Matthew 26
1-2When Jesus finished saying these things, he told his disciples, “You know that Passover comes in two days. That’s when the Son of Man will be betrayed and handed over for crucifixion.”
3-5At that very moment, the party of high priests and religious leaders was meeting in the chambers of the Chief Priest named Caiaphas, conspiring to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. “We don’t want a riot on our hands,” they said.
6-9When Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him as he was eating dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. When the disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. “That’s criminal! This could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor.”
10-13When Jesus realized what was going on, he intervened. “Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives, but not me. When she poured this perfume on my body, what she really did was anoint me for burial. You can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she has just done is going to be remembered and admired.”
14-16That is when one of the Twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the cabal of high priests and said, “What will you give me if I hand him over to you?” They settled on thirty silver pieces. He began looking for just the right moment to hand him over.
(The Message, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 Eugene H. Peterson by NavPress Publishing)
Few acts are remembered and admired. Some memories fade. Even great moments like a wedding kiss, or the birth of a child fade to gray in the matter of our minds. Other memories hold on stubbornly in our souls. These tend to be of the worst kind- embarrassment, shame, blame, bitterness, hurt.
This passage has both beautiful memories and sad memories. Jesus says the beautiful will be remembered and admired forever. It was the sacrificial act of a woman who loved Jesus. Using an expensive bottle of perfume she anointed his body in anticipation of His death. Jesus memorializes her act forever.
She is eulogized by the dying who says her act will live forever. Why forever? Because it was done to the One whose death was unlike any other death. She anointed a body which would be given for her salvation. The death of God to save us from God so that we could be with God forever. Remember that, and admire not only the act of the woman but the dying One whose body she cared for. Through Him everything sad will one day be forgotten in the forever memory of the knowledge of Jesus.
dave aucremann 