1015
THE KING’S BUSINESS
winning the sinner from sin to righteous ness. Wednesday, November 17. Luke 7 :40-46. Jesus quickly proved to the supercilious Pharisee that He could read hearts by read ing his. He told the Pharisee he had some thing to say to him, while the Pharisee had fancied he ought to say something severe to the woman. The Lord often has something to say to us when we fancy it is to some one else who we think needs to have some thing said to them. He showed the Phari see very clearly that he was a debtor as well as the woman, and that there was no essential difference between them (cf. Rom. 3:22, 23). The Pharisee was like the wo man in another respect, he “had nothing to pay.” Our Lord by representing Himself as creditor of both the Pharisee and woman, taught that all sin; was against Himself. That was, an indirect way of saying that He was God, for sin is against, God (Ps. 51:4). The Pharisee had never Reamed that he was as truly a lost sinner, with nothing he could do to satisfy God, as the abandoned woman was. Jesus forgives sinners freely when they have nothing to pay, but before they enjoy that forgiveness they must take their right place before Him; that is, the place of sinners with nothing to pay (Luke 18:13i 14). Jesus closed His parable with the question (y. 42) intended to show the Pharisee that if the woman had been a great sinner in the past, she had now be come a great lover in the present, a far more loving saint than he was himself. Before there can be intense love for the Saviour there must be a deep sense of the enormity of the sins for which He has forgiven us. Those forms of Christianity that minimize sin and have little to say of pardon, never produce ardent love for Christ. Jesus put a second question to Simon: “Seest thou this woman?” He had not really seen her; all he saw was a vile outcast. Jesus saw a redeemed woman and a great lover. In the contrast Jesus drew between Simon and the woman he despised, the woman appeared in far better light: Thus God looks at the cold
to see and hear and did not (Luke 10:23, 24). Things are revealed to us which had been hidden from the beginning of the world (Eph. 2:8, 9; Col. 1:25-27; 1 Peter 1 :10-12). The one in the Kingdom erijoys privileges immeasurably beyond what any before the
Kingdom ever knew. Tuesday, November 16. - Luke 7 :36-39.
This invitation to Jesus to dinner came from an unusual quarter; a Pharisee (ch. 11:37; 14:1). The Pharisee desired to study Jesus. Qur Lord accepted the invitation; indeed He usually went to the houses where He was asked, and He always goes today where He is asked. He received scant cour tesy from the Pharisee, even the usual social amenities were forgotten (vs. 44-46). An unexpected and unwelcome guest came into the Pharisee’s home, an abandoned woman. Nothing could have induced her to enter that home under ordinary circumstances, but Jesus drew her, as he always draws sinners. She had heard Him say that very day, “Come unto me* all ye that labor and are heavy laden’’ (cf. Matt. 11:28), and that certainly meant her. The Pharisees'were greatly taken aback and much displeased to see this despised outcast enter the sacred precincts of a Pharisee’s home, but the Lord Jesus was greatly pleased to have her- come (cf. ch. 5:30-32). She brought a box of costly ointment with her. In her love to her new found friend and Saviour, she wished to do something for Him. As soon as she reached the feet of JesUs she burst into tears of penitence and love. It is a good thing for sinners to weep (Ps. 51:17; Joel 2 :12, 13). It was love that brought the woman to repentance (cf. Rom. 2:4). Phar isaical treatment would never have accom plished it. The Pharisee reasoned, that if Jesus were a prophet He would -know.that this woman was a sinner. Yes, He did know it, but He did not repel her on that account as the Pharisee fancied He would, but rather welcomed her. According to the Pharisee’s notion, righteousness is shown by drawing away from all contact with sinners, but in Christ’s method,' righteousness is shown by
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker