2. But we also have to consider here what a horribly great sin harlotry is.

For thereby one sins first against God, who is a holy, pure, unspotted Being who is genuinely hostile toward all impurity.

Second, one sins against God’s Law, wherein every form of adultery is forbidden with great zeal. Christ explains this in Matthew 5:28, that even shameful words, sexually immoral actions, and inner lust are to be understood with the word “adultery.”

Third, one sins against one’s neighbor, to whom offense is given in this way. And as it says, “Woe to the man through whom offense comes” (Mat. 18:7).

Finally, a man also sins against his own body with adultery and harlotry. He damages the temple of the Holy Spirit and turns Christ’s members into the members of a harlot (2 Cor. 6:15). That must be a terribly great sin indeed!

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 109-110)

From this we now see:  1. How, at that time, church discipline among the people of God had come into disuse, and the divine ordinance had been almost completely forgotten.

The Lord God had given an earnest command in Deuteronomy 23:17, “No harlot should be found among the daughters of Israel.” But we hear in this text about a woman who was a well-known sinner. In John 8:3, they bring a woman to the Lord Christ who was caught in open adultery, and their first question was what they should do with her, as if God’s commandment had been entirely buried.

This all came from the deception and seduction of the devil. He had not only seduced God’s people at that time into idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, but had also popularized among them the sins of harlotry and adultery, even as spiritual and physical harlotry are often found together, the defilement of the soul through false teaching and the defilement of the body through unchastity, zeal for idolatry, and the evil burning for harlotry.

Even as it was before the first coming of Christ that, among many other sins, harlotry and adultery were particularly in vogue, so it also goes now before the second coming of Christ, where the horrible, awful sins against the Sixth Commandment threaten to come crashing in like a flood, spurred on by the fact that such sins are not punished with just and proper zeal by the government. Just as the Sodomites were burning with lust when their downfall was right at the door, so that they had to be burned up with fire and brimstone from heaven (Gen. 18), so also will similar sodomite sins be running rampant when heaven and earth are about to be burned up with fire (2 Pet. 3:10).

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 108-109)

{In Luke 7:36-50} Therefore, with a heart hungry for grace, with a thirsty soul, with the longing of faith, she hurried to Christ. She became hostile to her former sins. She experienced genuine contrition and grief. But she had a believing trust and a fervent love for Christ, as she testified with outward actions. For when she came to Christ in the Pharisee’s home, she brought a jar of oil and costly perfume and knelt down at His feet.

She was hesitant to appear before Christ’s holy sight. Until that moment, she had been turned away from God through sin, and so she now also turned away from the sight of men. She began to weep bitterly. Her heart was troubled and oppressed, causing tears to flow from her eyes, and to flow so freely that even Christ’s feet were wetted with them. Then she dried Christ’s feet with her own hair. She made her hair, with which she had formerly made herself beautiful, into a foot cloth and a wash towel. She also kissed Christ’s feet out of true humility, considering herself unworthy to kiss His hands. Finally, she anointed Christ’s feet with the costly perfume, considering herself unworthy to anoint Christ’s head with it, as was otherwise customary in the East.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 108)

{In Luke 7:36-50} A Pharisee by the name of Simon had invited the Lord Jesus to eat with him. This invitation was not issued from a true and upright heart or with good intentions, but in order to find something to criticize (Psa. 41:7). But Christ triumphed by His patience with His enemies’ evil intent, and by His wisdom He shattered their cunning. So He gladly engages with this hostile host and sits down at his table.

And look! There was a sinful woman in the city. And when she learned that He was dining at the Pharisee’s house, she went there, too. When it says that this woman was a sinful woman, it is to be understood that she had previously been living in open sin and shame and had allowed a spirit of harlotry to captivate her and lead her astray. For although all men are sinners before the Lord God, as Christ demonstrates in the parable of this Gospel, not all sins are equal and alike. This is why the Scriptures especially call them sinners who plunge themselves into outward, crass sins, from an evil intention, without any shame before God or the world, who stubbornly persist in such things and give public offense to others. Genesis 15:13, “The people of Sodom were evil and sinned greatly against the Lord.” Genesis 18:20, “The outcry in Sodom is great, and their sins are very serious.” Therefore, the tax collectors and sinners are placed side by side as wicked people (Mat. 18:17, Luke 15:1). The woman in the Gospel had also previously been just such a public, contemptible sinner. But when she heard that Christ rebuked sins so harshly and zealously, while at the same time promising grace to all the poor, miserable sinners who repented, her heart was transformed by the cooperating power of the Spirit.   (Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 107-108)

Finally, she must also “mourn her father and mother,” that is, she must grieve with fervent tears that, until now, she has followed her father, the devil, and her adulterous mother, this world, into sin. This mourning should last, not only for a month, but for the whole time of her life.

On the other hand, she must now learn to love her new Bridegroom. Then Christ will marry her. For He is the one who said about Himself in Matthew 9:13 that He has come as the heavenly Physician “to call sinners to repentance.” That is, He wants to be the Physician of the sick, the Life of the dead, the Shepherd of the wanderer, the Light of the blind, the Salvation of the sinner, and yet in such a way that they do not remain in sins but get up and hasten to Christ through repentance. For this is the way in which He calls sinners to Himself. Christ is the Physician, to be sure; but the sickness must be acknowledged, and the help of the Physician must be sought. Christ is the Life, to be sure; but one must hear His voice, by which the dying are made alive (John 5:25). Christ is the Shepherd, to be sure; but the wandering sheep must allow himself to be picked up and carried to the flock (Luke 15:5). Christ is the Light, to be sure; but one must get up from the sleep of sin. Then He will enlighten us (Eph. 5:14). Christ is the Salvation, to be sure; but He must be grasped with steadfast faith (1 Tim. 1:14).

The previously read Gospel {Luke 7:36-50} pertains to this, for in it the true and earnest repentance of a poor, very sinful woman is described, along with how she thereby obtained God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, and eternal life with Christ. (Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 106-107)

In Deuteronomy 21:10ff., God gave His people this commandment: “If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and you want to take her as your wife, bring her into your house, let her hair be shaven and her nails trimmed, and her clothes in which she was taken captive laid aside, and let her sit in your house and mourn her father and her mother for one month. Then sleep with her and marry her and let her be your wife.”

Along with the fact that the Lord God wanted to use these various ceremonies in order to prevent the Israelites from entering into marriage with foreigners and idol worshipers lightly, there is an excellent type, or rather, an allegory presented to us in this ceremonial law. For the captive foreign woman stands for the soul of a sinner, which is a “foreigner and outside of the city and people of God” (Eph. 2:12). It is also captive in the kingdom of the devil (Col. 1:13). If she (that is, the soul) figuratively becomes pledged in marriage to Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, then she must first allow herself to be washed and purified by true repentance.

She must “lay aside her clothing in which she was taken captive,” that is, she must “take off the old man” (Eph. 4:22) and “despise the stained garment of the flesh” (Jude 23).

She must “let her hair and nails be trimmed”; that is, she must lay aside the evil lusts of the flesh, especially haughtiness and greed, which are understood by the hair and nails, and she must undergo a spiritual circumcision of the heart (Deu. 30:6).  (Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard consisting of 15 sermons for Saints Days and other festivals, Repristination Press, page 106)

The Church, the bride of Christ, is black without (Cant. i. 5), because of her afflictions and persecutions; but within she is comely and beautiful, because she enjoys the consolations of the divine Spirit. The Church is as a garden enclosed (Cant. iv. 12), and so is every faithful soul, since no one knows its beauty unless he is within it. And never shall we know fully and perfectly the consolations of the Spirit of God, unless the power of the flesh over us is destroyed by affliction. If the love of the world fills our hearts, then the love of God can find no entrance therein. A vessel already full cannot be filled with some new liquid unless it be first emptied. Let us therefore empty our hearts of the love of the world, that we may fill them with the love of God. So God, in sending the cross, seeks to destroy the love of the world in us, that the divine love may find place in our heart. The cross, moreover, leads us to prayer, and becomes the occasion for the exercise in us of Christian virtues. When the north wind blows upon the garden, its spices flow out (Cant. iv. 16), and when persecutions sweep over the Church then are developed those peculiar graces and virtues which are so pleasing to God. The beloved Bridegroom of the soul is white and ruddy (Cant. v. 10); white in His holy innocence, ruddy in the blood-marks of His passion; and that the beloved bride of Christ may be made pure and white in her virtues, she is made ruddy by her sufferings for His name’s sake.

From the hardest stone of our afflictions divine grace can bring forth oil and honey, and from the bitter root of present suffering the sweetest fruit of eternal glory.

And to this eternal glory, O Lord Jesus, lead us on and on, and to its blissful enjoyment finally bring us! Amen. (Gerhard’s Sacred Meditations – XLI: The Principle of Christian Patience, Repristination Press, p. 240-241)

But consider the blessed advantages of the cross. It destroys the roots of worldly love in us, and implants the love of God in our heart. The cross begets within us a hatred of the world, and lifts up our minds to the contemplation of things heavenly and divine. If we mortify the deeds of the flesh, the Holy Spirit lives within us; and as the world becomes bitter to our souls, Christ becomes sweeter and sweeter. Greater, indeed, are the mysterious influences and blessing of the cross, since by it God calls us to contrition for our sins, to a true and holy fear of Himself, and to the exercise of patience. When the Lord stands at our heart’s door and knocks, let us open to Him, and hear what He shall speak in our souls. Oh, the world and the carnal outward man may look with contempt upon the cross, but to God and in the eyes of the inward spiritual man it is glorious. What could be more abject and despicable than the passion of Christ, our Saviour, in the eyes of the Jews; and yet what could be more glorious and precious than that same passion of Christ in the eyes of God; since this is the price He paid for the atonement of the sins of the whole world (1 John ii. 2)? And so the righteous man is afflicted: “The righteous man perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart” (Is. lvii. 1); but how precious is the cross,—“precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. cxvi. 15). (Gerhard’s Sacred Meditations – XLI: The Principle of Christian Patience, Repristination Press, p. 239-240)

Consider, moreover, the tribulation which the saints of the past have endured. Behold the patriarch Job, “as he sat down among the ashes” to weep (Job ii. 8); John the Baptist fasting in the wilderness (Luke iii. 2); Peter extended upon a cross, and James beheaded by the sword of Herod (Acts xii. 2). Think of Mary, the blessed mother of our Saviour, standing with pierced heart under the cross (John xix. 25), who in some sense becomes a type of Christ’s Church, the spiritual mother of our Lord. “Blessed are ye,” says Christ, “when men shall persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matt. v. 11, 12). O glorious persecutions, which link us to the apostles and prophets, and to all the saints, aye to our blessed Christ Himself. Let us patiently suffer then with the saints of God, who have suffered in His cause; let us even rejoice to be crucified with those who have been crucified, that we may at last be glorified with those who have been glorified. If we are indeed sons of God, let us not refuse to share the portion of the rest of His children. If we truly desire to be heirs of God, let us joyfully accept all that heirship involves. But let us remember that as sons of God we are heirs not only of the joy and glory of the future life, but also of the sorrow and of the suffering of this present life, for “God scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Heb. xii. 6). He punishes our sins here that He may spare us punishment in the day of judgment; He lays tribulation after tribulation upon us here, that there He may bestow upon us an exceeding weight of glory; and, indeed, the reward far exceeds, in proportion, the persecutions we suffer here. (Gerhard’s Sacred Meditations – XLI: The Principle of Christian Patience, Repristination Press, p. 237-238)

Think of the inconceivable reward held out to thee. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. viii. 18). Whatever our suffering may be here, it is only for a time—nay, it is sometimes but for a day—but the glory that awaits us is forever and ever. God knows perfectly all our adversities, and some day He will bring them all into judgment (Ecc. xii. 14). Oh, how distressing it will be for us to appear in that august gathering of all the universe without the ornaments of the cross and of our sufferings for Christ upon us. “And God Himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Is. xxv. 8; Rev. vii. 17; xxi. 4). O happy tears, which such a hand of such a Lord shall wipe away! O blessed cross, that shall in heaven be exchanged for such a reward! Scarce ten years did King David spend in exile, but for forty he ruled in his kingdom (2 Sam. v. 5). Here we may see prefigured the brevity of our life of suffering, and the unending glory which is to follow. ’Tis but a mere point of time after all in which the saints of God, often objects of the world’s pity, suffer the hardships of the cross; for “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. xxx. 5). (Gerhard’s Sacred Meditations – XLI: The Principle of Christian Patience, Repristination Press, p. 236-237)