Preparing for Easter: Worship
Today’s Reading: Matthew 26:6-13
Extravagant: more than usual; exceeding the limits of reason or necessity.
In this passage, Jesus is a dinner guest in the home of Simon, a grateful, healed leper, when a woman shockingly and extravagantly pours onto Him an entire jar of fragrant perfume. Can you imagine simply handing over a bottle of Chanel (sold at $4,200 an ounce, today!) to a guest of honor in your home? Even the alabaster jar the perfume was kept in cost a year’s wages in Jesus day! This is an unusual act of extravagant love...
The sweet fragrance of the perfume, when poured out, likely silenced the room with immediate indignation on the part of the disciples.
“’Why such waste? This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor!’”
The cost of the jar was worth enough to feed 5,000 hungry men. The disciples’ objection does not sound unreasonable, even to us today.
But what is Jesus’ response?
“Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor will always be with you, but you will not always have me.”
Jesus recognized, with her extravagant action, the woman was preparing him for burial. He shared with all who were present that wherever the good news is preached, she will be remembered.
In this story, Jesus is struck by the woman’s understanding of who He is and her overwhelming desire to worship him with her beautiful, generous gesture. She literally poured out her most valuable possession on Him. She understood that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, the prophesied Messiah. As He stood in front of her and His time on earth was running short, she worshiped him with the opportunity she had.
How does this story point us toward the Good News? Because it shows us what it looks like when a person’s eyes are opened to the overwhelming love of God – the One who gave His one and only Son so that you and I might have access to our Heavenly Father through faith in His work on our behalf.
Extravagant Grace realized means extravagant worship poured out.
Many challenges and concerns have become magnified in our lives over the past month. Our daily schedules and priorities have changed. But when you and I see for the first time or remember again that life is not about us but about God’s desire for us to know Him, our hope in His grace during this season of preparing for Easter becomes even more magnified.
Life is short. God is all we need.
Please Father, open the eyes of our hearts to the reality of Easter: Christ’s body broken for us and His blood poured out so that we might be forgiven and free from sin. As we prepare for Easter, may we be surprised and overwhelmed with the sweet fragrance of grace that is in Christ Jesus. Lead us to pour out, extravagantly, our hearts and souls to you even as we worship in our homes during this time. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
