In Perspective

And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? (Mark 14:4)

It dawned on me why Jesus rebuked the people who were protesting the ‘wastage’ of such a precious and expensive perfume.

Why were people remembering the poor?

Why were they saying that it ought to have been sold? Who to?

Let us ask ourselves a simple question.

What was spikenard for? Why was it made? What was it intended for? Who was supposed to use it and how?

I am convinced that its container was made to be used exactly the way the lady used it. It was supposed to be broken so that it spreads its perfume just as it did.

The problem was in the person for whom it was broken.

It was supposed for the person who could afford it. Simply speaking it was supposed to be broken for the person worth its value.

It was meant for a king because he deserved it since he was sovereign. Or probably a very rich person because they could afford it.

In the eyes of those people, Jesus was not worth that perfume. That is why they called his anointing wastage.

Their reasoning went thus. If that perfume was sold there would be so much money that the ministry could have progressed and much would be left for the poor.

But was Jesus worth the perfume?

His breakage (crucifixion) is the only thing that would raise incense acceptable by God. (This is a figure like the Bible always says)

But we also know that Jesus is the King of kings and so is way above every other king. And as the creator of all things, we know He actually owns everything and so deserves not just the best (spikenard) but everything and everyone.

Let me address the question to you now.

Was the spikenard being wasted by being poured on Jesus?

Judas was so incensed that he immediately went to look for compensation from the priests.

But look at what Jesus said.

Wherever the Gospel will be preached what the lady in question had done will be mentioned in her memory.

A simple application (one among many) for that is that her ministry will be replicated by the people who will learn from her example.

And what is her example? That Jesus is worth the best that there is. He is worth everything we have.

Let us go to the Old Testament.

Remember the Shunamite woman?

She saw value in a dusty and weary old man who used to pass by her place long before she knew he was a prophet.

This was the same old man younglings made fun of when he had just received his commission and died. And he was then not tired or dusty or as old. Only bald.

We love focusing on what she got but I think the focus of the Bible is in who she was.

She saw value in what looked useless. Like the lady in our discussion, she released value to a person only she saw and probably left other people complaining.

Do we have an application for our instruction? I believe we have.

Incidentally many times we are even worse that those people rebuking that giver and her gift to Christ.

Do we see a holy man of God inside a dusty, weary, withered old man who is not even trying to get our attention? Do we look for ways to ease some of that weariness and fatigue? Do we seek to refresh him? Do we want him to be invigorated before he gets to his next destination?

How many have heard God telling them to minister to someone before they started seeing anything useful in them? Did you obey?

Our generation is fixated with visibility to the point that we refuse to hear God speak to us about the invisible.

I am almost sure that if Elisha was passing by our gates in the condition the Shunamite woman saw we would most possibly share his picture to show a man who lost his moment and wasted his life.

We wait for someone to become successful before supporting him. We actually question the logic of supporting an upstart without asking how those successful cases began.

Nineveh saw a man of God in the stinky, smelly and peeling man saying things in a strange accent. We see a man of God when he is prophesying to us things that we want to hear.

We many times are like people in Jeremiah’s time; so full of the right leaning prophets yet suffocating and persecuting the men God has sent to prophesy to us. We are so full of messages that are blessing our lives yet none that are showing us where we are falling short of God’s standard. We are suffocating those ‘prophets’ with motivating prophecies with gifts and praying that the ones giving us uncomfortable messages and rebuking our worldliness will disappear and stop disturbing our peace.

We do not give when there is no compensation, or at least a chance for the same.

We do not give when we do not see compensation.

We do not have issues breaking the spikenard container. We only insist that it must be broken for someone worth it, but in the material, especially financial.

That is why churches, ministries and ministers who have ‘reached’ are the ones enjoying more than adequate giving, giving that many times goes into irrelevant and unspiritual things.

Such a ministry will buy their main guys the latest (and probably most expensive) fuel guzzler when they have a missionary crying for a motorbike to be able to reach the large swathes his mission field consists of. All the while as their missionaries are crying for increased support to be able to effectively minister in those forgotten regions.

You see, the pastor is visible and his ‘work’ ‘tangible’. Who knows whether the missionaries are doing anything apart from enjoying the little support the church gives them?

It therefore makes more sense to make the pastor of the right class comfortable because that will attract the right combinations of givers.

We can’t waste our spikenard on missionaries because even in the event that they become successful, chances are close to nil that their ‘ministry’ will ‘benefit’ the church sending the missionaries.

In short, missionaries are a waste of spikenard as it was in Jesus’ day.

How many ministers do you know that are not on the rolls of any organized spiritual organization?

Do you consider investing in (or supporting) them as a waste of your spikenard?

Are you like those who argue that all your giving should go to the house ‘feeding’ you?

Who than do you think will take care of those whose call requires them to invest their all in barren lands?

Like I always ask, do you think God stopped calling people when your pastor (or spiritual superstar) responded? Must He then look for permission from the said superstars to validate a calling?

Before I crush your spirit (I give you a small break) I will give you another example from Jesus.

Remember when children were being brought to Him and the disciples sought to block them?

What do you think was the reasoning of the disciples?

Children are a liability to effective ministry. Their presence will only waste Jesus’ ministry to those with a capacity to appreciate and receive it.

Ministry to children is simply a waste of Jesus’ spikenard.

But that is not what Jesus saw.

Jesus saw them as a very key cog in His ministry to the nations.

But are we any different?

Do we treat our children like Christ did even at the home front?

As you think about that, let me try to close this discussion by asking a few questions.

Suppose you were in Jerusalem the three years Isaiah walked stark naked.

Or was Hosea’s neighbor when he married a harlot, twice.

Or Ezekiel’s when he behaved as if nothing had happened when his wife died.

Would you have considered them as God’s servants, leave alone prophets?

Would you have supported them when everybody else turned against them?

Would you have fought for them and hidden them when the community sought to deal with them?

I know that you are probably arguing like the Jews. Those people were bad. We are different.

But how many ministers do you support before knowing they are so? How many children have you opened you heart for?

You see, the worth of the nard’s recipient does not depend on you and your eyes, however good your eyes are. And not even when they are enhanced with equipment.

God is the only One who can see the worth of the recipient of our nard. And we are safest when we depend on Him to see as He does. But then we must allow Him to guide our eyes.

You see, the woman with the spikenard saw what everybody else was not seeing. The Shunamite was able to see what I am sure some of the beneficiaries of Elisha’s ministry couldn’t.

I have been ostracized, even demonized because I did something whose only reason for doing was God had ordered me. I have severally been told that I was wasting my spikenard on some people and organizations when I decided in obedience to minister to them.

Later, however, the same people were falling over each other to access what that ‘waste’ was able to produce as the nard penetrated.

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. (Ecclesiastes 11:1)

In reality, casting of bread to the waters (rivers, oceans) is basically wasting it.

But it stops being so when it is in obedience to God.

Jeremiah bought land to make a point to Judah. It was land that he would never use as the seventy-year captivity was beginning and he had no children to inherit it.

In our eyes it is wastage.

But not to God.

Will we ask God to open our eyes and hands to be able to ‘waste’ on His priorities?

Will we ask Him to show us who we should be building a study and rest room even before understanding who they are and what we do like the Shunamite?

Will we ask Him to show us the person to break our very precious spikenard for even when it looks foolish and wasteful to everybody else?

Do not look for the viable ministry and minister to give that car or house. Do not look for the sensible project and projector to write that cheque.

Ask God to show you clearly the person He had in mind when prompting you to give.

You could be giving to an Elisha. You could be ministering to an Isaiah. You could be refreshing a John the Baptist.

Let me close with this verse.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2)

Are we together?