One might have expected that our Lord would have flung the shield of
His companionship, for a little while, at any rate, over this
penitent, and so have saved her from the scoffs and sneers of her
neighbours, who knew that she was a sinner. One might have supposed
that the depth of her gratitude, as expressed by her costly offering
and by her tears, would have spoken to His heart, and that He would
have let her stop beside Him for a little while; but no! Jesus said
to her in effect; 'You have got what you wished; go away, and take
care of it.' Such a dismissal is in accordance with the way in which
He usually acted. For very seldom indeed, after He had gathered the
first nucleus of four disciples, do we find that He summoned any
individual to His side. Generally He broke the connection between
Himself and the recipients of His benefits at as early a moment as
possible, and dismissed them. And that was not only because He did
not wish to be surrounded and hampered by a crowd of slightly
attached disciples, but for two other reasons; one, the good of the
people themselves, and the other, that, scattered all over northern
Palestine, they might in their several circles become centres of
light and evangelists for the King. He dispersed them that He might
fling the seed broadcast over the land.
Jesus Christ says to us, if we have been saved by our faith, 'Go!'
And He intends two things thereby. First, to teach us that it is
good for us to stand by ourselves, to feel responsibility for the
ordering of our lives, not to have a visible Presence at our sides
to fall back upon, but to grow by solitude. There is no better way
of growing reliant, of becoming independent of circumstances, and in
the depths of our own hearts being calm, than by being deprived of
visible stay and support, and thus drawing closer and closer to our
unseen Companion, and leaning harder and heavier upon Him. 'It is
expedient for you that I go away.' For solitude and self-reliance,
which is bottomed upon self-distrust and reliance upon Him, are the
things that make men and women strong. So, if ever He carries us
into the desert, if ever He leaves us forsaken and alone, as we
think, if ever He seems--and sometimes He does with some people, and
it is only seeming--to withdraw Himself from us, it is all for the
one purpose, that we may grow to be mature men and women, not always
children, depending upon go-carts of any kind, and nurses' hands and
leading-strings. Go, and alone with Christ realise by faith that you
are not alone. Christian men and women, have you learned that
lesson--to be able to do without anybody and anything because your
whole hearts are filled, and your courage is braced up and
strengthened by the thought that the absent Christ is the present
Christ?
There is another reason, as I take it, for which this separation of
the new disciple from Jesus was so apparently mercilessly and
perpetually enforced. At the very moment when one would have thought
it would have done this woman good to be with the Lord for a little
while longer, she is sent out into the harshly judging world. Yes,
that is always the way by which Christian men and women that have
received the blessing of salvation through faith can retain it, and
serve Him--by going out among men and doing their work there. The
woman went home. I dare say it was a home, if what they said about
her was true, that sorely needed the leavening which she now would
bring. She had been a centre of evil. She was to go away back to the
very place where she had been such, and to be a centre of good. She
was to contradict her past by her present which would explain itself
when she said she had been with Jesus. For the very same reason for
which to one man that besought to be with Him, He said, 'No, no! go
away home and tell your friends what great things God has done for
you,' He said to this woman, and He says to you and me, 'Go, and
witness for Me.' Communion with Him is blessed, and it is meant to
issue in service for Him. 'Let us make here three tabernacles,' said
the Apostle; and there was scarcely need for the parenthetical
comment, 'not knowing what he said.' But there was a demoniac boy
down there with the rest of the disciples, and they had been trying
in vain to free him from the incubus that possessed him, and as long
as that melancholy case was appealing to the sympathy and help of
the transfigured Christ, it was no time to stop on the Mount.
Although Moses and Elias were there, and the voice from God was
there, and the Shechinah cloud was there, all were to be left, to go
down and do the work of helping a poor, struggling child. So Jesus
Christ says to us, 'Go, and remember that work is the end of
emotion, and that to do the Master's will in the world is the surest
way to realise His presence.'