That Sinful Woman

Recently, the Lectionary calendar brought us to John 12:1-8 about Mary of Bethany pouring nard on Jesus' feet and wiping them with her hair. For our Sunday School discussion about it, I did a side-by-side comparison of the four gospel accounts of this event -- from Mark 14, Matthew 26, Luke 7, & John 12. It seems obvious to me that this is one happening and, like other gospel events, the story just varies in each. However, the conventional interpretation seems to be that there were two events -- one in Bethany involving Mary, the godly sister of Martha & Lazarus, and the other in another time and place involving an unnamed woman "who lived a sinful life" One source suggests that John confuses the two events and brings details from the "sinful woman" into the Bethany story. That writer says that someone as respectable as Mary of Bethany would never let her hair down in public.

My question is: Why? Why don't people simply accept that Mary of Bethany was the woman "who lived a sinful life" and wiped Jesus' feet with her hair? Is it because they can't accept that Jesus' best friends might have had scandal connected to them?

I mean, the parallels are too many to discount so easily. Let's look at them:

Mark, Matthew, & Luke all identify the host as a man named Simon. Mark & Matthew identify him as "Simon the Leper" from Bethany, Luke says he was a Pharisee named Simon. John just says the dinner was given in Jesus' honor in Bethany and that Lazarus was there and Martha served. In all cases, a woman anointed either Jesus' feet or his head with perfume. Mark, Matthew, & Luke all say the perfume was in an alabaster jar. Mark & John identify the perfume as nard. Only John identifies the woman as Mary, but both Mark & Matthew tell us it happened in Bethany. How many women were there in Bethany who would do such a thing?

If I let my imagination go, I wonder if there is something beyond the small-town connection between Jesus' sibling friend group and Simon the Leper/Pharisee's household. If Simon had leprosy, does that mean his wife might have moved back home with her siblings? Could Martha have been that wife? Was there something wrong with Lazarus that precluded him from having a family? Was Mary a social outcast because of her sinful past who lived with her brother and sister? Was she able to let her hair down at Simon's house because she was with family there? Is that the reason she was able to show up at the dinner in the first place? (And, yes, I've heard about the public nature of these events and that anyone could enter certain areas, but the family connection idea seems to fit better.)

When I shared these thoughts with my seminarian daughter, she offered a new perspective. Traditionally, we have seen the "sinful woman" as sexually immoral. But then and now, women have been categorized as "sinful" for so many other offenses. Think of all the things that bring rebuke to women and girls even in our current society. Interrupting men. Being 'bossy.' Dressing in ways others find offensive -- and there are SO MANY ways to offend others by what women wear or don't wear. Acting "uppity." Taking on leadership roles in the church. Not being submissive enough to authorities. The list goes on.

Moving back to Jesus' day, there would have been many more ways for a young lady to be condemned. Maybe Mary declined to enter the marriage her parents arranged for her. Maybe she sat in the room with the men instead of working in the kitchen. (Oh, right, we already know that is the case from Luke 10.) Maybe she spoke when women were supposed to keep quiet. Maybe she didn't keep her hair up. Maybe she insisted that the expensive perfume she somehow acquired was hers to use as she pleased.

In all this, I am always asking the question: Why does this matter? It seems much of the cultural background and language study that people love to insert into Bible study isn't all that important to the overall message of the gospel. But if Mary was the woman Luke tells us "lived a sinful life," that strikes me as huge! It means Jesus didn't just interact with "tax collectors and sinners" in a ministry role, but that he counted broken people who were social outcasts among his closest friends. He liked them better than more socially acceptable people. They were the people he turned to at the end of the day when he wanted to just relax and not be "on." He was so non-threatening to Mary that she could let her hair down in his presence. Simon the Leper/Pharisee may not have been thrilled having her around and wondered why Jesus let her touch him, but Jesus did let her touch him and let her sit at his feet while he was teaching and Martha was so busy with lunch preparations. As someone who struggles to fit into the traditional roles of women, I love the idea that Jesus loves spending time with outcasts.