LUKE 7
Simeon had said with the holy Child in his arms that he would be “a light for revelation of the Gentiles”, chapter 2: 32, and we see this fulfilled in the centurion. A Gentile was brought to light by the presence of Jesus in Capernaum as distinguished by a greater faith than He had found in Israel. One can understand the peculiar delight that Luke would have in writing this incident, as being himself a Gentile and writing to a Gentile. The centurion was one of the firstfruits of a great Gentile harvest for God, and the presence of Jesus in the city brought him to light. It is well to mark his character, as showing the kind of material which God would secure for Himself from the Gentile world. He had no selfish object in view, for it was an affectionate interest in his bondman that [p. 97] moved him to send to Jesus. Though consciously unworthy he felt assured that he could count upon the kindly interest as well as the divine power of the wondrous Person of whom he had heard. It is remarkable how he measures the Lord Jesus, if we may so say, by what was true of himself. He assumed that Jesus, though so great, would have as much interest in his poor bondman as he had himself. And he most strikingly compared the Lord’s authority with his own in verses 7 and 8. All this was not presumption, for he was manifestly unworthy in his own sight to have any direct dealings with Jesus. It was such a blessed reasoning of faith that it called forth wonder on the part of Jesus.
We see a Gentile here in whom the knowledge of God was an active principle, for the elders of the Jews could say, “He loves our nation and himself has built the synagogue for us”. So that he evidently loved the Jews because of their relation to God; he would favour that relation as much as he could, It is fine evidence that faith is operating in the soul when there is love to the people of God, and desire that they may prosper spiritually. But the centurion would not allow that he had any worthiness either to come to Jesus or to receive Him under his roof. The only ground of his confidence or his expectation was what Jesus was in Himself, and his apprehension of this was truly wonderful. He says, “But say by a word and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having under myself soldiers, and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bondman, Do this, and he does it”. It was not only that he recognised that Jesus was able to heal his servant, but that he was acting under authority in what He did. He was acting in pure and perfect grace as under the authority of God. The centurion did not think, as many do, that Jesus was kind, but that God was not so favourable. He traced all that he had heard of in Jesus to the fact that He was acting under the authority of God, and therefore it was as easy for Jesus to give a word of command as it was for him. He knew that all the power of Caesar was behind every command that he gave, and all the power and authority of God was behind every word of Jesus. He had not the slightest hesitation or uncertainty about it. Now that is faith. “And Jesus hearing this wondered at him, and turning to the crowd following him said, I say to you, Not even in Israel have I found so great faith”. The centurion was a “good man” because his heart was stored with the goodness which he had apprehended in the blessed God, which was coming into expression in a Man who was acting here under God’s authority.
In the next incident we see Jesus as the glory of His people Israel, for the widow of Nain represents the nation as bereaved of all hope, but finding in her desolation that there was One who could bring back her son from the gates of death. In this incident we see the compassion of God expressed in Jesus in circumstances where all was utterly hopeless on the human side. A widow bereft of her only son! What could be more pathetic? Such an occasion would move human sympathy almost everywhere, so we find here that “a very considerable crowd of the city was with her”. But how helpless they all were! He was dead, and they could only carry him out. Every citizen of Nain up to that time had had to succumb to the power of death. But One greater than death drew near that day to the city gate, and met the burial procession. No one called upon Him to intervene; He had not as yet, so far as we know, exercised His power in the domain of death. It might well have been that no one in the crowds had the slightest hope that He could do anything when death had actually taken place. It was a case in which the initiative could only be with Himself. But He was here as God’s representative, and, as Peter told a Gentile congregation later, “God was with him”. How would God act in the presence of a heart desolated by the ravages of death? “And the Lord, seeing her, was moved with compassion for her, and said to her, Weep not; and coming up he touched the bier, and the bearers stopped. And he said, Youth, I say to thee, Wake up. And the dead sat up and began to speak; and he gave him to his mother”, Sin has let loose a flood of sorrow upon human hearts, and this is no small part of what is under the eye of God in the world. Indeed, I have no doubt that the sorrows which sin has entailed upon mankind are much greater in volume than “all the pleasures of sin”. We are apt to think that the ambitions of men, and their lust for gain and self-gratification, and their pride and vanity, are more prominent than their sorrows. They are, perhaps, in a public way, but, if the true secret history of every human heart were written, I believe it would be found that disappointment and sorrow are in greater bulk, and have been more really felt than anything else. And the [p. 99] greatest sorrow of all is the sorrow of death, for it desolates everything. I am not, for the moment, speaking of death as being on ourselves, but as breaking in on our happiness by its power over others. The dearest natural tie must be broken; the most valued friend is snatched away; the one on whom our fondest hopes have been built lies in the silent grave. Now is it not an immense thing to know that God feels and cares for the sorrows of His creatures? He has compassion, notwithstanding that sin and rebellion are the cause of it all. He would love to make Himself known to every sorrowing heart as He made Himself known to the bereaved widow of Nain, that is, as entering compassionately into the sorrow, and as having power to relieve the heart that is oppressed by it. I venture to say that the knowledge of God in this way, as we may learn Him in the incident before us, brings a greater relief to a sorrowing heart than would be brought about by any outward deliverance. We have learned something of the heart of God, and that is greater than having our dead back again, for it is an indestructible and eternal possession. The effect of seeing the widow’s son brought back to life was that “fear seized on all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has been raised up amongst us; and God has visited his people”. They did not all have their dead sons raised up, but in seeing how He compassionated one bereaved widow they learned God as they had never known Him before. The incident remains here on the page of Scripture that we may learn God in the same way, and have infinite comfort in thus knowing Him.
But there was more than divine compassion in Jesus; there was power that could deal effectively with the might of death. Indeed, we know of no instance in which death was in His presence without being despoiled of its prey. God has thus shown that He can deal with death, and set aside its power, and free His creature from that which the creature dreads. If He can do it for one the thing is established; it is only a question of His wisdom as to when and how His power will effect it. He has met the power of death in a more wonderful way even than was seen at the gate of the city of Nain. I do not doubt that when Jesus “touched the bier” it was an intimation that He would come into personal contact with the power of death. He did this, as we know, at the cross; the full power of death came upon Him, not because He was [p. 100] personally liable to death, but because He tasted it by the grace of God for all that had come under it as a result of sin. But death was not able to hold Him. He saw no corruption, and on the third day He rose triumphant. God has triumphed over death through Jesus; His victory has been gloriously seen in one Man, but it is seen there to be available for all who are in bondage through fear of death. Death is annulled in a risen Christ for all who believe on Him.
All these things are reported to John by his disciples, and John could not understand why he was left in prison if such wonderful things were being done. He felt it was time to remind the Lord that he was there, so he sent a message to Him: “Art thou he that is coming, or are we to wait for another?” John had to learn, like many another, to accept his own ministry. He had said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3: 30), but this became more testing than he had expected, and he had to learn to justify wisdom as one of her children. But the Lord took a beautifully gracious way to teach His servant, as He always does. “In that hour he healed many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and to many blind he granted sight”. He gave the fullest evidence of the divine power that was operating, and sent John’s messengers back to tell him of it, and to add, “Blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in me”. John had his own place, “more excellent than a prophet”, for he was the Lord’s immediate forerunner, but it was not given to him to have a place in the new system of things introduced by the ministry of the Lord Himself. He had to accept his own place according to the counsel of God, and it was a wonderful place, but it was preparatory. He had not his place in the new order, though his ministry was essential to its introduction. So the Lord could say, “Among them that are born of women a greater prophet is no one than John the baptist; but he who is a little one in the kingdom of God is greater than he”. How this would direct our thoughts to the surpassing excellence of what we are called to have a part in! The prophets of old, and John himself, were men sent from God to speak in the power of His Spirit; they were wonderful servants, divinely chosen and honoured vessels, but they were not in the kingdom of God. Does not the thought of this stimulate great desire in our hearts to know what it is to be in that kingdom? If the little one in it is greater than those great servants of God,
[p. 101] what a marvellous thing it is to be in it! A new order of things has been introduced by the presence here of the Son of man; the music of divine grace has sounded forth in this world of sin and death, and tax-gatherers and sinners have a Friend who can bring them righteously into the kingdom of God, and give them a greatness in the knowledge of God which the greatest of His servants in Old Testament times never had. Are we prepared as repentant sinners to justify God (verse 29), or are we, like the Pharisees and lawyers, rendering null as to ourselves the counsel of God?
The Lord says, “Wisdom has been justified of all her children” (verse 35); it is not that she will be justified, but she has been; the Lord saw around Him those who were the children of wisdom, and they had all justified God by condemning themselves and gladly appreciating the grace in which He had become known to them in Jesus. A child of wisdom — representative of them all — is brought before us in the next incident. And I believe we see in the “woman in the city, who was a sinner” one who was truly “a little one in the kingdom of God”, and therefore greater than John the baptist. I believe she had acquired through Jesus a knowledge of God as revealed in grace which gave her wonderful greatness. How slow we are to understand what true greatness is! We are only great in proportion as we know God in grace, and are in heart under His sway. We can then minister to His pleasure in a way that no saint of old ever could. This woman’s tears and kisses and anointing of His feet, her much love, showed how great she was. She was great in the appreciation of Him. The Spirit of God brings her activities before us; Jesus is sitting and He remains sitting — it is the woman who is active.
It is a choice moment when the Lord has no longer to be active, but can be the Object of activities which divine grace has set in motion in the heart of a sinner. No doubt there had been previous movements of grace which had affected her heart. She had heard the music to which He referred in verse 32 which brought the sweet sound of One who was “a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners”, and she was responsive to it. The Spirit of God has not been pleased to give us her previous history under grace, but He shows us the precious fruit which had resulted from it.
The evangelical part of Christendom is largely occupied with the thought of working for Jesus, but it is a much greater [p. 102] thing to minister to Him in love. Simon failed to do so, and I think we may say that Jesus is in Simon’s house now as being where He is outwardly honoured, but where few hearts really minister to Him in love. The woman was deeply affected by the forgiving grace that was there in Jesus. Simon was blind to it; all he could see was One who did not repel a sinner, and that convinced him that Jesus was no prophet. He had no thought that the Creditor was there, but there as a Friend who was present in the grace of forgiveness for all His debtors. Jesus being there brought to light that there was a very great difference between Simon and the woman. She knew that she was a sinner, and that her sins were many, but the thought of this gave her an intense appreciation of the grace she had perceived in Jesus, and filled her soul with deep gratitude and love which could not be held back from expressing itself even in the chilling atmosphere of a Pharisee’s house. The myrrh with which she anointed His feet no doubt set forth some intuition on her part that grace could only be shown to such as she at the cost of suffering. It was at cost to Himself that the Creditor could forgive. Her soul was moved to its depths at the thought of it. Simon knew no such emotions; he had never felt the burden of his sins, though no doubt he would have admitted in an orthodox way that he was a sinner. He could coldly criticise the One in whom heaven was expressing the grace of forgiveness. The Lord answered his unspoken thoughts.
“And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee. And he says, Teacher, say it. There were two debtors of a certain creditor: one owned five hundred denarii and the other fifty; but as they had nothing to pay, he forgave both of them their debt: say, which of them therefore will love: him most? And Simon answering said, I suppose he to whom he forgave most. And he said to him, Thou hast rightly judged”, verses 40 - 43. That is the position. The Creditor has a righteous claim upon all His debtors, but none of them can meet it, so that happy relations can only be brought about by a grace that is prepared to forgive them all. God’s present attitude is one of forgiveness; it was set forth in Jesus when He was here and it has not changed now that He is glorified. The heart of one who is conscious of being a great debtor is deeply moved with gratitude and love when he learns the grace of the Creditor. He would do anything to show his [p. 103] love. But the one who in his own mind is a small debtor does not appreciate the grace of forgiveness, and, as the Lord says, he loves little. How this searches us out! I may even be a professed believer in Jesus, and yet love Him little because I have a small sense of how much He has forgiven. What Jesus gets from me and what God gets from me in the ministry of love depends on the sense I have in my heart of how much He has forgiven me. This is how God is winning the heart of His poor fallen creature, for the real truth of the gospel is not so much that man needs God but that God needs man to display His kindness and grace upon him, and to secure his love. It is wonderful that God should want my love, sinner as I am. He wanted the woman’s love and He wanted Simon’s love; He got the first, but He did not get the second, and He felt it.
“And turning to the woman he said to Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house; thou gavest me not water on my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest me not a kiss, but she from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she has anointed my feet with myrrh”, verses 44 - 46. There is a proverb which says, “He that covereth transgression seeketh love” (Proverbs 17: 9); that was what was in His heart, and in the woman He found what He sought. She had broken through all the conventionalities in the strength of her much love. It is our privilege now, in the face of a cold and heartless profession, to show that we love Him much, not merely by working for Him, but by lavishing upon Him personally that which love only can give. None of us would dare to say that we had been forgiven little, but many of us might well pray that we might have a deeper sense of how much we have been forgiven, so that we might love much.
“For which cause I say to thee, Her many sins are forgiven; for she loved much”. To Simon, who had despised her as a sinner, He would say plainly with divine authority that her sins were forgiven and He would claim that it was fitting that she should be righteously absolved, for she loved much. She was now in right relations with God as knowing His grace, and in consequence loving Him. Not even a Pharisee could dispute that one who loved God much had established a tide to forgiveness. Not that she received forgiveness on that ground; she received it purely on the ground of the grace of the Creditor,
[p. 104] and Simon might have had it on that ground also. But to Simon He would speak of her love as justifying her forgiveness. There is in forgiven sinners that to which the blessed God could call attention as evidence that there is a moral suitability in such persons being forgiven. But this is for the Pharisee who did not understand grace at all, and not for the woman who did. “And he said to her, Thy sins are forgiven”. The Lord would not leave any forgiven sinner without a personal assurance of this kind, but it is the result of being near to Him in an affectionate way as appreciating the grace that has expressed itself in Him. That grace shines upon all in a general way, but when it is appreciated, and He is loved for it, there is a positive and personal knowledge of forgiveness which comes from nearness to Him so that there is a sense of having it directly from Himself. It is not His thought that any of us should be without this.