Reading the Gospels Together Anointed by a Woman – Part 2 When we turn to Luke we find some interesting developments. Luke begins in much the same way as Mark and Matthew did. He tells his readers that Passover was now near – he does not mention that it was two days away. We have noticed how Luke seems to want to stretch the timeframe out a bit. And then we encounter the startling fact that Luke has omitted the story of the woman anointing Jesus. He moves right on to tell of the decision by Judas to betray Jesus. What happened to this story that Mark told his readers would be remembered and told wherever the good news is proclaimed? What we discover is that Luke has already told this story of the anointing of Jesus by a woman but Luke has moved it forward in his gospel and used it in a completely different way. The woman Luke tells about comes into the house of a Pharisee named Simon (same name as in Mark’s story) and anoints Jesus feet with her tears and with ointment out of gratitude to Jesus for his gracious forgiveness of her sins. In doing this she stands in stark contrast with Simon the Pharisee who provides at best the minimum of hospitality for his guest. And Jesus uses the whole episode to emphasize the greatness of God’s loving grace. And so the woman disappears from Luke’s story at this point because it would have been awkward to tell the same story twice. There are some who argue that the two stories have enough differences between them that they are really not the same story. Of course that could be true, but then we are left to wonder why Luke omitted the second story here. I think a much better argument can be made that Luke moved the story because he wanted this woman to be seen in contrast with the self-righteous Simon. By the way it is only Luke who tells the story about Simon the Pharisee and the woman. Another possibility, of course, is that Luke has the connection right and it was Mark who moved the story of the anointing woman – but that line of reasoning creates far more problems than it solves, especially when John is brought into the picture.