Feast at Simon’s House
479
ointment was a symbol of the heart of the giver. It was the outward
demonstration of a love fed by heavenly streams until it overflowed.
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The work of Mary was just the lesson the disciples needed to show
them that the expression of their love for Him would be pleasing to
Christ. He had been everything to them, and they did not realize that
soon they would be deprived of His presence, that soon they could offer
Him no token of their gratitude for His great love. The loneliness of
Christ, separated from the heavenly courts, living the life of humanity,
was never understood or appreciated by the disciples as it should have
been. He was often grieved because His disciples did not give Him that
which He should have received from them. He knew that if they were
under the influence of the heavenly angels that accompanied Him, they
too would think no offering of sufficient value to declare the heart’s
spiritual affection.
Their afterknowledge gave them a true sense of the many things
they might have done for Jesus expressive of the love and gratitude
of their hearts, while they were near Him. When Jesus was no longer
with them, and they felt indeed as sheep without a shepherd, they
began to see how they might have shown Him attentions that would
have brought gladness to His heart. They no longer cast blame upon
Mary, but upon themselves. Oh, if they could have taken back their
censuring, their presenting the poor as more worthy of the gift than
was Christ! They felt the reproof keenly as they took from the cross
the bruised body of their Lord.
The same want is evident in our world today. But few appreciate
all that Christ is to them. If they did, the great love of Mary would
be expressed, the anointing would be freely bestowed. The expensive
ointment would not be called a waste. Nothing would be thought too
costly to give for Christ, no self-denial or self-sacrifice too great to be
endured for His sake.
The words spoken in indignation, “To what purpose is this waste?”
brought vividly before Christ the greatest sacrifice ever made,—the
gift of Himself as the propitiation for a lost world. The Lord would
be so bountiful to His human family that it could not be said of Him
that He could do more. In the gift of Jesus, God gave all heaven.
From a human point of view, such a sacrifice was a wanton waste. To
human reasoning the whole plan of salvation is a waste of mercies and
resources. Self-denial and wholehearted sacrifice meet us everywhere.