THE Lord’s ministry had been rejected in this chapter (Matt. 26:1-161And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, 2Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. 3Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. 5But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. 6Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. 8But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 12For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. 13Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. 14Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, 15And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. 16And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. (Matthew 26:1‑16)). All that wonderful display of grace, and gentleness, and love, and power, had been unappreciated. What a tale it tells of the heart! He was a lonely Saviour, lonely and unappreciated save by this poor woman. Her heart had been drawn to Him before; she had sat at His feet and heard His word — there was much in that. She had known the tenderness of His heart, and His power in the case of her brother, how He could raise the putrid body to life again — resurrection life; and there He was before her in resurrection.
She was not intelligent, but she acted instinctively. Her heart entered into the path the Saviour was going to take. She gave her all, and another was prepared to sell Him. It is a terrible picture, a gross and shocking picture, of the depravity of the heart. Judas was so near the path, but he never was in it. It is shocking, but, beloved, do we never do the same in less measure when we give up Christ as the object of the soul for some lesser consideration? When a soul is struggling to give up the world the Lord has sympathy with it, but when it is seeking to have more of the world, there is no sympathy.
We often meditate over this scripture, but it always has something fresh for our souls, because it presents Christ to the heart. We may not be very intelligent, but it is the heart He wants. “Waste!” say the disciples, but He appreciates this. He says, “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”
ROCHFORT HUNT.