Luk 7:38-39, 38 …; 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. 39 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.”
There are circumstances that reveal the conditions of the heart. The verse before reads, “one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him”. Was this about his need to be close to Jesus or did he think it would help his reputation by having such a great guest at his table? Think of the centurion that declared his unworthiness to have Christ’s company in his own house. Did this Pharisee imagine he was more worthy of Jesus’ attention? He calls Mary a sinner, and that if Jesus was a true prophet as he presently questioned, He would not let such a woman tend to Him.
We always grapple with our purpose for coming to Christ. Was He worthy of our worship or did we come for us? Did we think we deserved His attention or even felt better than others? Simon, the Pharisee, stands for the unloving and self-righteous, ignorant of God and the people He has a heart for. They may be respectable in life but rigid in morality. One act moved him to despise both the woman and Jesus. He was quick to judge others than himself. “A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.” (A.W. Tozer).