Yesterday morning I woke up, and as is my habit, opened up
my Laudate app on my iPhone to read the daily readings.
The Gospel reading was the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with
perfume and drying them with her hair (John 12:1-11). This biblical account has captured my
attention before because the scene seemed so bizarre to me, but yesterday something new
caught my attention.
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| picture via the Panama United Methodist Church |
The third
verse of this passage was what really stood out to me, “Then Mary took a liter of costly
perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and
dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”
To me the part about the house being filled with the scent at first seemed superfluous, like it was a disposable
detail. However, I have come to know that nothing is
included in the Bible for no reason so I reflected more deeply on this line.
This is the conclusion I came to; Mary had
just poured out her most precious and prized possession onto Jesus’ feet and
humbled herself to dry his feet with her hair (touching a man’s foot with my
hair is something I would only do if I was 100% sure he was God). Like Mary we are called to pour ourselves
out, empty our most precious talents, skills, and time onto Jesus. This is incredibly hard for us, we are living
in the midst of an “it’s all about me” society.
We are taught in school that a big-shot career and six-figure pay check are the
ultimate goals we should be working towards, laboring over, sacrificing
for. That is simply not the case (sorry UMD I do not want to be a CEO).
When Mary
was doing this incredibly humble and difficult and kind of
scandalous/embarrassing act, her surroundings were completely filled with the sweet
smell of perfume. Everyone in that house benefited from Mary’s act of sacrifice and service, even if they were judging
her harshly for it (ahem, Judas). The same is true for us. While the world may judge us for using our
gifts in a way set apart from expectations all will benefit from our
sacrifice. The world will be made
sweeter by your personal sacrifices, whether it supports them or not.
Yes, it is
difficult to pour out our most valuable treasures but when we empty ourselves
to Jesus we give the world a gift, and God will never be outdone in generosity.
In what ways do you pour out your gifts? Is there anything that stuck out to you in a reading recently? Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Drop me a line in the comments below!
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