Our notion of sacrifice is the wringing out of us something we don’t want to give up, full of pain and agony and distress. The Bible idea of sacrifice is that I give as a love-gift the very best thing I have.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
~ from Mark 14
Would we?
Would we take a year’s wage and just lavish it on our Savior in some absurd spending binge?
What if we better understood who He is? Then what would we do? Would we give up everything? Would we take the last things that are important to us and fling them off a cliff, just to confirm He is more important than anything?
When we crash open the alabaster flask we’ve prepared to give to our Maker, we might be surprised. There might even be more cost than we originally thought. We might pour out our sacrifice only to find that more goes into the equation than anticipated. We might lose everything.
Would we do it?
Oh friend, our Savior has poured out everything that He is for us. To both fulfill and follow through on His righteous and passionate Love for us, G_d died. G_d died to bring you into a right relationship with Him. He then crushed death under His heal and brought life to us through His resurrection. And finally, He poured out His very Spirit that we might be His dwelling place.
We now have been invited to live in His righteousness, in total joy and profound peace – now and forever.
When we begin to see who He is, we begin to see the gift this woman gave as wonderful, but also reasonable. What else would we spend money on? Jesus is everything. It’s not that we cannot, or even should not spend money on something else. It is more like, why would we?
If only for the love of our devastatingly beautiful Lover, any gift would be but a token of recognition to the gifts lavished on us.
Further, though, those believers who have dared to simply reckon His Word true, and abandon their lives to Him have found a huge secret: They cannot give Him their lives and possessions fast enough. G_d always steps in and provides more of His Life in return; more blessing. More Love. More Joy. More Peace. This is true. Ask anyone who has smashed open the containers of their most precious stuff in joyful and loving response to Jesus.
Beloved, some of you have read this and think: “Well, I get it… but…” Stop. Just for one minute tonight, stop, get alone, get quiet and consider the truth of His Love for us. Ask Him to show you that it is true. Seek Him (just do it for real) – and you will find Him. He is wonderful beyond compare. Keep seeking! You’ll never get to the end of Him, but He will be found in portions always beyond your expectation. He is good at this. He’s G_d.
Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said,”Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands,with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
~Mark 10:28-30
