(Read Luke 7:36-50.)
The solution of all our difficulties in the study of Scripture, and of every enigma in the ways of God, and certainly the remedy for every practical trial of our hearts, is to be found in the knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when examined, the groundwork of every error will be found to lie in ignorance of the same.
But He must be studied where He is revealed. When God would make Himself known, He does so in living act, and not in abstract definition. When He would manifest His power, it is not by the declaration of His omnipotence, but by the creation of the world. His wisdom, too, He displays in the ordering, and control, and sustainment of all things, which, by His power, He has caused to exist. His longsuffering patience He shows in the history of the waywardness and provocations of a nation whom He had brought into special connection with Himself. His love, too, finds its adequate illustration alone in His having given up His only Son to death for creatures that were in rebellion against Himself.
Thus must the person of the Lord Jesus Christ be studied. For all that He appeared to be, all that He did, and all that He said; His every word and act and way, in His recorded history, goes to make up the sum of what He is.
The histories of Scripture, we must always remember, are recorded facts. They may have their significance, typical character, or spiritual instruction, but they are still recorded facts. There is divine wisdom in recording some and omitting others, and the fruitful study of the Scripture consists in the discernment of this, and not in spiritualizing the divine word. There is a reason why those facts which are recorded in the gospels are left for our instruction, and others are suppressed. " If they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." There is a reason, too, why the facts that are recorded are given in their specific order, and why they are varied in the record of the four gospels, the discernment of which, and not writing " harmonies," enters essentially into the unfolding of the character of Him who is their blessed subject.
It is infinitely important for me as a sinner to know what He has wrought; but as a saved person by His grace, my heart cannot find its rest except in knowing what He is: however intimately the two may be blended, and never to be disjoined. I want, as the apostle says, I want " to know him." But blessed be God it is a study for eternity, as it is the only lesson worth learning in time.
Now in this scene in the Pharisee's house-infinitely touching as it is, in these throbbings of a human heart, and in the unvailing of His who is divine-I think I see a practical truth unfolded, which it is of the last importance we should learn. It is this. The affections must be filled with Christ in order to the manifestation of that bearing and respect toward Him which is appropriate and due.
It is plain the Pharisee, by his invitation to our Lord, intended to do Him honor, but he egregiously failed. It is as plain, too, that the woman had no such thought in her approach to Him, but only sought to reach unnoticed the object of her affections, and thus she reached the acme of that which was appropriate in her bearing towards Him in the presence of others and of Himself.
" One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him," and our Lord accepts his invitation. But there was another person of very different character and pretensions, who had watched the movements of this mysterious stranger, and was drawn to where He was. " And 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, and stood at his feet behind him," &c. The woman was a sinner, not in the common application of the term only, but she was known as a person without character in the city, and an outcast from society.
We have no means of knowing what opportunity this woman had possessed of becoming acquainted with the character and teaching of the Lord, nor is it important for us to know. It is plain that she had marked His course and His communications, and had felt her heart irresistibly drawn to His presence. It was perhaps to herself an unexplained and undefined impulse that made her seek to be near Him and to feel that happiness was where He was. In reality it was the drawing of grace working in the instinctive yearnings of a heart desolated by sin that drew her to His feet, because for the first time in her life she had found one in whose goodness she felt she could implicitly confide, in spite of what she was. How mysterious are these, cords of love, I. How out of place, in Christ's presence, is the soul that knows not their attractive force!
But this woman, on whom the eye cannot choose but rest, now that she has reached His presence, has no petition to prefer, no request to make. There is no cry of agony breaking from her lips. No " Lord help me" uttered with half-convulsive energy. But in silent unobtrusiveness she stands at His feet, or bends down to kiss them, as her heart in its fullest tides is gushing forth without restraint. In utter absorption of feeling she is engaged in giving expression, as best she may, to the estimation she had of the object whose worth had so utterly captivated every affection of her soul. She is dead to everything that at the moment is passing around her. The order of the Pharisee's house, is lost upon her. Neither his hospitalities nor his guests have any power for an instant to attract her eye. How could they? She has not a thought nor a look to throw away upon any object in the wide world, but on Him whose mysterious goodness had won her heart.
One does not like to turn away from the movements of a heart which one feels are so right, so suited to what the Lord Jesus is, and to be occupied with the man who is coldly speculating on the character of his guest, and pondering whether after all he had not been showing Him too much respect in inviting Him to his house. " This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what mariner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner." It was a startling interruption of his reverie to hear his thoughts answered by Jesus, saying, " Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee." His attention is demanded in a way that he cannot escape. There is nothing left for him but to hear the communication that had been so ominously commenced; and by the parable of the two debtors, he is so held to the point, that not only is he made to feel that he is in the presence of one who was, indeed, " a prophet," but to pronounce a verdict that laid the ground for his own condemnation and the vindication of the woman whom, from his ignorance of the workings of grace and of the person of the Lord, he had so abundantly despised.
(To be Continued)