“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. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.””
Matthew 26:10-13 NIV
This story in Matthew is one of my favorites in all of scripture. There are accounts in other gospels that tell the same story with some different details. The main part that I love the most is the way Jesus valued the woman.
In the previous chapter Jesus had linked serving the poor and those in need to loving Him. When the disciples see the woman “wasting” money they think, “we got this one!” They had just listened to Jesus teaching and wanted to prove they were listening. And they were, and they were right…and they were wrong.
The perfume the woman used was most likely her most valuable possession. She was figuratively and literally giving Jesus her life and her future. He had done something in her life that compelled her to give everything she had. THAT is loving Jesus! THAT is exactly what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 25 when he said to love the least of these is to love Him. She was living that out!
What compels me to love Jesus?
What compels you?
Dear God, you have done amazing things in my life, in the lives of those around me, in the world. Even when I don’t understand you are still good and have done good. Even when I lack the eyes to see, you are still moving and even better, still there…close. God I give you my life and my love. Amen.
Mandy
Sixty-six books in a year 