April 04, 2025 | Be God's Family
A Woman Anoints Jesus
Scripture: Matthew 26:6-13(NIV)
6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 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.
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Devotional
In today’s Scripture passage, Jesus is in a house in Bethany where He and His disciples are eating a meal. A woman enters the house and sees Jesus. Moved with compassion and adoration for her Savior, she takes her alabaster box of very precious and expensive ointment, opens it, and pours all of it on Jesus’ head.
When the disciples see this, they are indignant. They ask Jesus, “To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor” (v. 8-9, KJV).
But Jesus knows this woman’s heart. He knows of her ardent love for Him. He knows that she believes Jesus is the Messiah and has appeared on earth to forgive sins; she rests on Him for the forgiveness of her sins…and she longs to serve Him (C. H. Spurgeon).
Jesus responds to the disciples, “Why trouble ye this 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” (v 10-13, KJV).
I am always intrigued by this story. Why would a poor woman anoint Jesus with this costly oil that is probably the only expensive possession she has? Perhaps it shows how personal and fervent her love is for Jesus. After all, she is saved and Heaven-bound. Similarly, why would any of us hold back anything from our Lord, who loves us and has saved us for eternal life with Him in Heaven?
Anne Graham Lotz writes in her one of her blogs that we, too, “should pour out upon Jesus our ‘perfume of adoration’ as we serve Him.” Spurgeon writes of this woman’s anointing of Jesus as “the deed of a soul all on fire — the deed of a woman filled with deep devotion and reverent love.”
Content to have the lowest standing-place in the room, this poor woman willingly gives all she has. May we, like this woman, pour out all of who we are and have to the One who has redeemed us and is preparing our eternal home in Heaven with Him.
Are you serving God today from an intense love and gratitude towards Him?
What are you willing to give up in your service to Him?
Poem
At Your Footstool
Psalm 132
“Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool, saying,
‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.’
Psalm 132: 7-8
At Your footstool, O Lord, may I find my small place
With only Your essence in view
At Your footstool, O Lord, may I pour out my love
The perfume of my prayers just for You
At Your footstool, O Lord, my abiding place be
The chosen best seat in Your house
Not the head of the table or honor’s great seat
Let me sit at the feet of my Spouse
At Your footstool, O Lord, may I eat daily bread
Each word from Your mouth be my feeding
At Your footstool, O Lord, may I learn all Your truth
And from thence, may I follow Your leading
At Your footstool, O Lord, may I anoint Your body
A holy worship preparation
At Your footstool, O Lord, turn my ashes to beauty
With love as my sole motivation
