THE
SECOND BAPTISM
The weeping woman of Luke
7:37-38 had both tears of joy and exaltation. She was weeping not only because
of her shame, now forever canceled, but because of the poignant sweetness of
her life beginning anew. NOTE: Luke assumes our understanding that only God
forgives sins. Therefore Jesus must be God!
She was weeping for her virginity restored,
for her soul rescued from evil, her purity miraculously recovered, her condemnation
forever revoked. Her tears were the tears of joy at the second birth, of
exultation for truth discovered, of light-heartedness for her sudden
conversion, for the saving of her soul, for the miraculous hope which had released
her from the degradation of the earthly and raised her to the illumination of
the spirit. The drops of nard and her tears were so many thank-offerings for
this incredible blessing.
And yet it was not alone for her own sorrow
and her own joy that she wept. The tears which bathed the feet of Jesus were
also shed for Him.
The unknown woman had anointed her King like
a king of olden times. She had anointed His head as the high priests had
anointed the kings of Judea; she had anointed His feet as the lords and guests
anointed themselves on festal days. But at the same time the weeping woman had
prepared Him for death and burial.
Jesus, about to enter
Jerusalem, knew that those were the last days of His life in the flesh. He said
to His disciples, "For in that she
hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial." (Matt.
26:12) Still living, He was embalmed by a woman's compassion.
Christ was to receive before His death a
third baptism, the baptism of infamy, the baptism of the supreme insult; praetorian
soldiers were to spit upon his face. But He had now received the baptism of
glory and the baptism of death. He was anointed like a king about to triumph in
His celestial kingdom. He was perfumed like a corpse about to be laid in the
tomb. This anointing unites the twin mysteries of His Messiahship and of the
crucifixion.
The poor sinning woman, mysteriously chosen for this prophetic
rite, had perhaps a confused feeling of the appalling meaning of this intuitional
embalming. Love's second-sight, stronger in women than in men, the foresight of
exalted and deep emotion, may have made her feel that this body perfumed and
caressed by her was in a few days to be an icy, blood-stained corpse. Other
women, perhaps she herself, were to go to the tomb to cover Him for the last
time with aromatics, but they would not find Him. He who was now feasting with
His friends was at that time to be at the doors of another Hell. Feeling this
intuition, the weeping woman let her tears fall on Jesus' feet to the astonishment
of all the others, who did not know and did not understand.
Now the feet of the Savior,
the feet of the condemned one, are all bathed with tears, the salt of the tears
mingling with the perfume of the nard. The poor sinning woman does not know how
to dry those feet, wet by her tears. She has no white cloth with her, and her
garment does not seem to her worthy to touch her Lord's flesh. Then she thinks
of her hair, her long hair which has been so much admired for its fine
silkiness. She loosens the braids, slips out the pins, and unclasps the
fastenings. The blue-black mass of her tresses falls over her face, hiding her
flushed face and her compassion. And taking up the masses of these flowing
curls in her hands, she slowly dries the feet which have brought her King into
that house.
Now her tears are ended. All her tears are shed and
dried. Her part is done, but only Jesus has understood her silence.
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