| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 18 |
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There always are some to criticize even the beautiful and sacred things that love does. It is said here that even one of the Lord’s disciples found fault with Mary’s deed. “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” We are not surprised to read in the record that it was Judas Iscariot who began the criticism of Mary’s act. He spoke of the pouring out of the oil as waste. It had been noted that the word “waste” here used by Judas means literally perdition, and we remember that Jesus called Judas the son of perdition; that is, a man who utterly wasted His life. There still are people who think everything wasted that cannot be coined into dollars or that does not result in immediate or direct practical usefulness. But the truth is that much of the sweetest blessing scattered in this world is the odor from the breaking of love’s alabaster boxes. It does not coin into money. It is well to give food and clothing to the poor, but sometimes love and sympathy are better.
In some places circles or bands of Christian young people are in the habit of carrying flowers to sick rooms or to homes of pain and sorrow. These flowers are much like Mary’s ointment. They do not feed anyone’s hunger, nor put clothing on the backs of children, nor put coals into the grate. But the odor of love often carries more real comfort and cheer into homes than would the largest gifts of charity. Besides, Christ looks into the heart, and He is pleased with love there, whether the expression of the emotion takes the form of garments for the poor or flowers for the sick room. The life that is given to Christ and spent in the service of love is not lost, not wasted. Love is never lost, even though nothing practical or utilitarian should seem to come of its outpouring. That life only is wasted which is emptied out in sin or spent in idleness, selfishness, or self-indulgence.
The keen criticism of the disciples must have pained the heart of Mary beyond measure. But the gracious commendation of her deed which Jesus promptly gave proved a comfort and brought back the joy. He said she had begun a good work on Him. We cannot know how her loving thought of Him and her sweet honoring of Him strengthened Jesus for His sorrowful way, how He was helped in His struggle in Gethsemane and in the darkness of His cross by the love that Mary lavished upon Him in her anointing. He said also, “Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.” We do not know that Mary understood that Christ must die and that she planned her anointing of Him with distinct reference to that event. But even if she did not, her anointing was most timely. It fitted into the need of that hour. It brought great joy to the Master, and the joy came to Him at the time when He craved sympathy and love, and when His burdened heart could appreciate the experience.
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