What does it look like to truly love Jesus, and how do we know when our faith has drifted into something colder and more routine? Matthew 26 gives us one of the most vivid and convicting pictures in all of Scripture. A woman named Mary walks into a dinner party and pours an entire jar of expensive ointment over the head of Jesus. The disciples are outraged. They call it a waste. Jesus calls it beautiful.
This passage from Matthew 26 takes place in Bethany at the home of Simon the Leper, surrounded by people whose lives had been transformed by Christ. Lazarus, raised from the dead, was at the table. Mary and Martha, comforted in their grief, were there. And then Mary does something that shocks the room and still speaks to us today.
The ointment she poured out was worth roughly 300 denarii, a full year's wages for an average worker. By every financial measure, it looked irresponsible. But Jesus received it as an act of profound love and as a preparation for His burial. In Jewish culture, anointing with oil was how kings were crowned. Mary, whether she fully understood it or not, was declaring Jesus as her King.
The contrast with Judas could not be sharper. Mary gave everything she had to honor Him. Judas sold Him for thirty pieces of silver. Both had followed Jesus for years. Both had seen His miracles. But only one responded with wholehearted devotion. Judas had decided he knew how God should work, and when Jesus did not comply, he walked away.
This message also addresses one of the most misunderstood statements Jesus makes in this passage. When He says the poor will always be with them, He is not calling His followers to give up on serving others. He is quoting Deuteronomy and pointing to a deeper truth: human effort alone cannot fully eradicate suffering. The complete end of poverty and death will come when His kingdom arrives in fullness. Until then, the greatest thing followers of Jesus can offer the world is not just practical help but Jesus Himself.
Two core lessons shape this message. Serving others must flow from loving Jesus first, and the way of Christ is the way of the cross. He did not take His throne through power or popularity. He took it through suffering, and He calls us to follow Him on that same road.
