168. Wednesday in Holy Week.
“While the king sitteth at his table,
my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”
Matthew 26, 1-16. And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.
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The council assembled in the palace of Caiaphas decides that Jesus must die. Not, however, on the feast day; for at that time Jerusalem is crowded with visitors from Galilee and elsewhere, and there might easily be a riot. But in the high council of God it had been decreed from everlasting that his death should occur at this very time, at the feast of the passover, and in the sight of all the people. The Lamb of the passover is to be made an Easter sacrifice in the presence of Jews and Greeks; for it is the office of Jesus to save from death both Jew and gentile. While the chief priests now take counsel together in the palace of Caiaphas, saying, “not on the feast day,” Jesus is being anointed in Bethany. Judas strongly disapproves of this waste, and goes out to replenish the purse; and thus it comes about that the catastrophe takes place at the time of the feast. Though Satan lay his plans with all the cunning of which he is master, and though the wicked take counsel together with all possible caution and prudence, yet the Lord “taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” Though it is against their will, they all must serve his purposes. How much more, then, must it be true in regard to the faithful, that they are instruments for the working out of his purposes. This woman loved the Lord. She regarded no ointment as too precious to be poured out for him. Her heart was full of the love which is fragrant of heaven. She cared nothing for the money value of her offering; her delight was to be near Jesus, to serve and please him. And thus she did more than she was aware of; she anointed him for his burial. She loved him for that he loved us with the love that caused him to lay down his life for us; and her love was a precious ointment to his heart, and comforted him for his loss of the unhappy Judas. In the most stupendous event that heaven and earth have witnessed, the passion and death of the Son of God, this woman holds a place of such importance that her deed is recounted wherever the gospel is preached. And why? By reason of her love; the love that gladly gives all that it has, and does not think of the cost when buying ointment for Jesus. The council in the palace of Caiaphas and the company in Bethany are curiously correlated; and the one sheds light on the other. The woman pours out on the head of Jesus ointment to the value of three hundred pence; Judas sells him for thirty pieces of silver.
Avarice is always poor, and robs the heart of every noble impulse; love always has abundance, and is able to fill the house with its divine perfume.
Lord Jesus, give us love, the greatest and best of all things in the world. Amen.
Dear Lord, and shall we ever live
At this poor, dying rate?
Our love so faint, so cold to thee,
And thine to us so great?
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy quickening powers,
Come shed abroad a Savior’s love,
And that shall kindle ours.