I need to have an extravagant love for Jesus.
7 While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head.
8 The disciples were indignant when they saw this. “What a waste of money,” they said. 9 “It could have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 But Jesus, aware of this, replied, “Why criticize this woman for doing such a good thing to me? 11 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. 12 She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”
14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.
Matthew 26:33-35 Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
35 “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same.
Throughout Jesus ministry there were always great contrast in emotions toward him, as we approach the end of Jesus life, the passionate feelings about him have not subsided. Love him or hate him, we see a great contrast in the way that people feel about Jesus, how much he is loved and how well he is treated.
In this chapter of Matthews gospel the first character that shows us how much they value Jesus is the woman that pours expensive ointment on him. The woman walks into a dinner party with a bottle of expensive ointment.
Everybody at the table got mad and they said that it was a huge waste of money. What a noble cause, looks like the disciples are interested in helping the poor, who could argue with such a good idea?
The next demonstration of how much Jesus is worth in this chapter is from Judas. A man that has been with Jesus for three years, a man that Jesus called a friend, a man that was dipping his hand into the money bag.
Things were not working out as Judas had hoped they would, Judas was in it for what he could get, he was ready for Jesus to announce his earthly kingdom but Jesus was talking about dying. Judas values power and wealth more than he values Jesus.
The last person to indicate how valuable Jesus is to him is Peter. Swearing his allegiance to Jesus, Peter says that he will never leave no matter how bad things get, great intentions but as we will see later he didn't have a lot of commitment.
Soon Jesus is arrested and everybody abandons him, you will find Peter following Jesus from the shadows, for a while anyway, but later on the cost gets to be too high and Peter values his life more than he loves Jesus.
How much do you love Jesus? Are you using him for your own purposes? Will you run and pretend you don't know him when the cost is too high? Does your everyday life prove that you love him?
The extravagant love that was shown to us while we are enemies of God is too difficult to understand, no matter how much we give, it is such an incredibly small thing compared to the love that he has for us. Nobody should feel that the expense of loving and worshiping our Savior is too high like the disciples did when the woman anointed him.
Thank you Lord for the awesome display of your love at Calvary. I need to love you extravagantly everyday and let it show by my good works, my worship and my obedience to your commands.
