"To What Purpose Is This Waste" Mat.26:8

by Roy Hyland, Rhyl, Wales | Category: General | Mar 1987

The scene is the Bethany home of Simon the leper, the occasion the supper at which the Lord and His disciples were present. It was only two days before the last Passover and the Lord's thoughts were no doubt centred on His approaching death. As He sat at the table a woman approached and broke an alabaster cruse of exceedingly precious ointment and poured its contents over His head. We can imagine the flow of conversation abruptly coming to an end, all eyes now focusing on Him and the woman beside Him; the air filled with a delightful fragrance as the ointment flowed freely over Him. Nothing could surely mar such a pleasing picture, but as we glimpse the wholehearted devotion of her premeditated action, the picture is suddenly shattered by the indignant voice of the complaining disciples!

The contrast between the unselfishness of this woman, motivated by her love for the Lord, and the ill-judged protests of the disciples stands out sharply.

What she did showed the measure of her unbounded gratitude for the joy and peace and hope He had given to her: she was unstinting in her giving to Him that day. She alone of all the guests, host and servants too, had an appreciation of Him that unreservedly expressed itself beautifully and enduringly! The devotion was hers to give or to withhold; the appreciation was His. She certainly deserved His commendation, just as the indignant disciples deserved His rebuke. "It might have been sold" they said, thereby opening up the gulf between their own natural thinking and the sacrificial love that she had shown.

The Lord's earlier teaching, "judge not that ye be not judged" (Mat. 7:1) was not foremost in their minds, so they fell prey to judging her motives and then voicing them in angry tones. The woman was troubled, and so too must the Lord have been.

The disciples made their valuation, more than three hundred pence, a considerable sum, not realizing that the Lord had made His! His was the estimation that counted. "It shall be spoken about" He said, thereby pointing the lesson for us as we seek to serve and honour the Lord with motives which should be at least as pure and sincere as hers, and an appreciation which should be at least as great as hers. Willing-hearted, cheerful service is seen by Him now and will be properly rewarded in the future. What the Lord Jesus gladly received from her He expects from us today.

So the disciples were content to espouse the needs of the poor, but her concern was for the Lord. She had an insight they did not have - "to prepare Me for burial" - and her sense of priority was on the highest plane. We can well imagine the unease and the averted eyes which must surely have been the result of His rebuke, "Why trouble ye her?"

It is noticeable that the Lord did not dismiss the needs of the poor, indeed we know that nobody has ever cared for the homeless, the poor, the handicapped and the oppressed like Him, but what we can most profitably learn from this story is that He is the most worthy of all causes. It is to this woman's credit, and to the disciples' shame, that she alone recognized what needed to be DONE FOR HIM. He was soon to die, but here a few days before, at this supper He knew the devoted worship of just ONE soul. It meant everything to Him! All the others that night had their thoughts centred on other things. How sad, but then how like them we are!

As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ to-day we need to be careful lest we fall into the error of judgement of those disciples, and we observe here that for us, as for them, it must be sufficient for us to leave such judgement to Him. Scriptural teaching is plain that all our actions and words will be perfectly assessed by the Lord, as each gives account of himself (see Romans 14:10-12); for "the day shall declare it ... the fire itself shall prove EACH man's work" (1 Cor. 3:10.15). Such a lesson is salutary to us now and was beneficial then. Of course we are expected to encourage each other, to support each other and to recognize a spiritual gift in another saint. If this is done in the spirit of "counting others better than ourselves" then we are far less likely to merit the Lord's- displeasure now or be ashamed at His judgement seat.

Many of us today are serving the Lord in small assemblies and we may sometimes become discouraged because we do not have the blessing we so much long and pray for. Perhaps too, the thought passes through our mind and is sometimes voiced, "to what purpose is this waste"? At such times, and they undoubtedly do occur, let us turn again to the example of devotion to the Lord shown by this woman and reflect that we too can emulate her, provided that our motives and priorities are as wholesome and genuine. Like Paul we should be building on the foundation - Christ Jesus - leaving the evaluation of our service to Him at that day.

Roy Hyland, Rhyl, Wales | Mar 1987
General