Citation: Luke 7:36-50
The narrative
A Pharisee named Simon invites Jesus to dine. A woman of the city, "a sinner," learns Jesus is there and comes with an alabaster jar of ointment. Standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she wets his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, kisses them, and anoints them.
Simon thinks to himself: "This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner" (v.39).
Jesus answers his unspoken thought with the parable of the two debtors: a moneylender forgives one debtor 500 denarii and another 50, "which of them therefore will love him most?" Simon: "the one to whom he forgave the most." "You have judged correctly" (vv.40-43).
Then Jesus contrasts the woman with his host: Simon gave no water for the feet, no kiss, no oil for the head, yet she has not stopped washing his feet with tears, kissing them, anointing them. "Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." To the woman: "Your sins are forgiven… Your faith has saved you. Go in peace" (vv.44-50). The other guests murmur, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
The forgiveness-and-love crux
The pivotal line, "her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much" (v.47), can sound as if her love earned forgiveness. But the embedded two-debtors parable frames it the other way: the one forgiven more loves more. So most read the "for" as evidential, not causal, her great love is the sign and proof that she has already been greatly forgiven, not its purchase price. Jesus' closing word confirms the direction: "Your faith has saved you." (A minority weighs the verse's surface order and reads love and forgiveness as more mutually entailed; the debate is recorded here alongside the dominant evidential reading.)
A distinct event, and a mistaken tradition
This anointing should not be merged with the Bethany anointing near the passion (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8), where Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus for his burial at the house of Simon the leper. Differences: a different time (mid-ministry vs. passion week), place (Galilee vs. Bethany), host (Simon the Pharisee vs. Simon the leper), and purpose (forgiveness/love vs. burial). The shared name "Simon" was common.
The woman here is unnamed. A later Western tradition wrongly identified her with Mary Magdalene (and sometimes with Mary of Bethany); the text supports neither identification, Mary Magdalene is introduced separately in the very next verses (Luke 8:2) as one delivered of demons, not as this anointer. She is kept anonymous here, as Luke leaves her.
Theological framing
Grace and gratitude, forgiveness precedes and produces love; the lavishness of her devotion measures the depth of grace received.
Reversal of the religious gaze, Simon judges by category ("what kind of woman"); Jesus sees faith and reads the host's own cold reception against the sinner's warmth.
Faith that saves, the encounter ends not on the woman's emotion but on faith and peace; the surrounding question ("who forgives sins?") raises, as elsewhere, Jesus' divine prerogative.