“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.” Mark 14:3
Have you ever done something for someone and had people question your motives? Did that affect you in any way? Did you reevaluate any further actions you made in the future?
When Jesus was eating, this woman came in and made her way to Jesus Christ to show her love and admiration for him, by anointing His body with her spikenard ointment. This anointing drew the attention of those around Him to not only see what was happening but to make their personal remarks about what took place. The disciples began to make a judgment about this woman using such an expensive ointment to anoint Jesus’ body when it could have been used for more “redeeming” purposes. They didn’t see the importance or significance about the act of anointing Jesus’ body. Jesus made several comments that seemed to fall on deaf ears and some allowed this teaching moment to pass them by as they continued to keep their eyes on the situation and not on Jesus.
It’s amazing to see how an act of worship by a woman could cause such a diverse reaction from Jesus’ followers. You would imagine that any act of worship would be appreciated by the disciples but I wonder if they felt a tinge of guilt because of the selfless worship this woman displayed in front of them. She gave a treasure to worship Jesus. She gave everything she had to show her love to Jesus and left nothing to waste. This was truly an abandonment of love to show her honor and affection to her Savior and Lord.
Do we ever enter a time of Worship and know within our hearts that we are giving every bit of ourselves, mind, heart, soul and strength, to worship Jesus? Do we put aside any thoughts of other worshipers and fully concentrate on our worship towards our Savior? Do we abandon what others might think of our worship acts and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide each thing that we might say or do? Even scripture states, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” in John 4:23-24.
In these days, I don’t know how much we prepare ahead of time to be pure of heart and mind to come and worship together. I wonder if we’re even ready to give all we have to worship God and honor Him with our lives. I believe that if we really take a look around these days, we are called to worship and pray like we’ve never done before. I believe that the days will continue to get more difficult to worship than ever before and we will be challenged to meet with God and with each other as we worship as the body of Christ. I pray that we become like this woman and desire to worship Jesus Christ with everything that we are and with everything we have, in order to please Him!
- Pray for God to show you how to truly worship Him
- Pray for our country to turn back to God and allow us to worship freely
- Pray for those who will lead us in the days ahead in this country