“Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head. Some of those at the table were indignant. ‘Why waste such expensive perfume?’ they asked. ‘It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor!’ So they scolded her harshly. But Jesus replied, ‘Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me?… She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.” (Mark 14:3-9, NLT)
When I was a very young girl, I was given a tiny bottle of perfume. It wasn’t cologne or a body spray. It was the real deal – perfume. I remember opening it, enjoying its sweet fragrance, and thinking it was only for special occasions. Over the next few Sundays, I dabbed it behind my ears and on my wrists as my mom had taught me, and I must admit, I felt pretty special. The perfume was a gift of great value for such a young child, and I used it sparingly.
Somehow, the perfume was misplaced over time, and after a while, I forgot about it. When I discovered it several years later, it had become rancid and stale and had lost its value to me. That was when I understood that some things need to be spent and enjoyed when they’re fresh and available. This was a lesson that dear Mary of Mark 14 understood very well.
Mark 14 portrays the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with perfume. We learn that she was Mary, of Mary-Martha-Lazarus fame. There was just something about Mary. Mary was excessive. Mary was extravagant and irrational in her worship of Jesus. According to the dictionary, worship is great or excessive love, admiration, and respect felt for somebody or something, and Mary was all over that.
In fact, we learn in Luke 10 that Mary had an adoration problem when Martha could not pull her sister away from the Lord’s presence to help in the kitchen. So, this excessive use of her resources does not come as a surprise. Mary didn’t hoard or save. Mary didn’t open her jar of spikenard with great care to keep some for other occasions. No, she gladly broke it open to saturate her Lord with a year’s worth of wages. Can you imagine giving to the Lord something equal to this entire year’s wages? Not holding back some for a rainy day, but giving it all? Mary got it. Mary understood worship.
Throughout the ages, God had been looking for a people, made in His image, whose desire to give themselves to Him is equal to His giving of Himself to them. We’ll not achieve this in our humanity, but He responds to our desire to do so.
Mary’s selfless worship of Jesus that day reflected God’s undying love for us, the gift of Jesus, who was His most precious treasure, and it also reveals His desire for intimacy with us. “I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.” (Mark 14:9) Just as we’re doing today.
Some of those present that day did not appreciate her extravagance, Judas to be sure, because they just didn’t get it. Unabandoned worship was off their radar. I’ve found that sometimes it’s easy to justify economizing my resources, time, and attention rather than lavishing them on the One who most deserves them. It’s at those moments that I just don’t get it. He’s waiting for my love for Him to resemble, as best as this human body possibly can, His love for me – excessive, extravagant love. Just like my exquisite perfume, our offered love is best when it’s fresh and fragrant.
Jesus left the dinner that day carrying with Him the sweet fragrance of Mary’s gift. “She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time.” (Mark 14:8) Because of its abundance, her gift permeated the Last Supper. It surrounded the betrayal and arrest in the garden, and it lingered in the streets of Jerusalem, down the Via Dolorosa as Jesus was led to His death. Even the cross bore its fragrance.
Oh, how I want my love today to permeate heaven, to fill His nostrils with a sweet fragrance of my excessive, extravagant love for him, to somehow reflect His love for me. A stingy, stale heart will not accomplish this, and a distracted mind cannot produce it. I understand it takes some breaking, some spilling out, some excess.
Phyllis Benigas, Missionary to Europe