of human beings. Simon hadn’t seen it. The other guests hadn’t seen it. But you had, and you believed it, and you acted on it by pouring out your full self at Jesus’ feet.

Now, as we make the turn during Holy Week from Lent to Easter, hear these words spoken to you from the Lover of your soul as you lay your life before him in love and gratitude: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”