What Do You Think? Wednesday

In the kitchen stirring steel cut oats, a breakfast Joshua requested, he asked me about what seemed strange for someone to do: “Why did that lady put that stuff on Jesus’ head?” For the day’s school work he was reading Mark 14:1-9 when Mary of Bethany did the unthinkable, the seemingly unimaginable. She poured expensive perfume, a year’s salary, clean out its box and right onto Jesus’ hair. Others there sneered at her act, probably thought she was crazy wasting what could have been her livelihood for the coming months. But in a few minutes she poured out her best, all for Jesus. And Joshua, like the people—who counted Mary’s money like they had the right to decide what should be done with the proceeds from the perfume’s sell—wanted to know the meaning of this.

Jesus explained that Mary did this before He died, that she was preparing for Jesus’ death while He was still alive. You probably already know this but in Jesus’ day dead bodies were prepared for burial by being anointed with perfume and spices to preserve them. But Mary did this while Jesus still had breath in His body, giving off life right in her presence. Perhaps Mary was saying Jesus would always be alive with her, that she would not let Him die but take in His breath, take in His life, while He was yet living. Once she had Him in her presence there He would stay. She wanted the best to remain with her and loved him so that she gave him her best. Giving her best was the meaning of her outpouring and it doesn’t seem she thought twice about it.

So in the kitchen, among steel cut oats and a Bible story about a woman desperate to have Jesus, I tell Joshua that we too must be desperate, seek to be excellent, for Jesus. We have to give our best with our handwriting, in our time, in our talk, in whatever we do. This is how we keep Jesus with us, breathing life through us, showing the world that He is right with us. Being excellent—giving Jesus our best—is the Christian obligation. This we must do in honor of Jesus.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.—Romans 12:1 (NLT)

We were created for this before creation itself (Ephesians 1:4, 10-14). With Jesus loving on us better than anyone loving on us how could excellent worship not be our obligation? Please, tell me what you think.