Matthew 26:1-13 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, "As you know, the Passover is two days away - and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. "But not during the festival," they said, "or there may be a riot among the people." While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor." Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "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. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." | | From this woman, we can see that serving the Lord is easy, but serving the Lord according to His will is not so easy. Although the disciples have given up everything to follow Christ, but in this passage of scriptures the Lord gave praise to the offering of this woman alone. This is because serving that according to His will is all about being able to stay close to Jesus' heart. We might be giving up our time, our money, and our efforts to church for God; or we might decide in our hearts that this money could be in better use by giving it to the poor. But these are all man's thought, not necessarily what God has in mind. When Jesus resurrected on Easter, a few women wanted to anoint His body but they couldn't, for the tomb was empty. But this woman had prepared Jesus for His burial by pouring a jar of very expensive perfume on Him, which satisfied Him. . Dear brothers and sisters, how are we serving the Lord? It is easy for us to rely on ourselves and serve God based on our desires and thoughts, but are we then close to the heart of Jesus? Are we like this woman, who was able to serve God according to His will? May the Lord help us to reflect upon how we serve him, to make sure that we are serving according to His will. | | Pray with Pastor Tong Dear Lord, may You have mercy on us. Often we are serving like these disciples, busy but not necessarily serving according to Your will. May You open our eyes to see Your will and to be submissive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that Your will can be done on us. I thank you and I pray all these in the victorious name of Jesus, Amen! | | | | | | |
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