The thing that struck me most strongly was the difference between the woman who was all about giving something immensely valuable to Jesus, and Judas who was all about getting something for himself. Judas is all 'give me, give me, give me.' He just wants what he can get out of his relationship with Jesus, and i can be like that so often. Jesus give me this. Jesus give me that. And sometimes I, like Jesus, am willing to trade him in to get something out of the world - more comfort, less persecution, more money.
On the other hand, this woman saw a unique, once in a life-time, moment to display EXTRAVAGANT LOVE to Jesus. Completely over-the-top love. For her, it was all about giving to Jesus, not getting from Him. Makes me wonder how extravagant and over the top my love for Jesus is? Also, as we approach Easter this woman's act makes me think about how I can take unique moments on this day, and in this week, to demonstrate how much I love Jesus.
Final thought, i just love the fact that this all take place in the house of Simon the Leper. How is that for a cool name! 'The Leper'. Showing again how Jesus hung out with social outcasts and untouchables. Maybe i will find Jesus in the home of outcasts and untouchables this week?
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Campus is a stressful place, everybody can attest to that, but it doesn't mean that when the going gets tough and praying "doesn't work" we can simply blame God for not solving our problems. From this passage, I can see how Jesus really wants us to live our lives.
We need to recognize that our relationship with him is precious and intimate. We simply can not use Jesus as a crutch for when we're in trouble and as Bruce said, to absolve the relationship, so that we may gain "more comfort, less persecution, and more money."
It's a hard thing to do, no question about it, but nevertheless as Christians we are called to be humble. In a world of selfishness, ask how can I be different? The woman knew how and Josh gave a nice "how to" in large group this past friday. Pray this week that we all can go out and "be a weirdo".
So many times my relationship with Jesus is about getting and not giving. When I do not get what I want I often find myself praying a little extra or reading the bible more as a payment sort of thing. 'Maybe if I do more, I can earn what I want'. I realize that this is the wrong attitude. My relationship with Jesus should be selfless. It is not about me it is about Him. Jesus gave His all to save me, He died for me! When I was reading this passage I found myself thinking along with the disciples, WHAT A WASTE! Then I too was reprimanded right along with them.
I guess sometimes we get our priorities all mixed up. We seem to know the cost of everything but the value of hardly anything. It reminded me of this story I once heard about this guy who buys a parrot.
To summarize, the bird will not talk, it starts to get sick, it will not move around, and sadly it is eventually about to die. While all this is going on, the parrot's owner is buying more and more stuff for it to try and make it feel better. To fix the problem. He buys it mirrors and toys and everything a parrot could want. When none of this works he finally takes the bird with him to the vet. The vet takes one look at the bird and asks the owner if he is feeding it. The owner then realizes that while he was busy buying everything else, he forgot to buy the food.
I guess this passage really made me realize that sometimes I forget the God I serve. I am so busy doing what is right, being moral, doing the good deeds, that I forget about God. Is this making any sense? I guess it is like I am simply forgetting the one who I am supposed to be serving first! I just get my priority list all mixed up.
I am like the disciples. I am focused on doing good, which is not a bad thing, but I am forgetting the best- the most important. What is valuable to us is probably not that valuable to God, a lot of the stuff that is precious to me could be considered having little or no use to Him.
I am rambling so I guess I will end my thoughts with this: So often I am like the parrot owner. I run around buying all the 'stuff' for the bird, but then I forget the food- the important thing. I run around trying to do all these good things in God's name and try to do all that I am commanded to do, but then I forget about God.
This really strikes me, because I am by nature very materialistic. I hate wasting things, and I often order the cheaper things on a menu when I have to pay for it. What I think makes the difference in the story is that the woman's motivations were out of love for Jesus. When you love someone, there is nothing that is too good for them. Judas's actions were clearly out of love for money, because he valued the money over Jesus.
A few things occured to me as I was reading this passage. One of them is the way I value things. I love having nice things, and my family is fairly well off, so this has become a reality for me over the years. My parents often pay for anything I need, and I everything I don't. Because of all the "things" I buy, I often don't have the money to get a decent meal with friends, or go to places that cost money. This would imply that I love my "things" more than the experience with my friends. I feel better about the way I spend my money because I tell myself that all of the cool stuff that I buy will be used to serve God, which is true in many respects because I do alot of tech-related stuff for youth ministry at home. However, there is most certainly a line to be drawn, and I often struggle with where that line is. Am I rationalizing my materialism?
As far as being called to sacrifice, I feel like Jesus may be calling me to sacrifice my comfort zone in many ways, in order to bring myself and others closer to God. This is difficult for me, because I am not one who likes uncomfortable situations. I'm not good at being the "wierdo", as Mike would call it above. I think Jesus would want me to make that sacrifice for him....from sunrise to sunset, from sunset to sunrise.
I feel like God has really called out to me in the past few years, and I've really discovered what I'm being called to do, atleast for now. I am very involved in youth ministry with my congregation at home, and through several other organizations. I enjoy and am gifted at using modern media (music, TV, movies, photography), and other technology to spread the word of God. I am currently involved in creating a DVD-based community/group building game for a small Christian company, and I'm heading up an "Images" video project as a staffperson this summer at a local confirmation camp. In this way, I feel like God is pleased with me.
I'll leave this as I do most of my blogs with a music quote:
"Found out I was losing so much more than I knew all along
Because everything I've been working for
Was only worth nickels and dimes
But if I had a minute for every hour that I've wasted
I'd be rich in time, I'd be doing fine
Without you I was broken
But I'd rather be broke down with you by my side"
At the end of Bruce's devotional, he wonders if he will encounter Jesus in the home of outcasts and untouchables over this week. It made me think about how often Jesus hung out with those of lower status, those who were poor or just plain nasty in most people's eyes. However, unlike Jesus, I do not place myself near people like this. In fact I avoid it if possible, it doesn't feel good to be around people who are hurting, or poor or really needy(and I'm not talking about my friend who just had a rough day....but something far more than that). But if this is where God's heart is, and I claim to follow God's heart....why is it I seem to be so far away from these people? I hope that God will give me the discernment to see and the courage to step down from my rich white kid pedastool and associate with those his body broke for long time ago, and his heart breaks for every minute.
This passage definitely came alive in a way that I had never really seen before. I don't ever remember studying this in prep for Easter, and it is so meaningful to think that just days before he knew he was going to die, Jesus was hanging out with Simon the Leper - like a lot of you have already said, Jesus was with the outcasts and undesirables.
2 things that struck me were that (1) if Jesus hadn't been there, the disciples wouldn't have, either. We need to go off to where God is calling us to work, sometimes all by ourselves, and not just follow the crowd. See where the hand of God is working, go there, and find something to do. In doing that, He will use us to draw and influence others.
Also, (2) Jesus knew the importance of relational ministry. It's kind of like, "duh, of course, we all know he did that," but I wonder how our relational ministry would look compared to his. What topics am I leaving out in my conversations with people, even Christians, because I'm too lazy or scared to broach them? And this is what he was doing right in the last few days/week before he died - if there was ever a way to show us what's important, that seems like it.
And I also thought it was cool that the woman's story was being told over and over through the annals of time because its now 2000ish years later and we have such a vivid, alive account of it preserved forever!
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