While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as 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.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Mark 14:3-9 NIV)

This passage intrigues me. It seems to go against everything we read in the Bible, it makes a declarative statement about what will be told when the gospel is preached, and it seems like no one ever listens to or understands this passage. All through the Bible we see a theme of ‘give to the poor.’ Jesus seemed to echo that theme. He told us it would be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told the rich man to go and sell all that he had and follow Jesus. Enter a woman with a jar of expensive perfume. We’ve seen Jesus in action before and we think we know the answer. The woman should have sold the perfume and given it the proceeds to the poor. That’s what Jesus will say! No. He calls her action beautiful.

Continue reading The Woman’s Response to Jesus →

Venomous rhetoric and unfounded claims, simple affirmations without citation. You pull on the heart strings and claim you do good. But you have a hidden agenda, don’t pretend you’re innocent. It boggles my mind the way facts aren’t really facts. My facts and your facts are completely different, and so I throw my arms up in the air. We can’t even get along with our own kind, how are we supposed to change the world?

Christians, of all people, should be taking a visible stand for what is right. Churches, of all places, should be free of stereotypes, racism, sexism, hypocrisy, materialism, pride, and hate. But are they? I don’t think so. How often do we walk into church and an hour later go home unchanged. A once a week service means little to us. Certainly we believe, how dare you question our faith? It’s our action that could use a once over. Are Christians the people you think of when you think of social activists? It seems we’re too content to hide in our churches and mutter about how the world is trying to destroy us. Whose side are we on? I don’t remember signing up for the losing team. The battle is already won, yet we whimper and whine about each little infringement on our rights. We hold up any martyr we can and moan for fair treatment. You want to talk about infringement of rights, what did they do to Jesus? They didn’t just picket Jesus or try to limit his constitutional rights. Who cares if they want to walk all over our rights? Who cares if they pass laws that we don’t like? Our job isn’t to make a wishy-washy Christian nation. Our job is to make Christian disciples. You don’t need a Christian nation to do that, so why don’t we stop trying to legislate our morality and start spreading the word?

For some reason I always think I have the answers. Why is that? I never do. You’d think I’d learn by now. So often I’m the Pharisee. I’m the one trying so hard to be righteous that I forget what it’s all about. I fuss and complain when Jesus doesn’t do the things I want him to. I judge others and somehow I always end up on God’s side of an issue–or rather God is always on my side of the issue. So often we look at the Pharisees in the Bible and think, “Silly Pharisees.” But we just don’t get it. That’s us. So often I think of them as the hypocritical religious leaders and I relish watching Jesus stick it to ’em. But if I’d look a little closer, Jesus is sticking it to me, too. Arrogance and pride are deadly sins (aren’t they all?), and if it happened to the Pharisees, who am I to think it can’t happen to me?

Today I threw off the shackles of homework and responsibility and I cleaned my room. What a concept, huh? When I get busy I start stacking things in piles. Let’s just say my corner of the room was becoming one big pile. I had a pile on my dresser that was more than a foot high. So I spent my Sunday afternoon cleaning and organizing. Sometimes it’s nice to devote Sundays to something besides what you do the other six days of the week. If only I had the time to treat Sunday like a Sabbath day.

Palm Sunday. Several times today I saw people walking around with palm branches. Once was on the way home from church when we passed another church that was just getting out. The second time was while we were eating at Perkins and a family came in after a Palm Sunday service and the kids were still carrying their palm branches. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt and the people laid down their coats and cut down palm branches to lay in the road. Make way for the king. It’s quite an act of praise, and something a lot of churches try to reenact. But what gets me is the attitude of those people who were praising Christ. A week louder a crowd was shouting for Christ to be crucified. Was it the same crowd? If it wasn’t the same crowd, where were the palm branch people when Jesus was on trial? We see it as quite a triumphant entry, but it wasn’t really that triumphant. The people were hoping for a king who would overthrow Rome. Jesus wasn’t interested in that. Furthermore, Christ knew what the people were thinking. He knew what would happen in a few short days. Can you even imagine the emotions that had to be playing in his heart?

Easter is an immense time. It’s very difficult to understand exactly what we’re celebrating. I think it’s very rare when we actually understand what Jesus did. We like to lay it out in a simple four step plan, print it up in a fancy little pamphlet–but it’s not that simple. It’s one of the most profound and amazing things. And thank God for it.