TEXT: LUKE vii. 36-50.
HOWEVER much admiration and honour was given to our Saviour by many of His contemporaries during His life on earth; however powerfully a yet greater number were struck, at least for the moment, by His exalted character; still just His greatest words and His noblest deeds often remained dark even to the noblest and best around Him, and seemed to the rest a piece of insolent pretension. When He spoke of His eternal relation to the Eternal Father, even His more intimate disciples asked in childish perplexity, Lord, show us the Father; while the mass of the people were shocked at His words as at a blasphemy. When He spoke to an unfortunate the great word, Go, thy sins are forgiven thee, they murmured among themselves and said, Who is this that forgiveth sins?
And even the ideas they had of Him were inconsistent with each other. Daily they heard from Him and His disciples that He had come to set up the kingdom of God: could they wonder, then, that Ho who affirmed this of Himself, also claimed the right to forgive sins? Could they believe in the possibility of a kingdom of God in which the great word, Thy sins are forgiven, would not be spoken to every one belonging to it? Did they believe that through their sacrifices they found forgiveness of sins, although no power could proceed from them to elevate and advance men so far that they should not be always needing forgiveness anew and as much as ever; and yet did it seem to them a strange thing that now at last this greatest and most comforting of all assurances so necessary to them, should proceed from the depths of this divine heart, from Him who so mightily moved the souls of men?
We all feel that true love to the Saviour could have struck no deep roots in hearts that could so marvel.
It is of course different with us, my Christian friends. We acknowledge Him as our Mediator with His and our Father, through union with whom the forgiveness of sins comes to us once for all, and who pronounces it to us ever anew in His word, and by the special manner of His presence with believers. But while those people long ago asked, Who is this that forgiveth sins? it well befits us to raise the question, Who are we to whom sin is forgiven?—are we, at least, in so far worthy of this great word that we thoroughly feel its deep meaning and that it stirs us to fervent gratitude and love? There is an idea very common among us,—which has indeed its true side, and which is founded on living faith,—that if we have once found the way of salvation we should no longer let our thoughts dwell on the weakening and tormenting sense of sin; but that when it is confessed and put away by repentance and faith, it should only serve in the way of instruction and warning; that we should then go forward with alacrity and courage in the work of establishing, specially on this foundation, our relationship of love and fellowship \vith the Saviour, as the power for a life more honouring to Him flows ever more abundantly into our souls from His word, from His memorial, and from His image present to our minds. This is all quite true; but the one view must not exclude the other, and there is certainly great danger of our relation to the Saviour losing its distinctive character if this thought does not keep a lasting hold of our hearts, that it is He who speaks to us the great word, Go, thy sins are forgiven thee. For He Himself makes this very consciousness at once the ground and the measure of the love that we are able to give Him, and that love is certainly the source of the power that proceeds from Him.
The simple and touching narrative of our text has never failed to take a wonderful hold of every heart not utterly in capable of feeling. In reading it we cannot but be struck afresh with the sense of how glorious a thing it is to be drawn to the Saviour by a feeling of one’s own lost condition; and every one must recognise the profound truth of the direct application which the Saviour makes of the incident, when contrasting the weeping woman who was a sinner with the righteous man whose guest He was. But the broader inference which our Lord finally draws from it has always seemed, to many minds, questionable and obscure. Let us therefore, for the present, confine our attention to these last words, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Let us consider the universal connection between the forgiveness of sin and love, as here laid down by the Saviour. Let us note how the conduct of this woman bears on the relation of men to the Saviour, and how all the lessons of the narrative serve first of all to illustrate this; while at the same time there are allusions throughout to everyday human relationships, and the Saviour states His main principle in quite a general way. Let us, therefore, consider first our common relation to Christ, and then our ordinary brotherly relationships with each other.