She's the woman who anoints Jesus, to prepare him for his burial.
She purchases an alabaster jar of expensive perfumed ointment, and pours it onto Jesus, filling the room with the fragrance of her gift.
The men in the room become angry; perhaps because she embarrasses them with this intimate act played out in public. Perhaps because they were all wishing that they had thought of it first.
They all have a solution to this 'waste of good money'....and their reaction tells us they cannot see what this woman is doing as an act of worship and devotion. Jesus commends her and promises that wherever this story is told it will be done in remembrance of her.
She never says anything. We never learn her name.
We will need to put aside our notion of worship as a 'service' that we attend and embrace, instead, a notion of worship as action in order to see the potential for spiritual growth in this story. Without words, and in a hostile environment (this was an all men's dinner) she simply acted: extravagantly, generously, with nothing held back. Focused on the service she could do for her Lord, she acted and then she slips away from the story forever.
I've always wondered if Jesus could still smell the wonder of that ointment in the days ahead....when they arrested him and crucified him. Could the fragrance that filled that room have given him the assurance (as slight as it may have been) of this one woman's devotion? Did it help him remember the one who loved him when the whole world was busy crushing him?
How do we grow to be the one who knows how to honor her God and does so without regard for the hostile glares around her and the emptying of her purse? How does emptying out that alabaster jar fill her with God?
No comments:
Post a Comment