It is evident, beloved brethren, and it has been specially before us this morning, that our purpose in coming here is to remember the Lord, and that not so much in what He does or has done for us, though many and great are His varied services to our souls, but Himself—“This do in remembrance of Me.”
We cannot cross the threshold of this room without thinking of His services towards us. “We are saved by His life;” “Because I live, ye shall live also.” We little apprehend the depth of His present interest in us. The maturity of Christianity is not shown by our being able to do without Him, but as we go on we are more consciously dependent on Him. We have not a stock we can draw from, but our resources are all in Him.
Our histories have been closed by the cross, and this scene has been closed by the cross for us. We learn it here that the scene is closed. The more we know our own ruin, the more we enter into what Christ is. The love, the blessedness, and the grace of the Lord Jesus have found a sphere of operation in the wants, the misery, and the wretchedness of men.
“If such the sweetness of the stream,
What must the Fountain be?”
In this chapter we have the display of His divine power. He heals the centurion’s servant, and then He passes on to the coffin which carried the heart of the poor widow and all that she had. In the 21st verse we have the effects of Satan’s power. Sickness, and death and Satan’s power give way to Him. When He appears at the end, His enemies will be destroyed by His brightness. As in the days of old, His enemies will be scattered, and those that hate Him will flee before Him.
Some have not apprehended what man really is, and let me say that short views of sin and short views of Christ go together. And the contrary is true, a defective view of Christ will make a man deficient in his views about sin. This Pharisee says, “This man, if He were a prophet,”—he doubts even if He were a prophet, much less the Son of God.
The woman did not know much, she did not know her sins were forgiven. She may or may not have been cognizant of what had passed before, as recorded in the former part of the gospel. But she knew love, and she appreciated the Lord. And see how He appreciates her. Her tears, her love, her silence, are all noted by Him. And it is not necessary that we should be always talking to the Lord. He that made the heart knows it. He takes us in. There is not a groan nor a sigh that He cannot interpret. And, beloved, we may come to this some day, that the Lord will be the only Person that will appreciate us.
The love of this woman was not the cause, but the effect of her being forgiven. When there are needs in the soul, Christ comes in to fill them. Why is not the heart entrusted to Him without any reserve?