NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 25
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 25
Luke 7: 37 - 50; John 12: 1 - 8
Though the action is similar in these two scenes, the motive is different. The woman in Luke, having believed in Christ as her Saviour, seeks Him that she may publicly express her heart to Him. She follows Him into the Pharisee’s house, her heart was full of His grace, she loved much, she was forgiven much; we all know something of this - of His work for us. Mary, in John 11, knew the Lord not only as her Saviour but as the solace of her heart. He was this to her in the hour of her sorrow. We have to know not only His work for us in death, but to be in His life, as He said, “Because I live, ye shall live also”. (John 14: 19) The first, His work for us in death, is incomparably great, and can never be forgotten. “Greater love [p. 69] hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13); but it is only as you know Him at this present moment, where He is in the sphere of His life, that you can act as Mary acted. She does not make any public manifestation of her love, but that which would naturally contribute to herself she buries with Him. As He was about to die, the most valued of earthly distinctions had lost its attraction for her. Her heart is so set on Christ that all which would add to her own distinction here is buried with Him. This is always the effect of knowing Him where He is at this present moment. He is not here, and the effect of knowing Him outside this world, and rejected by it, is that He is so endeared to the heart in that other scene, that there is nothing attractive to us here where He is not. Every believer knows something of His work, but do we know Him as our life, all He can be to us at the present moment? It is this latter that we enjoy in the assembly.