I was perusing face (stalker) book yesterday morning and came across some photos of a friend who visited The Call DC when it was on recently. My first thought was, wow, that looks great, but I then I began to think ‘how much did it cost to put an event like that on? How much money was used to travel to that place? How much damage was done to the environment by the trucks that transported the gear, the flights people took, and the cars they drove?’ I began thinking, What if we could calculate how much that cost and send it somewhere where it would ‘really’ make a difference (a very subjective concept in itself). As I had these thoughts, and began climbing to my moral high ground, I was reminded of these words:
Matthew 26:7-10
7a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive
ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? 9For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor." 10But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.
Now I don’t think my original concerns are completely invalid, and I also acknowledge that the significance of the above act by the woman was the anointing for Jesus’ burial from which he has now been resurrected, but as the many sermons you will have heard on this verse will have told you, there is something about the passage which is worshipful, something of it that does not take its values from the society and norms that surrounds it, but gives extravagantly to God.
This scripture doesn’t allow us to ignore the poor in favour of worship for Jesus, there are many scriptures which lead us to the poor, but this scriptures gives those callings the context it needs.
Abraham Piper shared something similar this morning which prompted me to write this post:
"Be careful not to join Judas when you judge people for how they spend money for Jesus.
"They spend money on such-and-such when they could use it for the much-more-important so-and-so. "
Criticism like this is almost always blatantly hypocritical."
