(6) Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, (7 ) There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.
Matthew 26:6-7
High up in the Himalayas workers invested their lives to harvest a small plant that looks a little like honeysuckle.
They would look past its pink flowers, take the stems which the plant invested into the ground, crush them, and collect the oil. This thick oil they would process into spikenard.
They would carefully transport this oil down the mountain and send it on a journey across mountains and valleys, over the Indian Ocean, up the Arabian Gulf and to finally arrive in Israel.
A small portion, though still worth a year’s wages, found its way into the family of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Maybe it was a gift or purchased to resell for profit. Perhaps it was just a family heirloom.
But Mary knew she could only use it for one purpose, to invest in her adoration of Jesus.
Though the disciples accused her of waste, Jesus commended her worship.
A short time after the religious leaders would spend what little political capital they had in order to arrest and murder Jesus.
Judas would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, but soon realize he could never spend this blood money, and those who paid him would not take it back. He spent his last hours in misery, before taking his own life.
Jesus would invest His life through a substitutionary, sacrificial death. In a similar fashion to that tiny plant up in the Himalayas, He would be crushed. But unlike the plant, He would be placed in the ground after He had given his life.
Three days later Jesus rose from the dead, victorious!
The investment of His life reaped the reward of glory and the salvation of sinners.
Matthew ends His account of the Gospel with a command for the followers of Jesus to invest their lives to take the Gospel to the whole world.
May God help us to not waste our lives by merely spending them, but to invest our lives and see fruit for eternity.
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