Summer Devotional

Several years ago while working as a telephone consultant for a major corporation, I was waiting for the next incoming call when one of my co-workers walked in. She was about 19 or 20, perfect complexion, beautifully structured face, and a body that was, as they say in the commercials, "Built Ford Tough". On top of all this, she was wearing an outfit that arrogantly showcased all of her physical attributes. I snuck a quick peek at her, than forced myself to turn around to my desk. "Lord,"I prayed under my breath, "for all of this stuff I have to go through, I want my wife to be FINE!!!"

You might be laughing now, but I was serious. I felt that all of the effort it took for me to keep my mind pure during my singlehood should be rewarded with a "Brickhouse", as the Commodores put it. It was a fair trade in my mind: God, I'll give you what you want, so long as you give me what I want. After that episode, I matured spiritually, but still found myself sort of waiting for God to hold up His end of the bargain.

I mean, I was doing the things He asked me to do, making sacrifices when necessary, but at times I faltered in my faithfulness because God still hadn't given me what I wanted. It almost seemed as if my good works were a sort of payment, but God hadn't provided the merchandise. The relationships I described in Chapter 1 were my way of giving God help.

For years, I was stuck in conditional worship. There was a woman in the Bible who had a similar attitude. "There came to [Jesus] the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing. And he said unto her, "What wilt thou?" She saith unto him, "Grant that these two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left in thy kingdom" (Matthew 20:20,21)

Let's consider the woman who is making this bold request. She is the wife of Zebedee, a Jew who owns a fishing business. The Gospel writers were selective about the names of the people they portrayed. Generally, if a person's name was mentioned, it notified that the person in question was of significant importance. By this we can conclude that Zebedee was probably a popular and wealthy man. His business was so successful that his sons were employed full-time in it when Jesus called them to ministry. His wife must have been so proud of her sons: Here they were, successful fishermen who were now being discipled by the Son of God Himself! Any loving mother would have done whatever she could to help her sons, right? Well, what the wife of Zebedee fails to understand is that serving the Lord is not a career choice, and that positions of authority in God's kingdom are not the same as in worldly kingdoms. She felt that by asking her sons to be "promoted", she would be doing them a favor. "But Jesus answered and said, 'Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?' And they said, 'We are able.'" (Matthew 20:22)

There was something about the mindset of Zebedee's wife and sons that made them feel worthy to even ask for this, although they had no clue what it entailed. Perhaps they were using their clout in the community to set themselves apart from the other disciples. Maybe James and John felt special because they were part of Jesus' inner circle (Mark 5:35-43; 9:2-13; 14:33). Whatever it was, it caused them to seek the power that Jesus had, not knowing the suffering that He would have to endure. The most interesting thing about all of this is in verse 20 of the main text. It says that Zebedee's wife came to Jesus worshipping, and desiring a certain thing. She did not come to Jesus simply to worship him; she came with an agenda, a selfish intent of her heart. She brought her sons to Jesus, similar to the way Joseph brought his two sons to his father Jacob; just like this woman, Joseph didn't get what he had come for (Genesis 48:12-20).

It is always dangerous when we worship with an ulterior motive. God must be worshipped "in spirit and in truth"(John 4:24). The Greek word for "truth" literally means, "not concealing". In other words, we are called to worship God without a hidden agenda. So many times in my life I felt that I had "earned" a blessing from God, that I had walked with Him and obeyed Him long enough to ask for some of the things that I wanted, namely, a wife. But Jesus explained to James and John that the seats at His left and right hand were not His to give, but would be given to those for whom the Father prepared them. Through this I understand that if God has not yet given me something, it is because He has not fully prepared me to sit in that seat. I'm sure that James and John must have felt a lot differently about drinking Jesus' cup after the crucifixion. I'm sure that they didn't feel nearly as worthy to sit in those seats once they saw what it would cost to sit in them.

In Matthew 20, James and John had been walking with Jesus for over three years. They witnessed the countless miracles that He had performed; they gleaned from His wisdom and might; He had promised them that they would do even greater works than He had done. After all that time, they felt that they were pretty close to attaining the spiritual level that Jesus had attained, that they were able to do anything that He could do. However, Jesus' trial, death, burial, and resurrection made them feel unworthy all over again. Jesus had permanently put distance between Him and them as Lord of all. It is during this "distancing" period "the moments that God shows us how magnificent He really is" that the veils from our worship are removed, and we can truly worship God for who He is. Which brings us to the second woman of this chapter.

Simon "the leper", a Pharisee, hosts a dinner party. He invites Jesus, who obliges. While the men were eating, "there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she broke the box, and poured it on his head"(Mark 14:3). This is a very popular story, about an infamous woman named Mary Magdalene. Jesus is having dinner with a Pharisee, a respectable man in the community; so respectable that he felt worthy to invite Jesus into his home. Jesus accepts the offer, which must have added to Simon's respectability. This was a high-class dinner party, by invitation only. Only the wealthy and well-respected men of the community were allowed to come and eat meat with the Son of God. In another part of town, Mary hears that Jesus is at Simon's house and goes to see him. Now Simon lived in Bethany, a relatively small suburb of Jerusalem. He was probably, as above-mentioned, a pillar of his community. Mary, on the other hand, was not as respectable. In fact, the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) never mention her name.

John identifies her as "that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment"(John 11:2), but only as a side note; the events at Simon's house are not even recorded in John. Mary is a far cry from her counterpart at the beginning of the chapter; she was no clout, no respect, and a bad reputation. It was common knowledge in Bethany that Mary was "a sinner"; some speculate that she was a prostitute; whatever her lifestyle, it was hardly welcomed by the likes of Simon the leper. Mary knew that going to Simon's house meant facing condemnation and scorn. But it also meant seeing Jesus, which made the trip worthwhile. I'm not sure how Mary got into the house; she obviously wasn't invited, and definitely wasn't expected. But here she comes, this sinner, this unworthy woman, crashing a private party, interrupting Jesus. The man's trying to eat, lady! And who do you think you are, barging in unannounced and uninvited with a jar of exotic perfume? Are you trying to seduce Jesus like you seduce the men on the street corner? Who let this woman in? These were probably some of the thoughts that ran through Simon's head. He must have looked in terror as she takes the box of alabaster (Egyptian stone imported specifically for the use of bottling perfume) and strikes it against the ground, pouring its aromatic contents on the head of Jesus. The dignitaries pause aghast, utensils in hand, while she kisses the feet of Jesus, washing his feet with her hair and her tears. They think to themselves, "Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor"(Mark 14:4,5). A penny was denarii, which was signified in Matthew as a day's wages for laborers.

I remember working day labor while I was between jobs. I would go down to the office at the crack of dawn, trying to get in line for a job that day. One particular morning, I was sent out to this landscaping company outside of town. I boarded one of the outgoing trucks and went to work. This was in the middle of one of the hottest summers in Florida history. The high was around 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, which made it feel like 115. And I'm outside all day long around hot lawnmowers and weed eaters, taking long sips from the water cooler every chance I could get. After 8 hours of work I go to the office to pick up my check, totally drenched in sweat. I reach out my tired, sweaty, grass-stained hand to sign my check, only to discover that my net pay was a lousy 40 bucks! I wanted to cry. During the time of Jesus, the hired laborers would go out, just like I did, and bust their behinds for a penny. The jar of spikenard with which Mary anointed Jesus was worth more than 300 pence, or in modern terms, well over 12,000 dollars. That's a whole year's salary for a field worker! And she just poured it on this man's head when she could've bought groceries for poor families! When was the last time you saw a jar of perfume in the store that cost twelve grand? You couldn't just go to the mall and get a box of this stuff; this was special-order, precious ointment bottled in custom-designed imported stone. This was the most scintillating scent you would ever want to smell.

And Mary had to "break" the box, which meant that it still had its original seal and had never been used. She was saving it for a special occasion. This was the biggest moment of her life. Notice that Mary does so much in these passages of Scripture; she breaks the box open, anoints Jesus' head, weeps, washes His feet, but she never says a word. She came with no agenda, no list of demands. She came instead with her most prized possession, her life's savings, and shatters it at His feet. And as the box breaks under the weight of her hand, her heart breaks under the weight of His hand. She worships Him, an unworthy sinner making a silent petition for mercy. She didn't want to sit at His right hand; she would have been elated just to sit at His feet. She never faces Him; Luke says that she stood behind Him while she did these things. And Jesus says to her, "Thy sins are forgiven", and, "thy faith has saved thee"(Luke 7:48, 50). She was granted her request, not because she deserved it, but because she worshipped Him in truth. She came to bless Him, to "anoint His body for burial"; she came to minister unto her Lord. She gave everything she had in exchange for forgiveness, and she went away with more than what she brought. When you worship God, you always come out with more than what you bring.

That's how we know that the wife of Zebedee's worship wasn't genuine; she walked away the same as when she came. She is never again mentioned in Scripture. However. Mary Magdalene not only received mercy at the feet of Jesus, but she is given an honor of high esteem: "Wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."(Matthew 26:13). Jesus prophesied that Mary's single action would be accompanied with the spreading of the Gospel. Virtually every nation in the world has been infiltrated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries and continents, Mary's broken box has been etched as one of the greatest symbols of freedom, faith, and love the world has ever known. Billions of people hear the story of a sinner from Bethany and know that Jesus is still able to forgive sins and save the lost.