oman, when she was healed, would
have kept her case secret at the time if she could; she was put about
and ashamed when she was called in public, and her experience proclaimed
in the crowd. It suited the purpose of the Lord to make known her
experience on the spot; that method he saw would do most for his
kingdom. But in the case of this woman who was a sinner, he did not act
in the same way. There are diversities in his operation. He foresaw an
occasion when her repentance and faith could be turned to greater
account; accordingly he postponed the public announcement of her
forgiveness till then. True to the new instinct that had been planted in
her heart, this saved sinner, as soon as she heard that Jesus sat at
meat in the Pharisee's house, grasped the richest offering she possessed
and hastened to the spot. Her plans, I think, were not fully laid. The
impulses of a bursting heart drew her to the place where her Redeemer
was; but she had not foreseen all the difficulties, and consequently had
not prepared the means of overcoming them.

Arrived at the house, she entered the open door; and passing through the
attendants, penetrated into the apartment where the company reclined at
meat. The table stood in the middle of the hall, and sofas in a
continuous line were placed near it on either side. On these sofas were
the guests, not sitting as we do with their feet on the floor beneath
the table, but reclining with their feet projecting a little behind, the
sandals having previously been drawn off by servants, for coolness and
comfort. Thus it was easy for one who entered the room, to walk up to
any individual of the company and converse with him during the meal;
and, so far from being out of the way and unnatural, it was the easiest
and most natural of all things, that the woman, when she came to Jesus,
should touch his feet. This was precisely the part of his body which she
could most easily reach, and which she might bathe and anoint, while the
meal proceeded, without difficulty to herself or inconvenience to him.

We shall fall into a mistake if we think either that the act as here
narrated was altogether accordant with the habits of the time and place,
or altogether contrary to them; it was partly the one and partly the
other.

In the first place it was an act radically diverse from the intrusion of
a stranger to anoint the feet of a guest sitting at dinner with his
friend in our country and our day. Such an act amon