Seeds for 01/26/2024 - Matthew 26:6-13
Scripture: While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of 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. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Observation: No one is comfortable when they see a social faux pax committed. We know that someone has acted out of sync with the way things should be handled or spoken of. When this happens, we may physically fidget—uncomfortable, yet unsure of what, if anything, to say. Or we may get out of sorts and become chatty, full of more words that we can contain. The latter seems to be the case with the disciples. “They were indignant. ‘Why this waste?’ they asked.”
It is helpful to recognize that we may not know what the biblical authors and characters know, especially about what makes a social faux pax in one culture and time period versus our own. Perhaps the disciples are correct that the woman has behaved shamefully in “wasting” the expensive perfume in anointing Jesus. If we assume their reaction makes sense, this is a plausible explanation. On the other hand, it could be that they are mission-minded in a way that has morphed into miserliness and that they have become Pharisaical about the use of assets—all law and no grace.
Either way, here’s what I see in Jesus in this brief scene.
Jesus sees the woman’s heart in her actions. He chides the disciples: “Why are you bothering this woman?” But He expresses appreciation and understanding for what she has done: “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” And He interprets her lavish gift in light of His gospel work: “When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.”
Also, Jesus is attuned to preserving her dignity in the midst of defending her actions. The disciples are “indignant” and call attention to her behavior, but Jesus essentially tells them to get off her back about it. In appreciating and defending her, and in explaining why her actions are noble and praiseworthy, He preserves her dignity and thwarts their shaming.
For me, this is a window into the heart of Jesus. He was Himself indignant with the Pharisees, so it isn’t their emotional response that He has a problem with, only the situational application of it. In the case of the Pharisees, they were laying on the people heavy spiritual burdens—all shame and no support, all guilt and no grace.
In the woman’s case, what she is doing comes from a good place—an extravagant offering of love for the Lord. Perhaps what she’s done is fine and the disciples are off base. But perhaps the disciples are correct and it is an inappropriate gesture, even if well intended. No matter. Jesus sees her offering for what it is—a generous act of devotion. In this way, she is foreshadowing Jesus’ own uncomfortably generous act of love in the cross.
Application:
When have you been shown, or witnessed, an act of uncomfortable generosity?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, give me a generous heart of grace rather than a miserly Pharisee spirit. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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