Why This Waste?
A
woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured
it upon His head … the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said,
“Why this waste? For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the
money given to the poor.” Matthew 26:7-9
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Natural mind
against God
The Bible makes it very clear that the natural mind of man is at enmity
with the ways and means of God. Human understanding cannot be educated into
loving God, but must experience a complete revolution, after a person becomes a
Christian. To love God with all our minds does not mean that we fill it
with learning from human institutions and the teaching of ungodly men in order
to use it for divine service. The fine training and scriptural education of
Saul of Tarsus led him to persecute the early church and to oppose the God, who
he claimed to serve. To love God with our minds means to surrender them to His
Spirit in order that He would fill them with His thoughts.
The disciples of the Lord had serious problems understanding the ways of
their Master. When mothers brought their children, seeking Jesus’ blessing upon
them, the disciples opposed and Jesus was angered by their reaction. When the
sinner woman poured her costly perfume upon Christ, her act brought a unanimous protest from the disciples, as they watched it drip
to the floor. Judas, strengthened apparently by the attitude of his fellows
went immediately to the leaders of the Jews to betray the Lord (Mt. 26:14). He
had had enough. He was a thief, but his basic spiritual problem was not greed.
It was an unwillingness to have his manner of thinking altered. The natural
mind is an arrogant and stubborn entity.
Humanism
The disciples were motivated by humanistic thoughts – they put the
interests of the poor over the honor of Christ. The
tendency has not changed with the passage of time. In an age that champions
humanistic thinking, we need to understand that it is never wasteful to glorify
God. Much church and missionary effort in our day is nothing more than acts of
natural compassion. To relieve the poor has no eternal value, if they are not
brought to the feet of Jesus in humble submission. Those who honor Him, He will honor. The 300 days’ wages poured upon the Lord bought this
woman, though she did not seek it, 2000 years of acclaim in every corner of the
globe (Mt.26:13).
The glory of God often takes a terrible toll in human lives and
property. Consider the sea journey of Paul that cost the full cargo and finally
the ship itself. However, 276 crew and passengers came to submit to the word of
God. In Gadarea, demon powers left a man and
drove 2,000 hogs over a cliff. No expense is spared to bring deliverance to one
soul to the glory of God.
God’s honor
over all
Not only does God’s honor take a toll from
property, but it also can subtract years from a promising life. Joseph’s full
youth was spent in slavery and prison, but there he learned the lessons that
brought salvation to his people and the world. The great public ministry of the
Apostle Paul was cut short by a prison sentence, but over the last 2,000 years
the world has profited by the letters that he wrote from a cell.
At 25 years of age, our daughter, Raquel, lost the use of her legs and
has been in a wheelchair for almost eight years. “What a shame,” people
remarked, “that this young mother should experience such a tragedy!” Shortly
after that horrible accident, she and her husband visited our son, Dan, and his
family in Macedonia. Dan took them to a rehabilitation hospital, where he weekly
ministered to three or four young men. None of the women had attended his Bible
studies, but when Raquel wheeled into the hospital, they immediately gathered
around her and followed her into the Bible class. As a result, Roza Mojsovska,
bitter from years of mistreatment and suffering, found the Lord. Roza now
paints with her mouth and writes poetry. Magazines have printed her poems,
hundreds, if not thousands, view her personal painting expositions in important
public buildings and TV stations have interviewed her around the country. She
has given bold, shining witness to the glory of her Lord.
After 3 ½ years of unmatched service to mankind and healing all manner
of diseases, delivering from satanic oppression and on various occasions even
raising people from the dead, a mob brought a young man to a cross for Roman
execution. The crowd, including his followers, watched as the blood drained
from his body, streamed down the rough wood and dripped to the ground. “Why
this waste?” - we might repeat the disciples question, “Think of the years He
could have spent doing further good!” However, that blood was not lost.
Countless souls have bathed in its stream and the awful stain of their sins has
been removed, the eternal condemnation against them has been cancelled, their
lives have been transformed and most importantly, they live to love and honor God for eternity. Andrae Crouch wrote:
“It reaches to the highest
mountain
And flows to the lowest valley.
The blood that gives me strength
from day to day,
It will never lose its
power.”
Come into the Light
I always came to You when there
was something that I needed,
But still I felt so tired,
restless and defeated.
In hopelessness I came to You,
knowing only You, could make it right.
You agreed and said, the only
way, was to expose me in Your light.
I reluctantly uncovered and let
You shine inside,
For it really couldn’t be all
that bad, I couldn’t have much to hide.
But what You found was blackness,
filthy, gross and hidden sin.
You wept and said, “Don’t use My
name, when you hide all this within”.
There was brightness in Your
presence, I saw no darkness at all in You.
Now I know why I was defeated,
for I’ve tried to mix the two.
Oh, how long You’ve tried in vain
to bring me to this place.
In utter humility and shame, I
lay smitten on my face.
Wretched fool that I have been,
unfaithful to stay pure,
I didn’t cherish You, a precious
Jewel; surely You’ll forsake me here.
But at last, Your love reached
deeply, into this awful pit of despair,
And lifted me to greatest
heights, that we alone can share.
The lengths You’d go to love me,
by Your death for me, You’ve shown.
Now I’m compelled to share with
others, Your love make widely known.
It used to be so hard from this
world to pull apart,
But now my greatest pain would
be, if I were to break Your heart.
I had to lay uncovered under the
Bright and Morning Star,
If You were ever going to be to
me, as precious, as You now are.
Karyn Brueckner
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