daily java

Daily Java:

Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head. Some of those at the table were indignant. “Why waste such expensive perfume?” they asked. “It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor!” So they scolded her harshly. But Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.” (Mark 14:3-9)

Every once in a while you want to do something nice for someone. It doesn’t have to be big, or expensive, but sometimes it may be.

But when you give them the gift, they say, “You didn’t have to do that.” Then chances are they will say, “Well, thanks anyway.”

Your gift and the spirit with which you gave it has been completely nullified in their minds. You didn’t have to do it, so therefore they feel no real obligation to thank you for it. And above all, they do not “owe you one.”

This happened to me recently with something as small as a cup of coffee I got for someone. And I have to admit, I am not sure I will get them another. Pettiness on my part, maybe. But why do things for people who do not appreciate it.

I have been thinking about it and today, when I read  this scripture, I remembered it.

A woman wanted to do something nice for Jesus, so she brought in a jar of expensive nard. Nard, according to the internet, is “the perfume of the lost Garden of Eden, and in literature, nard came to refer to any perfume, as long as it was exquisite.” In other words, really expensive perfume.

However, as is usually the case, people (self-righteous nitwits) started complaining (especially since it wasn’t done for them). They scolded her harshly. She could have sold the perfume for a lot of money and given it to the poor. And she could have, too. It would have gone a long ways toward helping a lot of poor people.

Jesus’ comment: just shut up and leave her alone. You always have poor people, but I am enjoying this right now.

Any gift we give to God could be used for something else. It could be used to support a missionary, or to help people in Africa buy a goat, or any number of other things. But sometimes, we just want to give him a gift.

It is kind of like buying flowers. You could do a lot of other things that are financially more responsible. But sometimes you just want to give your wife flowers. Sure they will die in a few days. But for a while, she just likes flowers.

It is a better thing in many ways to give a gift in memorial of someone’s death to a charitable organization. But sometimes you want to put some flowers on the casket. He loved roses, you say, so you give him one last gift of roses.

The woman in this passage could have sold the stuff and gotten a lot better return for it, but she wanted to do something nice for Jesus, and she did. And of course, she came under fire for wasting. But not from Jesus. He recognized the need for a gift. After all, he gave that kind of gift himself: the gift of his own life.

He said, one of these days, when people talk about the Good News, people will remember this woman and what she did.

And you know what? They are right. Here I am writing about it right now.

As Jesus said, she has done what she could and it made him happy.