The Story

The Lord had raised the young man at Nain and was teaching and healing in the towns of Galilee when two messengers came to ask a question. Who sent them? What did they ask? When they had gone the Lord spoke to the people about John, reminding them of the days when they had gone to the Jordan to see and hear him. What did they find? A weak, timid man like one of the reeds trembling in the edge of the river? A man clothed in soft raiment? How was John dressed? He was stern and severe and refused pleasant things. Was he a prophet, one who spoke a message from the Lord? John did more than this, for he not only told about a new life, but helped people to begin to live it. It now appeared how John had prepared the people for the Lord; for those who had been baptized by John were more ready than others to listen to the Lord and to believe him. (Verses 24-30.)

The Lord said that the people were like children in the market-place, who would not join with their companions in a sad play or in a joyful one. It meant that they did not live a happy life with the Lord, and they had not repented with John the Baptist. They could not do the one because they had not done the other. "Wisdom is justified of all her children," seems to mean, "They recognize heavenly wisdom who have something heavenly in themselves." (Verses 31-35)

Now we follow with the Lord into the house of a Pharisee. Who were the Pharisees? We see the low table, perhaps shaped like a U, the guests reclining on couches around the outside. A woman came in by the open door and stood at the Lord's feet. Her tears fell upon His feet and she wiped them away with her hair. It was a common sign of kindness in that country, where people wore sandals on the dusty paths, to cool and wash a guest's feet with water before eating. (Genesis 18:4) The Pharisee had not done it for the Lord, but this poor woman was washing His feet with tears. Why was she weeping? Because she felt very sorry for wrong things that she had done. Then she kissed the Lord's feet, and kept kissing them. Why did she do this? Because she loved Him. And then she gave another sign of her love. She opened a little jar of alabaster, a beautiful stone like marble, and poured out the ointment, the sweet fragrant oil, upon His feet. In those days they sometimes anointed the head of a guest with oil. The Pharisee had not done it for the Lord, but this poor woman poured sweet ointment upon His feet.

The Pharisee would not have let the woman touch Him, for she was a sinner, and he thought that the Lord did not know; but the Lord did know what was in all minds and hearts. He saw the Pharisee's proud, selfish thoughts and the woman's repentance and love. She loved because she had repented and had been forgiven.

The Lord told a parable to teach that we cannot truly love Him except by repenting and feeling His help. (We remember the penny, the Roman silver piece worth about fifteen cents.) And then He turned to the woman and expressed in words what was taking place within her. "Thy sins are forgiven," He said. "Go in peace." He could say this to the woman, but not to the proud Pharisee.

Compare this story of anointing in Galilee with the account of anointing by Mary in Bethany. There are marked differences. (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8)

1. Who was sent as a messenger before the Lord? How did he prepare the way? What is the John the Baptist which prepares the way for the Lord in us?

2. After reading the little parable about the children in the market place, what meaning do you see in the words, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted"?

3. What was ointment made of? What does the Psalm tell us is like the precious ointment? How is it like it?

4. What is forgiveness? What must we do to be forgiven when we have done wrong?

The Lord's words about John are not about John merely as a man, but about the Divine truth of repentance which John taught. Was it like a reed? In a sense it was, for plants represent different kinds of intelligence, and reeds and rushes represent intelligence of a very simple, external, literal kind, such as John's was. But his was not a weak, shaking reed, for although his teaching was external and literal, it was the Divine truth. (E. 627)

Was John's teaching like soft raiment? Clothing is often in the Scriptures a symbol of the thought and speech that clothe affection. John's teaching was literal Divine truth. There is beautiful and tender truth in the Scriptures, but it is understood only by those in interior, spiritual states, especially by the angels, who are they that dwell in king's houses. (A. 9372)

That the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John, does not mean that the faithful messenger of the Lord would not go to heaven, but the repentance which he taught, with all its laborious effort, is not in itself heavenly, but only introduces to what is heavenly. One who comes even a little way into heaven passes beyond this.

John's neither eating nor drinking suggests the self-denial by which abuses are cutoff. The Lord's eating and drinking pictures the right use and enjoyment of all good things, which the Lord makes possible after repentance.

The Lord once washed the disciples' feet and told them to wash one another's feet. The feet represent the outward life in contact with the world. To wash one another's feet is to help others to make their life good, and to be forgiving in regard to imperfect things which cling to them from the dust of the world. The Lord's feet represent His human life so full of Divine beauty and power. (Isaiah 52: 7; Revelation 1:15; E. 69) We see a beautiful thought in sitting at the Lord's feet, and in holding Him by the feet. We also wash His feet when we repent of wrong things in ourselves, for then the purity of His life grows more and more plain. We wash His feet with tears because the repentance through which we learn to know Him is painful to us. (A. 3147; R. 49)

The olive oil, which was the chief ingredient in the ointment, is a symbol of love and kindness which makes all go smoothly in our relations with others. The sweet odors in the ointment are like the gratitude and humility which make love sweet. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment." (Psalm 133:1, 2 ; E. 375; A. 9806)

What is the faith that saves? Mere intellectual belief? Was not the faith of the woman more than this? (E. 815; N. 177, 178)

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