I come before You this evening, Father, ready to listen. I would pray for open ears and an open heart. Amen.
Matt 26:6-16, Mark 14:3-11, Luke 22:3-6 (<<click here to read these passages)
As we head into Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter), I felt I would benefit from delving into the important stories in this time frame. Each day focuses on where, what, and who Jesus was involved with. Limiting myself to five days of writing, I decided to look at the last five days of this time frame.
This first of these five focuses on the story of a woman breaking open a very expensive jar of perfume, which she pours onto Jesus’ feet. This act was not well received by Jesus’ followers. I don’t think we can totally understand why Judas volunteered to betray Jesus, but being that he did so immediately after the perfume incident may point to that being the straw that broke the camel’s back for Judas.
Today, we still struggle with who we think Jesus is. Even His followers, who had spent pretty much every waking moment with Him for three years, couldn’t really grasp who He was and what His goals were. He repeatedly told them, but as we can relate, they all had preconceived notions of what the Messiah was supposed to be like. Many believed that He would be the catalyst for throwing off the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. They believed He would be a warrior King and establish the nation of Israel once more as the powerhouse country it once was under the leadership of King David.
But those ideas were too heavily based on their own heart’s desires and not on reality. I think it would be accurate to say that they weren’t being obstinate; they weren’t trying to be on opposite sides of the court when it came to who the Messiah was to be; it was just where they were in their lives.
Most of us want to be obedient; we want to do what God wants us to do, but our heads get ahead of our hearts, and our hearts cannot convince our heads that we are in the wrong.
Judas was a prime example. This whole experience with the perfume may have thrown him over the edge. Selling Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver may have been his idea of pushing Jesus into getting the ball rolling. Instigating the confrontation that was sure to follow would give Jesus no choice but to step up to the inevitable. It did just that…just not the way that Judas had intended.
May we all take a moment and focus on who Jesus truly is—not who we want Him to be—not who we believe Him to be based solely on what we have been taught or understood Him to believe from all of our life’s experiences. May we be determined to develop such a close relationship with Him that we will truly see Him as He is.
Mar 24th, 2024, Sun, 8:15 pm
