Faithful Fridays ~ The Girl With the Servant's Heart

Hi, everyone!  :)  It's Friday...which means it's time for Faithful Friday!  :)  Oh, I also wanted to let you guys know that my 2013 post IS coming...it's pretty much done, but I decided to wait until after Faithful Fridays to post it.  :)

Faithful Fridays is a weekly "meme" hosted on my blog.  I made it so that Christians could have one day out of the week (Friday) to share something from their Christian walk on their blog.  If you'd like to participate, write your post, grab the button from the Faithful Fridays page on my blog (so that it will link back here), and come link up at the bottom of this post!  :)

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Most of us have read the account of the woman that poured perfume over Jesus, right?

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. “But not during the Feast,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “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.  I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

-Mark 14:1-9

So, first of all, Jesus was already in danger of being killed (in fact, He was always in danger of being killed--from the time of birth with King Herod to the time of His crucifixion with the Pharisees), and He goes and has dinner at a man's house.  The man is known as Simon the Leper.  Most people wouldn't want to stay with someone called that, would they?

But Jesus isn't like most people.  No, not at all.

So He's having dinner with the disciples, and this woman comes in and opens a bottle of expensive perfume and pours it over Jesus' head.  That probably makes us cringe a bit because it would be kind of weird to pour perfume over someone's head today, even if they were someone really important, but in that case, it was meant as a gesture of honor and worship.

But then the disciples and the other people around started getting "indignant." 

"This woman could have used the money spent on this expensive perfume to help the poor," they exclaim!  The Bible says they "rebuked her harshly."

Can you imagine how that girl felt?  Like really, I spent all this money and time to show Jesus that I love Him, and you're going to bash me about it?  I don't know about you, but I would feel....injured, upset, disappointed, hurt, and angry.

Their hearts were in the right place, yeah, but...they were also kind of missing the point of this girl's gesture.  She was showing that she was a servant of Jesus.  She was worshiping Him.  She had a servant's heart.

Jesus knew this, and He defended her.  Don't take this the wrong way, helping the poor is extremely important!  But at this time, Jesus was only going to be on the earth for a short while longer.  This woman was showing her devotion to Him.  She was doing what she could while she could.  That perfume cost a year's wages (three hundred denarii).  That's equal to about $50 - $100, and that was a lot back then!

So this woman makes a sacrifice, is rebuked harshly for it, then defended by Jesus, and then, finally, told that what she has done will be told in memory of her....wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world!  And it has been, has it not?

God is faithful.  :)

The girl in that account had a servant's heart.  She just wanted to serve Jesus.

I think it's really important to have a servant's heart.  It's what draws you closer to God and keeps you close.  It's part of being a Christian.  God calls us to be servants.  It's what keeps a friendship or a marriage working.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

-Mark 9:35

Try having a servant's heart throughout the next few days.  Try really, really hard to put others' needs and wants before your own, and God's desires and His will before your desires and your will.  Just see how it turns out!  :)

God bless you and have a great day!  :)

Joy :)