But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:50
The sinful woman at the Pharisee’s house really had her pistons of faith combusting on fire for Jesus. I say that because the Greek root word for faith here is ”pistis.” Pistis might be an important word to know since Jesus said it was the sinful woman’s faith that saved her soul from eternal destruction.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Matthew 10:28
I think back years ago I was assisting a caretaker of a large parcel of property with the handling of dynamite. Well, I wasn’t actually anywhere around the dynamite, but he, Donald, was right in the middle of it. Donald was in the process of working to blow up a wooded dam that was creating ecological issues in a nearby field. A few of us had driven down to where Donald was working to watch. I suppose we were also on standby in case something went wrong. After all, it was dynamite.
God rescues us from dangers beyond all human expectation. – St. Basil
I remember asking him while he was crouched down nervously humming to himself, working with the dynamite,
“Donald, did you take a course or get some kind of certification in using dynamite?”
There was a slight pause. And Donald, who was somewhat submerged in a slough, briefly stopped working and looked up at us with a reply in his deep, Southern drawl,
“Yeah, yeah, I did.”
Then, as I recall, he stopped splicing wires or whatever he was doing just for a second, and he looked up again and said to us rather quickly but effectively,
“…It’s best to know all there is to know about it.”
I think we all laughed, but only slightly. We didn’t want him to lose focus. He immediately went right back to work and began nervously humming to himself again.
Hold fast to instruction, never let it go; keep it, for it is your life. Proverbs 4:13
The dam eventually blew. The explosion was incredibly powerful, much more powerful than I had anticipated. The ground shook. Shards of wood and debris went flying up in the air, and I think all of us that were there skipped a heartbeat that day.
If men knew what eternity is, they would do everything to change their lives. – Our Lady of Fatima to Blessed Jacinta Marto
If that’s was what a stick of dynamite can do to a waterlogged field, I really don’t want to stick around for the day of God’s wrath. That day will inevitably come down upon the earth and make the earth tremble to its very core. I feel pretty certain there will be more than enough trembling to go around for everyone on that day.
Be humble in this life, that God may raise you up in the next. – St. Stephen of Hungary
It’s much better to be humble for Jesus and raised on the last day, than to be puffed up with pride and blown out with the chaff in the wind.
His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Matthew 3:12
I don’t know for certain if Donald was a man of God, but I knew him to be a rather humble and soft spoken man, and he was hospitable, much more so than the typical arrogant Pharisee in the Gospels. Despite the age gap, he always was respectful to me. He passed away from cancer years ago. May his soul rest in peace. I would like to think Donald is up in heaven playing a steel guitar for a harp. I’d like to think he is looking down at all of us saying rather wittingly in his red-blooded southern accent,
“…Yeah, it’s best to know all there is to know about it.”
We’re not playing with dynamite here. We’re taking about eternity! And what I am saying is that Donald is looking down at us telling us we need to know the scriptures.
Blessed is the man who does not walk
in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in company with scoffers.
Rather, the law of the LORD is his joy;
and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalms 1:1-2
Can our lives flow the course with the peaceful Psalms? What happened to that sinful woman? Only God knows. We’re not told what she did, or what she didn’t do. What we do know is she had learned about Jesus, and it changed the course of her life forever.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he (Jesus) was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Luke 7:37
We can follow her lead right there. She learned. She learned about Jesus. And when she did, she abandoned her old sinful ways of the world, and she followed Him.
The world hates Christians, so why give your love to it instead of following Christ, who loves you and has redeemed you? – St. Cyprian
Let it be no surprise, she had the courage to go in there and stand not in the company of the self-righteous Pharisees, but rather, with Jesus himself.
she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. Luke 7:38
Standing close to Jesus, a cleansing from her past sins began with weeping and repentant tears. Despite her sinful past, she was willing to learn about Jesus. And the scriptures confirm this woman accepted Jesus in her heart. What a blessing that is.
In turn, her repentance flowed forth with charitable acts of love.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. Luke 7:47
Forgiveness! The many sins of her previous life were forgiven by Jesus the Lord. It was the woman’s faith in Jesus that showed she had turned away from the sins of her past, and she was now experiencing Jesus’s mercy in her life firsthand.
The woman in Luke’s Gospel gives us an example to follow. When we turn to Jesus in our life with acts of love from our faith, Jesus will turn to us with his mercy just as he did to the repentant woman who accepted Him in her heart.
Then he turned to the woman… Luke 7:44