Was It a Waste?
By DR. MEL EFAW
Longtime Pastor and Greatly Used Servant of God in Huntington, West Virginia
The little town of
Bethany, located a few miles from Jerusalem on the road to Jericho, was the
home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Here the Lord found a home away from home.
Here was a home in which He was always welcome. Often He would go from the city
and the angry mobs who rejected His teaching, to the quiet atmosphere of this
home in Bethany.
They loved Him—not
just for the loaves and fishes as many of the multitudes did, but just for
Himself. Here Mary and Martha ministered to Him and helped Him get some
much-needed rest.
In this little town a beautiful thing was
done which must have brought great joy to the Lord Jesus. We read about it in
Matthew 26:6–13:
“Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in
the house of Simon the leper,
“There came unto him a woman having an
alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat
at meat.
“But when his
disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste?
“For this
ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.
“When Jesus
understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath
wrought a good work upon me.
“For ye have
the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
“For in that
she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.
“Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”
John’s Gospel
tells us that it was Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, who anointed the
Saviour that day.
In those days
people would recline at a low table rather than sit in straight chairs as they
ate. On this occasion, as they were at the meal, Mary picked up some expensive
perfume and, standing behind the Lord, poured it upon His head.
It was a spontaneous act of love and devotion. It has been estimated that the value of the perfume was equal to what a laboring man’s wages would have been for one year. Mary may have kept it for a long time for just such an occasion as this. Anyway, she wanted to do something to show her love for the Saviour, so she gave Him the best and most expensive possession she had.
John tells us that
she poured the ointment on the Lord’s feet also. This would be very
understandable, for such an action was not uncommon in Eastern countries. The
heat was very great, and the feet, which were exposed in sandals, were often
dry and scorched by the sun and sand.
The Holy Spirit
has preserved every little detail of this act of devotion for us. We are told
the kind of ointment, its weight, its value and the container in which it was
kept.
As Mary broke the
box and poured the perfume on the Lord’s body, the fragrance would tell all in
the house how Mary loved the Lord Jesus.
Can people tell by
our lives and actions that we love Him? They can when they see us giving Him
our best.
I once heard of an
old man in an art gallery looking intently at a painting of the crucifixion of
Christ. He stood before the picture transfixed, and a group of people gathered
about him. He was seemingly oblivious of the crowd. But then after a while he
was heard to say: “Oh, how I love Him! OH, HOW I LOVE HIM!”
This is what our
Lord wants from us, and we demonstrate our love by the place we give Him in our
lives.
Isn’t it wonderful that little, insignificant people can do something that makes the Lord of glory rejoice?
During a prolonged
illness of mine, a certain doctor was very kind and helpful to me. After
recovering, I wanted to do something nice for him at Christmastime to show my
gratitude. Since he could buy practically anything he wanted, it was difficult
to think of anything I could give which he did not already have.
When I spoke about
the matter to the nurse who worked in his office, she told me that he was very
fond of a certain kind of expensive, imported socks which he occasionally
bought for himself.
It seemed a
strange thing to buy him two pairs of socks as a Christmas gift, but these were
not ordinary socks. When he received them, I was told that he was very pleased.
So it is with our
devotion to the Lord Jesus. He needs nothing that we can give Him. We could
never give Him anything which in any way would be commensurate with His
greatness and goodness to us. But we can give Him something that will make Him
rejoice— our devotion and love.
When the disciples
saw what Mary had done, they said, “To what purpose is this waste? For this
ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.”
Actually, Judas
led the criticism, and then the others joined in. Judas was not really
concerned about the poor, but he was treasurer of the group of apostles, and he
was a thief.
Mary had simply
yielded to the great impulse of
her love for Christ, and now she was being accused of waste and lack of concern
for the poor.
Judas could not
understand such love as this. Mary was demonstrating her gratitude and love,
and these were not for sale.
Generosity and
sacrifice for Christ are never wasted. Love never begrudges anything given to
the Lord. Someone once wrote, “Cold-heartedness toward Christ and stinginess
toward His cause always go together.”
It has been
pointed out that this was the first utterance of Judas recorded in the Gospels.
How it reveals the condition of his heart! He posed as a friend of the poor but
was, in reality, a thief. “What waste!” he said.
But is anything
waste which we give to our Lord? Such reasoning is the reasoning of an
unregenerate heart.
A young and
talented person goes into the Lord’s service instead of taking up a lucrative
career, and the world says, “What waste!”
A highly trained
young person answers the call to the mission field instead of taking some good
position in the secular world, and someone says, “What waste!”
This is not to say
that it is wrong for Christians to hold well paying jobs if that is God’s will
for them. But we must never allow ourselves to think that gifted people are foolish
if they pass by such opportunities and dedicate themselves to the service of
Christ and others, with only a modest or small income.
I know a
well-trained physician who has devoted his life to working on a tropical
island, treating people who
cannot pay for his services. The average income of these people is only a few
hundred dollars a year, so he lives on missionary support from the States. But
I can hear many who do not see things from the Christian viewpoint saying, “
What waste!”
A Christian gives up
his evenings of leisure at home and instead gives hours each week to serving
the Lord in visitation or teaching or youth work, and the world thinks, “What
waste!”
Some Christians
who have plenty of this world’s goods choose to live more simply than would be
necessary, in order to give more money to God’s work, and the world says, “What
waste!”
It is all in the
way you look at things and the way you feel about the Saviour who gave His all
for us.
The perfume with
which Mary anointed the Lord was the most precious possession she could give to
Him. She had already given Him her heart, and this was the outward expression
of that devotion.
If love gives, and
giving is the measure of love, how much do we really love the Lord?
Too many give God
the things that don’t mean anything to them—and keep the best for themselves.
Some give God whatever time is left after they do what they want to do with the
choice time, and whatever money they can spare after they have put their own
wants first.
This was not the
spirit of Mary. Notice how the Lord appraised her act. “She hath wrought a good
work upon me.” It was a beautiful deed because of its motive. It may have looked foolish to others, but to the
Lord it was beautiful. Instead of calling it waste, He called it a beautiful
work. This was true worship.
As we review what
we have done for Him and given to Him, do we get a warm feeling of satisfaction
in knowing that this is our way of telling Him how much we love Him? How much
we appreciate Him?
There was one
heart in that house in Bethany, which came very near to the Lord Jesus, and it
beat in the breast of Mary.
The Lord said that
this was a very special occasion. He was certainly concerned about the poor
more than anyone else there. He was surely more concerned than the hypocrite
Judas. But there would be many opportunities to help the poor later. He would
be with them only a very short time. Soon He would be on His way to the cross.
There was only a little time to do anything to show their affection for Him.
If Mary had not
taken this opportunity to show her love to Christ, she probably would never
have had such an opportunity again.
Today is our day
of opportunity to have fellowship with our Lord and to show our devotion to
Him, while the world rejects Him. But this opportunity will not be ours for
very long.
Jesus said Mary
had anointed Him against His burial. Perhaps she understood better than the
rest what was about to take place in Jerusalem. Or she may not have had this in
mind. We do not know. But His thoughts that day were on that occasion when He
would soon die for the sins of mankind.
He accepted Mary’s action as anointing for His burial. Then He promised that this loving deed would abide as long as the Gospel is preached.
Other monuments
and memorials have been erected down through the centuries, and many of them
have crumbled—but this memorial remains.
We never know the
far-reaching effects of our actions and kindness. I don’t suppose I would ever
have gone to Bible school had it not been for a rural Methodist pastor who
urged me to enroll and later drove me five hundred miles and helped me get
started. I am sure he will share in whatever reward may come my way from our
Lord after my ministry is finished.
Each summer a
concert singer from Chicago would visit the humble home of his parents in a
little Ohio town where I lived. He took an interest in me and my desire to make
something of myself, and his help and encouragement meant a great deal to me as
a young seventeen-year-old boy.
Dr. Paul Rader,
the prominent evangelist, and George Schuler, the songwriter and my teacher,
probably never realized that because of their personal interest and
encouragement, I was impelled to go on as a student and not give up because it
seemed such a long, impossible way to full-time Christian work in those
Depression days.
It probably seemed
like an insignificant thing to them to show kindness to an obscure young man
and to speak a few words of encouragement. They probably did it for many. But
coming from them, it was the boost I needed to keep going instead of returning
home.
Yes, Mary didn’t
realize that two thousand years after her loving act of devotion, we would be
speaking of it and would be encouraged to follow her example. And none of us knows
how far-reaching any small act of love may be today.
Judas went from this happy scene to sell the Saviour for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a common slave. No wonder he thought it great waste to anoint the Lo rd with expensive perfume. His estimate of the Lord’s worth was only the price of a slave.
It might be well
for each of us to ask himself what value he places upon our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mary was a
worshiper, but Judas was a thief. She did what she could for the Lord, but
Judas did what he could against Him.
We read that Judas
went to his own place, which is Hell, but Mary has gone down in the hearts of
believers all around the world in a place of honor. Mary did what she could.
Can that be said of you and me?
Two eyes to look
to God,
Two ears to hear
His Word,
Two feet to
serve the Lord,
Two hands to
wield His Sword,
One heart to
love His ways,
One tongue to
sing His praise—
Take them,
Saviour, let them be
Always busy, serving Thee!