Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8
We return today to the story of the woman with the alabaster box and consider one more thing about her gift. Is she a model Christian? If so, what are some of the marks of a "Model Christian?"
"First among these is her enthusiastic attachment to the person of Christ. The most prominent feature in Mary's character was her power of loving, her capacity of self-devotion. It was this virtue, as manifested in her action, that elicited the admiration of Jesus." A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, pg. 307.
What is makes Islam so powerful a draw to people? It is the complete abandonment of self to its tenants. Islam requires one to become fully devoted and requires abandonment from anything that would place itself before this belief. People are not allowed to make decisions as to how they feel and go in that direction, but somehow each of us need someone to give us direction. That's what Islam does. It requires full obedience. So what is the difference between this faith and Christianity? Islam requires complete robotic compliance; Christianity's love for God is the source of the drive, not forced obedience. God wants each person to come out a love relationship with Him, rather than forced obedience. That's the only way the motive can be pure. Mary knew that her love for Christ required her to do something to show her gratitude for what Jesus had done for she and her family. She showed her love as if she knew He were going to die (which she didn't at the time), while the disciples heard Jesus mention His death several times; to include Him telling them where He would die!
"A second admirable feature in Mary's character was the freedom of her spirit. She was not tied down to methods and rules of well-doing. The disciples, judging from their language, seem to have been great methodists, servile in their adherence to certain stereotyped modes of action. 'This ointment,' said they, 'might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.' They understand that charity to the poor is a very important duty: they know that their Master often referred to it; and they make it everything. 'Charity,' in the sense of almsgiving, is their hobby." Bruce, pg. 310.
In the church today, it is really easy to get caught up in the mechanics of church life. We go about each week in the service of our Lord in the same methodology as we have in the past. Mary didn't feel this way about her love for Jesus. She needed no one to tell her how to act; her heart guided her actions. She wasn't about to go on serving Jesus like everyone else. Her heart demanded so much more and she she wasn't about to let it be constrained by the average mechanics and methodology of everyone else within the norms of the church. She worshipped the Lord with all her heart now, not later!
Consider this beautiful passage from Bruce: "...when the love God is shed abroad in the hearts of her members, the church become like the same river in time of rain. The stream begins to rise, all the gravel beds begin to disappear, and at length the swollen flood not only fills its channel, but overflows its banks, and spreads over the meadows. New methods of well-doing reached; new songs are indited and sung; new forms of expression for old truths are invented, not for the sake of novelty, but in the creative might of a new spiritual life." Bruce, pg. 311.
What he is trying to say is that when the church begins to love God the way it was intended, it begins to overflow with new excitement and exuberance for Him. New ideas are all always present in how the church can reach the world for Jesus Christ. It is always thinking of how to express it love for the One who has given so much for us. Then we will begin to think, "whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, think of these things."
Its not forced obedience (like Islam). It (the church) is excited about showing all it's love for God and has a fresh sense of purpose, desire, and drive. Nothing can withhold its desire to reach all it can for those who don't know the Lord. It is not interested in being useful, but shoots for something far beyond this reasonable service!
So today in your life today, is your church a river bed which is dried up and needs some fresh rain to fill its parched earth? Or is your church a overflowing river with its banks swollen with its love for Christ so that its edges are overflowing into the pastures nearby, which so desperately need the river of overflowing and ever providing "Life Giving Force?"
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