"Why this waste?"

I’ll confess that I don’t like wasting stuff. I don’t like wasting time. I don’t like wasting money. I don’t like wasting food. I don’t like wasting stuff. This can be helpful, but it can also be hurtful.

It’s less than a week before Jesus will die and Jesus is in Bethany (where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived). Mary pours about a pint of expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and wipes His feet with her hair. When the house is filled with the smell of the perfume, Judas is indignant and says, “Why this waste?” He points out that it was worth a year’s wages and could have been sold and the money given to the poor. And just when I’m about to agree with Judas, Jesus says, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me… For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her” (Mt 26:6-13).

The perfume was worth a year’s worth of wages? Do we realize how much that is in today’s dollars? Suppose someone had a bottle of perfume that was worth literally tens and tens of thousands of dollars and decided to use it just one time to pour it on someone’s FEET! What a waste – right? Jesus disagrees.

Jesus didn’t see the perfume as a waste. In fact, He saw it as a sacrificial act of service (preparing His body for burial, which she didn’t even realize she was doing). He foresaw this me writing this article when He said we’d be still talking about it today! Here’s the point: things we do in service to God are never a waste. Spending time in prayer is never a waste, even if you could have done something important with that time. Giving to the Lord into the treasury of the church is never a waste even if you could have done something fun or paid something off sooner with the money. It's not a waste to bring your kids to worship or Bible class when they have to miss a school or sporting event. Supporting preachers, helping the poor, supporting widows and orphans – none of this is a waste even if we could have used the time, energy, and money to do something worthwhile for ourselves.

The disciples’ and Jesus’ responses to the anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary at Bethany challenge us to think differently about a lot of things. We must value what God values (and as He values it). No matter the cost, it is never wasteful to do the will of God. Material things, no matter what their monetary value, are not the most important things to God. We can (and must) use physical things in our service to God, but their value must be seen in the glorification of God, not in their monetary value. We should expect this to challenge us as it did Christ’s first followers. We should expect that doing God’s will, sacrificing to do God’s will, paying to do God’s will – it might feel wasteful at times. But in these times we need to remind ourselves of Mary, her expensive perfume, and Jesus’ feet. Jesus said we’ll remember her, so, remember her and this important lesson!    dd