Avoidance is not the issue. It’s not that it isn’t important to discuss whether a profit seeking business deserves to be exempt from certain health care provisions on religious grounds. It’s not that deciding whether a politician worth $50 million is not as well off as others think doesn’t have some social value. It’s not that the problem of evil doesn’t merit some attention, or that the current administration’s use of executive action to bypass Congress isn’t worth serious review. These are all important social issues and topics of the day. It’s just that some things are more important.
Just before he was arrested and crucified Jesus sat for dinner in the house of Simon the leper in a little village east of the city of Jerusalem called Bethany. A woman entered the room where Jesus and his disciples reclined around the table. She approached Jesus and poured out on his head the contents of a flask of expensive ointment. Such anointings were not uncommon in the social context of the day and were usually reserved for the most celebrated and honored of guests.
Jesus’s disciples were beside themselves. They immediately began to point out to Jesus the social issues, the buzz topics of the day. Did Jesus not know how much that perfume could have been sold for and how many poor people could have been helped? Did Jesus not realize how such grace and thoughtfulness was being wasted on him when there were so many others in need?
For three years Jesus had taught these men and women the importance of surrendering selfishness, paying attention to the needs of others, and sharing both the Father’s heart and the Father’s resources with those in need. Their reactions suggest that they were well instructed in discerning the opportunities for mercy and commenting on social need. But there was one more lesson the Teacher needed to convey to his students. It’s not that some things are not important.
It’s that some other things are more important.
Jesus responded to his disciples with these words, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel (good news) is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
The vast needs represented and experienced by the massive majority of humanity are not unimportant. You should care about them and you will have perpetual opportunity to alleviate pain and suffering and the effects of poverty in the lives of people. These are important. Do not think they are not. But sometimes, there is something more important. Something so rare, so unique that it deserves your special attention.
This woman saw in Jesus someone to be honored, to be cherished, to be loved, to be worshiped.
She saw in him a Savior who would give his life on her behalf. She saw what many missed, that all he said of himself was true and proven in his life, and she loved him for who he was, what he had done, what he would do.
She was not denying the needs of the poor outside the room but honoring the majesty of the Man within the room. Sometimes, there is something more important.
Politics and social justice issues are important. Adventures and opportunities are important. Sports and recreation and economics and war and poverty and sickness and health care and civil rights are all important. But sometimes, there is just something that is more important.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to show us by His life what God created us to be.
He shows us both the standard and the degree to which we fall short. Jesus shows us who God is and what he is like and what he requires of us. And he shows us, not by his innocent life, but by his willing death, what cost our failure, our sin, must pay. And God shows us, by raising Christ to life from the dead, that the price of our sin has been paid. And God offers all those who put their faith in Christ, victory over death, eternal life.
This is the Good News, that God offers us eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. There are a great many things to be concerned about and to do something about in this world. But sometimes, there is just something that is more important. What you do about Jesus and faith in him is most important. Pastor Dale McIntire has served as pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais since April of 1995.
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