“A MAN is known by the company he keeps.” Yes, but all depends upon his motive in choosing it. The doctor who attends the sick child of a pickpocket, and in the kindness and integrity of his heart charges no fee for his services, comes out of that infamous dwelling as irreproachable as he went in. He will not accept even one penny piece of the pickpocket’s ill-gotten gains, but he will gladly serve even a pickpocket’s suffering child.
In an infinitely higher way it was thus with Simon’s Guest in Luke 7:3636And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat. (Luke 7:36). He had come from heaven to express God’s good pleasure in men―not in their ways, that was impossible, but in them; and not all the Pharisees in the land should thwart Him, little as His gracious errand suited them. Man’s utter depravity met His holy eye everywhere; but if one thing could possibly be more obnoxious than another, it was the hypocrisy that sought to conceal willful wickedness under a veil of assumed sanctity.
How little Simon the Pharisee could have known his Guest that day! Listen to what he says in his heart: “This Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a sinner.” As though he had said, “I can see well enough that this Man is no prophet, and I would fain strip Him of His prophet’s robe and leave Him standing exposed. Why, even I know this woman better than He does, and I would take pretty good care that she did not touch me!”
Would you, Simon? Wait a bit and listen, while we give you another application of some of your own words. If you had known who and what manner of Man this is, you would have been dumb with amazement that He should have condescended to cross the doorstep of a Pharisee like yourself. For His mission here is “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
But suppose, for a moment, that it had been possible for you to have gone on with your stripping until His whole heart and mind had been laid bare before you, what would you have discovered, think you? Why, a mind that, without divesting you of one of the religious robes of your sect, discerns you through and through―a mind that knows you far better than you could possibly know this poor sinner at His feet. Nor would that be all; you would have discovered a heart that cares for both you and her. You would have seen that the feet which are being kissed by this poor woman are on their way to the cross of Calvary for her sins.
Poor Simon! He knew neither his own heart nor the Lord’s. Yet what divine beauty, what heavenly luster, what touching grace is here! Even Simon himself is not roughly handled. How differently would he have fared at our hands! Our indignation would just have boiled over! But how does Jesus treat him? “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.” What gentle consideration! He would not begin until his host was ready. “Master, say on,” said Simon.
“There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell Me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And He said, Thou hast rightly judged” (vv. 40-43).
He has put Simon the Pharisee and this sinful woman of the city into the same parable (for He would fain bind them up in the same bundle of blessing), and now proceeds, personally and pointedly, to apply it. How touchingly He shows that the freest pardon is available for both! One of the two, this sinner at His feet, had received it already; and oh, what a chance for Simon too, had he wished for it! “When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.” What a blessed climax! Surely such heavenly light was well calculated to open the eyes of even a Pharisee, and make him exclaim, “Lord, I too have nothing to pay; yet I have despised Thy condescending grace. I doubly need Thy pardon!”
Now note this. The very thing that Simon was proudly condemning was the very end for which the Savior was patiently laboring. God wanted man’s love. He had come to win man’s love, and here in this poor sinner He had got it. God’s forgiving grace, expressed in Jesus, had won her confidence. She loved, she trusted. It is true she was a great sinner, but this only proved Him to be a great Savior.
Her many sins are pardoned. But more than pardon is hers. The Person to whom she owes that pardon has been found. She knows where He has gone, and reach Him she must, even though it be to make herself an unwelcome intruder in the house of a proud Pharisee. Once there, she will wash His feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hairs of her head! Who could help admiring such responsive affection?
In Jesus God had expressed His good pleasure in her blessing; she would now express her good pleasure in God, by pouring the overflowing of her more than satisfied heart upon the feet of His beloved Son. Alleluia! Jesus hath triumphed. God is made known. A pardoned sinner loves much.
How grateful must all this have been to the blessed Lord Himself! Not a word did she utter, but He would speak for her. He would put her eloquent act of responsive love into one brief sentence and cause it to be repeated to the very ends of the earth. “This woman hath not ceased to kiss My feet.” What joy in heaven that day!
Just one personal word with you, my reader. Have you ever found your way to His feet, a sinner confessed? Has heaven ever known joy over your repentance? If not, we are glad to tell you that you may still reach Him; and more, we can tell you where. He is no longer in the house of a Pharisee on earth, but on the throne of God in glory. But He is as full of compassion and tender grace as ever. No rebuffs, no murmuring Simons there! His own heavenly welcome awaits you. Bless His Name!
But if forgiveness is worth having, if you really value a personal interview, go at once. Know you not that He is about to change His place once more? He is about to rise up and close the door. No repentance then! Tears you may have, but you will shed them all outside a closed door. Oh, how bitter will be the “fruit of your own way,” how unbearable the remembrance of your proud neglect of His precious grace! “But for that I might have been inside!” will be your wail. What remorse to think of the long years He waited for you. Then came your last chance, and this chance MISSED!
One word more, and it shall be the Spirit’s, not mine: “The Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hob. 3:7). Good advice. Take it.