GREAT NEWS!

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22208, 10 March 1934, Page 23

GREAT NEWS!

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller.

There was something in Jesus wonderfully attractive. Men and women —and little children too —found it easy to approach Him. He must have been a genial soul for He was continually being invited out to dine. As a conversationalist we know He was supreme. “ Never man spoke like this man.” Christ refused to recognise social distinctions. Men and women were, to Him. the Father’s children, therefore His (Jesus) brothers and sisters Some of these brothers and sisters had wandered away from the Father’s home and Jesus was most anxious to bring them back. Others had become rather selfconceited and were very much inclined to look down on those who had made a mess of life, that is. were not successful. But Jesus absolutely refused to bother His bead about success, or class distinctions; He was as ready to talk to the beggar at the street corner as He was to the scholar and the merchant.

Of course, to many who prided themselves on their strict religious observances it was a sore point that Jesus was so much at home with the riff-raff and the disreputable. . After all, you can hear them say, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” To them it was a shocking thing that He should be known as the “ friend of publicans and sinners.” _ I fancy, Jesus must have smiled at their little outbursts. And yet how true it >a that He was the friend of the outcast, the unwanted, and the deliberately wicked! And also true that He was the friend of the better class, the successful, and those who thought something of themselves. To get a wonderful contrasting—yet proportioned—picture of this genial Man take up the Gospel of Luke and read again of two dinner parties He attended, you will find them described in chapters fiv*> and seven.

The first party was given by a converted profiteer (called a publican—that is, a tax collector for the noted Roman Government), and he invited a number of his fellow-sinners to meet the Man who had not only challenged his way of living, but had changed him spradically that he felt he must tell others about it. The betterclass people—the Pharisees and scribes —were .outraged, and they spoke pretty freely to the disciples of Jesus about it. “Why do you eat and drink with taxgatherers and sinners? ” And then Jesus, in His own whimsical and genial way, spoke to them about doctors and weddings, old clothes and trine. And all the time He was trying to get them to realise that a religion that is only a kind of patch isn’t much good. The second dinner party was quite a different affair. This time a well-known Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to dine with him. No doubt the company was brilliant, and the food perfect. Probably Simon and his friends thought that Jesus this strange, unconventional teacher—would feel flattered at being asked to meet them. Is therP any connection between this dinner party and the one at the profiteer’s bouse? I think so. A scandalous woman crept into the room and wept so much that she wet the feet of Jesus, and then uncoiling her hair she wiped them dry, and pressed kisses on them. So eager was she to pay them homage that she could not wait for the perfume to dribble through the narrow neck of the flask she had with her, but broke it so that its richness and beauty and aroma might pour out in profusion upon Him. I think that woman—a scandalous open sinner in the eyes of the host and his friends—bad been at the first dinner party as a guest, and that something had happened to her. Jesus saw the incredulous look on His host’s face, and, with charm, spiced with courteous criticism, He told a little story.

The little story was about a moneylender who forgave two men who owed him money. “ When they had nothing to pay He freely forgave them both.” These two men, no doubt, told their creditor of their trouble and how things were such that they coilldn’t meet their obligations. I read somewhere that the literal translation of the words of the creditor can be stated in English thus: “He forgave them the debt with such charm that they both loved them.” A neat little story! Yes—but one that has a revolutionary revelation in it. It contains Great News. And in order that Simon might realise the Great News, Jesus showed how this scandalous woman had gently dared in coming into the house and doing what she did. It was the glorious extravagance of love. She had listened to the talk of Jesus about doctors and patches, and she knew that nothing -could heal her, or patch her life, except her own penitence and the Grace of God. This wonderful Man, Jesus, had brought pardon and peace to her, and now she was showing, with great emotion, her gratitude and love. Simon was taught a lesson that day he would never forget. I know of no greater news than that God freely and graciously forgives those who are willing to see the last of their sin. It’s the trumpet note of the New Testament. " Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin.”

Every surge of the Spirit of God in history, from Paul to the Group Movement, strikes that note, first and last. There is no greater release to the human life—in every aspect, physical as well as mental and spiritual—than the release from the bondage of sin and the glorious sense of God’s forgiveness. “When they had nothing to pay. He freely forgave them.” That’s the greatest news sinful man has ever heard.