Sacrifice
Day 545, Saturday, Feb. 7
Mark 14:1-72
Chapter 14 continues the theme we read about in chapter 12 yesterday: giving has value beyond its benefit to the recipient.
In the story of the woman who pours extremely expensive perfume over Jesus, those who observe what happens are critical. “The money could have been given to the poor.”
You might expect Jesus to agree with that crticism. He is passionately committed to relieving the plight of the poor in many of his teachings. Yet here he responds with words that can sound callous: “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.”
Helping the poor is important. Giving to achieve important things is valuable. But giving itself has value.
This woman’s action seems extravagant and wasteful compared to the sacrifice of the poor widow. Both of them, though, were extravagant in their own way, sacrificing well beyond what most of us would consider reasonable or practical—and Jesus considered both to be commendable.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Saturday meditation

Psalms 75:1-10
We praise you, God, we praise you, for your Name is near; people tell of your wonderful deeds.
You say, “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge with equity. When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm. To the arrogant I say, ‘Boast no more,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns. Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak so defiantly.’”
No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt themselves. It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another. In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs.
As for me, I will declare this forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob, who says, “I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.”

Prayer focus
Lord, shape our thinking to put our love for you beyond the limitations of human reason.