THE WORDS OF JESUS
Creative, Causative, Prophetic, Instructional – Part 56
“Why do you trouble the woman?”
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
The Words of Jesus – Matthew 26:10-13
This event begins in Matthew 26:6: “Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, Verse 7, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. Verse 8. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? Verse 9. For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”
Jesus is entering the last few days of His ministry on earth. He is preparing Himself and His disciples for His crucifixion. What follows in this and coming episodes are the richest and most profound insights. Many in the Church today fail to recognize or accept the power and strength Jesus is teaching and demonstrating for us to follow in our day of testing. You and I would be wise to see, hear and remember, because our day is coming, also.
We are given much greater detail of Matthew 26:6-13 in the book of John, chapter 12, verses 1-7.
“Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Staying true to His nature, the preparation for His death has taken place without any religious pomp or circumstance. The Suffering Servant, Christ Jesus,
A face-value reading of these verses is sufficient for our understanding of what occurred. Mary has poured a pound of expensive perfumed ointment on His feet, as Jesus has said, “to prepare Me for burial”. But Jesus adds significance to her act of worship, saying, “Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
This is an example for all future Christians. Mary has signified worship, and surrender of her valuable worldly possessions, the washing away of sins by her identifying with Christ in His (coming) death and burial.
When anyone is saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus, this is the model of our act of worship, surrender of our worldly possessions, (material possessions, pride of life, ego, status, achievements and the like), the washing away of our sins by our identifying with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
It is the example that memorialized Mary’s love and dedication to Jesus. It is the act that will memorialize you in your devotion and love of Jesus and set an example for those who come after you.
Baptism as a ritual or as a sacrament alone, is not enough as our sole act of identifying with Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. We must truly die to our former self, relinquish our rights to our former possessions and ways of life as an act of both true submission to and worship of Jesus. Then we are truly made new and given a new life worth living.
We follow Him in life, death, burial and resurrection.
Your Brother
Mike Young
NEXT: THE WORDS OF JESUS THE WORDS OF JESUS – What Are You To Do With Them?, “You Will Fall Away”, Part 59
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