June 8, 2022
The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker
While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” (Matthew 26:6-11 NIV)
For someone who’s been telling his followers to feed the hungry and give away all of their belongings, this seems like an odd thing to say. It’s also a bold thing to say: “The poor you will always have with you.” There’s no strategic plan to rid the world of poverty in ten years. However, there is a very strategic plan in place that will lead to Jesus’ crucifixion in a few minutes. But back up—the poor will always be with us?
Jesus seems to be telling his disciples that in spite of their best intentions and right actions, this world will never be perfect. Jesus is also telling his disciples that his life is about to end. And just in case he wasn’t abundantly clear, Jesus plays his crowd favorite of turning the world upside-down, elevating the erstwhile shamed woman into the hero of the hour.
It has become cliché to say that someone “meant well,” but that’s almost always a veiled insult. Nobody says that someone “meant well” when someone actually did well. And yet Jesus’ words over the woman who anointed him with oil tell us that no act of love is wasted. Even if it only appears that “she meant well” to the well-meaning but quick-to-criticize disciples, her act of love toward Jesus was not wasted.
This passage brings to mind the words of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, a nineteenth-century Swiss moral philosopher: “Life is short. We don’t have much time to gladden the hearts of those who walk this way with us. So be swift to love; make haste to be kind.” Your impulsive acts of love and kindness are not wasted, even when rule-minders might make you feel that they are.
[Carrie Willard, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]
