In the second service Pastor Sam made a comment about Mary "moving mystically" through her act of pouring the perfume on Jesus. I find myself tempted to say something like 'it takes a mystic to know a mystic'...
So, today, let's look at the party from this angle: the act of anointing. In previous blogs we've reflected on anointing of kings as a two-part process. There was an anointing that was private, and a confirmation that was public. We see this in the lives of Saul and David (see First Samuel 10:1, 11:15, 16:13, and Second Samuel 2:4). And it is not coincidence that Jesus, a direct descendant of David, is anointed during this party.
But the anointing is not with oil, but nard. Jesus declared the anointing was a preparation for His burial, and we can certainly surmise that a perfume so strong in scent would be appropriate to pour on a dead body to mask the odor. One of the properties of nard, as a plant in the valerian family, was that it is antispasmodic, so perhaps the nard was also used to delay the process of rigor mortis so that the body could be more easily bound in grave cloths.
As I and my husband learned from Pastor Sam after the service, Mary's offering was far more than just her personal activity of extravagant worship: it was the "pull of the flywheel" that began the process of the crucifixion of Jesus. It was the act that publicly and prophetically declared the ultimate purpose of the Christ, who was sent to die for our sins. It was the act that infuriated Judas and propelled him into the decision to betray Jesus.
Wow. Wouldn't it be interesting if our Alabaster Offering from this Sunday was not simply the giving for building churches around the world, but was also the "pull of the flywheel"- a public, prophetic declaration that will surprise us with the measure of its impact?
Yes. Some, like Judas, will be infuriated to the point of insurrection. And others, like Mary, will be immortalized.
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