Daily Devotional

My brother says he did not preplan it. At the moment I asked to borrow his golf clubs, he was inspired to extract a bargain from me: the use of his clubs for reading a book he would give me. He did a beautiful thing. He did what he could. He did much than he knew. There is an eternal record.

There was a woman who acted much like my brother, but toward Christ. She anointed Jesus’ head with expensive perfume. She did a beautiful thing.  She did what she could. But she did much more than she knew. She anointed Jesus for burial ahead of time.

Mark 14:3–9 - “And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” (ESV)

The woman of no name in this gospel acted against protocol and culture. She was inspired by the Spirit. She moved with steady deliberation. She was going to do what she could, though not sure why. Perhaps it was thanks for what Jesus had done for her and others. Maybe her eyes were opened by God to see things others did not that day.

She grabbed her treasure. She walked steadily to the house of Simon the leper. She continued past any looks or objections, and approached the table where Jesus was reclining. This she was going to do as a blessing to Jesus, an act of love and worship. She poured the perfume over His head. After a hesitation, she turned and headed out. Her unusual task done (Isaiah 28:21).

Others there complained, as they did not comprehend the beauty of her act. They scolded her as she moved on through the room. But she heard Jesus silence them as He commended her. She had seen the timeliness of Jesus’ physical presence, maybe even His looming departure as  through a glass darkly (I Corinthians 13:12). Whatever she knew, and while it was little, it was more than all the others there. As she exited, she heard Jesus say, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.”

A couple of days later Jesus would go to crucifixion and death, still anointed with her perfume. She had done what she could. It turned out to be a beautiful thing. A thing to be recorded as long as the earth persists, until Jesus returns. She did what she could, that’s all she really knew.

The book my brother Dave gave me was a simple act. He knew at that moment that he should do it. So he did what he could. It turned out to be a beautiful thing. Four months later when I read it, God used it to cause me to be “saved,” though I did not even know people could be saved, or what that meant. But Dave did what he could. It will be remembered in heaven forever.

He did not know I would be saved. He did not know I, and Lynn with me, would be called as a pastor. Or that only then at 35 years old would I enter into my true, life calling, with now more than four decades of pastoral service completed. And still going.

We often don’t know much of the power and scope of what we are doing. But as we are moved by the Spirit, we should do what we can. It likely will be a beautiful thing taking place, even if that is not evident at the moment.

We are called to do beautiful things. We will know what and when. We will, in the Lord, do what we can. May the Lord Himself bless you in such acts. And may heaven account them for eternity, with all hearing Jesus’ voice, “She did a beautiful thing to Me! She did what she could. Let us rejoice forever!”

Read: Isaiah 52
Sing: If Jesus Goes With Me, by C. Austin Miles

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.