She entered the house alone. With tears in her eyes she cries so intensely, his feet are soiled. So she dries them with her hair and anoints his feet with the precious ointment she carried in her alabaster jar, perhaps bought with the money she’d earned from her activities forced upon her because she was alone. How could he not know who and what kind of woman (Luke 7:36-50) was touching him? Yet, he allows her to touch him.

Today, in some jurisdictions, those who have committed felony crimes continue to pay for their crime by court imposed fees for costs such as a court appointed lawyer, paperwork, DNA collection, and electronic monitoring, to name a few. Essentially they are charged for their use of the criminal justice system, and in many cases forced to carry a legal debt for the remainder of their life. I often wonder how long the woman with the alabaster jar carried her burdens before she poured them out at the feet of Jesus? How heavy must have been the weight of her tears mixed with every ounce of that valuable ointment? How much lighter she must have been once the last drops fell. With God there is no life-long sentence of debt. There is no charge for the use of forgiveness. Our debt is paid in full long before the first teardrop falls.