A year’s wages

What is the worth of a year’s wages? It is the same for everyone. It is the monetary value of a year’s work. It is 2080 hours of work in a year if you work 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday. If I had a year’s wages in my purse what would I use it for?

Matthew 26: 6 – 13. New International Version (NIV)

6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you,[a] but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

We met a woman whose name was not mentioned but she had a very expensive perfume which was stored in an alabaster jar. Jesus was seating in the house Simon the leper at the table. And this lady move toward Jesus, she opened the alabaster jar of expensive perfume. As the fragrance of the perfume began to fill the room and she did the unexpected. She poured her costly perfume from the jar onto Jesus’ head. The perfume would tickle down his scalp and his hair down his face. The fragrance of it would have been perceived by all in Simon’s house.  The attention of everyone present was drawn to this unusual and extravagant use of perfume. They must have recognised the scent, and seen the volume which this lady anointed Jesus with. For they knew the worth of the perfume.

What! Did she pour a perfume worth a year’s wage on Jesus? What could she mean by that?  And they chided her that the perfume which was hers was not used prudently. She should have sold the perfume and give the money to the poor.

The perfume was hers. And she gave it all to her Lord in worship.

I often wondered, why they chided this lady. After all the perfume was hers and she could do whatever she wanted to do with it? She could have sold it and given the money to the poor or started a business for herself. But the guests of Simon the leper could not understand how someone could sacrifice so much in just an act of worship. It was incomprehensible and a waste to them but not to her.

This lady walked into Simon the leper’s house. She was known to the host, and she knew Jesus. The purpose of her visit was to worship Jesus. She stayed on focus to her purpose. She opened the jar of perfume and poured it on Jesus’ head. She placed no restraint on the amount of her an act of Worship. But as others chided her of her extravagance sacrifice this lady didn’t say a word to defend herself or explain herself rather it was Jesus who spoke to defend her.

There is nothing too much to give God as worship

Jesus appreciated the sacrifice.  He rebuked those who tried to make her feel silly or naive for making such an extravagance gesture. Jesus said that this act of worship would be read even by us in this generation. Her act of worship became a memorial.

She poured perfume on his head. I would normally put perfume on the body or the clothing item, but this lady poured the perfume on his head. Why his head? Jesus’s replied; Jesus said she did it in preparation for his burial. How did this unnamed woman know? This brings me to psalms that spoke about the anointing oil flowing from the head.

Psalms 133:2 For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron’s head, that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe.

There are times when the sacrifice of our worship doesn’t make logical sense even to those around us, the like the disciples didn’t understand what was going on. It is to whom we are worshipping that counts, for He sees the motive behind our sacrifices and acts of worship. This tremendous sacrifice didn’t go unnoticed by Jesus.

No act of worship is a waste.

This lady worships Jesus not only by pouring the perfume on his head. Worship is not what we do in a church or fellowship but rather every moment of life should be a worship of God.  What she did to be able to acquire this expensive perfume was also part of her worship. This extravagant worship has become a memorial for us to read.

So weather I am at work or at play, the essence of life is worship to God and if so then the motive of my sacrifices and gifts are equally as important as the act of offering it to the Lord.

A year’s wages an act of worship