Extravagance

Tom Barnard

 

he disciples were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Were the disciples showing a compassion for the poor? No. It was a demonstration of their hypocrisy, but it was another opportunity for Jesus to teach them about the meaning of love. The story is found in Matthew 26, beginning with verse 6.

 

The week of Jesus’ death was a busy one. Barclay commented that it “was lived in a blaze of publicity, and in an atmosphere of conflict.” First, there was Sunday—we call it Palm Sunday. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey like rural royalty, followed by crowds of people proclaiming him Messiah. Then on Monday he returned to city center, where he drove the money changers out of the Temple with a whip. That got everyone’s attention. On Tuesday he was back in Jerusalem again—continually confronted by the religious leaders who sought words from his own lips that they could use against him. But Wednesday was an entirely different day. It was like an oasis in the midst of a desert storm. Jesus did not enter Jerusalem that day. Instead, he remained with friends in the village of Bethany.

 

He was invited to a meal hosted by a man known as Simon the leper. Simon was a wealthy man who had invited Jesus and others to lunch on his veranda. His courtyard was open and could hold a generous number of people for the meal, plus making space available for uninvited folk who were drawn as observers to the home because of a rumored celebrity being there—Jesus.  One of the uninvited spectators was a woman who would remain nameless in the gospel record. She brought with her an alabaster jar “of very expensive perfume, which she poured on Jesus’ head as he was reclining at the table.”

 

That’s when Jesus’ disciples made their unsolicited comments. They called it excessive; they said it was wasteful; they complained about the extravagance of the gift; they believed it to be unnecessary. Jesus said to the men, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.” Matthew didn’t say the disciples were speechless, but they were. Those who had gathered to eat and the others who gathered to hear table-talk heard plenty to talk about later.

 

How valuable was the perfume that was so extravagantly poured over Jesus’ head? We don’t know for sure, but it was costly. Mark quoted someone present as saying that the ointment “could have been sold for more than a year’s wages.” Do you remember the time in John’s gospel when Jesus fed the crowds with a small boy’s lunch? Commenting on what it would cost to feed a crowd of several thousand people, Philip said, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite.” We are talking about a woman expending an alabaster container full of the very costliest of perfumes available then. No wonder Jesus said about her, “I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” It was an act of radical, extravagant, unselfish love. Even though we don’t know her name, we remember what she did.

 

What is the quality of love that catches the attention of Jesus? What delights His heart? Extravagance! The perfume in that jar was intended to be dispensed one drop at a time. It was meant to last for years. In one marvelous expression of love, the woman didn’t stop to count the cost. Love doesn’t calculate how little it can respectively give and still be generous. Love gives everything it has. During this Lenten season, would you join me in thinking about the meaning of the verses of this hymn?

 

“Love so amazing, so Divine—

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

 

I believe Jesus is looking for that kind of devotion from believers today. Can He count on you?