10/18/2007

Expensive perfume

Matthew 26:6-7 - While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

I wonder where she (Mary) got the money for the perfume. Had she saved up for it for a long time? Had it been a gift? Had she planned to use it for anointing Jesus from the start? Or even before she acquired it? Or was it a spur-of-the-moment thing?

I wonder where it came from. It seems (from my wiki-search) that it most likely would have been imported from the Far East. Did she have to leave town (Bethany/Jerusalem) to get it? Did she have someone get it for her? Seems like there must have been some very wealthy people in the area who could afford such items, or else they wouldn't have been available.

A year's wages. Think what one item you could spend a year's wages on. Probably a car or a down payment on a house. Would you spend it on something you intended to give away; that is, give to God -- which is to say, to the work he has given us to do today?

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