Luke 7:37, 38, 48-5037And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. (Luke 7:37‑38)
48And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:48‑50); John 12:1-3; 20:1-171Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. 2There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. 3Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. (John 12:1‑3)
1The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. 3Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. 4So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. 6Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 9For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. 10Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. 11But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, 12And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. 14And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:1‑17).
UK 7:37{UK 7:38{UK 7:48-50{OH 12:1-3{OH 20:1-17{I turn to these familiar scriptures, on which our hearts love so often to dwell, beloved brethren, with but one thought, which, I think, may be traced through them; and that is the blessed way that, in the infinite grace of our God, needs are created in the soul, in order that the truth may come with power to it. And this is surely so in every aspect of the truth. It is possessed and becomes a reality and power in us, only when received as an answer to need, first of all awakened in the soul.. In these scenes, reading them in the order in which they are presented to us in the history-alike precious fruit of His grace in drawing out devotedness to Himself in those who were with Him on earth, each with its own distinct character-I think we may see a moral order bringing out the normal education of the soul in the truth, from the soul's first awakening to the knowledge of the Lord, under His blessed leading and teaching.
In the first—the woman that was a sinner, in Simon's house—we are carried back to the way God had to begin with each of us, the only way He ever became known to us, awakening the soul, by His infinite grace, to the sense of its need of a Savior. And what an awakening that was when first the truth found entrance into our souls.! How precious the grace that, however varied the way it took with us, drew us, and drew us irresistibly, into the truth: " Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." There we found ourselves out in all our sins and ruin, but in His presence. The rumor (ver: 17) was true: God had visited His people. And she was at His feet, fully exposed to herself in her sins, weeping-no attempt to hide it, all come fully out, but come out in the presence of the infinite grace that brought God down to be a poor despised Man in this world. Sooner or later (if not now in the day of grace, in the day of judgment) all must come out; but God has come, revealed in grace, before the day of judgment, to bring out the sins now, and lay the basis of the soul's everlasting relationship with Him in the full discovered truth of my guilt and utter ruin, and by it of what God is. What mercy it is, what infinite grace! I belong to Him, I am His; but this founded on the discovery, deep down in the conscience, of my sins. There and thus it was He won my heart; and the blessed way love took to do it leaves no cloud upon the relationship it brings me into: His ways with me, too, but means to this end, as we see it in His words to poor, dark, religiously-blinded Simon: " Which of them will love him most?" He had come not merely to meet all our need as sinners, but by that need to make Himself known to us as a Savior, and thus to draw out the affections of the heart after Himself. Blessed expression of it in this dear woman, who, even, before she knew all that grace had come to bring, her, was lavishing every little token of a, heart thus won upon the Person of the Lord. By such appreciation of the grace that had attracted her, she proved herself to be the one whose "many sins" were forgiven, according to Simon's just interpretation of the parable of the Lord. And now she has His own direct word to rest on for the full effect of His grace: "Thy sins are forgiven." The truth has come to her with all its own divine authority and power. The Discoverer, of all her sins is God manifest in the flesh, her Savior; His word is the warrant for her faith, and He can add: " Thy faith bath saved thee, go in peace."
So perfectly and divinely has He satisfied the first great need of the soul, divinely awakened that He might satisfy it, and formed the link of immutable relationship between the sinner and the Savior, in the truth of what both are, fully revealed. Now the heart is set free for the next lesson in this wonderful school. Infinite as the grace is which has met our need as sinners and revealed to us the Savior, it would be sad indeed if we stopped there: impossible, indeed, in the measure in which the heart has been really attracted to the Person who met our need. For in doing so He created new capacities in the soul, new needs, that nothing hut new and deep knowledge of Himself can satisfy. This we find so blessedly in the case of Mary of Bethany. From the first, and by the attraction of His grace, she took up her place at His feet; it was not for anything she might get from Him, it was to listen to His word-and. that ever expressed what He was (John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25) New Trans.)—as with a heart that sought Him for His Own sake, that had found its need of an object, and in Him the only object that could satisfy it. It is thus He leads us on. He had awakened in her heart the need of an object. In John 12 we see her satisfied, her action' there the blessed expression of it.
It is deeply instructive, too, to see the effect of a heart that has made Him and found Him its object. Drawn into the current of the thoughts of God, for He was His object, she could anticipate what was passing in the mind of the Lord before He had spoken of it. It was a time of varied testimony being borne to the glory of His Person: as Son of God in the resurrection of Lazarus, as Son of David in His last public entry into Jerusalem, and as Son of man when the Greeks came up desiring to see Him. But there was that which lay nearer to His heart than taking His place in all this glory—the necessary path to it for the glory of God—it was His death. He speaks of it fully, later on in this chapter: " Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour! but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name."
How blessed it is to see a vessel prepared, as Mary of Bethany, that testimony might not he wanting to this deeper glory of His humiliation in death, more present to the heart of the Lord. The effect of what was passing around is upon her spirit; the scene is closing in for her if He is passing out of it. So she gathers up all that is of any value for her, represented in that pound of ointment, " very costly," and pours it upon His Person. A blessed expression, when words fail, of what her heart had found in Him as her object—divinely satisfied! " Thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love Thee." How blessed to be led on to know Him as she knew Him, the One who, passing by death out of this scene, has broken every link that bound the heart here-blessed preparation for the new links of association to be formed with the risen Christ in the scene where He is gone. Her heart, formed by Himself for it, has found an object in Rim that fills and satisfies it, the One that by Himself alone will fill and satisfy it forever.
But this leads us to another necessary step in, the soul's progress for which it is now prepared. It depends upon the power of the attraction of the Person of the Lord over the heart, which will alone give it its reality. 1 refer to the new place that He has taken on the ground of redemption, as Man in resurrection, to associate us with Himself in all the perfect blessedness of it before God and the Father. This gives its character to the last scene of the devotedness of Mary of Magdala in chap. 20. The disciples having verified the fact of His resurrection', went away to their own homes, so little were their hearts under the power of the Object Of the heart of God. " Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping." There is created in her heart the need of a new place. This place-the world that gave Him but a cross and sepulcher no longer suited to her. It had no home for her.
'But was there, then, another place where she could find one? There was. The Lord 'had spoken of it fully, from the very first announcement to His disciples that it was only a little while He should be with them, addressing Himself to the trouble of hearts that He counted upon missing Him in the place of His rejection (chap 13:33, 14.) He had presented this to them as the first source of comfort. " In my Father's house are Many mansions." He counted upon it that the dross' would change everything for them here; that the world that had crucified Him would be no longer a place to satisfy His own. " I go to prepare a place for you." And thus the Father's house was, for the first time in Scripture, thrown open to' His people. We find in that chapter four things that enter into and make up the revelation of the place so far, for the comfort of our hearts. As even in natural things, it is the people who make the place, so it is infinitely in the revelation of the Father's house. Philip was right, therefore, so far, when he said, " Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." But the Father had been perfectly revealed in the Son down here: " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that bath seen me bath seen the Father," hence the Lord could say, " Whither I go ye know." Already the first element of the revelation of the place was before them in His Person. But, secondly, " I go to prepare a place for you." This is Christ taking His place in it as Man in divine righteousness, by virtue and in the power of redemption, that fits it perfectly for us, and us for the place: until, and this is the third thing, He comes to receive us to Himself there, that we may be actually with Him. But meanwhile (fourthly) He sends down the Holy Ghost to bring all the power and blessedness of the place into our hearts, as a present thing, while we are waiting for Him. (See 1 Cor. 2:9-129But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9‑12).)
How beautiful and perfect it is in the ways of the Lord's grace, that the Gospel does not close without one at least whose heart opens to the need, and thus to the intelligence, of this very thing. There she is, with a heart desolated, as to this world, by the death of the Lord, detained by true devotedness to Him in the spot where she received the first full intelligence of the new place of wonderful association with Himself that was to result from Jesus ascending to the Father, and became the honored vessel of the communication of it to the apostles. How blessedly He who created the need of it in her heart has satisfied her! ",He satisfieth the longing soul.”
How far do we, beloved brethren, know this divine education each one for himself and herself—needs created in the soul to be satisfied thus? Surely we are the subjects of the same blessed 'love that would ever be creating longings that the truth might meet them in power, as the answer to 'them, if never measured by them. We know the place, and are, by the Holy Ghost having come, in the full effect of Jesus having gone to the Father, as He said: " I go to prepare a place for you." He has unfolded it to us in those blessed words in which light first broke to Mary of Magdala " Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; unto my God and your God." There is now, in an association and identification of place and consequent nearness never known or possible before, what was to take the place of the relations Mary and the rest had had With Jesus upon earth. All our associations with Him are now in that new place that He has taken. We know the place—it is His own—the only place He could give us, the only place we could stand in before God—won for us in divine righteousness by so gloriously accomplished redemption. Blessed it has been to our souls to know it; but how feeble is the power of it, how little are our hearts consciously in company with Him! I think it arises often from the soul passing too lightly from the first infinite lesson of His grace that awakened the need and brought us the knowledge of a Savior and His full forgiveness, into the knowledge of heavenly, association with Himself, without the link in the divine education of the soul that we find supplied in Mary of Bethany-namely, the heart of the saved one laying hold of the Lord Himself as its object. All real progress further depended upon the measure in which this is the case with us. What was t hat empty sepulcher to Mary-what will give this world the character of it to us-except that the One who has lain there was everything to her soul? It was this that made the break so complete with the place where once she had had her home.; it was this that prepared her for the new association with Christ and consequent relationships that make Christianity.
The Lord give us each one to know Himself, beloved friends, It is Himself from first to last, but not measured by the need that made Him real to us, by the blessed way He met it; but this only as a basis to that deeper knowledge of Himself, in which the heart is divinely satisfied forever. For " He satisfieth the longing soul." Otherwise, instead of the power of the heavenly associations into which He has brought us with Himself, earthly things will retain their attraction and power. That is what is the ruin of us-these things retain their hold over the heart, because He its so feebly known in His excellency and glory as the heart's object.
And yet what remains but that He who has opened the place so fully to us, and given us the' Holy Ghost as the present power of our enjoyment of it, should come to receive us to Himself, " that where I am there ye may be also." With Him as the present object of our hearts there, a link so real with all heaven's blessedness now, what joy to be only watching for Himself! The Lord grant it to us, for His name's sake.