The Woman In Need

The Woman In Need

Mark 14:3

A woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

     As I read through the Easter story, I usually rush by her in my reading.  She was very emotional and I'm not comfortable with public displays of emotions. She broke with tradition and I like to keep things orderly.  She made a public demonstration and that makes me uncomfortable.  I don’t like to be around people who are making a spectacle of themselves. 

     She's just a footnote in the Easter week story, and I usually pass her by except this time I had a question pop into my head.  As I read about her pouring out her box of perfume and how she began to sob and her tears fell on Jesus’ feet and she wiped them off with her hair, I had to ask myself, "Do I love Him enough to do something like that in public?”  I’ve never come to Him with such a broken heart as she had.  I’ve never barged onto center-stage and interrupted anyone to make an offering to Him.

   Everyone who reads this knows how much she must have been hurting.  She was so broken-hearted she was unselfconscious about what she did in public.  And God honors a person who comes to Him with a broken heart.

Psalm 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.

   Is my public expression of affection towards Jesus too restrained, too meager, and too routine?  She was criticized for her "wasteful" display of passion, but Jesus said that what she did would be remembered forever. I look at this unnamed woman and ask myself, "Even if I were hurting, would I dare do something like that for Jesus?"  I look at her and am filled with mixed emotions.  I don’t know if I envy her or am thankful not to be her. 

   Lately I’ve seen a change begin in myself and I look at the world around me and see hurting people and compassion wells up inside me.  What if a hurting person needed to be ministered to?  Would I be willing to step up to a person who was drawing attention to themselves in public and pray for them?  Just speaking to people in public is difficult for me, what about if everyone was watching?  With so much pain and confusion in the world, I imagine I’ll get an opportunity to find out.

Stephen Cram                                                               April 20, 2014    

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.