Articles (Continued) August 17, 2015 Issue

‘For she loved much’

Paul Stark Seeley

Reprinted from the May 8, 1948, Sentinel

The Master mingled with many types and conditions of people. He welcomed every opportunity to plant in thought the seed of Truth, whether his listener was a Pharisee or a Samaritan, a fisherman or a tax collector. He understood so well that all are equal before God and that the objective of Christianity—universal salvation—includes every individual of every race and clime. Not one is excluded.

One day Simon, a Pharisee, invited him to dinner at his home, and he accepted. A woman of bad repute came in while he was there, and to show her love for the purity and goodness he radiated, washed his feet with her tears of repentance and wiped them with her hair. Simon, unmindful of the repentance that was in her thought, silently criticized Jesus for permitting her to do this.

The Master perceived Simon’s thoughts and silenced his criticism with a parable. A creditor had two debtors, one for fifty pence and one for ten times more. “And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me,” said Jesus to his host, “which of them will love him most?” Simon said the one he had forgiven most, and Jesus approved.

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