She Has Done What She Could
What more is asked of us than what we can do?
Mark 14:1-9
You always have the opportunity to take care of the poor.
This statement of Jesus is often lost in the wider thrust of his account with the anointing woman. Also:
She has done what she could.
Those two statements, coupled together, could really lead to a robust strategy for Christian compassionate mission.
Mark 14:1-9
It was two days before Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and legal experts through cunning tricks were searching for a way to arrest Jesus and kill him. But they agreed that it shouldn’t happen during the festival; otherwise, there would be an uproar among the people.
Jesus was at Bethany visiting the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. During dinner, a woman came in with a vase made of alabaster and containing very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke open the vase and poured the perfume on his head. Some grew angry. They said to each other, “Why waste the perfume? This perfume could have been sold for almost a year’s pay and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.
Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me. You always have the poor with you; and whenever you want, you can do something good for them. But you won’t always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body ahead of time for burial. I tell you the truth that, wherever in the whole world the good news is announced, what she’s done will also be told in memory of her.”
Prayer
God,
Keep me from a lack of vision that results in inaction because of a belief that what I can do doesn’t matter. Like the woman tossing two coins into the treasure - all she had. Or this woman who simply anointed Jesus’ body…give me faith that what I do matters.
I was raised in a culture that implied that big things must come from each of us. And sometimes, even in the Church, there was a sense that we could do “little things” and expect big things to come from them.
So Lord, help me to be satisfied, truly - satisfied, that doing little things for the right reasons is all you ask of me.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.