A Wonder of Grace - 2. The Women that was a Sinner - The Loving Penitent

Extract

A Wonder of Grace
C. H. Spurgeon

2. The Women that was a Sinner — The Loving Penitent

“And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat 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 did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.” Luke 7:37-38. This is a marvellously vivid gospel incident. Every detail is plainly and forcefully set forth, so that we can picture the scene, making it live before us, without much mental effort. And yet, in some respects, there is a great reticence, a divine delicacy, gloriously characteristic of so tender a book as the New Testament. The evangelist — “the beloved physician,” Luke — does not lay bare the minute particulars of this woman’s life’s sins, but delights to dwell rather upon the story of her penitence and its fair fruits, and so makes her to shine resplendently as a wonder of redeeming grace. The symptoms of her soul ’s horrible malady he reveals in a single phrase, and that of general description, but upon the details of her gracious cure he delights to dwell.

We will consider the life of this famous penitent, as the Holy Spirit shall help us, under three heads, and notice, first, her former character; then, her deed of love which showed her new character; and, thirdly, our Lord’s treatment of her.

Firstly let us very briefly look at THE WOMAN’S CHARACTER, to begin with, in order that we may see the horrible pit out of which she was taken.
We do not know much about her. Romish expositors generally insist upon it that she was Mary Magdalene, but this …