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MATTHEW 26:7-13
A woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table.
But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?
For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.”
But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.
For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.
Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
This very costly fragrant oil is myrrh, a perfumed oil often mentioned in scripture. It was said to be an oil used as an anointing for burial, as well as an holy oil used to anoint the tabernacle, high priests and kings. For Jesus, it was one of the gifts — along with gold and frankincense — brought by the wise men at His birth.
We see that this event from Matthew’s gospel holds a special place in Jesus’ story for it reveals the beginning and end of His earthly existence and relates this with a holy oil confirming Him as our King of kings and Great High Priest. The anointing oil is the carrier of the Holy Spirit’s touch — the sanctity of that intimate relationship between God and His king and priest. Scripture tells us that all who accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour are kings and priests in His service.
Only recently we have witnessed an example of the continuing significance of this, with the use of Anointing Oil in the coronation ceremony for King Charles III, and although this very costly fragrant oil was an olive oil perfumed with rose, jasmine, cinnamon, amber, sesame, orange blossom and neroli, the event was the most important and intimate part of the ceremony. For this reason it was not shown publically or revealed on television, with the King obscured from view under a canopy.
The significance of the event described by Matthew is that the very costly fragrant oil poured on Jesus’ head is described shortly before the crucifixion story unfolds, and the apostles’ objections to ‘this waste’ of the oil reveals once again their stuckness in natural understanding, unable perhaps to see the spiritual significance. Jesus was being given a great anointing and Holy Spirit strengthening by Father God for His final hours on earth. He was being anointed for burial — For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial He says — and thus is given supernatural life to take Him through the Cross and into everlasting life.
The import of that gift of Myrrh by the Wise Men is now revealed, and unveils to our understanding part of the deeper truth that makes Christmas such a special time of remembrance and celebration.
We see that this event from Matthew’s gospel holds a special place in Jesus’ story for it reveals the beginning and end of His earthly existence and relates this with a holy oil confirming Him as our King of kings and Great High Priest. The anointing oil is the carrier of the Holy Spirit’s touch — the sanctity of that intimate relationship between God and His king and priest. Scripture tells us that all who accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour are kings and priests in His service.
Only recently we have witnessed an example of the continuing significance of this, with the use of Anointing Oil in the coronation ceremony for King Charles III, and although this very costly fragrant oil was an olive oil perfumed with rose, jasmine, cinnamon, amber, sesame, orange blossom and neroli, the event was the most important and intimate part of the ceremony. For this reason it was not shown publically or revealed on television, with the King obscured from view under a canopy.
The significance of the event described by Matthew is that the very costly fragrant oil poured on Jesus’ head is described shortly before the crucifixion story unfolds, and the apostles’ objections to ‘this waste’ of the oil reveals once again their stuckness in natural understanding, unable perhaps to see the spiritual significance. Jesus was being given a great anointing and Holy Spirit strengthening by Father God for His final hours on earth. He was being anointed for burial — For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial He says — and thus is given supernatural life to take Him through the Cross and into everlasting life.
The import of that gift of Myrrh by the Wise Men is now revealed, and unveils to our understanding part of the deeper truth that makes Christmas such a special time of remembrance and celebration.
Moreover the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
“Also take for yourself quality spices—five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane,
five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.
And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil.
EXODUS 30:22-25
FRESH OIL — New Wine
Worshippers aren't made when they see the enemy on the run, put to flight. The truth is, worshippers of God are made during dark, stormy nights. And how we respond to our storms determines just what kind of worshippers we are.
DAVID WILKERSON
LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION HERE…
COMING NEXT… #535 FRANKINCENSE: AN OFFERING MADE BY FIRE
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JAMES 2:8-10
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you do well;
but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
Inability into ability. This is the essence of the learning process. We begin unable to do anything of ourselves to become like our Lord. Only by accepting Christ Jesus in the deepest parts of ourselves can we ever come to any sort of the perfection we seek. But do we really want that? Dare I say that most of us desire the comfort, the peace that Jesus gives, of course, but maybe settle for the sentimental, the cosy association with Jesus, which is not the fullness of His life in us at all.
As it dawns on us that this is all so hard, that He demands an excellence, a standard which is unobtainable to any one of us; and yet it is a standard which the law demands as we read in this passage from James, and it is something that must be held to if we are to reach our desired goal in His Kingdom. How can our absolute inability to reach that standard be turned from inability into ability? After all, we read that For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble on one point, he is guilty of all.
Without doubt there is a demand on each one to step up and endeavour to raise our sights to that highest calling. It requires a deep commitment to attain the impossible, but the very impossibility (of fulfilling the law) by ourselves, puts such a life out of our reach. We are adrift in rough seas with only a distant sight of the promised land. It will take more than every fibre within us to reach that goal. Only by the Holy Spirit can we rise.
Christ within us speeds us across the surface of the waters to the land we seek. It requires trust in something where our natural inclination says there is no trust; it requires faith in what seems a vapour, a shadow, a vague form hardly seen in the corner of the eye. And yet… if we have had a touch from Him, we know that this insubstantial, barely glimpsed light at the edge of experience is our only hope. Reaching out to grasp the ungraspable, to touch the untouchable — to touch the hem (the very edge) of His garment, creates an everlasting bond with the Almighty.
Does that sound too fanciful to your ear? It should do to any reasonable man, and yet it is the truth to anyone that the Lord has sought. Our Lord Jesus is not reason — He is Spirit and Truth. Open your heart to Him. In your hour of need He will appear. What does He require of the one who seeks Him? Repentance — and the very act of seeking Him acknowledges that repentance; that we cannot attain our hearts true desire without laying down our life and taking up His. He will redeem.
As it dawns on us that this is all so hard, that He demands an excellence, a standard which is unobtainable to any one of us; and yet it is a standard which the law demands as we read in this passage from James, and it is something that must be held to if we are to reach our desired goal in His Kingdom. How can our absolute inability to reach that standard be turned from inability into ability? After all, we read that For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble on one point, he is guilty of all.
Without doubt there is a demand on each one to step up and endeavour to raise our sights to that highest calling. It requires a deep commitment to attain the impossible, but the very impossibility (of fulfilling the law) by ourselves, puts such a life out of our reach. We are adrift in rough seas with only a distant sight of the promised land. It will take more than every fibre within us to reach that goal. Only by the Holy Spirit can we rise.
Christ within us speeds us across the surface of the waters to the land we seek. It requires trust in something where our natural inclination says there is no trust; it requires faith in what seems a vapour, a shadow, a vague form hardly seen in the corner of the eye. And yet… if we have had a touch from Him, we know that this insubstantial, barely glimpsed light at the edge of experience is our only hope. Reaching out to grasp the ungraspable, to touch the untouchable — to touch the hem (the very edge) of His garment, creates an everlasting bond with the Almighty.
Does that sound too fanciful to your ear? It should do to any reasonable man, and yet it is the truth to anyone that the Lord has sought. Our Lord Jesus is not reason — He is Spirit and Truth. Open your heart to Him. In your hour of need He will appear. What does He require of the one who seeks Him? Repentance — and the very act of seeking Him acknowledges that repentance; that we cannot attain our hearts true desire without laying down our life and taking up His. He will redeem.
Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by,
You know He’s not too busy to hear your heart’s cry.
He is passing by this moment, your needs to supply,
Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by.
MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS…
Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia:
that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.
For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing,
imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.
2 CORINTHIANS 8:1-5
REACH OUT AND TOUCH THE LORD.
God is not done with you; he is not done with me. He is showing you and me mercy and kindness so that it can flow out of you and me to people who do not yet know him, to sinners of all kinds. The Lord does not fight with the weapons with which the enemy fights. Our God is a God of love who combats the hatred and bitterness of the world with love and tender mercy. And he is shaping us so that we too may have a tender, gentle spirit. Would you soften our hearts, oh God?
DAVID WILKERSON
LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION HERE…
COMING NEXT… #534 MYRRH: A VERY COSTLY FRAGRANT OIL
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1 TIMOTHY 1:3-7
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.
Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk,
desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
These verses from 1 Timothy are special. ‘Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart”. Not ‘with a pure heart’, but ‘from a pure heart’. There is a difference, albeit a subtle one, and what I mean is this. To love with a pure heart, suggests that each of us might have that pure heart, yet we know that our Lord Jesus Christ was alone in having a pure heart, complete holiness; all of which He received from the Heavenly Father.
Thus we can be assured that the love that Paul states is the purpose of the commandment, is the love that is in our hearts because Christ lives within each saint as the hope of glory. Each of us can only ever have a pure, clean and unadulterated heart if that heart is His not ours.
In Hebrews, chapter 10, there is mention of a true heart, which the Amplified Bible translates as ‘having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water.’ Paul, in our verses today speaks of love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. and this is witnessed to in Hebrews.
Thus we can see three qualifying factors to fulfill the commandment…
None of these are possible for any one of us without the Lord Jesus Christ residing in our innermost being. It reminds me of this song…
Thus we can be assured that the love that Paul states is the purpose of the commandment, is the love that is in our hearts because Christ lives within each saint as the hope of glory. Each of us can only ever have a pure, clean and unadulterated heart if that heart is His not ours.
In Hebrews, chapter 10, there is mention of a true heart, which the Amplified Bible translates as ‘having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water.’ Paul, in our verses today speaks of love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. and this is witnessed to in Hebrews.
Thus we can see three qualifying factors to fulfill the commandment…
- Love from a pure heart
- Love from a good conscience
- Love from sincere faith
None of these are possible for any one of us without the Lord Jesus Christ residing in our innermost being. It reminds me of this song…
Out of my innermost being
Rivers of water flow.
Out of my innermost being
Life celestial grows.
Out of my innermost being
Banishing all my fears
Out of my innermost being
Jesus The Christ appears.
MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS…
and having a High Priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [cleansed; purified] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
HEBREWS 10:21-25
WITH A CLEAN HEART (I WILL MAGNIFY YOUR NAME) — Devonshire Road Sunday Worship
Everything you go through as a Christian is a training exercise behind which God has a divine purpose. He did not save you so that you could cruise into paradise on a luxury liner; He saved
you to prepare you to be of use in His kingdom. The moment you were born again, He enrolled you in His school of suffering. And every affliction, every trial, is another lesson in the curriculum.
DAVID WILKERSON