Monday in Holy Week, March 29

Scripture for the Day: While Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” - Mark 14:3-9

Reflection – Kate Heichler

We have, for the past five weeks, been modeling something of this woman’s act of extravagant worship – we have been offering our time, the most precious commodity most of us possess.

Few things are more costly than giving a whole day to something or someone. In the spiritual practice of Sabbath-keeping, we offer God a whole day per week, empty, for God to fill.

The practical, earthbound voices in and around us might say, “Wouldn’t God rather we worked for those hours? Got something done? Made money so we could give more away? Produced something? Done volunteer work? Why was this time wasted in this way?”

But a voice in our spirit cries, ‘Yes! Break open the alabaster jar of precious minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years… break it open and offer it all in worship to our Lord; pour it over his head and watch our precious time drip down his face.

For who gave us the time, but He, the Maker of all time, and the One in whom all time will end?