Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Jun 1966

The kindly ways of the Lord towards women during the days of His earthly ministry have often been remarked upon. His love for His mother would have undoubtedly been admired by many in Nazareth, despite the low character of its inhabitants, as was commented on by Nathaniel when he said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" He was told to come and see. That day he saw what he never expected to see, for he saw the Messiah, the Son of God, even as he said, "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art King of Israel" (John 1A9). Joseph, the husband of Mary, disappears quite early in the record of the Gospels, and it could well be that the Lord, the eldest son of Mary's family, walked by her side each Sabbath day as they made their way to the synagogue. It is said, "He entered, as His custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day" (Luke 4.16). His deep and profound interest in the Scriptures and in hearing them read undoubtedly moved His soul to its depths, for as He heard the living words read in Hebrew, He was listening to the voice of God. Such should be our attitude to the Holy Scriptures.

The incident in John 4 when He met the Samaritan woman at Sychar's well is one that touches the heart. If we could think of her as a natural relative of ours, instead of being a woman of Samaria, it would touch us more than it has ever done. The Lord was there first. He had walked some miles in the heat of the day. He knew every inch of His journey through life and who He would meet with. He knew this woman would come to draw water when He was there. Not only could He look down into the depths of Jacob's well and see the reflection of light darting across the surface of the water, but as the woman busied herself in drawing her water from the well, He looked far down into the depths of her being and read the whole story of her sorrow and her sin. What dark and troubled waters these were which He saw within this daughter of Samaria! He knew her heartbreaks. She had had five husbands, and now she had given up the propriety of marriage and was living in sin. She is riot the only case of a woman whose sorrows have brought on such a moral defect. This world is becoming more and more a place of broken marriages, broken homes, and children with neither a father nor a mother to care for them. Many descend to the life of the Samaritan woman, but even so, they are not beyond the grace of Christ to reach them.

He asked the Samaritan woman to give Him a drink. This began the conversation. She was surprised that He, a Jew, should ask a drink from a Samaritan. She did not give Him a drink, but instead, on and on went their conversation. He led her along gently till He told her to go and call her husband. Her reply was that she had no husband. He told her that she had had five husbands and the man that she was now living with was not her husband. She had spoken truly. This that He discovered to her touched a cord in her being that most would have thought was atrophied and dead. But it was not so. She looked at Him and said, "Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet." Then she spoke of the worship of her fathers in Mount Gerizim, but she never said that she had gone there herself. At Sychar's well she was standing between Mount Ebal, the ancient mountain of the curse, and Mount Gerizim, the mountain of the blessing, and truly in both a moral and spiritual sense she was between the blessing and the curse. But well for her the Lord was standing there also to bring to her and to all else the blessing, for He had come to bless and not to curse. There were no curses spoken by the Lord on the mountain of Beatitudes, only blessings.

The Lord spoke to her of her fathers' vain worship and of true worshippers. She did not understand. Then she fell back upon what she said she knew, that Messiah was coming and when He was come He would declare all things. Then came the burst of divine light from the Lord, "I that speak unto thee am He." From her dark sky the clouds rolled away, she left her water and waterpot, and called on the men to come to see Him whom she had seen.

The kindness of the Lord to Mary Magdalene, from whom He cast out seven demons (Mark 16.9; Luke 8.2), found a fitting response in her loving devotion to Him. She was one of a number of women who ministered of their substance to the Lord and the twelve. We may usefully quote what the Lord first did for them, and then what they did for Him. "He went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of God, and with Him the twelve, and certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary that was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto them of their substance." These women from high and low society would never have been together and 'working in the highest work that this earth knows if the Lord had not shown them His kindness, casting out evil spirits from some and healing the infirmities of others.

The desperate plight of Mary can be judged by her being indwelt by seven demons. She must have known in her life some of the discomforts of Hell. Her mind tortured, her thoughts perverted, her words reeking with the corruptions of the pit, and her whole being convulsed by the evil spirits which had made their home within her. What a change for her when she came into contact with the Lord! The demons went and the Lord, by His marvellous power and grace, calmed her troubled mind and solaced her aching heart. And if ever a woman was turned from gazing into the depths of destruction to look on the glory of God radiating from Christ it was she. He was now the centre of her life, the object of her affection. He was everything to her. His love found a mirror in her heart.

She was one of the women that watched the Lord on the cross. Of these it is said, "And many women were there beholding from afar, which had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee" (Matthew 27.55,56). She had gone to and fro with others from Galilee ministering unto Him, but this was the last time that she would follow Him on earth and minister unto Him. Now she saw Him on the cross. This must have been an occasion of grief and profound emotion.

We see Mary Magdalene again, for quite evidently she, with another Mary, had followed the Lord's body to the place of burial, and there they sat and mourned and waited. It says of them, "And Mary Magdalene was there (at the tomb), and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre" (Matthew 27.61). Whether she knew where the Lord was we do not know, but the Lord's body had a great attraction for her.

Then, on the first day of the week, while it was yet dark, came Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary' the mother of James: and the other women with than, bringing the spices which they had prepared (Luke 24.1,10). They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Mary Magdalene then had an experience there that none of the others had. As she was standing without at the tomb weeping, she stooped and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Their question was, "Woman, why weepest thou?" She explained her grief, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." No doubt it "was strange to the angels, for they knew that the Lord was raised from the dead and not stolen away, as she thought Then the Lord appeared, but she thought Him to be the gardener, and He asked her, "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest you?" When He spoke her name, Mary, she knew His voice, and she said, "Rabboni." This is the glorious end of the story of Mary ""ho was once indwelt by seven demons.

J. Miller | Jun 1966
Jottings