3.10 The Two Debtors
IX. THE TWO DEBTORS.
Jesus accepted an invitation from one Simon a Pharisee to eat with him. While He reclined at table in the house of His host, a certain woman of evil reputation in the city, knowing that He was there, entered bearing an alabaster flask of ointment. She approached THE PARABLES OF JESUS 141
Jesus, and, standing behind at His feet weeping, she bent low and began to wet His feet with her tears. She then wiped them with the hair of her head, and having kissed them lovingly, she anointed them with the ointment. The host looked on astonished, and though his lips were silent, his mind was busy. This man,” he thought, “ cannot be a prophet. If he were, he would know who and what manner of woman this is who toucheth him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered the unspoken thought: “ Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee.” Simon replied: “Master, say on.”
Jesus proceeded: “ A certain moneylender had two debtors, one of whom owed him 500 denars, the other 50; and as they were unable to pay, he forgave them both their debt.
Which, then, of them will love him most?”
“ He, I suppose,” answered Simon, “ to whom he forgave most.” Jesus said: “ Rightly hast thou judged.” Then, turning towards the woman, He went on addressing Simon, “ Seest thou this woman? I came into thy house; thou gavest Me no water for my feet; but she wetted My feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest Me 142 THE PARABLES OF JESUS no kiss; but she, ever since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss My feet. Thou didst not anoint My head with oil; but she hath anointed My feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say to thee, her sins, many though they be, have been forgiven her, for she loved much; but he to whom little is forgiven loveth but little.”
He then said to the woman: “ Thy sins are forgiven.” Those who were at table with Him, hearing this, began to say within them selves: “ Who is this that even forgiveth sins?”
Jesus, disregarding their thoughts, said to the woman: “ Thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace.” This history follows the account of the embassy of John to Jesus, and of the discourse which the latter made to His disciples after the departure of the messengers, in which He referred to the charges brought against Him of being a glutton, a winebibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners. Appropriately enough, the Evangelist then relates the incident illustrative of the attitude of Jesus towards sinners. The other three Evangelists narrate a similar incident; and the question arises whether all four histories refer to the same THE PARABLES OF JESUS 143 event or not. All four have certain features in common; but that of St. Luke at first sight gives one the impression that it relates a different event; though in one point, the anointing of the feet of Jesus, it agrees with St. John’s narrative against the others. St. Luke inserts his in a context which belongs to an early period in Our Lord’s public ministry; and he seems to lay the scene in the town of Nairn. According to St. John, the incident took place at Bethania, six days before the Passover; St. Matthew and St. Mark likewise place the scene at Bethania; but it is probable that they have inserted the incident, not in the chronological order, but in the logical, the reference by Jesus to His approaching death furnishing some explanation of the projected betrayal. As to St. Luke, apart from the position of the narrative in his Gospel, a point which is by no means decisive, the indications of time and place which he gives are so vague that, if the theory of the identity of the anointings is shown to be probable on other grounds, no argument to the contrary can be fairly drawn from them.
All three Synoptists agree in giving Simon as 144 THE PARABLES OF JESUS the name of the host; St. John alone, of the Evangelists, leaves him unnamed. St. Matthew and St. Mark speak only of the anointing of Our Lord’s head; St. Luke and St. John relate only the anointing of His feet.
According to St. Luke, the woman first wetted His feet with her tears, then wiped them with her hair, and finally anointed them; while John simply states that she anointed the feet of Jesus, and then wiped them with her hair. In all four Gospels we find Jesus defending the woman; but in St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. John, the charge is one of wanton extrava gance, and is brought against her by the disciples; while, as we have seen, in St. Luke, her defence by Jesus is occasioned by the unspoken contempt felt for her by His host on account of her infamous life. Still, the differences in question nowhere amount to a formal contradiction; and we find nothing in them which would compel us to regard St. Luke’s narrative as an account of a separate event of which the other Evangelists knew or at least related nothing. The differences which the various histories present may well be regarded as particulars which supplement THE PARABLES OF JESUS 145 so much of the narrative as is common to all.
Another reason which tells strongly in favour of the view that the four Evangelists had one and the same event in mind may be drawn from the silence of St. Luke as to any anointing during the last days of Jesus. As for the further argument adduced in favour of this opinion namely, that the anointing was of too unique a character for us to admit with any show of probability that it was repeated in somewhat similar circumstances we cannot think that it is conclusive. To do so would be to measure the probability of things so remote in time and place by present-day standards which cannot possibly be applicable to them. There is, however, one strong point which, to our mind, tends to discredit this view. The first three Evangelists give us no clue as to who the woman was; St. John alone reveals her name: Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. We naturally shrink from identifying the contemplative Mary, against whose reputation no word is breathed in the Gospels, with the woman of evil life. The characters of both, even as briefly sketched by St. Luke and St. John, are, if we except
10 146 THE PARABLES OF JESUS the devotion to Jesus which they have in common, diametrically opposed. If, then, we sum up the evidence for and against the identi fication of the event related by St. Luke with that related by the other Evangelists, we feel forced to the conclusion that the cumulative weight of the arguments on either side as opposed to the other does not so preponderate as to compel us to accept one view or the other with any high degree of certainty.
It would seem that the Pharisees, with all their faults, did not neglect to practise hospita lity, since we find Our Lord on two other occasions in St. Luke’s Gospel (xi. 37, 14:1) at table in their houses. They may, indeed, have invited Him to a meal in the hope that in the freedom of social intercourse He would be less on His guard than when formally exercising the office of teacher, and that in consequence He would say or do something that might serve as ground for an accusation against Him. In earlier times the Hebrews took their meals sitting, but in the New Testament period a reclining attitude was common. People reclined on cushions, each capable of accommodating three or sometimes THE PARABLES OF JESUS 147 five persons. These supported themselves on their left arm, with the head turned towards the table, while the feet were extended backwards. This will account for the approach of the woman to Jesus from behind. The anointing of the body or a part of it was quite common in the East, especially at banquets. Ointment or oil when sweetsmelling helped to counteract the unpleasant effects of the exhalations which the body gave off, and anointing, if habitually persevered in, tended to keep the skin smooth and supple.
Women often carried flasks of perfume depending in front from their necks. Alaba ster was a favourite material for these flasks, as it was thought to be best adapted forpreserving the fragrance of the perfume undiminished. Apart from the quality of the person who performed the anointing in question, the incident in itself was nothing out of the common. The two debtors, one of whom owed 500 denars, the other 50, represent respectively the sinful woman and Simon. We are all of us more or less guilty before God, and if her guilt was greater than that of Simon, a man, 148 THE PARABLES OF JESUS doubtless, of what is called correct life, her love surpassed his. Jesus on entering the house of the Pharisee met with a cold recep tion; only those tokens of reverence were shown Him which might well have been paid to any passing guest. In strange contrast to this was the fervent devotion of the sinful woman, now thoroughly aroused to repentance.
Forgetful of that reserve which the Jewish woman was supposed to observe, and heedless of the looks of contempt and abhorrence with which Simon and his fellow-Pharisees might view her, she entered the dining-room. In that assembly there was only one whom she sought Jesus, ever pitiful towards sinners, to Whom no erring mortal was an outcast.
Yet it was not merely the knowledge that He was merciful that drew her to Him: He alone, she felt, could heal her moral malady and restore her to that state of happy innocence from which in an evil hour she had fallen.
She approached Him unseen, and, standing behind an < bending low, she bedewed His feet with tears of shame and sorrow, and wiped them with those tresses in which she had held her lovers captive; she then kissed THE PARABLES OF JESUS 149 them repeatedly and anointed them with the precious ointment which she had brought with her. Jesus, Who saw that all these outward demonstrations came from a broken and humbled heart, lovingly accepted them. In the parable in which He undertook her defence, setting out from the principle which it illustrates, that the greater the debt the greater ought to be the love of him who is forgiven, towards the creditor who remits it, He finds implied in the actions which bespeak her love and which put to shame the indifference of the Pharisee a greater guilt than his; and then (verse 47) He attributes her forgiveness to her love in the words: “Her sins, many though they be, have been forgiven, for she loved much.” Ii the parable love is the effect of pardon; in the history which enshrines it it is the cause: the reciprocal action of love and forgiveness is at once the theme and the practical lesson of the whole section.
We have no means of knowing whether Simon took the lesson to heart. The other guests at table, and probably Simon with them, were scandalized that Jesus should pronounce the absolution of the penitent, thus claiming for 150 THE PARABLES OF JESUS
Himself the right to forgive sins; while they on their part arrogated to themselves the power to condemn. Jesus, without waiting to set them right, dismissed the happy penitent with the consoling words: “Thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace.”
TAGS: [Parables]