This week is spirit week at school and the kids have enjoyed dressing up as different characters. They’ve also enjoyed winning best costume! I don’t know if there is a written rule about a kid only winning once, but that seems how it’s been handled. One kid hasn’t won everything all week. I assume they want to spread the honor instead of giving it to just one kid.
Jesus deserves all the honor
everyday! He’s always the best dressed! He’s dressed in holiness, righteousness
and selflessness. Mary recognized His worthiness and value.
John 12:1-8 Six days before the
Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had
raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in
Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at
the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of
pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped
his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the
perfume.
4 But one of his
disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why
wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s
wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared
about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he
used to help himself to what was put into it.
7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume
for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have
the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
I’ve
read this passage numerous times and often thought of Mary as impulsively lavish
with Jesus. However, this time, knowing that the dinner was planned ahead of
time for Jesus’s honor, I wondered if Mary planned out her act of worship in
advance. To me, that makes it even more significant! If she calculated the cost
and still went ahead with her plan, she put aside her security, comfort, and
reputation.
How
about you and me? What sacrificial honor and worship will you and I
intentionally give to Jesus today and this week?
