Luke 8

36. AND 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. 37 And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat 38 at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster-box of ointment, and 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. 39 Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, 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. 40 And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. 41 And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor, which had two debtors: 42 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 43 most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house; thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed

45 my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no 46 kiss: but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with oint- 47 ment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she 48 loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto 49 her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him, began to say within 50 themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

1. And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were 2 with him; and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, 3 Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.

NOTHING rightly introduces us to Christ but sin, and nothing rightly reveals him but a sense of sin. His highest character is, that he forgives and cancels it. He is the prophet and the teacher, but he is above all the Redeemer; and those only know him who come to him with this feeling. So she came weeping and anointing his feet, and wiping them with her hair. Her faith opened the door of her heart, and entertained Christ there as he most loved to be entertained; while everything else, the hospitality of the Pharisee and the inquiries of Nicodemus, left him still without. And it is this truth which Christ came to reveal—that men are lost, and that he appeared to seek and to save them. Sin only leads us to him; and he leads us only as sinners to God. The same truths—that a sense of need is the qualification that helps men to see Christ, and that Christ’s highest character is that of a Saviour—came out in other parts of the inspired narrative, but nowhere in action more clearly than here. J. A.

In the Saviour’s own words, we have an explanation of this act. “Her sins, which are many, are for- given; for she loved much.” This tells the whole secret of those tears, that kiss, that precious gift, and of the impassioned freedom which carried her into the presence, and to the very table, of the Pharisee. Love and mercy had saved her; forgiveness had broken her hard heart. Hope and peace came with Christ’s words of comfort. It could be said of her soul as it is said of heaven, The Lamb is the light thereof. N. A.—What can be wished, of any mortal creature, but remission, safety, faith, peace? All these are here met, to make a contrite soul happy: remission, the ground of her safety; faith, the ground of her peace; safety and salvation, the issue of her remission; peace, the blessed fruit of her faith. Bp. H.

36. It is quite clear that the hospitality was | foreign custom of reclining at meals on cushions, meant to be qualified and condescending. All the | long in use among the Persians, Greeks, and Ro-

Reclining at Table.

ordinary attentions which would have been paid to | to their places. The side of the square nearest the an honored guest were coldly omitted. F.—The | door was open, so that the servants could have acmans, had been introduced into Palestine apparently as early as the days of Amos, and had be- come general in those of Christ. Raised divans, or table couches, provided with cushions and ar- ranged on three sides of a square, supplied a rest for guests, and on these they lay on their left arm, with their feet at case behind them. G.—The dinner-bed (of three couches, therefore) called a triclinium, stood in the middle of the room with a space between it and the walls, by which the guests passed cess to the dinner-table, which was inclosed within the area formed by the triclinium. The guests, when placed, had their faces turned toward the table, with their feet outward or behind, toward the wall. It will thus be seen how the woman, “standing at his feet behind,” could readily do all that she is described as doing. K.

Coming, as it does in the narrative, immediately after the invitation, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” how natural the thought that here we have one instance—perhaps the first that followed its delivery—of that invitation being accepted—of one wearied and heavy laden coming to Jesus, and entering into the promised rest! Multitudes had already come to him to get their bodily ailments cured: she came under the pressure of a purely spiritual impulse—grieving, desiring, hoping, loving, to get all and more than all she sought. All the penitence she experienced, all the new desires that were filling her breast, she owed to him. She had looked at him, listened to him, followed him as he invited all to come to him. And what he so fully offered—the peace of forgiveness, the blessedness of meekness, of lowliness of spirit, purity of heart—these are what she now, above all things, desired to have.

38. The faith and hope to which she has been begotten intensify her penitence, and that penitence intensifies her love; so that as we look upon her—first standing silently weeping, then bending down and bathing those feet with her tears, then clasping and kissing them, and pouring the rich ointment over them—she presents herself to our eye as the most striking picture of a loving, humble penitent at the feet of Jesus which the gospels present. H.—It was not possible she could bring to Christ a better present than her own penitent soul; yet, to testify that, she brings another, delicate both for the vessel and the contents. The soul that is truly touched with the sense of its own sin can think nothing too good, too dear, for Christ. Bp. H.—The shame of deepest unworthiness, and the unutterable gratitude of a saved soul, were struggling within. Words are poor at such a moment. A divinely-taught instinct gave her the expression, and the world has been filled with fragrance.

39. Penitence was there too deep for words, the broken and contrite heart which God will not despise, a loathing of sin which this Pharisee cannot understand, and a glowing love that made his frown forgotten in the irresistible attraction to a Saviour’s feet. Ker.—The host and his friends regarded it as the unwarranted intrusion of a disreputable stranger, giving very questionable honors that compromised and tarnished the receiver. As the angels of God beheld it, there was a penitent renouncing sin, and absolved of the God whose pardon can remit the offence as his grace can renew the offender. W. R. W.—But all this the poor Pharisee can understand no more than he can hear the angels who rejoice over it, and he complacently charges with ignorance him who searches the heart, and proudly condemns her who is being acquitted by the judge of all! Ker.

40. The Lord showed him that he was indeed a discerner of the thoughts of hearts, by reading at once what was passing in his heart, and laying his finger without more ado on the tainted spot which was there. T.—And Jesus answering said. The Pharisee had only spoken within himself; but Jesus answers him. Thus it is that, when we speak to our hearts, we speak to God who knoweth our hearts. He, who hears our thoughts, judges of them as if they were clothed with words. Bp. H.—If he could have established his point that it was unworthy of the Saviour to hold intercourse with sinners, what hope would there have been for him? Nay, had the Pharisee seen it, he was farther from the kingdom of God than she with all her sins about her; and it was not so wonderful that Christ should permit this woman to touch his feet, as that he should sit down as a guest at the Pharisee’s table. This, too, was in the way of his work, to bring in a contrite sinner with him, and touch, if it might be, the hard, self-righteous heart. Ker.

40-43. Like Nathan with David, our Lord conceals his home-thrust under the veil of a parable, and makes his host himself pronounce upon the case. The two debtors are the woman and Simon; the criminality of the one was ten times that of the other (in the proportion of “500” to “50”); but both being equally insolvent, both are with equal frankness forgiven; and Simon is made to own that the greatest debtor to forgiving mercy will cling to her divine benefactor with the deepest gratitude. B.

42. Frankly forgave.** What depth of meaning is in these words, if we reflect who said them, and by what means this forgiveness was to be wrought! A.—43. He to whom he forgave most. God is our creditor, our sins are debts; we are all debtors, but some more deeply than others. No man can pay his debt; remission alone can discharge it. God in mercy forgives as well the greatest as the least sins; our love to God is proportional to our sense of his forgiveness. Thus the Pharisee cannot but confess that, the more and greater the sin is, the greater mercy in the forgiveness; and the greater mercy in the forgiver, the greater sense of obligation in him who is forgiven. Bp. H.—The love borne to his person is in proportion to the sense of forgiveness. Little love where there is little sense of sin and pardon; abounding love where this has taken possession of the soul. Ker.

44-46. Host and Saviour appear, each in his true character; the Pharisee murmurs, while Jesus welcomes this blighted but contrite heart; he reserves his severity for the man of credit and distinction, well knowing the dead heart within him. The man to whom little has been forgiven loves little; he repels pardon as an insult, and abides in his impotent pride. Penitent hearts, on the contrary, break and flow forth at the feet of Jesus, like the box of ointment which has just been poured over them. De P.—The law was to Simon very like a human statute-book that takes note of the external conduct, and its transgressors were to be treated like outlaws and criminals. The view of the law as a deep, spiritual, all-embracing element had scarcely dawned upon him—a view which gives an unspeakably more profound idea of the evil of sin, but at the same time a more tender sympathy with those who are infected with it. It is the highest purity which is capable of the tenderest sympathy, and they are both in Christ. He will not despise the sin and misery of those who appeal to him, and he has the power to help them in the conflict. Their course is now to submit the whole, with the unreserved transparency of a contrite heart, and with simple faith, to his eye who sees all to pardon it, and to lead from pardon on to purity and perfect peace.

47. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.** Christ saw into the woman’s heart and life deeper than the Pharisee did. He judged them by a law far higher, and loathed sin as no man ever will do while he dwells in the clay. But he did not gather up his garments from the touch of the sinner, because in his heart there was an infinite fountain of mercy, which made him ready not only to receive the lost, but to pour out his soul unto the death to save them. And now he is only carrying out his own grand plan when he draws this sinner near him, and suffers her to clasp his feet that she may feel she is in contact with God’s infinite and saving mercy. Ker.—For she loved much. Are we to conclude from hence that there is any advantage in having multiplied transgressions? the more sin, the more love? The whole matter is clear, if we consider the debt, not as so many outward transgressions, but as so much conscience of sin: and this we know is in no proportion to the amount of evil actually committed. Often they who have least of what the world can call sin, have yet the deepest sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He who has little forgiven is not necessarily he who has sinned little, but he who is lacking in any strong conviction of the exceeding evil of sin. He loves little, or scarcely at all, because he has little sense of a deliverance wrought for him. T.

It is love, according to Jesus, which gives to religion its true import. The faith of the woman proved itself genuine, because it sprang from and begat love; the love from the faith, the faith from the love. Her desire for salvation led her to Jesus; her love aided her in finding a Saviour in him; with warm love she embraced him as such, even before he pronounced the pardon of her sins. Therefore Christ said of her, “Her many sins are forgiven, because she has loved much;” and to her, “Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace;” thus exhibiting the reciprocal relations of the two—the faith proving itself true by the love. The Pharisee, whose feelings were ossified, bound up in the mechanism of the outward law, was especially lacking in the love which could lead to faith; and therefore, in speaking to him, the woman’s love, and not her faith, was made prominent by Christ. N.

37-50. This wonderful scene teaches very weighty truths: 1. Though there be degrees of guilt, insolvency or inability to wipe out the dishonor done to God is common to all sinners. 2. As Christ is the great creditor to whom all debt, whether great or small, contracted by sinners is owing, so to him belongs the prerogative of forgiving it. B. 3. The man who is saved from sin by love is softened by the love which saves him; but the man who is kept from sin only by pride is made more hard. As near the sin in his real heart as ever, he maintains a false outward character by being very severe upon sinners. So a mere external reformation brings in vanity, pride, and all uncharitableness. 4. Those who profess religion should be careful how they give a false view of it by uncharitable judgments and by assumptions of superiority. It matters little whether this is done under the guise of zeal for orthodoxy of doctrine or morality of life. If it want the spirit of meekness and sympathy, it has not the spirit of the gospel. The greatest proof of the divine is that it is deeply and tenderly human. God became man to show this. Those who have struggled nearest to the centre of truth and life in Christ are those who will have most sympathy with men striving amid waves of doubt to plant their feet on some spiritual certainty; and they who have risen highest in purity of heart will be most ready to stretch out their hand to help a sinner to retrieval. The reason is plain. It is these men who are acquainted with the misery of the conflict and the blessedness of the calm. Ker.

The anointing by Mary at Bethany had a purpose and spirit altogether different from that of this woman. Each showed sacrifice in the precious gift she brought; but with the one it was an offering of penitence, with the other of pure devotion. The “sinner” anointed Christ as the “Prince and Saviour, who gave repentance to Israel and remission of sin:” Mary, whom Jesus had long loved, gave the funeral unction to the body of her dear friend, in prospect of his death. S.—2. There is not the least reason for supposing the woman in the above incident to have been Mary Magdalene. The introduction of her as a new person so soon after, and what is here stated of her, make the notion exceedingly improbable. A.—It is by a singular fate that of the few women mentioned in the gospels, two of the most famous should have become blended into one. The sinner at a passing feast has borrowed a history from the tried disciple of Jesus. And yet nothing would seem easier than to separate them. The one is of no certain city, the other of Magdala: the one is a nameless and sudden apparition, the other is always mentioned by name, and becomes a constant follower of the Lord: the one is healed of a mental disease, the other is cleansed from moral taint: the one is the companion of honorable and pious women, and assumes a public place beside the Saviour, the other shrinks into a privacy that shuns the public gaze. Not only are there these well-marked distinctions, but each has a sufficient history of her own. There was no need to find a preface for the Magdalene’s, nor a close for the sinner’s: each is rounded off and complete. For the poor woman that wept at Simon’s, that story is all we care to know. She had sinned, and was forgiven. Let the happy life pass into friendly obscurity, let her go in peace. W. F. S.—Mary Magdalene seems to have been a woman of high station and opulent fortune, being mentioned here even before Joanna, the wife of so great a man as Herod’s steward. And the other Evangelists, when they speak of our Lord’s female friends, commonly assign the first place to Mary Magdalene. She was called the Magdalene, from Magdala, the place of her nativity, a town situated beside the lake, on the southern border of the plain of Gennesaret. M.

3. He who was the support of the spiritual life of his people disdained not to be supported by them in the body. He was not ashamed to penetrate so far into the depths of poverty as to live upon the alms of love. He only fed others miraculously: for himself, he lived upon the love of his people. He gave all things to men his brethren, and received all things from them, enjoying thereby the pure blessing of love; which is then only perfect when it is at the same time both giving and receiving. O.—Jesus lived chiefly with his spiritual family, freely using their hospitality, as did the rabbis of the time. His ministrations were divided between the multitudes to whom he preached the gospel, and the familiar circle of his disciples, whom he taught with a solicitude only equalled by his patience. De P.

Section 47.—Heals a Blind and Dumb Demoniac. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.

Galilee.