Twenty-Ninth Day of Lent

Twenty-Ninth Day of Lent

Monday, April 3, 2017

A woman came with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume. . . .  She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another,
“Why this waste of perfume?”

Mark 14:3b-4

The intensity of Jesus’ teaching had been increasing. The day was rapidly approaching when he would have to suffer, and he knew it. The disciples were unaware of what was ahead, and Jesus had no other human to talk to about it – or so it seemed. When he tried to tell them, they didn’t grasp his meaning.

And then along comes a woman with perfume, expensive perfume! As she poured it on his head, it must have run down through his hair, even his beard. A lovely fragrance permeated the entire room.

Jesus must have been moved by this tremendous expression of love and appreciation. For so long he had been maligned, verbally challenged everywhere he had gone. He must have grown weary with being so misunderstood. He was tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15b) He must have been tempted to get discouraged, but he never gave in to the temptation!

The wonderful gesture of this woman must have encouraged him, until he heard those whom he loved the most grumbling about the waste! A moment of comfort and then the awful realization that his own disciples, his students, still did not understand.

That last week on earth must have been incredibly lonely for the Lord.

Prayer: Father, we know that Jesus went directly to you when he was discouraged and lonely. Help us to do the same. Amen.

And He Set His Face toward Jerusalem. . . .

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2007,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator