Twelve days ago, I was in Washington D.C. with students from our church’s homeschool co-op. It was a three-day intensive in our nation’s capital, walking an average of seven/eight miles a day in 90+ degree heat with crushing humidity. No one complained.
On the second day of our itinerary, we visited Arlington National Cemetery. I remembered a previous visit well from many years ago. The holy hush over those 639 acres. Hundreds of students walking in their groups, moving down the paved paths between thousands of graves, quiet, serious. Every war in which this country has engaged is represented. Generation after generation, the cost of freedom lies here for all to see—and to mourn–with grateful, and often broken, hearts. I wanted to walk every row, see every tombstone, say thank you thank you thank you, and I suspect that many visitors to that hallowed ground feel the same.
A few days later, the New Testament reading was John 12 (I add details from Mark 14). In the home of Simon the Leper, who, it is assumed, was healed previously by the Lord, we have a scene of gracious hospitality. Those three siblings, who are as family to Jesus, have been invited. In fact, it may have been a feast of celebration for Lazarus’ return to life. Other guests, including the disciples, recline at the table. Martha, herself, serves the Lord.
But the feasting is interrupted. Mary has been paying attention—again. She appears with her extravagant gift and her grief. Approaching the Lord, she breaks the long, narrow neck of her alabaster vessel, and pours the precious contents over the head of her Lord. Then, loosening her hair, she wipes the excess oil from His feet.
General indignation erupts among the disciples; in fact, they rebuked her vehemently, with Judas the most indignant. Jesus addresses Himself to him:
Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
It isn’t, however, just the remembering and memorializing. It is also what we purpose to do with the knowledge of the sacrifice on our behalf.
My husband, born and raised in Eastern Europe, has a profound appreciation for America. One way we resolved to honor this great nation was to raise our children with that same love of country—and to pray for the men and women who continue to stand night and day on the wall.
Mary’s actions are a catalyst for me to resist constant distraction and pay attention to what God is doing. And I want to be prepared, as she was, to always serve Him, with humility, adoration, and love.