Love Or Service?

When Mary Magdalene came to see Jesus, she brought a bottle of very costly perfume and she poured it on his feet.

Judas immediately said,’This is not right. You should have prohibited her from doing that. This is not good; this is wasting. This much money could have fed the poor of the whole town for many days.’

Of course, your intellect will also agree with Judas. His argument was absolutely socialistic; he was a communist. He was speaking rightly, and he knew more economics than Jesus. It is true; why waste so costly a perfume? The feet can be washed with water. There was no need to pour such a costly perfume on them. The perfume could have been sold and the money could have been used for the poor of the town to be fed — perfectly true. The argument was right, but what did Jesus say?

Jesus said,’The poor will always be with you, but I will not always be with you. You can feed the poor later on when I am gone, but I cannot stop her. You can see only the perfume, I see her heart. I cannot say no to her. In deep love, in deep overflowing, not finding a way to express, she has poured that perfume. I cannot say no to her.’ Hmm… but Jesus’ argument is not so strong as Judas’
argument. Marx would agree with Judas, Mao would also agree with Judas, and I don’t think that anybody will agree with Jesus.

Even Christians will feel a little embarrassed about the whole thing — it doesn’t fit, doesn’t look good. But I agree with Jesus. He understands the language of the heart.

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