One Good Question

One Extravagant Kindness

The few days before Jesus was arrested, executed, and before he rose from the grave, two people seemed to see clearly.

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Mark 12:28-34

The scribes and priests had found 613 laws and worked them out in painful detail.  While they were majoring in minor details, how to exactly keep the laws and perform the rituals, one scribe saw in Jesus something deeper.  So he asked the question. 

Jesus’s answer:  “There is one God; love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbor as you do yourself.” Jesus saw the man had wisely understood, and was close to the kingdom of God.

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Mark 14:3-9

The authorities are seeking to trap and kill Jesus; Judas is planning to betray him; the disciples will soon run away.  While they are at dinner, a woman brings a costly alabaster bottle, breaks it open, and using not just a few drops, but using the whole bottle, anoints Jesus with sweet smelling perfume.  She acts from her heart to comfort and minister to Jesus, doing more than she can explain or maybe understand.

She has on impulse offered an uncalculating, extravagant, beautiful kindness because she sees something in Jesus.  And Jesus accepts it.

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Can you see some of yourself in either, or both, of these people?