Commentary on the Gospel of
There is great irony in the fact that, without knowing it, a woman of the streets paid Jesus the very courtesies that his host Simon the Pharisee had so rudely omitted. Meanwhile Simon thought to himself, “If this man were a prophet!” Simon’s thought was so conventional that it was thought at all. A prophet might be expected to surprise people and jolt them out of their fixed minds. But for Simon, a prophet would be someone who pried into people’s hearts in order to judge and condemn them – just as the Pharisees did! A prophet would be someone who kept the line of division clear: sinner/saint. He was not ready and he could not imagine a Messiah who would “welcome sinners and eat with them.”