The Two Debtors
(No. 3015)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1906.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
14, 1867.
"There was a certain creditor who had two debtors: the one owed one
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 more?" Luke 7:41,42.
[Other Sermons on various parts of this Parable, are as follows: No.
2,768, Volume 48–DEBTORS AND DEBTORS; No. 1,739, Volume 29–BANKRUPT
DEBTORS DISCHARGED and No. 2,127, Volume 36–LOVE'S COMPETITION]
IT is not wise to compare ourselves with our fellow men. It is
comparing one incorrect standard with another and is very apt to
mislead. Still, as men will do this, as they will sail upon this tack,
we will, for the moment, do the same with the view of correcting some
of their mistakes.
I. The very brief Parable before us suggests four thoughts upon which
we will dwell for a few minutes. The first is that THERE ARE DIFFERENT
DEGREES IN OUR SINNERSHIP–some owe five hundred pence and others only
fifty.
It would be very incorrect to say of all men, that they are alike
sinful. That they are all guilty is true, but that they are all equally
guilty is not true. There are persons who would contend very earnestly
for this distinction because they claim to be among the better sort of
sinners. They claim that they are not one tithe as guilty as many whom
they know and that, in comparison with more grossly vicious persons,
they are all but innocent! We will admit that, my excellent Friend. We
will admit–not all, perhaps, that you would like us to admit–but we
will at once allow that you are not so guilty as others. We will also
admit that all sins are not alike degrading. There are vices,
especially those which pollute the body, which manifestly lower men to
the level of beasts, or worse than that, and we would not, for a
moment, insinuate that our young friends who have been educated in the
midst of godliness and have been preserved from any taint of vice, are
so degraded by sin as drunks and revelers, the profane and the
debauched.
Moreover, we are persuaded that the penalties of sin will differ and
that, albeit all the wicked shall be cast into Hell, yet there will be
degrees in the anguish of that lost state. Our Master has Himself told
us, "That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be
beaten with few stripes. For unto whomever much is given, of him shall
be much required." There are great criminals whose punishment shall be
more intolerable than that of others–and there are others, who have
not sinned to the same extent, who, though justly punished with God's
wrath– shall not endure it to the same extent as those who have
plunged more deeply into iniquity.
Thus we are prepared to admit that there are differences in sin,
differences in the consequent degradation of sinners, and differences
in the punishment due to sin. Our own conscience, common sense and
right judgment teach us this, yet notwithstanding the admissions, I
want to put a few plain questions to you, dear Friends, who think that
you are among the fifty-pence debtors and who look down with some sort
of disdain upon those who owe five hundred pence! And, first, let me
ask you this question–Are you quite sure that you are the lesser
sinners. Are you certain that you are to be reckoned among the
fifty-pence debtors? Remember that we must always judge sin not merely
by its outward appearance, but by the motives and character of the
person committing it–and also by the circumstances under which the
offense was perpetrated.
Will you not all admit that a sin committed against light and knowledge
is far worse than a sin of ignorance. If a man should offend against
the law of the land, not knowing it to be the law, his offense would
not be as gross as that of
another man who, understanding what the law is, deliberately sets
himself in opposition to it. It may be that some of those upon whom you
have looked down as owing God five hundred pence may have been without
the light that you have had. Probably the most of them never had the
privileges that you have enjoyed. Did not your godly mother pray over
you from your very birth? Did not your anxious father diligently
instruct you in the way of salvation? You have read the Bible, you have
a tolerably clear notion what is right and what is wrong, so you have
sinned in the light–you have sinned knowing it to be sin. May not,
therefore, your little sins, as you think them to be, really be more
heinous in the sight of God than those apparently greater sins which
others have committed without the same degree of light and knowledge
that you have had?
Further, must not sin also be measured by the violence which a man has
to do to his conscience in order to commit it. To some persons, no
doubt, from their early habits and even from their very constitution, I
will not say that sin becomes inevitable, but certainly they glide into
it almost by nature and without being conscious of any restraint–or
the restraint is so little that they scarcely feel it. I know that
there are some of you who, happily, had to pull and tug against the bit
and bridle before you could live as sinners. Conscience has so sharply
pricked you and made you so uneasy in your course of life, that you
have had to wrestle with your own conscience as a man struggles with
his adversary. You have had to clutch conscience by the throat and try
to throttle it and if you could have done so, you would have stifled,
once and for all, that warning cry which became a constant nuisance to
you. You could not sin with such pleasure as others could because your
conscience would not keep silent, so, may not those minor offenses of
yours which have been committed, notwithstanding the alarms of your
outraged conscience, have had in them a heinousness which does not
apply to the sins of others who have not had to contend against this
inward monitor when plunging into sin?
Yet again, dear Friends, may not example sometimes have a great deal to
do with sinl When I see some of our young people inclining to be
drunks, I am very sorry and I blame them. But can I wonder at their
conduct when I see how many parents train up their children as if they
really intended to make drunks of them–tempting them to drink and
giving them their first taste of that which becomes a cause of
stumbling to them? I do not see how, if it were the objective of some
parents to make their boys drunks, they could act otherwise than as
they now do! I have heard a workingman say to his son, when he has
passed him a jug of ale, "Take a drink, my lad," and he has looked
quite pleased when the boy has taken a deep draught. And then he has
taken him to the gin palace and let him mingle freely with the evil
company usually found in such a place! So, is there any wonder that the
boy becomes a drunk? Can a father blame his son for swearing when he
is, himself, a blasphemer? No. And I say that people who have thus been
in the midst of sin from their very childhood, may not, after all, be
such great sinners as others who have had the very opposite example set
before them–and yet have committed these sins contrary to all the
training of their early childhood. Some of us cannot recollect a fault
on the part of our parents. Honestly looking back upon the private life
of my father and mother, I cannot recall anything in their example
which it would have been unsafe for me to imitate. Well then, if I have
sinned, I have sinned against a parental example which I ought to have
followed and, therefore, there must be more guilt in my fifty-pence sin
than in the five-hundred-pence sin of others who have not had such an
example as I had!
Do you not think, too, that circumstances greatly affect the
comparative enormity of sin?? If a thief steals a loaf because he has
starving children crying at home, would you give him the same
punishment as you would award to another man who steals what he really
does not need and who seriously injures the man he robs merely for the
greed of gain? You all make distinctions as to the motives which prompt
to various actions–if you find that the motive, in one case, although
not right, was more excusable than in the case of another–you judge
the first one the more leniently. How do you know, my dear Hearers who
resisted the calls of Divine Grace last Lord's-Day, that you were not
more guilty than that man who was not here but who reeled home that
same night, intoxicated? You came into direct contact with God's mercy
and you resisted it–and that is more than the poor drunk did! And as
to some of you seat-holders who are constantly here, yet still remain
unconverted though we have entreated you to lay hold on Christ–I will
not say it, but I almost think that your resistance of those continued
invitations of Grace may have in it more of moral guilt, in the sight
of God, than some of those offenses for which men are shut up in prison
and are execrated by their fellows! Many people do not regard sins
against God as being so heinous as crimes against men, yet they are
even more so! And it is one of the marks of our common moral conduct
that while a man may not be greatly offended if you call him a sinner,
he
would be very angry if you called him a criminal! That is to say such a
man thinks there is not much amiss in having offended God, but he
thinks it would be a dreadful thing to have broken the laws of his
fellow men!
If you think these things over seriously, I should not wonder if anyone
of you who at first said, "I am a fifty-pence debtor. I thank God that
there are differences between sinners and that I am not so degraded as
other men are"–should have to say, "It makes very little difference to
me after all. It is true that I have never been a thief, I have never
committed an act of unchastity, I have been an honest, upright,
respectable member of society, yet, as I have not believed in Jesus
Christ and turned from sin, I may be among those who were apparently
first, who shall be last, while some who seemed to be last, shall stand
far before me." I shall notbe sorry, dear Hearer, if that is the point
to which you come. Indeed, I shall rather be glad, for it will be a
more hopeful position for you to occupy than that which you once felt
was your right place!
II. Having thus shown you that there are degrees in sin, I shall now
pass on to show you that THERE IS AN EQUALITY IN THE BANKRUPTCY OF BOTH
THE GREAT AND THE LITTLE SINNERS.
Neither of the debtors in the Parable had anything with which to pay
his debt. And when God means to save a soul, He makes it realize that
it has nothing with which it can discharge its debt to God. If any of
you think that you can do anythingtowards saving yourselves, go and do
it! But Christ will have nothing to do with you on those terms! You
must be brought to feel that you are helpless, hopeless, lost, ruined
and undone–and that you cannot lift even a finger to save
yourself–but that the Grace of God must do everything for you, from
the first to the last! And unless you are thus emptied, and humbled,
and laid low in the dust before God, I see no sign that His Spirit is
effectually working in you–
"While we can call one mite our own, We get no full discharge."
Both these debtors knew that "they had nothing to pay." There are some
men who are conscious of a great deal of guilt who offer to discharge
their liability by their repentance. "Oh," says such a man, "I am very
sorry for my sin and that sorrow will surely make up for it. My tears
shall flow freely and I will deprive myself of this pleasure and that!
Surely that is all that is needed." But the man whom God means to save
knows that his repentance cannot atone for his past guilt. If I get
into debt, it is no use for me to be sorry–that sorrow will not pay my
debt! And as I am immeasurably indebted to God, my tears of repentance
will not discharge that debt–
"Could my tears forever flow," they would not atone for sin! I hope you
all realize the Truth of what I am saying, for if you do, it is a token
for good in your case.
Some others, though they cannot pay the full amount of their debt, hope
to make a compromise. They will do their best and leave the Lord Jesus
Christ to make up the rest. They cannot offer to God perfect obedience,
so they offer such obedience as they can–and they trust that will
satisfy Him. But a soul that has been truly awakened by the Holy Spirit
knows that "compromise" is quite out of the question. The Divine
declaration is, "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things
which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them." There is not a
word about some things which are required and other things which may be
excused. My dear Hearer, I trust you are convinced that no
half-obedience can ever be accepted by God! If you are to be saved by
your own works, you must be absolutely perfect in thought, word and
deed from the moment of your birth to the hour of your death! One crack
in the crystal vase of perfection spoils it–and you all know that the
vase was not only cracked, but smashed to atoms long ago. Do not trust
in your own righteousness, but confess before God that you have
"nothing to pay" off that terrible debt which you have incurred through
sin.
Some men give their note of hand and promise to pay their debt. They
hope they will be better in the future than they have been in the past.
But suppose they are? They will then be no better than they are always
bound to be–and how can that improvement discharge their past debts?
Try that plan on one of your tradesmen. You owe him, shall I say fifty
pounds? Well, then, go to him and say, "I cannot pay what I owe you,
but I will never get into your debt again." Will that promise take your
name off his ledger? You know that it will not! And so, even if you
could serve God perfectly in the future, that would not put away your
sins in the past! The fact is, these promises of yours are just like
the paper money which represents no real security and so leads to
bankruptcy. You may build up a nice-looking structure with
promises of good works which you will do in the future, but it will all
come tumbling down one of these days–and great will be the fall
thereof.
This is the only safe declaration for a man to make–"O God, I am
deeply in Your debt and have nothing to pay! If You would save me
through my repenting, even then, if You did not enable me to repent, I
could not repent, for my heart is hard as a stone! Lord, will You not
take away my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh? And, Lord, if
I am to be holy in the future, it must be Your Grace which will make me
so. I know that if I am ever to enter Heaven, I must be holy. And I
also know that holiness must be worked in me by Your Holy Spirit.
Consequently, it cannot be any credit to me– You must have the credit
of it all. As for me, I am like the two debtors, I have 'nothing to
pay'–nothing whatever! If You send the sheriff's officer to take me
and put me in prison, and tell me that I shall never come out until I
have paid the uttermost farthing, I must lie there forever and ever,
for I know that it is not in my power to meet even one in ten thousand
of Your just demands. If you should lay judgment to the line and
righteousness to the plummet, my building for eternity must be found
wanting. Pull it down, Lord, and then build me up as You would have
me!"
We are all equal here–"there is no difference." You respectable ladies
and gentlemen are on a level with the worst villains in the land! My
Lord, you are no better off, in this respect, than a chimney-sweeper!
Your Majesty, even you have no preference, in this matter, over the
poorest woman in your dominions! If you are to be saved–high and low,
rich and poor, you great and mighty ones, and you despised and
abandoned ones–so must all bow together here as you will have to lie
in earth's common grave! So must you bow down in one common lowliness
of mind before your God, whose debtors you all are, confessing that you
have "nothing to pay"–not a single rusty farthing of goodness in the
whole human race! Jew and Gentile must bow together before God, crying,
"Guilty, guilty, GUILTY! We are guilty, everyone of us and we have
nothing to plead in answer to the demands of Your righteous Law. And
even this confession, itself, is forced from our lips because we cannot
help feeling that it is, alas, but too true." We are all equal here.
III. Passing on to the next point, we observe that when Sovereign Mercy
dealt with these two debtors–the fifty-pence man and the
five-hundred-pence man–IT PUT THEM ON A LEVEL, AGAIN, for their
creditor "frankly forgave them both."
The man who owed the five hundred pence could turn to the other debtor
and say, "I am out of debt, my Brother!" And the other one could say to
him, "Give me your hand! I cannot say any more than you can, but, glory
be to God, I cannot say any less, for I, also, am out of debt! I could
not pay my fifty pence, so I could have been shut up in the debtors
prison–and you could not pay your five hundred pence, so you, also,
could have been kept in prison. And though I did not owe as much as you
did, yet I owed more than I could ever have paid, so let us together
bless the name of the Lord who has frankly forgiven us both because His
only-begotten and well-beloved Son has redeemed us from going down to
the Pit by paying all our debt on Calvary's Cross."
There is one word that I want you to especially notice–"He
franklyforgave them both." By that I understand that he forgave them
altogether because he willed to do so and not because of any reason in
them why he should do so. Once and for all, he fully cancelled all
their debts. And now, just as if they had never been in debt at all, he
could not arrest them for debt and they had no cause to be afraid that
he would do so, for he had no legal claim against them for he had,
himself, by an act of Grace, forgiven them all that they owed–and they
were, therefore, clear. Ah, my dear Hearers, your hearts must leap for
joy if you know that God has forgiven all your past sin! Sometimes,
when we get to talking about the perfect pardon which we have received
from God, some people say, "How egotistical, how presumptuous you are!"
Well, we will be egotistical and presumptuous in that sense–and the
more we are so, the better will it be! Anyone who has believed in Jesus
is wholly forgiven! Against me, if I believe in Jesus and against you,
if you believe in Jesus, there is no sin recorded in God's Book of
Remembrance! It is all blotted out! If you could turn the pages over,
you would not find a single entry of the sin of a Believer. In God's
sight, if I have trusted in Christ, I am as pure as though I had never
sinned, for I have been so washed in Christ's precious blood that not a
spot or wrinkle remains upon me! And you, too, Believer, are not
half-pardoned. Christ is not half a Savior to us, but a whole Savior!
And the pardon which God gives to us is a full and final pardon. He
does not forgive us upon condition that we do not go back to the world.
He makes no such condition and He will not let us go back. He forgives
us outright, and puts the whole of our sin away forever. He receives
the prodigal back into His bosom and bids him sit at the table and
feast while the music and the dancing make glad his heart!
Do you know, dear Hearer, that you are forgiven? "Oh," says one, "I
would give all I have to know that." You may know it. If you trust the
Lord Jesus Christ, that is a sure proof that you are pardoned. And you
may live and you ought to live in a constant realization of perfect
pardon through the precious blood of Jesus. There may have come into
this place one who would not like his name to be known, or his
character to be described. He has gone very, very far into everything
that is evil. But he is now standing at the foot of the Cross and he is
looking up to the Crucified Christ and he can say, "My trust is in
Jesus only." There is probably also here a young man whose life, from
his youth up, has been most excellent–nobody could ever detect a flaw
in his moral character. He, too, is looking upon the wounds of Jesus,
and he also can say, "My trust is in Him alone." Now, these two persons
are equally pardoned! That great sinner has no more against him in
God's Book than that excellent youth who is also forgiven–"He frankly
forgave them both"–nor forgave one of them fully and the other only
partially, but, "He frankly forgave them both."
My eyes glance here and there upon some of my Brothers and Sisters in
Christ whose life stories remind me of the differences there are
between them–and also of the likeness which Divine Grace has worked in
them. There are some here whose tongues were used in blasphemy not long
ago. The drunkard's cup was often at their lips and the drunkard's
language was their usual speech. But they are washed, cleansed and
sanctified! And now there is no difference between them and those who
were preserved from wandering out of the path of morality. "No
difference," did I say? Sometimes I think that there is this
difference–that those who have sinned much and have had much forgiven,
are the warmest-hearted among us, the most faithful and the most
earnest. So that if we, in our earlier days, seemed to excel them, they
now excel us and we almost envy them their holy joy and earnest love to
the Lord who has washed them from their many sins! Still, there is an
equality between these two classes. They are both alike pardoned, both
washed in the same precious blood, both clothed in the same spotless
righteousness, both equally adopted into the family of God, both
equally secured by the Everlasting Covenant and both equally have the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit! And they shall both equally stand at the
right hand of Christ, wearing the white robes, waving the palm
branches, and they shall equally share His victory as they sing, "Unto
Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and
has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father–to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
IV. Now, lastly, THERE IS ANOTHER POINT OF DIFFERENCE–"Which of them
will love him more?"
It is quite certain that there are some Christians who love the Lord
Jesus Christ more than others do. Some who love Him much while others
only love Him a little. Shall I describe those who love Christ only a
little? If I do, some of you will be able to recognize your own
portraits. They come to the place of worship pretty regularly. They
sing, but not too loudly, for they are afraid of being too
enthusiastic. They seldom come to a Prayer Meeting and only
occasionally to the week-night service. They take just sufficient
spiritual nourishment to keep them alive! I suppose they are afraid of
taking too much, lest their spiritual nature should become too
vigorous. They do have family prayer–sometimes. They do pray
regularly, but it is very short. It may be sweet, but it is certainly
very short. They do some good in the world–at least, we hope they do.
They could count on one hand all the souls they have ever brought to
Christ and all the good works they have ever done for the Lord Jesus
Christ might be recorded on a very small scrap of paper. Some of them
are wealthy and they heard a man ask them to give a tithe of their
income to Christ. They thought he was a fanatic–they never dreamed of
doing such a thing as he urged, though they do, sometimes, give a
sixpence to the collection! They like other people to be earnest. They
do not object to that unless those people ask them, also, to be
earnest. These little-loved people have believed in Jesus, so they will
go to Heaven–but such a change will have taken place in them that we
shall scarcely know them.
I have seen whole congregations of this sort of people! I have preached
to them–that was terrible work, I can assure you. I have gone home
with the deacon and he has been a person of the same sort. He didn't
care to know how the cause was getting on in London. Indeed, he didn't
care much whether it was getting on or not. As for revivals, if you
only mention the word in the presence of such Brethren, they say, "No
good ever comes of them." These people have had little forgiven, so
they only love a little. They were never very great sinners and never
had any deep repentance so, in their own estimation, they never owed
Jesus Christ very much–they are a sort of superficial Christians who
will be "saved, yet so as by fire."
You hardly need that I should describe those who love Christ
much–those who delight to praise Him, to pray in His name and to do
all in their power to make Him known to others–those who give to God's
cause at no ordinary rate,
and help us to fight Satan in no ordinary way and to spread the Gospel
of Christ in no common fashion! Last week some of us were at a meeting
at which there was present a dear Brother in the ministry, the very
flame of whose eyes seemed to set us all on fire–and when we have
heard him speak from this platform, the very place has seemed to shake
under the power of his fervent proclamation of the Truth of God and his
impassioned prayers! A man who is thus all soul and all heart cannot
preach lifeless, heavy, drugging sermons–and cannot bear to be with
people who are dull, cold and heavy of heart. He feels that he has had
much forgiven and, therefore, he loves much. I could also tell you of
some godly Sisters who have given almost all their living to the cause
of God and of others who give all their time to God's service, having
sacrificed everything else that they may devote themselves to the cause
of Christ. These are they who love much.
We have differences even in the ministry. We have some Brothers who
preach twice in the week, and they get so weary that they have to go
away for a long holiday. But there are others who can preach 10 times
in the week, or who, if they are not preaching, are visiting their
people from door to door–and yet they do not die, but bless God that
they have the strength thus to serve Him! As it is in the pulpit, so is
it in the Sunday school, and so is it with all classes of Christians–
there is a difference. Some seem to be all heart and others seem to
have no heart at all. There are some who serve the Lord with their
whole soul and others who give Him just the odds and ends of their time
and strength. I pray God to raise up among us many Brothers and Sisters
who shall be eminent for their Grace and consecration to Christ!
What is the best way to reach this point? Not to be great sinners, but
to feelthat you are great sinners! To have a deep sense of your own
sinfulness. If you have never plunged into open vice, be thankful that
you have not done so, but regard your sin in the light in which I tried
to put it in the earlier part of this sermon. Set a clear view of it
till you are humbled, broken down and crushed under its ponderous
weight. Then go to Jesus Christ with this load of sin and, trusting in
Him, know that you are forgiven through His atoning Sacrifice. And then
there will be a potent motive within you which will give strength to
your entire life and put muscle, nerve, sinew and bone into your
Christianity! Then will you sing–
"Love I much?I've more forgiven! I'm a miracle of Grace!"
God bless this message to those poor trembling souls who are deeply in
debt through sin–that they may see God's way of forgiving them through
the merits and death of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. And may those who
are forgiven much love Jesus much, and may God bless you all, for
Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 7:36-50.
Verse 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 It was
usually a suspicious circumstance when a Pharisee desired to be
familiar with Christ. It might generally be suspected that he wished to
entrap Him. Yet, on this occasion, if there was no real friendliness to
Christ, there was at least the appearance of it. We see what our Savior
did when the Pharisee gave Him an invitation– "He went into the
Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat." The Lord saw there an
opportunity for usefulness. He knew that He would have a good reason
for speaking personally to this Pharisee, who, perhaps, was one of the
better sort. At all events, our Lord felt that it was right for Him to
go into that house, even if they did watch Him and try to catch Him in
His talk. If there was hypocrisy there, there was the more need for His
Presence, as Jesus Himself said concerning His eating with publicans
and sinners, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that
are sick."
37, 38. 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 weeping,
and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hair
of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
She was not a sinner in the ordinary sense of the word, but she was "a
sinner" by trade, "a sinner" by profession. It always seems to me that
in this description of her, every word is emphatic. There is much
meaning in every separate action of the woman and, even in her little
mannerisms, there is something that is instructive to us. Our Lord was
reclining at His meal and His feet were turned towards the door, so
that she had not to come far into the house before she reached His
feet. And there she stood "at His feet." Those are blessed words, "at
His feet" That is where we, also, should stand and weep. That
is where we should sit and learn. That is where we should wait and
serve. That is where we hope to live and reign forever–"at His feet."
This woman "stood at His feet behind Him"–as if she were unworthy to
be looked upon by Him, but found it honor enough to be behind Him, so
long as she was but near Him–"at His feet behind Him, weeping"–with
sorrow for her sin, with joy for her pardon, with delight in her Lord's
Presence, perhaps with grief at the prospect of what yet awaited Him.
And she "began to wash His feet with tears." O sweet repentance which
fills the basin better than the purest streams of earth could ever do!
Then she unbound her tresses–those nets in which she had, perhaps,
caught many a man when she had hunted for the precious life after her
former sinful manner. But now she uses those tresses for something
better, she makes a towel of her hair. That which was her pride shall
now fill that humble office and even be honored thereby. "And kissed
His feet." Oh, the tenderness of her love and the strength of her
passion–a sacred one, not born of earth at all–for that dear Lord of
hers! She kissed His feet and then she poured upon them the precious
perfumed ointment which had cost so much.
39. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spoke within
himself saying. Well, what did he say? I think that if some of us,
taught of God, and let into the secret of eternal love, had been there,
we would have whispered to one another, "What a change has been worked
in that woman! There she is, weeping and washing the Savior's feet,
when, but the other day, she was standing at the corners of the
streets, in the attire of a harlot, plying her accursed trade." How
greatly we would have rejoiced to see her! But it is only Divine Grace
that teaches us to rejoice over even one sinner that repents and Simon
the Pharisee appeared to know little or nothing of Divine Grace! He
had, however, the good manners not to say aloud what he thought, but,
"he spoke within himself, saying."
39. This Man, if He were a Prophet, would have known who and what
manner of woman this is that touches Him: for she is a sinner Yet "this
Man" was a Prophet and He didknow "who and what manner of woman" that
was who touched Him! More than that, He knew what manner of woman His
Divine Grace had made her and how true, how pure was the love which she
was then manifesting to Him! And He knew how deep was her repentance,
how changed her heart, how renewed her entire life was. He knew all
about her, but poor Simon could not know "this woman" as Christ knew
her.
40. And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Simon, I have something to say
unto you. And he said, Master, say on. Christ often answers people who
do not speak audibly. He answers those who only speak in their hearts.
So you who are silently praying may take comfort. If Jesus answers a
Pharisee who speaks in his heart against Him, much more readily will He
answer His own people when they are speaking in their hearts to Him! It
was a hopeful sign that Simon used a respectful title in speaking to
Christ and that he was willing to listen.
41-43. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors: 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 more?" Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom
he forgave more. And He said unto him, You have rightly judged. Now,
dear Friends, I hope that those of us who have had much forgiven are
proving, by the warmth of our love, how right was this judgment on the
part of Simon. If you have had much forgiven, be well to the front in
every struggle on behalf of the cause of Christ! Be well to the front,
also, with your gifts for Him–bring your alabaster box and break it
for Him. Wait not for anyone to ask you, much less to press you, to
give to Him who gave His all for you, but, spontaneously, out of the
love you bear to Him who has loved you so much as to die for you, prove
that you love Him most of all.
44. And He turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, See you this
womanl Christ knew that Simon did see her, and that he had just been
sneering at her in his heart. "See you this woman?"
44. I entered into your house, you gave Me no water for My feet: but
she has washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her
head. "I became your guest and, therefore, as My host, the first thing
you should have done was to give the ordinary Oriental hospitality of
washing My feet. 'You gave Me no water for My feet; but she has washed
my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.'" What a
changing of places there is now! The Lord has made the first to be last
and the last to be first! Simon thought himself far in advance of this
woman, but now that Christ had explained their true positions, I should
think he began to see that the woman was far ahead of him.
45. You gave Me no kiss. Yet that was the Eastern custom in welcoming
an honored guest.
45. But this woman since thee time I came in has not ceased to kiss My
feet. "At best, you would only have kissed Me once, but this woman,
since I came in, has never left off kissing My feet. With a sacred
audacity of love, she has lifted My feet to her lips and kissed them
again and again." So, see here again how the first is last, and the
last first.
46. My head with oil you did not anoint: but this woman has anointed My
feet with ointment. "That is a common custom in the case of a guest of
honorable estate, but you did not observe it. Yet this woman has poured
upon My feet the most precious form of perfume that could be procured
anywhere."
47. 48. Therefore I say unto you, Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same
loves little. And He said unto her, Your sins are forgiven. There I see
the clear run of the argument– that she is a woman who has had much
forgiven by Christ and that is the reason why she loves Him so much.
But often, when an inference is very natural and plain, the Savior
leaves men to draw that one for themselves, while He draws another. He
puts the same Truth in another shape–"Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same
loves little." I am afraid that there are many professed Christians who
must have had very little forgiven them, for they love Christ very
little. This seems to be the age of little love to Christ. There are
some few who love the Master intensely, but oh, how few they are! Some
persons think they are only very little sinners and we are told,
nowadays, what a little thing sin is, and what a little place Hell is,
and what a very short time the punishment of sin will last! Everything
is according to scale and it must be so in religion! As you diminish
the guilt of sin and the punishment of sin, you also diminish the sense
of obligation in being saved from sin. Consequently, you diminish our
love to Christ and we shall gradually get less and less, I fear, unto
the old scale, the old balance! The old shekel of the sanctuary shall
once again be used by us.
49. And they that sat at meat with Him began to say within themselves,
Who is this that also forgive sins "Who is this who can thus absolve
from guilt?
50. And He said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace.
"Go home, good Woman, do not stay here and be bothered by these
people." And oftentimes that is the best advice that we can give to new
converts. There is a theological controversy raging and the jargon of
the different schools of thought is being used by one and another, but,
do go home, good Soul. You need not trouble about controversial
matters. Your sins are forgiven you. Your faith has saved you. If you
know that, you know as much as you need to know just now. Go home and
be quiet and happy. "Go in peace."