What This Woman Has Done
“Now when Jesus
was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to Him with an
alabaster vial of very expensive perfume, and she poured it on His head as He
was reclining at the table. But the disciples were indignant when they saw
this, and said, “Why this waste? For this perfume could have been sold for a
high price and the money given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to
them, “Why are you bothering the woman? For she has done a good deed for Me.
For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me. For when
she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. Truly
I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this
woman has done will also be told in memory of her.”” (Matthew 26:6 – 13, NASB; for
parallel accounts see Mark 14:3 – 9; John 12:1 - 8)
This little gem
may well have over a thousand facets reflecting our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed,
its facets may be never-ending; as C.S. Lewis has pointed out, we can enter
into small places that have more space than the big places outside them –
consider the stable in The Last Battle.
John’s account
tells us that it is Mary, Martha’s sister, who anoints Jesus. We also see
Martha still serving and Mary still adoring (Luke 10:38 – 42). Perhaps this is
a warning for us to beware thinking that doing the work of God is the same as adoring
and worshipping God. Do we fall into the trap of substituting religious work
and busyness for worship, adoration, and relationship? Do we think that doing
things is a substitute for intimate relationship, whether with God or with
others?
Jesus tells us
that unless we abide in Him and He abides in us that we cannot bear fruit, that
without Him we can do nothing (John 15:1 – 5). But do we believe this?
Do we live like this? Is there ample evidence to demonstrate that we live like
this, both individually and congregationally?
Matthew tells us
that “the disciples were indignant” at the waste of money on Jesus, Mark that “some
were indignantly remarking to one another,” and John that Judas Iscariot was
also complaining – in the case of Judas it was because he was “a thief” and
made a habit of stealing from the money box which was entrusted to him.
John pictures
Mary anointing the feet of Jesus and wiping His feet with her hair, which is her
glory. Mark and Matthew recount that Mary anoints His head; Mary appropriately
anoints Jesus’s head and feet, hence Jesus says, “For when he poured this
perfume on My body; she did it to prepare Me for burial.”
When Matthew
makes the point of writing that “the disciples were indignant when they saw
this, and said, “Why this waste?”” do we see ourselves? How do we view life?
How do we view our relationships? How do we view our relationship with God? Do
we love God so that we waste ourselves on Him? In other words, is the Holy
Trinity the center and focus or our lives, our worship, our adoration?
Or do we play a
debit and credit game with God…and with others? Are we forever calculating our return
on investment in the things we do, on the time we spend, on the way we spend
and give money? Does pragmatism rule, does religious activity rule, or are we loving
and worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23 – 24)?
If the disciples
represent the church, then here is a warning and challenge to us all, pouring
ourselves out for Jesus, giving Him our best, giving Him all that we have and
all that we are - is our calling, and out from our intimacy with Him and in Him
true spiritual and eternal service will flow. As for Judas, there will always
be crooks and thieves in the professing church; they will steal money and they
will steal peace and they will steal joy and they will steal sound teaching…but
we are called to give ourselves to Jesus.
It is thought
that the value of the anointment was about a year’s wage for the average
person. If this year represents our lives, are we giving our lives to Jesus?
Note that Mark
tells us that “she broke the vial and poured it.” Friends, the treasure that we
have in “earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7) can only be shared if we are broken at
the Cross and remain broken (Galatians 2:20). We are called to live cruciform
lives in Jesus Christ, we are called with Paul to say, “…for I bear on my body
the brand marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6:17). These marks are marks of ownership, the
mark of the Cross on us means that we belong to Jesus Christ and that we are no
longer our own – we are the possessions of Another.
John writes that
“the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” Now dear brothers and
sisters, are our lives filled with the fragrance of worship and love for Jesus
Christ? Our marriages? Our families? Our congregations? The busyness of Martha
did not fill the house with fragrance, the adoration of Mary, the breaking of
the vial, the pouring out of her love…this filled the house with fragrance.
Pragmatism and
utilitarianism will not give life and fragrance, mere religious activity will
not result in others knowing the Presence of the Trinity, a curriculum of “how
to” courses will not draw us into koinonia with the Trinity and with one
another.
Are we wasting
ourselves on Jesus Christ? For make no mistake, lives of worship will always
look like a waste, lives of prayer will always look foolish – after all, there
is so much we could be doing (what we usually mean is that we have other things
to do which serve our agendas).
When Jesus says,
“Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what
this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her,” why do you think
He says this?
How does the “memory
of her” challenge us?
What other Divine
facets do you “see” in Mary’s outpouring of love and devotion?
How are we
responding to this memory, this memorial?
What is Mary teaching
us?