It is ever the light which throws the shadows of objects - and this deed of faith and love now cast the features of Judas in gigantic dark outlines against the scene. He knew the nearness of Christ's Betrayal, and hated the more; she knew of the nearness of His precious Death, and loved the more. It was not that he cared for the poor, when, taking the mask of charity, he simulated anger that such costly ointment had not been sold, and the price given to the poor. For he was essentially dishonest, a thief,' and covetousness was the underlying master-passion of his soul. The money, claimed for the poor, would only have been used by himself. Yet such was his pretence of righteousness, such his influence as a man of prudence' among the disciples, and such their sad weakness, that they, or at least some,' [5039] expressed indignation among themselves and against her who had done the deed of love, which, when viewed in the sublimeness of a faith, that accepted and prepared for the death of a Saviour Whom she so loved, and to Whom this last, the best service she could, was to be devoted, would for ever cause her to be though of as an example of loving. There is something inexpressibly sad, yet so patient, gentle, and tender in Christ's Let her alone.' Surely, never could there be waste in ministry of love to Him! Nay, there is unspeakable pathos in what He says of His near Burying, as if He would still their souls in view of it. That He, Who was ever of the poor and with them, Who for our sakes became poor, that through His poverty we might be made rich, should have to plead for a last service of love to Himself, and for Mary, and as against a Judas, seems indeed, the depth of self-abasement. Yet, even so, has this falsely-spoken plea for the poor become a real plea, since He has left us this, as it were, as His last charge, and that by His own Death, that we have the poor always with us. And so do even the words of covetous dishonesty become, when passing across Him, transformed into the command of charity, and the breath of hell is changed into the summer-warmth of the Church's constant service to Christ in the ministry to His poor.
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[4999] 2 Kings xxv. 5.
[5000] Ezra ii. 34.
[5001] 1 Macc. ix. 50.
[5002] Jos. Ant. xvii. 6. 5; Jewish War i. 33.6 .
[5003] Cant. i. 14.
[5004] War iv. 8. 3.
[5005] Jer. Taan. iv. 2.
[5006] Jer. Sukk. v. 3.
[5007] So more accurately.
[5008] St. Luke xix. 1-10.
[5009] The word here used is katalo, and the hostelry at Bethlehem (St. Luke ii. 7) was katluma.
[5010] Ex. xxii. 1.
[5011] Literally, if I have sycophanted any man anything.' It should be remarked, as making this restoration by Zacchæus the more intelligible, that to a penitent Jew this would immediately occur. In the Talmud there is a long discussion as to restoration by penitents in cases where the malappropriation was open to question, when the Talmud lays down the principle, that if any one wishes to escape the Divine punishment, he must restore even that which, according to strict justice, he might not be obliged to give up (Baba Mez. 37 a).
[5012] St. Matt. xx. 29-34; St.Mark x. 46-52; St. Luke xviii. 35-43.
[5013] Comp. our remarks on this point in vol. ii. p. 49.
[5014] St. Mark x. 49.
[5015] The expression is the same in St. Mark and St. Luke.
[5016] St. Luke.
[5017] The Parable of the Ten Pieces of Money will be expounded in connection with the last series of Parables.
[5018] St. John xi. 55-57.
[5019] St. John xii. 1.
[5020] Canon Westcott prefers the reading: the common people.'