It was now two days before Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The leading priests and the teachers of religious law were still looking for an opportunity to capture Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the Passover celebration,” they agreed, “or the people may riot.”
Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head.
Some of those at the table were indignant. “Why waste such expensive perfume?” they asked. “It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor!” So they scolded her harshly.
But Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”
Wasted for God
I was always brought up to eat all the food on your plate every meal. If you went through the line at the church dinner and filled your plate with enough food for two people, it did not matter, you ate it all. If you piled on your favorite food at home only to realize your eyes were bigger than your stomach you still ate everything making your stomach grow as large as your eyes. Not wasting food was taught early and enforced strictly. (The rule even applied to food you did not like, so the buffet line was a lesson in choosing wisely.)
I appreciate having learned to use my resources wisely. On the farm growing up it was imperative we not waste food or other resources as there were only meager resources to begin with. Now that I am financially more comfortable, the necessity to use resources wisely is not dependent on financial limitations but on principled management.
I was standing in our church lobby yesterday when I overheard an individual who came through the depression speaking about how little the present generations know about sacrifice and doing without something. For these people wasting anything is paramount to a mortal sin.
Jesus does not seem to mind careless abandonment in resource management so long as we “waste” our resources on him. Selfish? Not really. Everything given to Jesus is multiplied in ways we will never fully understand until we reach heaven. Besides, how wonderful to be free to express our love for Christ with reckless abandonment. It would be like buying the full carrot diamond earrings for my wife and her response being one of complete thanks, instead of questioning the cost. Jesus welcomes such adoration which is exactly what we owe him.
Jesus, your love for me is so amazing. You gave your life, your everything, for me. Help me to love you with the same recklessness and complete abandonment as you love me, sparing nothing to show you my appreciation. - Dan Jones
Actio
ns worth rememberingDoting on Jesus just doesn’t feel right. Watching the man who came to serve (rather than be served) defend one who not only serves him, but acts with excessive affection toward his body, strips my mental gears.
Sure Jesus demands absolute loyalty. But bathed in exquisite perfume?
Next thing you know he’ll don expensive robes and take for himself luxurious accommodations. Sounds like some of his followers today who treat their bodies with lavish abandon, financed from the gifts of poor folks sending in their donations.
But it isn’t the same, is it. Jesus never lets others express their love for him in ways that turn him into a lavishly appointed guru. He has an uncanny ability to remain unchanged and unencumbered by this world’s trappings while respecting the need others have to express their deep affection for the One who perfectly serves.
Experiencing the Jesus this woman knew always draws out profound affection, albeit an affection expressed in different ways. Mary Magdalene clung to his ankles when she met Jesus after the resurrection. Thomas fell on his knees. John leaned on Jesus at their Last Supper together. How can we express our affection to the One who loves us so lavishly that he died to save us?
Jesus isn’t physically around to lean on, hug, bow before, cling to, or anoint. Or is he?
In a strange twist, Simon and some of his dinner guests scolded this woman because this same perfume could have fed, clothed, and sheltered many poor people. On another day, Jesus insisted that God would one day judge us according to how we cared for Jesus’ body by clothing, feeding, sheltering, and caring for the world’s poor. “When you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,” Jesus responds on Judgment Day, “you were doing it to me!”
Is it possible, that by accepting the expensive perfume for his own body, Jesus was modeling how lavish we are to be toward the poor? Is it possible, that our actions worth remembering through the generations are our expressions of affection for Jesus, offered through excessive expressions of affection for the impoverished of the world?
Jesus, I love you. I want to express that love lavishly. But I am not sure how. I think it has to do with how I treat the poor. In the middle of the demands life makes on me, show me how to “excessively” dote on you, by doting on the poor. My mind and heart are open. - Mike Leamon
No comments:
Post a Comment