She came not to hear a sermon,
although the greatest of teachers was there.
To sit at His feet and hear His
words (Luke 10:39) was not her purpose now, blessed as that was in its proper
place.
She came not to make her requests
known to Him (John 11:3).
There was a time when, in deepest
submission to His will, she had fallen at His feet, saying, "Lord, if Thou
hadst been here, my brother had not died" (John 11:32); but to pour out
her supplications to Him as her only resource was not now her thought, for her
brother was seated at the table.
She came not to meet the saints,
though precious saints were there (Matt. 26:8). Fellowship with them was
blessed likewise, and doubtless of frequent occurrence; but fellowship was not
her object now.
She came not after the weariness
and toil of a week’s battling with the world to be refreshed from Him, though,
surely, she like every saint had learned the trials of the wilderness; and none
more than she, probably, knew the blessed springs of refreshment that were in
Him.
But she came—when the world was
about to express its deepest hatred of Him (John 12:1)—to pour out what she
long had treasured up (verse 7), and of much value (verse 5), upon the person
of Him whose love had made her heart captive, and absorbed her affections.
It was not Simon the leper, not
the disciples, not her brother and sister in the flesh, but her Lord who
engaged her attention now. Jesus filled her soul—her heart and her eye
were on Him, and her hands and feet were subservient to her eye and to
her heart as she "anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her
hair."
Adoration, homage, worship,
blessing was her one thought; and that in honor of the One who was "all in
all" to her. How refreshing was such worship to Him!
The ungodly (verse 4) and the
unspiritual (Matt. 26:6-9) might murmur, but He upheld her cause, and showed
how He could appreciate and value the grateful tribute of a heart that knew His
worth and preciousness and could not be silent about it. A lasting record is
preserved of what worship really is by the One who accepted it and of the one
who rendered it.
Be it ours now, dear reader, from
hearts filled with the Holy Spirit, to break upon Him our spiritual box of
ointment in worship, praise, and thanksgiving.