Mary’s Lent Diary (Day 27)
As I said, Jesus is the top topic at the moment. Everyone is following what he is doing, some are trying to guess what he will do next. Even the Pharisees seem interested. Well, at least one does, because he invited Jesus to his house to have dinner with him! So Jesus went along and, while he was at the table, a woman came up and stood behind him. This woman had a bit of a reputation, she had lived a sinful life. She lived in the town, and had heard that Jesus would be at the Pharisee’s house. So, although she was not invited to the dinner, she went to the house anyway, and took with her a beautiful jar of expensive perfume. And I mean beautiful. The sort of jar I am talking about is really expensive…maybe it was a family heirloom. More likely, the woman had needed to sell some of her things in order to buy it. Or she had been saving it for a special occasion.
Whatever the reason for her having this jar of perfume, she took it to Jesus. Then she began to wet his feet with her tears. She dried them with her hair and then poured the perfume on them. Precious perfume, on his feet!
Woman with a tear running down her cheek
The woman was not invited to the dinner, but she went anyway, because Jesus was there.
Could it be possible that we sometimes uninvite ourselves from things?
I’m not invited to joy.
I’m not invited to content.
I’m not invited to safety.
I’m not invited to love.
Those things are for other people, the ones who are really invited; they are not for me.
And we uninvite ourselves from the very things Jesus invites us to:
Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10
What is Jesus inviting you to be today?
The woman gave sacrificially.
She had to let other things go so that she could come and worship Jesus.
Is anything getting in the way of you and Jesus?
For the woman, nothing was more important than her relationship with Jesus.
She was not a respected, welcome person by many, and she didn’t let their attitude put her off.
May we likewise not let other people distract us, and push us away from Jesus.
The woman was crying.
And she worshipped with her tears.
Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
Habakkuk 3:17,18
When we have tears, on our faces or in our hearts, or both,
may we, too, worship in and through them.
We don’t need to have everything sorted in order to worship.
Jesus didn’t send the woman away.
He wasn’t put off by her presence, or by her tears.
The Bible says that, rather than moving away from our tears,
God collects them.
They are precious to HIm.
You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
Psalm 56:8
We don’t know exactly why the woman was crying.
And we don’t need to know.
But Jesus knew….
Lord Jesus,
When tears are present in me,
may I worship you in and through them.
Help me not to think that they -
or anything else -
are reasons to uninvite myself from You.
Amen
Mary’s Memo Jesus Knows
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