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[0:00] What happened on this day in Easter week? Wednesday, Mark chapter 14, verse 1 to 6.

[0:12] Now the Passover and the festival of unleavened bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

[0:25] But not during the festival, they said, or the people may riot. While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard.

[0:42] She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, Why this waste of perfume?

[0:53] Could have been sold for more than a year's wages, and the money given to the poor, and they rebuked her harshly. Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her?

[1:04] She has done a beautiful thing to me. Well, what kind of people is Jesus looking for to be in his kingdom? How are they to live their lives in response to his claim that he is the Messiah, the King of God's kingdom?

[1:20] Some, like the Jewish leaders, are out to kill him. But others, like the unnamed woman in our story, give us a beautiful picture of what true discipleship, or true devotion to Jesus, looks like.

[1:37] Here, Jesus is having a meal with some friends and in bursts this woman, interrupting the meal and breaking social taboos as she pours out the contents of the most expensive perfume money can buy onto Jesus.

[1:51] Here is someone whose devotion can't be contained. It's a devotion that is spontaneous and extravagant and scandalous.

[2:02] Her gift is worth the equivalent of a whole year's worth of wages, but she is not worried about the cost to her at all. Not only that, she pours out the entire contents of the jar onto Jesus, creating such a stir that people are upset about what they think is a wasted cost.

[2:24] But this doesn't matter to her. She is not calculating what it costs, and neither is Jesus. In fact, he commends her for it.

[2:35] Did you notice how Jesus describes what she's done for him? She has done a beautiful thing to me, says Jesus. And this is a very powerful word that Jesus uses here.

[2:48] Beautiful. Beauty is something noble, something that is worthy or honorable. It's something that inspires or motivates people to embrace whatever they perceive as beautiful.

[3:02] Mark doesn't tell us why she was so adamant to show Jesus this level of devotion, but whatever reason she did have, we, as Christians living today, have even more reason.

[3:16] Because Jesus showed the highest level of devotion to us by dying on the cross in our place. You can't get more extravagant or scandalous than that.

[3:28] We don't often think of our sacrifice and devotion to Jesus as something beautiful. But Jesus does. If we follow the woman's example and give out of a place of pure, genuine thankfulness, of pure, deep love in response to who Jesus is and what he's done for us, then whatever we do in response to him, whatever we do to say thank you or whatever words we use to say thank you, Jesus will look at what we are doing and say that that is beautiful to him.

[4:04]  Thank you.