And
He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in
the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the
Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His
feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and
wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them
with the fragrant oil.
Luke
7:36-7
I
come before You Lord,
Pouring
forth praise like sweet perfume,
Breaking
open my grateful heart,
That
I may exalt and glorify You.
May
the praises of my lips,
Fill
the realm of Heaven with fragrance;
For
You have loved and accepted me,
Ever
present with tender grace and forgiveness.
Jesus,
You sacrificed Your life,
A
fragrant offering unto God.
You
drank my cup of bitterness,
Breaking
open Your heart on the cross.
Praise
and glory be unto You,
My
Shepherd through the valley.
You
have been faithful all along,
And
will lead me to glory.
The Anointing of Jesus
C.A.
TAYLOR
Some
of the most exquisite stories in the Gospels are told us only by Luke. And,
among these, the story of the woman that was a sinner is unsurpassed in
tenderness and beauty.
She
stood behind Him weeping. Unrestrained and passionate indeed must have been her
weeping! No lightly-passing shower of April skies, but the full down-pouring of
the lowering swollen clouds of autumn.
Wonderful
and gracious were the words now falling from the lips of Jesus. The Speaker was
He who said, ‘Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest…Learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls.’ ‘I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance,’ ‘to seek and to save that which was lost.’ ‘They that are whole
have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.’ It was He who taught that
‘there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
repents.’ It was He who spake the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He who showed a
way of escape, near at hand, for every sinner; He testified of the pitifulness
and tender mercy of the Father to all who turn to Him: in words of all but
irresistible pathos and love, He proclaimed Himself as sent from the Father to
bring sinners back to God. Such was the preaching which the case of the sinful
woman required.
But
the Savior had not spoken to her personally. Till this was done her heart could
not rest. Her mourning could not end, though the bitterness and agony of her
grief were removed. Her heart could not be fully reassured, nor could she confidently
take her place among the pardoned and renewed, until the Master’s voice would
have proclaimed her accepted.
We
can think of no higher blessing that that which the Lord pronounced on her —Go,
and enter into peace; thy faith hath saved thee —and that is the blessing He
gives to every sinner who truly turns to Him.
Love
beams upon every page of the gospels and shines from every look of Jesus
Christ. The complete God gives Himself entirely in the Incarnation for the entire
salvation of His poor child who has fallen into sin.
The
Pharisee had no true love for Christ; the woman had. The whole emphasis of the
story is laid on this. To him there was nothing attractive in Jesus, nothing
that touched his heart, because it was a blind, unfeeling, cold, stony heart,
incapable of loving greatly anything except himself. This man was just a lump
of stiff, haughty, polished selfishness. That was what Jesus saw in him.
But
the woman, whatever she had been, had still a soul that was alive, and a heart
that could see and feel. As soon as she saw the Lord and heard His voice, she
was drawn to Him. She was drawn to His goodness, though it made her feel more
deeply the sin that was in her. He was so pitiful, so tender, so infinitely kind,
and that to look into His face was like new life. That face created in her a
world of glad and grateful emotions. It filled her with strange new hopes, it
spoke to her of forgiveness. It whispered to her possibilities of a better
life. It was music, sunshine, and very heaven. Oh how she loved! All the
channels of her devotion were opened to pour worship and honor at His feet. She
forgot herself and the place and the guests and everything else as she knelt to
kiss His feet and wash them with her tears in a great abandonment of love. And
verily in loving Him thus she proved that she was far nearer to sanctity and
heaven than the other.
For
forgiveness is not a solitary gift. It is the beginning of a new life, a center
from which life and light radiate, a germ which exists not so much for itself
as for what it produces. It brings assurance of a friendship that is of
infinite value; it imparts a reliance upon God as our God, teaching us to count
upon Him, exhibiting to us His hitherto unthought-of goodness. It pervades the
soul with new and exhilarating sensations, and fills it with new desires and
purposes. Therefore the gospel does not directly say ‘love,’ but ‘believe.’
Trust in Christ as willing to forgive. Bring to Him your empty, ruined,
ungodly, unloving spirit, and have it healed, filled, renewed.
Can
we fail to love Him whose love for us is, after all, almost the only fixed and
sure thing we can count upon? Can we fail to love Him to whom we must be
indebted for as great a forgiveness as was this woman?
Then
He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
JAMES HASTINGS
Luke
Are
you living?...Are you lonely?...
Leave
your world awhile and hark.
One
there is at least, who loved you—
You—His
lily of the dark.
Never
mind tho’ dead men deem you
Outcast—stand
in God’s own light:
Have
you sorrow for your sinning?
Then
your soul is spotless, white.
E. SANDFORD
E. SANDFORD
