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It seems to be in the nature of many Christians
to want to do great things for God. Now there is nothing wrong with
that and we should be filled with godly ambition. However, we can end
up doing nothing because we can't do great things and when the grand
gesture eludes us we can feel cheated. We can look at the great heroes
of the faith, who travelled across continents, suffered persecution,
risked martyrdom, and braved deprivation to bring the gospel and feel
pretty deflated.
In this passage we learn a great deal that can encourage us as we trudge
along to another 'mid-week' Bible study, prayer meeting, house group
etc. The setting is very ordinary although the impending events are
monumentally significant. It is a quiet, intimate meal in Bethany at
the house of a friend during Passover week outside Jerusalem. Jesus,
the disciples, Simon, whose house it was, close family and friends sitting
around and making conversation over a meal.
John tells us in his gospel that the woman with the alabaster jar was
Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, and so she probably belonged
there. She simply walked in, broke the jar (snapped off the neck) and
anointed Jesus with an expensive perfume. The disciple's reaction was
one of shock and indignation. This very expensive oil, which had come
all the way from India, might have been sold and the money used for
the poor. But Jesus saw it differently and the words that stand out
for me are, "She did what she could".
What did she do?
It is the case that every king of Israel was anointed before his coronation
and here was Jesus' anointing, at the hands of a woman. In anointing
him Mary was recognising his kingship.
This was also a symbolic anointing of his body in preparation for his
impending death. Mary was preparing Jesus' body for burial and recognising
that this king had to die.
Of course, those looking on didn't see all this in what she did, quite
the opposite. If there was anything 'spectacular' in what she did it
was the extravagance, almost pointlessness of it all. But what she did
is, as Jesus prophesied, remembered wherever the gospel is preached
throughout the world. It always makes me smile to hear this story for
this reason, it came true of her just as Jesus said. I wonder if she
demurred when he said it, thinking he was just being kind? I like to
think she knew him better than that.
How about you, do you know the full value Jesus puts on the 'little'
things you do? Saint David's last words to his followers were, "Be
faithful in the little things you have seen me do". In truth, there
are so many little things that added up together, amount to a great
deal in the reckoning of heaven. Like Mary of Bethany we can do so many
little things that recognise the kingship of Jesus. The way we conduct
our lives, faithfulness in the little duties of Christian pilgrimage,
submission to his will as he submitted to the Father. There are so many
ways we can recognise and show his death in our lives. Faithful recognition
of the body as we share the bread and wine, dying to ourselves and living
for him in all our days.
Perhaps some of us will be called to preach to thousands, but all of
us can speak to our neighbours. Perhaps some of us will travel continents
to be Christ to a lost people, but all of us can be Christ to our families
or in the workplace. Perhaps some of us will be called upon to risk
a martyr's sacrifice because of our faithfulness to Jesus, but all of
us can sacrifice our personal agendas to be faithful to our leaders
and to the Saints of God.
We live in troubled times and my prayer is that we can prove faithful
in the little things so that Christ can be clearly seen in all that
we do.
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