“While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor. Aware of this Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Matthew 26:6-13
A Worthy Performance
By Travis Taylor
I don’t always give my best. Why give your best when something less will do? Although this statement doesn’t actually describe the way I think, my actions sometimes confirm its truth. Honestly, it’s difficult to give this kind of devotion without confessing a sin that I would rather not confess, but regardless here I am confessing it… I don’t always give my best.
On the 2nd Saturday of each month I along with several other volunteers bring food and clothing to the street people of Indianapolis. It doesn’t matter if it is pouring down rain outside or if it is 10 below, each month at least a hundred men and women line a narrow street corner to receive a little food and a new hand-me-down outfit from the back of a old truck. Ultimately I am there to let my love for Jesus spill over onto them. But sadly I often just dip the stew into bowls, smile and say things like “Have a blessed day.”
Another good deed done, another way to feel good about myself, another worthy performance…
But the story in Matthew 26 is about a woman who poured out her most valuable possession on her Lord to express her love for him. She didn’t have to; she could have given less. She could have just stood in the room observing the scene. She could have just “dipped the stew.” But it was her valuable expression of love that earned her a place among the Scriptures.
Jesus doesn’t want an army of do-gooders. He wants those who genuinely love him to pour out their lives generously to him and for him. The disciples thought it was foolish to “waste” something that valuable on Jesus. “Couldn’t it be better spent?” they thought. “Aren’t there more important issues?”
Dear Lord,
Help us today to see you as the love of our lives. Help us to pour out our best lives generously to those whom you came to save and those whom you have commanded us to love.
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