6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7 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. 8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. 13 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. 14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, 15 and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Matthew 26:6-16
Before we see the beginning of the betrayal, we see the woman with the alabaster box of ointment. This was precious ointment and expensive. I can imagine this was the best the women had to give. Yet, it doesn’t look as though she questioned pouring it on jesus’ head. Maybe there’s more to the story where she is in another room and pacing back and forth questioning whether she should waste this valuable ointment on Jesus. Maybe she paused and thought perhaps someone better and more worthy will come along. Possibly she thought that if she wasted this ointment she’d have none left for later when it really mattered. I suppose it’s possible, but since the Bible doesn’t mention anything at all like that I’m going to believe that isn’t the way it happened. No, I believe she gave the very best she had. She gave it willinging and without question. She gave her best because Jesus was worth the sacrifice.
Is He worth the sacrifice to us today? Is He worth giving up what we want for what He wants? Is it always easy? I’ll be first in line to say no, it isn’t. There are so many things that I want in this life, but they aren’t for me or at least not at this moment. Do I care enough about God and my relationship with Him that I let those things go or do I fight to have my own way? When I read this passage I notice it goes straight from the woman with the alabaster box to Judas selling out His master, Jesus. Such a short passage and yet we see both options, give our best or betray Jesus. We can call it what we want, but doing our will instead of His is a betrayal. He is always worth the sacrifice though. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been ask to give up, He is worth it! When you do have to give up something know it is always for your own good.
Will you chose to sacrifice or betray today?
Luke 22:3-6, Matthew 26:6-16, Mark 14:3-11