3015. The Two Debtors

A Sermon Published On Thursday, November 22, 1906.

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 one of them will love him most? {Lu 7:41,42}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2768, “Debtors and Debtors” 2769}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2873, “Who Loves Christ Most?” 2874}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3015, “Two Debtors, The” 3016}

   Exposition on Lu 7:18-50 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2876, “Christ’s Crowning Glory” 2877 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 7:24-50 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2484, “Very Friend You Need, The” 2485 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 7:36-48 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3550, “Earnest Entreaty, An” 3552 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 7:36-50 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3015, “Two Debtors, The” 3016 @@ "Exposition"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Lu 7:42"}

1. 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, since men will do this, since they will sail on this tack, we will for the moment do the same with the view of correcting some of their mistakes.

2. I. The very brief Parable before us suggests four thoughts, on 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.

3. It would be very incorrect to say, of all men, that they are equally sinful. That they are all guilty, is true; but that they are all equally guilty, is not true. There are people who would contend very earnestly for this distinction because they claim to be among the better kind of sinners. They claim that they are not a fraction as guilty as many whom they know, and that, in comparison with more grossly vicious people, 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 equally degrading. There are vices, especially those which pollute the body, which obviously 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 drunkards and revellers, the profane and the debauched.

4. 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, who knew his Lord’s will, and did not prepare himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For to whomever much is given, from 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.

5. So, we are prepared to admit that there are differences in sin, differences in the subsequent degradation of sinners, and differences in the punishment due to sin. Our own conscience, common sense, and right judgment teach us this; yet, notwithstanding these admissions, I want to ask a few plain questions of you, dear friends, who think that you are among the fifty-pence debtors, and who look down with some kind of disdain on 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 counted 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 offence was perpetrated.

6. 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 offence 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, on whom you have looked down as owing God five hundred pence, may have been without the light that you have had. Probably, 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 of 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?

7. 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 people, 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 him; 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 offences of yours, which have been committed, notwithstanding the alarms of your outraged conscience, have had in them a heinousness which does not pertain to the sins of others, who have not had to contend against this inward monitor when plunging into sin?

8. Yet again, dear friends, may not example sometimes have a great deal to do with sin? When I see some of our young people inclining to be drunkards, 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 drunkards of them, — tempting them to drink, and giving them their first taste of what becomes a cause of stumbling to them? I do not see how, if it were the object of some parents to make their boys drunkards, they could act otherwise than as they now do. I have heard a working man 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, {b} and let him mix freely with the bad company usually found in such a place; so, is there any wonder that the boy becomes a drunkard? Can a father blame his son for swearing when he himself is a blasphemer? No; and I say that people, who have been in the midst of sin like this 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 remember a fault on the part of our parents. Honestly looking back on 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.

9. 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 concerning 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 more leniently. How do you know, my dear hearer, 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 drunkard did. And as for 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 offences for which men are locked 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 perversity 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.

10. If you think these things over seriously, I should not wonder if any one 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, since I have not believed in Jesus, 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 ahead of me.” I shall not be 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 what you once felt was your right place.

11. II. So having 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.

12. Neither of the debtors in the Parable had anything with which to pay his debt; and when God intends 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 anything towards 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 so emptied, and humbled, and laid low in the dust before God, I see no sign that his Spirit is effectively working in you.

   While we can call one mite our own,

      We get no full discharge.

13. 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 intends 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 since I am immeasurably indebted to God, my tears of repentance will not discharge that debt.

   “Could my tears for ever flow,”

they would not atone for sin. I hope you all understand the truth of what I am saying; for, if you do, it is a sign for good in your case.

14. Some others, though they cannot pay the full amount of their debt, hope to make a composition. {c} 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 “composition” is quite out of the question. The divine declaration is, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue 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, and 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 pieces 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.

15. Some men gave their note, 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 lead 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 its fall.

16. This is the only safe declaration for a man to make: — “Oh 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 created in me by your Holy Spirit; consequently, it cannot be any credit to me; you must have the credit for 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 from there until I have paid the uttermost farthing, I must lie there for ever 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 lacking. Pull it down, Lord, and then build me up as you would have me!”

17. We are all equal here; “there is no difference.” You respectable ladies and gentlemen are on a level with the worst villain 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, — you must all bow together here just 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, every one 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! only too true.” We are all equal here.

18. 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.”

19. 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 am also out of debt. I could not pay my fifty pence, so I must have been locked up in the debtors prison; and you could not pay your five hundred pence, so you also would have been kept in prison too; 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.”

20. There is one word that I want you to especially notice: “He frankly forgave 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 reason to be afraid that he would do so, for he had no legal claim against them, for he himself had, by an act of grace, forgiven them all that they owed, and therefore they were 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 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 it will be. Anyone who has believed in Jesus is completely 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 washed in Christ’s precious blood so that not a spot or wrinkle remains on me; and you, too, believer, are not half-pardoned. Christ is not half a Saviour to us, but a whole Saviour; and the pardon which God gives to us is a full and final pardon. He does not forgive us on the 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 all of our sin away for ever. He receives the prodigal back into his bosom, and invites him to sit at the table, and feast, while the music and the dancing make his heart glad.

21. Do you know, dear hearer, that you are forgiven, “Oh!” one says, “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; no one would ever detect a flaw in his moral character. He, too, is looking at the wounds of Jesus, and he also can say, “My trust is in him alone.” Now, these two people 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”; — not forgave one of them fully, and the other only partially, but “he frankly forgave them both.”

22. My eye glances, here and there, on 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 grace has created in them. There are some here, whose tongues were used in blasphemy not long ago. The drunkard’s cup was often at their lip, and the drunkard’s language was their usual speech; but they are washed, and 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 for the Lord who has washed them from their many sins. Still, there is an equality between these two classes. They are both equally 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, 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, “To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

23. IV. Now, lastly, THERE IS ANOTHER POINT OF DIFFERENCE: “Which one of them will love him most?”

24. It is quite certain that there are some Christians who love the Lord Jesus Christ better 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 recognise 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 work 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 some times 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.

25. I have seen whole congregations of this kind 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 kind; he did not care to know how the cause was getting on in London; indeed, he did not care much whether it was getting on. As for revivals, if you only mention the word in the presence of such brethren, they say, “No good ever comes from them.” These people have had little forgiven, so they only love a little. They never were very great sinners, and never had any very deep repentance, so, in their own estimation, they never owed Jesus Christ very much; they are a kind of superficial Christians, who will be “saved, yet so as by fire.”

26. 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 manner. Last week, some of us were at a meeting, at which there was present a dear brother in the ministry, the very flash 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, and his impassioned prayers. A man who is all soul and all heart cannot preach lifeless, heavy, drugging sermons, and cannot bear to be with people who are dull, and cold, and heavy of heart. He feels that he has had much forgiven, and therefore he loves much. I could also tell you about some godly sisters, who have given to the cause of God almost all their living; and of others, who give up all their time to God’s service, having sacrificed everything else so that they may devote themselves to the cause of Christ. These are those who love much.

27. We have differences even in the ministry. We have some brethren 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 ten 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 to serve him like this. Just as it is in the pulpit, so it is in the Sunday School, and so it is 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.

28. What is the best way to reach this point? Not to be great sinners, but to feel that 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. Get a clear view of it until you are humbled, and 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, and nerve, and sinew, and bone into your Christianity. Then you will sing, — 

   Love I much? I’ve more forgiven;

      In a miracle of grace.

29. May 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.

{a} Mr. Spurgeon had started to revise the manuscript of this sermon in readiness for publication.
{b} Gin Palace: A gaudily decorated public house.
{c} Composition: A mutual agreement or arrangement between two parties, a contract. arch. or Obs.. OED.

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3565, “Sermon Theme Index” 3567 @@ "Creditor and Debtors"}

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Lu 7:36-50}

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 eat.

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 Saviour did when the Pharisee gave him an invitation: “He went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.” 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 kind. In any case, 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 all the more need for his presence, as Jesus himself said concerning his eating with tax collectors and sinners, “Those who are well do not need a physician; but those who are sick.”

37, 38. And, behold, a woman in the city, who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat eating 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 wiped them with the hairs 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 individual 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 did not have 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 the place where we also would stand and weep. That is the place where we would sit and learn. That is the place where we would wait and serve. That is the place where we hope to live and reign for ever: “at his feet.”

This woman “stood at his feet behind him,” — as if she were unworthy to be looked at by him, but found it honour enough to be behind him, as long as she was only 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.” Oh 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, maybe, caught many a man when she had hunted for the precious life after her former sinful ways. But now she uses those tresses for something better, she makes a towel of her hair. What was her pride shall now fill that humble office, and even be honoured by it. “And kissed his feet.” Oh, the tenderness of her love, and the strength of her passion — a sacred one, not born on earth at all, — for that dear Lord of hers! she kissed his feet; and then she poured on them the precious perfumed ointment which had cost so much.

39. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he spoke within himself, saying, — 

Well, what did he say? I think that, if some of us, taught by God, and let into the secret of eternal love, had been there, we should have whispered to each other, “What a change has been accomplished in that woman! There she is, weeping, and washing the Saviour’s feet, when, only the other day, she was standing at the corners of the streets, in the attire of a prostitute, plying her accursed trade.” How greatly we should have rejoiced to see her! But it is only grace that teaches us to rejoice over even one sinner who repents, and Simon the Pharisee appeared to know little or nothing about 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 kind of woman this is who touches him: for she is a sinner.”

Yet “this man” was a prophet, and he did know “who and what kind of woman” she was who touched him. More than that, he knew what kind of woman his grace had made her, and how true, how pure, was the love which she was then revealing to him; and he knew how deep her repentance was, 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 to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he says, “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, how 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 one of them will love him most.” Simon answered and said, “I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most.” And he said to 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 this judgment was on the part of Simon. If you have had much forgiven, be well to the forefront in every struggle on behalf of the cause of Christ. Be well to the forefront also with your gift for him; bring your alabaster box, and break it for him. Do not wait for anyone to ask you, much less to press you, to give to him who gave his all for you; but, spontaneously, from 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 to Simon, “Do you see this woman?

Christ knew that Simon did see her, and that he had just been sneering at her in his heart: “Do you see 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 washed 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 superior to this woman; but now that Christ had explained their true positions, I should think he began to see that the woman was far superior to him.

45. You gave me no kiss:

Yet that was the Eastern custom in welcoming an honoured guest.

45. But this woman since the 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 stopped 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. You did not anoint my head with oil: but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment.

“That is a common custom in the case of a guest of honourable estate, but you did not observe it; yet this woman has poured on my feet the most precious form of perfume that could be procured anywhere.”

47, 48. Therefore I say to 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 to 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 Saviour leaves men to draw that one for themselves, while he draws another. He puts the same truth in another form: “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 for Christ. There are a few who love the Master intensely, but, oh, how few they are! Some people 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 for Christ, and we shall gradually get less and less, I fear, until the old scale, the old balance, the old shekel of the sanctuary, shall once again be used by us.

49. And those who sat eating with him began to say within themselves, “Who is this that forgives sins also?”

“Who is this who can absolve from guilt like this?”

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 often, 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, you go home, good soul. You need not trouble yourself 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.”