Your Best Offering
This devotional considers John 12:1-11.
Mary, who anointed Jesus’ feet with half a litre of expensive perfume was a woman of courage and faith. Despite what others may have thought about her, she did the unimaginable as an act of worship. Jesus, who raised her brother from the dead—the Messiah—was in her presence. This was a dinner in Jesus’ honor, and she found her own way to give the Lord something that cost her. And it certainly did cost her financially, and it cost her socially.
From the disciples to others in attendance, there was a lot of grumbling about the perfume. Look at how much money she wasted and how it could have been better spent, like in helping the poor. At the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus asked Philip Where can we buy bread for these people to eat? Philip replied It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite! This perfume was worth one year’s wages.
Mary had to have weighed the cost of worshipping the Lord in public and in this way. What would people think? What would they say? Maybe even, Will the Lord be happy with what I’m about to do? We don’t’ know, but we can imagine because many of the choices we make include considering what others will think. But Mary feared the Lord and not people, and her reward was a Heavenly measure—one that would confound and break our analytics tools. What she gained and the impact of her life was before and will continue beyond our lifespans. Wherever Jesus is preached, Mary’s name and actions will accompany.
The time was drawing close to Jesus death, and Mary gave her Lord the best gift to send him off to fulfil his purpose in the earth. She filled the air with the fragrance of sacrifice mirroring the kind of sacrifice Jesus would make for us. She gave her best sacrifice, one that would get in the nostrils of the believing and unbelieving alike—one that got in the nostrils of God as a pleasing fragrance. Her concern was not who would accept her testimony, but that all of whom she had influence over would know that the One who is worthy was in their midst and must be honored with the best of gifts, her life.
Jesus gave his all for us, and the challenge is how to honor him like Mary did. In what ways can we let go of the ways we’re trying to save our lives, for example, in our financial and social capital? What does losing our lives for Jesus’ sake look like?
Jesus promises that whoever loses their life for his sake will find it. I pray that the Lord help us to take him at his word.
Amen.