Jesus’ encounters with people were often filled with irony. Folks who watched Jesus and how He related to people probably at times left scratching their heads wondering what just happened. The way Jesus treated people demanded that His followers rethink what they thought about God, their neighbor, and themselves. In Luke 7:36-50 we see one of Jesus’ confounding moments.

“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

“There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

The average Pharisee spent two days a week fasting, and they had exacting laws to make sure they paid their tithes to the penny. They did everything most thought a godly person should do. This woman, on the other hand, was probably a prostitute. She did things most thought you couldn’t do and have any standing with God. No one would call her godly.

Yet, this evil woman finds God’s acceptance and this good Pharisee receives a rebuke. How could Jesus possibly be on this woman’s side and not on the Pharisee’s? In this paradox, we see the difference between the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Pharisee’s definition of himself was wrapped up in his own deeds. In other words, He was self-defined. He did good, so he was good. And this woman did evil, so she was evil. Self-definition invariably leads to these sort of comparisons and judgments concerning ourselves and others. The result is separation from God and our neighbor. What kept this man from knowing Christ as his righteousness was the fact that he trusted in his own righteousness.

On the other hand, the woman found a quite different definition of who she was, didn’t she? She found acceptance apart from her deeds. Her worth was no longer found in herself but in Christ. She had become God defined. Likewise, God wants Who Jesus is and what He has done to be the measure of who we are. When we find Christ as our worth, we know union with God and fellowship with our neighbor.

This is one of the central aspects of what it means to be born again. It is not just going from being a bad person to a good person. If that is all it is, then the Pharisee would have been the good guy. It is not going from the evil side of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to the good side. It is finding a whole new tree. It is tying the definition of who we are to Who Jesus is and what He has done for us. In doing so, we walk with God as it was in the beginning, unashamed.