Our third Eye Witness at our Agape Centre Holy Week Services.
Now
the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and
the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus
secretly and kill him. 2 ‘But not during the festival,’ they said, ‘or
the people may riot.’
3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table
in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very
expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume
on his head.
4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to
one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? 5 It
could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the
poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly.
6 ‘Leave her alone,’ said Jesus. ‘Why are you bothering her? She
has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time
you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body
beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached
throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’
Mark
14:1-9 (NIV-UK)
I had been keeping that perfume for my wedding day… It was the
most expensive thing I owned… even the jar itself was worth more than my other
possessions… But the perfume sealed inside it had been brought from the far
east… the mountains at the edge of the earth… Pure nard… the very best that my
brother could buy for me…
That was back when he was working… before he became famous…
Before he became ill and died… You’ve probably heard of him… Shimon Eleazar… or maybe you know him as
Simon the Leper… or Lazarus… He had been ill for a long time, and on previous
visits my sister and I had hosted Jesus ourselves… But we all knew that one day
that dreadful disease would finish our beloved brother off… We had hoped
that Jesus would heal him… but for some reason he didn’t… and even when the end
was near we sent word to him but he didn’t come… at least not at first… He
turned up 4 days too late… or so we thought… I couldn’t face him at first, I
was so angry… And when I saw him I said “"If you had just gotten here on
time, my brother would not have died."
I was weeping… and so did he… But then he asked where the tomb
was… and… well, you know the rest… the whole country knows the rest…
And there they were… all of the men sitting down to meal… A
sight I had never expected to see again this side of heaven… my brother Shimon
beside the Master… Martha of course was bustling around organising everything…
She never did learn to take things slower…
But I was wondering what I could do to say thank you… Then I
remembered the perfume… Although I said I was keeping it for my wedding day, I
had seriously thought about using it to anoint Shimon’s body before we put it
in the tomb…
But Martha… ever the realist… said “No!” that I needed the
perfume more than ever… either to catch the right man… or to sell to stop us
starving!
But we didn’t have to worry about that now… Shimon was back with
us again… Risen from the dead…
So I went over to where the Master was reclining and broke open
the jar… The perfume filled the room with its heady scent… And I poured it over
him… first on his head massaging it into his hair and down his shoulders… then
on his feet… drying them with my own hair…
His followers were scandalised… some said I was behaving like a
whore… But I don’t care what people will say about me… I had to find some way
of showing my love and gratitude… and it had to cost me something… Not just the
price of the perfume…
But it was the money they focussed on… Especially their
treasurer Judas… He knows the price of everything that one… He spluttered about
it being worth 300 silver coins… And how many poor people it would feed…
Then I felt bad about what I’d done… had I been wasteful?
Then one of the other disciples joked… said that Judas was only
thinking of the tithe he could skim off the top…
But the Master told them to stop, said that I had done a
beautiful thing… He then said something about always having the poor with us,
but that we wouldn’t always have him. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that… He
clearly didn’t mean that we shouldn’t bother about the poor… that wouldn’t have
been like him…
But then he said something even stranger… That when I poured the
perfume on him, I did it to prepare him for burial.
Had Martha told him about me wanting to anoint Shimon’s body
with it? I don’t know…
But I didn’t understand what he meant about his burial… God
willing he’ll be with us for a long time yet…
Prayer
Lord, what can we give you in the light of all that you have
given to us and for us?
All that we have has come from you, all that we are we owe to
you,
All that we can be is known to you alone.
You loved us so much that you gave us your son;
He loved us so much that he gave up the riches of heaven
To live as one of us and die for all of us.
Nothing we can give, or do, or say, or sing can adequately
thank you for all that you have done…
And so we give our all over to you who gave your all for us.
AMEN
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