She Did What!?
Matthew 26:6-13, The Message - When Jesus was at
Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him as he was eating
dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. When the
disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. “That’s criminal! This
could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor.”
When Jesus realized what was going on, he intervened.
“Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has just done something
wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for
the rest of your lives, but not me. When she poured this perfume on my body,
what she really did was anoint me for burial. You can be sure that wherever in
the whole world the Message is preached, what she has just done is going to be
remembered and admired.”
Of all
the things Jesus is recorded saying, this passage contains one of the most surprising
to me. The twelve disciples that had
been with Jesus for three years and heard nearly everything He said were also
surprised. Here’s the alarming statement;
“You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives.” Taking care of the poor has been a
recurring theme throughout Matthew’s gospel.
It is even more prevalent in Luke’s gospel. So when this expensive
perfume is expended in Jesus’s honor, the disciples are protesting out of a
concern that Jesus himself has championed.
So, it seems like Jesus does an about-face here.
What it
does suggest is that Jesus allows for the possibility that at least sometimes,
extravagance is not only okay, but can be a beautiful thing. He labels this woman’s loving gesture as one
of those occasions. One way to go with
this vignette is to try an identify the conditions in which extravagance is
warranted. I believe this would be a
mistake. The disciples were shaming this
woman when she was simply trying to show her love for Jesus. More than anything, I hear Jesus’s response
to them as a message to back off. Furthermore,
he used the occasion to point out once more a reality that the disciples have
not been able to embrace – Jesus is about to be killed and buried.
There
is one other aspect of Jesus’s statement that is important to note – the acknowledgement
that the poor will ALWAYS be with us.
Occasionally, I will hear or read about the purpose statement of some
agency, mission, or some social service organization that lists as one their
goals “to eliminate poverty.” I think of
Jesus’s statement every time I encounter this bold claim. Jesus reminds us that eliminating poverty isn’t
the goal. Back in Matthew 11, when John
the Baptist wonders if Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus lists the following
evidence:
“Go, report to John what you hear
and see. Those who were blind are able
to see. Those who were crippled are walking. People with skin diseases are
cleansed. Those who were deaf now hear. Those who were dead are raised up. The
poor have good news proclaimed to them. (11:4-5)
It does not say the poor are made not poor. It says that in their poverty, they will
receive good news. The Good News is not
that poverty will be eliminated; it is that those in poverty will be cared for
in the Kingdom of God. This caring for
the poor is a job that is ongoing. We
don’t ever get to check it off the list.
This is
not a message that many want to hear. We’ll talk more about that next time when
we talk about Judas. Many would rather
hold up some utopian vision of a world where everyone is financially self-sufficient
– a world where none of us needs anyone else.
Over against this, God’s vision is a world where everyone is cared for
no matter what they have or don’t have. Jesus is cared for as He approaches
death and the poor will always be cared for by God’s people. Caring for people in need is what God’s people
do . . . forever. It is one of the signature features of the Kingdom.
Questions: Have you
ever been the recipient of an extravagant gift? Have you ever given one? How do
you participate in caring for the poor?
Prayer: Jesus, help
us envision the kind of community you teach in the scriptures, a community of extravagant
love and eternal care of all. Teach us
how to move toward that beautiful kingdom.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for those spend their lives caring for the poor.
Song: God of the Poor
(Beauty for Brokenness) – Graham Kendrick
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