"I tell you the truth..." Matthew 26:13a

“I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” Matthew 26:13

 While Jesus and the disciples were visiting in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, Matthew’s written record tells of a woman who anointed Jesus’ hair with expensive perfumed oil (vv. 6-7) Mark’s record shows the perfume to be worth over one year’s wages (Mark 14:4-5)! The disciples complained that the perfume could have been sold to feed the poor. Jesus, however, pointed to the cross. His entire life pointed to the cross and His atoning work accomplished upon it.

The perfume was pure nard, an oil derived from a flowering plant found in Nepal, China, and India. Jesus described the woman’s actions as preparing His body for burial. Events leading to His death would happen quickly over the few remaining days of Jesus’ ministry, just prior to the Passover which Jesus and His disciples would celebrate in an upper room in Jerusalem.

The eternal truth found in this passage is found in verse thirteen: Jesus knew the purpose and meaning of His death, and He was emotionally and mentally prepared for it. Jesus saw the world through the lens of God’s eyes: reconciling man through the forgiveness of sins by the very blood He would spill from the cross… HE was the sacrificial lamb. It is this eternal truth which the angels, cherubim and seraphim will sing about in heaven’s song of the ages:

“Salvation belongs to our God, Who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:10)

Though the disciples were motivated to do good works with the perfume, it would not have come close to the value of the atoning work Jesus accomplished on that cross. The priceless value of redemption is evidenced in the woman’s selfless act toward Jesus.

When we gather with the hosts of heaven before The Mercy Seat of our Savior, we will join the throng in singing:

“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” (Revelation 7:12)

Have a blessed day…