Mark 14:3-5 3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.
We’ve all heard the story, even Jesus says in the next couple of verses that everywhere the gospel is preached this woman’s actions will be told. Something different stuck out to me this time, something I had never seen. Before I dig in though, let me set the scene for you. Judas is about to go sell out Jesus, in fact Jesus tells the people around him that this woman was covering him in perfume for his burial. Can you imagine hearing that? ‘Hey ya’ll, quit being mean to that lady. BTW I’m going to die soon.’ Harsh! But that was the facts, Jesus was about to die for our sins. So that’s the scene here, this woman has come to pore expensive perfume over our savior before He dies.
Now the digging begins. Something I’ve never noticed about this scripture is that Mark says ‘some of those present’. Not everyone there was upset about what this woman was doing. This tells me there were three types of people in the room 1: The people who were offended by what the woman did 2: The people who really didn’t care and 3: The people who thought she was doing a good thing, namely Jesus. Now this may be just me but it seems like in every situation in my life I want to be in category 3 with Jesus.
1: The people who were offended. All throughout the day we will either be this person or encounter this person. Our society runs on offense, we sue over everything, we honk if a person isn’t driving as fast as we think they should, we huff if someone in the grocery store lingers over the item we’re interested in. It’s the snare of the world, offense. These men were offended by the woman’s action, and they had an awesome excuse! That jar should have been sold and given to the poor! But she didn’t sell it and give the money to the poor because she had a better reason then their excuse so she did what God was telling her to do. Would it make sense, even back then, to dump perfume on a man while he sat at the dinner table? No. She was probably already uncomfortable with what she was doing. When God takes us out of our comfort zone there is always going to be someone there to say ‘Don’t do it!’ or in this woman’s case ‘You should have done this instead!’ The important thing is for YOU and ME to never be in category 1. If it’s not got to do with you stay out of it. You don’t know God’s plan, and I promise your plan is not better then His. So there is two things we can learn about category 1, that these people are everywhere being easily offended at the things God tells us to do, and that we never want to be this person. Offense if the best trick the Devil has against us as Christians, the Bible tells us NOT to be easily offended.
2: The people who really didn’t care. Although I’d rather be the person who doesn’t care than the person who is easily offended, it’s still not the right category. Why? Because these people might not have been attacking the woman but they also didn’t defend her. We’ve gotten so quit as Christian; we don’t stand up for what’s right anymore. We don’t want to be uncomfortable or offend anyone. Jesus didn’t mind offending people, He rebuked those men immediately. I’m going to tell you something that you already know, category 2 people allowed category 1 people to take prayer out of school. Because category 2 people are so wide spread in the Christian community I wasn’t allowed to bring my Bible to school, I couldn’t even wear a cross necklace without getting detention or sent home. Category 2 might be the most comfortable, peaceful category but it’s not the category I want to be in, and it’s certainly not a category you’ll find Jesus in.
3: The people who thought she was doing a good thing. Category 3 people know that where Satan can take everything good and make it into something bad, God can take everything bad and make it work for good. Category 3 people don’t get offended, they don’t get comfortable, they get heard. Read on in this chapter, I promise you won’t find a place where those men continued to argue with Jesus. We should all be category 3 Christians; we should all be category 3 spouses, parents, and employees. Christmas is coming up, this shouldn’t be a time when Christians are put to the test, it should be a time when we all get to rejoice, but category 2 people have allowed category 1 people to turn Merry Christmas into Happy Holidays. Are you offended when someone says Happy Hanukkah? Me either, so why should we stop saying Merry Christmas? I’m not going to, this holiday is a holiday celebrated by Christians who are thankful God sent His only son. Don’t be complacent, don’t sit idly by and let category 1 people use their excuses to stop God’s work, defend God’s people, defend God’s principles, defend Christmas. Argue back against the world, they have an awesome excuse; we have an even better reason. There is a reason for this season! It’s JESUS!
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