Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, March 25, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
We can only do what we can. We know nothing about this woman, not even her name, but we can make some guesses. She must have been wealthy—she had expensive perfume and no one questioned where she’d gotten it. She must have been known to the host, or she probably wouldn’t have been let into the house during the meal, let alone have been allowed to simply walk up to Jesus. She must have known Jesus, or at least known who he was, and believed him to be the messiah, to have wanted to do this service for him. In fact, no one questions her at all until after she’s anointed him. It’s like it takes a minute to sink in before anyone thinks to be offended by her action.
And who were the host and the other guests? No two gospels tell this exact same story, though all four gospels have events with a few minor elements in common. We don’t know who Simon the Leper was. We don’t know who else was there. But we know they also knew Jesus—well enough to know that he was concerned with caring for the poor. Well enough to think, maybe, that they could score some points with Jesus by calling out the wastefulness of the woman’s action.
Regardless, Jesus wasn’t having it. He told them to just leave her alone and says, “She has done what she could.” Maybe she didn’t have the ability or the right to sell the ointment. Maybe she wasn’t allowed to follow Jesus as one of his disciples. There could be any number of things she “couldn’t” do and as many reasons why. But this one thing—this act of a literal outpouring of love—she could do. And she did. And Jesus would not despise it, but saw it as a beautiful act. Even a prophetic act, for he takes this opportunity to state again that he will die and be buried. Instead of saying, “shame on her” for not acting in the way the onlookers believed they would, Jesus shamed the onlookers for judging her out of their ignorance of the deeper meaning of her act.
We can only do what we can. It might be easy to judge others for not doing what we think ought to be done to follow the gospel, for doing things differently than we do or think we would, given the chance. But each of us is uniquely gifted to heed God’s call in our own particular way, and that way is between ourselves and God. In the same way we ought not be tempted to judge others for what they’re doing or not doing, we also need to avoid guilt, shame, or self-recrimination when we fall short of our own ideals for gospel work. Instead, let us open our minds and hearts to the ways in which we are uniquely called to serve, and commit to doing only what we can.
How can I show my love for Jesus and work for the gospel? Does it have to look like what anyone else is doing? Why or why not?
