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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Monday, August 29, 2022
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Jesus Anointed at Bethany Bible Verse:Matthew 26:1-13 (ESV) "When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.” Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”" Message:
We have entered Act IV; this is the opening scene of the crucifixion narrative, as the first paragraph shows.
Matthew treats the anointment story quite differently from John; he sticks to the theological significance, while John adds a more personal, sentimental element as well as a different theological emphasis. (John 11 and John 12:1-8.)
Matthew tells us it is two days before the Sabbath, thus the night before the last supper, and that Jesus spent it at the house of “Simon the leper.” We do not really know who all was there, although the other Gospels provide additional clues. We know that the woman was named Mary and was Lazarus’ sister, and that she anointed Jesus’ feet — Luke tells us, in fact, that she anointed his feet with her tears.
tear bottle
Tear bottle
@ 2 inches
She was not crying at his feet. Jews of the day sometimes kept small bottles called “lachrymatories” in which they stored their tears, to be buried with them. Mary giving her tears to Christ symbolized her total faith that He would take care of her after her death.
Lazarus was involved, as was another sister named Martha, and of course Simon (who might have been Lazarus’ relative). From reading all four Gospels, one gets a feeling that Jesus had a group of special friends in Bethany, people who were something more to him than religious followers. It’s a very humanizing thought; but He was human, after all.
As to the meaning of the passage, Jesus’ statement, “the poor will always be with you,” gives us guidance in several ways. Because the substance used to anoint him was extremely expensive (probably worth thousands of dollars today), the scene is often construed to allow the construction of churches rather more expensive than one might expect, even at the cost of relief to the poor. There is a lot of room for fair differences of interpretation.
It also shifts our thinking about charity, for by logical extension, it is foolish to think in terms of “eliminating poverty”; it creates unrealistic expectations. We must think, rather, in terms of alleviating poverty, or helping the poor. Christ’s commandments to love our neighbor as ourselves, generally, and help the poor, specifically, have implications far beyond the earthly well-being of the recipient. In helping the poor, we glorify God. Christ commanded that we give our alms anonymously (Matthew 6:1-4), with the result that we avoid any taint of self-glorification and double the glorification of the Lord. But helping the poor pleases God and lays up “treasure in heaven” for those who do it.
The other point Matthew emphasizes is that Mary is preparing him for burial. The preparation is symbolic and spiritual; some denominations re-enact it today, in the ritual of extreme unction. By allowing Mary to anoint him with an expensive oil usually reserved for corpses, Jesus shows that he is ready for death.
Meditation : Prayer : Walk with me, dear Lord, so that I may not be alone as I face this day, but always in your presence. Your joy is a lighthouse in a world often dark with sin, and I pray that I may reflect the light of your truth, to inspire others as I have been inspired. In the name of Christ, bless me this day, and all whom I may meet......Amen |
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