Why this waste? Wasting ourselves upon the Lord…

This is the goal of the gospel – that loving the Lord Jesus with the first love we would pour out upon Him what is most precious to us – even our most costly and valuable spiritual treasures! Just wasting ourselves upon Him!

We see this in Matthew 26:6-12 where the Lord Jesus was invited to eat at Simon’s house, and a woman came and poured out an alabaster flask filled with ointment upon Him. That ointment was very precious (more than 1 year’s work pay worth) – yet she simply “wasted” it on the Lord. That’s when one of the disciples asked this question:

Why This Waste?

Yet it’s not just Mary(that woman who apparently “wasted” all she had on Him) – but throughout the past twenty centuries, thousands of precious lives, heart treasures, high positions, and golden futures have been “wasted” upon the Lord Jesus.

Actually, to such lovers He is altogether lovely and worthy of their offering. What they have poured out upon Him is not a waste, but a fragrant testimony of His sweetness! (see full note)

When we see the Lord Jesus, His heart’s desire, we just love Him and give ourselves to Him! Mary heard that the Lord said so many times (in 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; and v. 2 of Matthew 26) that He will go to Jerusalem and will be crucified – so she grasped the opportunity that, before His death, she would show Him how much she loves Him + she annointed Him beforehand for His burial.

She simply poured out the best that she had on the Lord. From this we see that to love the Lord with our best requires a revelation concerning Him (see footnote).

Have we seen the preciousness of the Lord Jesus in whom we believed? Have we come to realize that nothing less than the dearest, the costliest, the most precious, even everything we have, is fit for Him? May the Lord open our eyes to see His worth!