February 16, 2008

• forgiven... crying... trust...

  Consider for a moment this true story (from John 12, cf. also Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:1-9, Luke 7:36-50):

   

  Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.

  Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

  But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii [a year's wages] and given to poor people?" Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. 

  Therefore Jesus said, "Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me."

  Can you enter into Mary's thinking here?  Have you ever felt what she felt?

  To be, in the first place, so astonishingly forgiven, restored, and grateful...  ("there was a woman in the city who was a sinner...")

  To love someone so passionately and deeply that you desire to give and give and give to that person, and the more costly the better (such love is irrational)...

  To go and buy the gift, waiting for days with heart-pounding anticipation (how will he react? will he think I'm foolish?)...

  To take the step of no return, to walk uninvited into the room of conversing men, to crack open the jar of perfume representing a lifetime of savings, to kneel at His feet to present the gift, weeping in gratitude and unworthiness...

   

  I am empathizing more with her these days.  Though the treasures in my life are being gently plucked by Him from my unwilling fingers rather than offered by free volitional plan, still He is showing me that I can imitate her faith-filled, passionately grateful, 'Jesus is all the world to me' attitude.

  How are my 'classes' going that I talked about in my previous post?  In a one-word summary, "AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH."   Excruciating.  But still worth it, I think.  Intimate fellowship and knowledge of Jesus Christ is worth possessing, at any cost.  And the classes won't be forever.  'Soon and very soon' my classes will be over, and the 'sabbath rest for the people of God' will begin.  And the best part is that not a moment of pain will be wasted.  He is saving every tear of mine in His bottle.

  • 8:24 pm
  • 3 Comments