Latest / Reformed Thinking / A Fragrant Memorial: Costly Worship at the Feet of the Crucified King (Matthew 26:6-13)

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A Fragrant Memorial: Costly Worship at the Feet of the Crucified King (Matthew 26:6-13) · Reformed Thinking

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  Think about the last time you watched someone calculate the
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  value of something really significant.
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  Right. Like a formal financial
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  appraisal or something? Yeah, maybe it was a commercial
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  property or, I don't know, a rare piece of art.
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  There was a very specific rigid formula involved in that.
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  Right. Oh, absolutely.
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  The appraiser looks at market conditions, utility, comarable
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  sales and gives you a cold hard number.
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  Yeah, it is all about return on investment.
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  The world basically runs on that kind of calculated, pragmatic
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  assessment of worth. It's highly analytical, entirely
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  based on what you can quantify on a balance sheet.
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  But then you encounter an act of devotion that entirely shatters
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  the formula. You witness someone pour out a
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  literal fortune with like 0 calculation.
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  Yeah, with no thought to the spreadsheet.
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  Right, and the people around them absolutely lose their
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  minds. The math does not work for them,
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  so they label the ACT as pure insanity.
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  It creates a massive collision when uncalculated love meets
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  cold pragmatism. It is the absolute definition of
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  an economic and really a spiritual shockwave.
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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. Today we are bringing you into a
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  comprehensive deep dive. We are taking you through 2
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  rigorous textual analysis of a single highly charged historical
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  moment. That is Matthew chapter 26,
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  verses 6 through 13. Yes, and the mission today is to
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  examine the sharp collision between an act of uncalculated,
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  costly devotion to Christ and the cold calculation of worldly
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  religion. OK, let's unpack this by first
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  setting our feet firmly in the geography and the timeline of
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  the narrative. For timeline here, it carries
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  immense theological weight. We are precisely 2 days before
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  the Passover. And for anyone familiar with the
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  Old Testament, the Passover is the supreme covenantal memorial
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  of Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage.
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  Right it is the night when divine wrath passed over the
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  homes covered by the blood of a spotless lamb.
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  And now the true Lamb of God is preparing to shed His own blood
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  to secure eternal redemption. I mean, the air in the region
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  would have been thick with anticipation.
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  Oh definitely. You had the smell of roasted
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  lamb everywhere and the gathering of thousands upon
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  thousands of pilgrims in the area.
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  And geographically, this specific event is happening in
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  Bethany. It is a small village sitting
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  right on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives.
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  It is roughly 2 miles from Jerusalem.
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  Yeah, so we have this massive glaring contrast between the two
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  locations. The contrast is staggering.
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  Down in Jerusalem, the religious atmosphere is filled with
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  virulent apostasy. The chief priests and the
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  elders, the very men entrusted with the oracles of God, are
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  huddled in the palace of the high priest Caiaphas.
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  Actively plotting a murder. Yes, they are conspiring to
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  arrest Jesus by stealth. They want to kill him without
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  starting a riot among the pilgrims.
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  But just two miles away, Bethany acts as a quiet refuge.
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  You have domestic tranquility standing in stark opposition to
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  absolute satanic hatred, right? I want you to picture the
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  specific house in Bethany where this takes place.
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  It belongs to a man identified as Simon the Leper.
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  And under Levitical law, a leper was ceremonially unclean.
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  They were an outcast, banished from the worshipping community.
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  They had to yell, you know, unclean, when people approached.
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  So to host a banquet implies something radical has taken
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  place. He must have been miraculously
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  healed by Christ himself. Think about the irony here for a
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  second. We are looking at the societal
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  elite in the halls of state conspiring to execute an
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  innocent man while a healed former outcast throws a banquet
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  of Thanksgiving. It is a stunning reversal of
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  expectation. Absolutely stunning.
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  What's? Fascinating.
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  Here is how this specific setting preaches a message of
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  sovereign grace before anyone even speaks a single word.
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  Oh wow, how so? Well, Simon's presence at the
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  head of a table demonstrates total depravity met by divine
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  restoration. The King, who will soon bear the
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  uncleanness of his people, is being honored in a home marked
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  by the memory of uncleanness and the joy of cleansing.
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  That makes a lot of sense. The official Guardians of
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  Israel's worship reject the Lord of the Temple while a societal
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  outcast honors him. Exactly.
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  I mean precisely. Our sources point out that
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  Matthew didn't just stumble into this arrangement of facts.
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  He didn't just casually jot down what happened in chronological
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  order. No, the author structured his
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  narrative with a very specific literary design.
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  He utilized a specific framework.
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  A chiastic structure, right? Yes, often called a literary
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  sandwich in the ancient world. Before printing presses and bold
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  fonts, authors use structural repetition to highlight their
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  main points. So how does that work here?
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  Well, verses one through 5 detail the clandestine
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  conspiracy of the Sanhedrin to murder the Son of God.
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  They are calculating and political.
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  Then if you skip down to verses 14 through 16, you find the
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  sinister betrayal by Judas Iscariot.
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  He approaches the chief priests to bargain away his master.
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  But sitting perfectly in the middle, verses 6 through 13, is
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  the woman's devotion. Yes, the narrative places a
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  radiant light surrounded by two massive blocks of abysmal
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  darkness. You have the Sanhedrin's plot,
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  the woman's worship, and then Judas's betrayal.
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  And this structure forces us to evaluate the different
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  valuations of Jesus. That is a great point.
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  The religious rulers evaluate Jesus and determine he is a
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  threat to be neutralized, an obstacle to their political
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  power. Right.
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  And then Judas evaluates Jesus and determines he's worth 30
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  pieces of silver. Which, by the way, in Exodus
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  21.3230, pieces of silver is the legal price of a gourd slave.
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  Yeah, if your ox Gore is your neighbor's slave, you owe them
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  30 pieces of silver. It is an insulting, paltry sum.
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  But the woman in the middle of the sandwich evaluates Jesus and
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  determines he is worth an exorbitant sum to be poured out
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  completely. If we extract verses 6 through
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  13 from this specific structure, it reduces the event to a simple
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  moral fable about generosity. Yeah, it becomes a story you
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  tell children about sharing your best things.
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  But the contrast forces you to see that the aroma of Christ is
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  life to some and the absolute stench of death to others.
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  It is a sharp dividing line. It makes me ask, why do we
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  frequently judge the value of an action by its practical outcome
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  rather than the object of its devotion?
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  That is the core issue of the human heart, isn't it?
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  We are conditioned by a fallen world to measure value by
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  utility. By what can be seen, traded and
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  leveraged for earthly gain. Right when we look at an action,
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  we immediately try to calculate its return on investment.
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  But true saving faith wrought by the Holy Spirit measures all
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  value by the infinite worth of the Son of God.
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  Here's where it gets really interesting.
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  Let us look at the actual physical action and the
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  staggering economics behind it. A woman approaches Jesus as he
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  reclines at the table. She has an alabaster flask and
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  she pours it on his head. The linguistic breakdown in the
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  Greek text is illuminating here. It really is.
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  Matthew deliberately avoids the common word elayon, which refers
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  to ordinary olive oil used daily for cooking or basic hygiene.
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  Instead, he uses the word muron. Yes, denoting a highly fragrant
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  imported perfume, likely spikenard from the Himalayas.
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  Furthermore, Matthew uses a hep axillomenon.
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  For those listening, that is a word occurring nowhere else in
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  the entire New Testament. That word is Barutmos, meaning
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  exceedingly precious or heavy in price.
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  The parallel accounts in the other Gospels value this perfume
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  at 300 denarii. And the denarius was roughly a
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  full day's wage for a common laborer.
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  So 300 denarii is nearly a full year's wages.
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  Let us bring this into your modern economic reality.
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  If you take average United States Labor Statistics, this is
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  equivalent to taking a liquid asset worth upwards of $70,000
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  and pouring it out in a single moment.
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  Imagine taking a luxury car or draining a retirement account
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  and just destroying it. And once that alabaster flask is
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  broken, the asset is gone forever.
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  It cannot be retrieved. The physical posture and the
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  silence of the woman are crucial to notice here too.
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  She offers no defense for her actions.
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  She engages in no dialogue with the man in the room.
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  No, she simply approaches, breaks the vessel, and pours.
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  The act of total, irrevocable surrender speaks entirely for
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  itself. She does not announce her virtue
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  or argue for recognition. But such an extreme financial
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  act immediately triggered A fierce reaction for the men in
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  the room. The disciples see the act and
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  become indignantly angry. They demand why this waste and
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  argue that the perfume could have been sold in the money
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  given to the poor. We must pay close attention to
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  the Greek noun for waste used by the disciples.
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  The word is apolia. This word literally means
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  destruction, ruin, or perdition. They are looking at the worship
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  of the Creator and calling it utter ruin.
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  And there is a chilling linguistic link here.
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  This is the exact root word Jesus uses to describe Judas in
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  John 17.12, calling him the son of perdition.
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  Wow, they're disguising their lack of devotion in the noble
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  language of philanthropy. Right.
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  They prioritize A horizontal duty, which is social charity,
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  over a vertical duty, which is worshipping the Son of God.
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  Now our source texts actually take a sharp pivot here to
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  connect this 1st century pragmatism to modern political
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  ideologies. Yes, they specifically take aim
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  at the social gospel and movements like critical race
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  theory. The authors compare these modern
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  frameworks directly to the disciples pragmatism, arguing
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  that they prioritize earthly utility and social outcomes over
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  biblical worship. Just to be completely clear for
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  everyone listening, our job today is to map out the author's
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  argument. We are not endorsing a specific
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  political side or validating these viewpoints.
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  No, we are not taking a stance on that.
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  We are simply conveying the arguments written in the
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  original source text we are covering today.
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  O The authors of the text contend that when the disciples
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  use the poor as a rhetorical shield, they expose A pragmatic
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  religion that values measurable social outcomes over the
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  unquantifiable worth of Christ. They argue that spiritual
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  deception frequently masks itself as practical wisdom.
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  It looks like virtue, but at its core it is a rejection of the
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  priority of Christ. Right, But let me play devil's
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  advocate for a second. Wait, doesn't the Bible command
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  us to care for the poor? Yes, it certainly does.
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  If you look at Deuteronomy 15, it demands open handed
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  generosity. The prophets constantly rebuke
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  the oppression of the vulnerable.
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  Aren't the disciples technically right in their economic
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  assessment? You mean the idea that selling a
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  $70,000 bottle of perfume could feed a lot of starving families?
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  Yeah, exactly. If we connect this to the bigger
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  picture of scripture, the disciples error is not caring
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  for the poor. Their error is detaching that
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  duty from the supreme worth of Christ.
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  I see good duties become distorted when severed from
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  their highest end, Yes. A pious argument is still
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  entirely wrong when it fails to begin with the supremacy of the
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  Savior. Mercy to the poor is biblical,
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  but mercy detached from Christ becomes another form of
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  unbelief. The first table of the law,
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  which is our duty toward God, governs the second table, which
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  is our duty toward man. Love for neighbor must flow from
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  love for God, not replace it. The disciples have made their
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  judgement, calling it a polia ruin.
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  They have cast their vote. But the only verdict that
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  matters is the one Christ is about to deliver.
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  Jesus rebukes the disciples, saying, Why do you trouble the
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  woman? And he calls her action a
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  beautiful thing. The Greek word translated as
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  beautiful is kelon. It goes beyond mere aesthetics.
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  Right. Oh, absolutely.
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  It means noble, excellent, and aesthetically fitting before
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  God. It implies A theological
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  appropriateness. She has acted in a way that
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  perfectly corresponds to the infinite worth of Christ and the
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  specific fleeting hour of his earthly mission.
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  Jesus then makes a statement that often causes a lot of
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  confusion. He says For you always have the
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  poor with you, but you will not always have me.
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  People sometimes read that and think Jesus is dismissing
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  poverty. He is not dismissing it at all.
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  He is directly echoing Deuteronomy 15.11, which states
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  that the poor will never cease from the land.
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  By quoting that, Jesus confirms the ongoing obligation to the
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  poor. However, he establishes a
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  hierarchy of priorities. We also see a dispensational
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  framework presented in the text regarding redemptive history.
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  Jesus is announcing his impending physical departure to
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  inaugurate the Church Age. The Church will soon operate in
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  his physical absence, eagerly awaiting his return.
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  Therefore, this specific moment of physical anointing is unique
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  and unrepeatable. So what does this all mean?
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  It means worship validates mercy, not the other way around.
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  You cannot pit worship against mercy, but you can never allow
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  mercy to displace Christ at the center.
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  Let us direct our conversation to the most shocking revelation
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  Jesus makes in the room, the true reason behind the
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  anointing. He declares in pouring this
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  ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for
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  burial. This ties directly into the Old
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  Testament offices of prophet, priest, and king.
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  Throughout Israel's history, prophets, priests and kings were
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  set apart by anointing with oil. Jesus perfectly fulfills all
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  three offices. He receives a royal anointing in
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  Bethany, but not for a visible earthly throne in Jerusalem.
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  He is a known for a tomb. We need to look at the
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  theological doctrine underpinning this.
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  The source texts heavily reference substitutionary
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  atonement. Specifically pointing to Chapter
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  11 of the Westminster Confession.
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  Right. Jesus is consciously walking
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  into death to fully satisfy divine justice.
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  The cross is not a tragic accident.
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  It is not the unfortunate end of a misunderstood moral teacher
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  who got on the wrong side of the Roman government.
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  It is the deliberate covenantal sacrifice for sin.
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  The body that receives perfume and Bethany will soon receive
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  the scourge, the nails, the spear, the burial wrappings, and
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  the stone tomb. He is the great High Priest,
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  preparing to offer himself as the spotless Lamb to satisfy the
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  holy wrath of the Father. Our sources bring out a really
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  fascinating complementarian observation here.
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  Yeah, the chosen male apostles, the foundational leaders of the
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  early church, were completely spiritually blind in this
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  moment. They were functioning as
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  mouthpieces for worldly economics and pragmatic utility.
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  It is an unnamed woman who possesses true spiritual
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  insight. She intuitively grasps the
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  impending cross and acts with absolute clarity while the men
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  in the room murmur in confusion that.
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  Paradox is entirely consistent with the way God's Providence
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  operates throughout the Gospels. Those expected to understand
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  often fail, while unexpected persons perceive and respond
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  rightly. Her act is beautiful because it
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  is directed to the Christ who is worthy in Himself and who was
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  going knowingly to die for his people.
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  Because of this staggering theological reality, Jesus
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  guarantees her act will never be forgotten.
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  He gives a sovereign promise. Truly, I say to you, wherever
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  this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done
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  will also be told in memory of her.
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  The. Memorial is inseparable from the
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  Gospel. Notice the passive global future
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  tense Jesus uses. He assumes victory beyond the
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  cross, beyond Judas, beyond the tomb.
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  Her act travels with the message of the cross because it models
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  the only sane response to the substitutionary death of Christ.
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  The church remembers her not as a Redeemer, but as a witness to
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  the infinite worth of the Savior.
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  Our sources discuss the application of this text through
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  the lens of the third use of the moral law.
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  For anyone unfamiliar with that term, the third use of the law
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  refers to how a believer, having already been justified by faith
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  alone in Christ alone, uses God's law as a guide for
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  grateful obedience. The application here is a total
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  rejection of cheap religion. Costly obedience does not
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  purchase grace. You cannot buy your way into the
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  Kingdom of Heaven by breaking expensive flasks or giving to
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  the poor. Instead, this extravagant
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  devotion is the joyful, inevitable response to grace
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  already received. It's the response of a
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  regenerate heart that comprehends what it cost the Son
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  of God to secure redemption. I want to turn directly to you
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  with a piercing question drawn straight from the text.
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  What is Christ worth to you in the secret arithmetic of your
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  soul? What alabaster flask are you
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  withholding from the Lord? What precious idol are you
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  refusing to break at his feet because you fear the calculation
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  of the world? If we synthesize the core
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  tension of this passage, we see two entirely different value
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  systems. The world asks how much it can
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  spare for the Lord while safely keeping its comforts and its
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  practical security. True faith asks how much of the
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  Lord it can obtain, regardless of the cost.
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  The world called devotion waste, while Christ calls it beautiful.
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  We started this deep dive talking about the cold,
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  pragmatic formula of a financial appraisal.
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  The disciples tried to appraise the Son of God and determine the
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  return on investment was lacking.
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  The woman threw away the formula entirely.
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  I want to leave you with one final provocative thought to
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  Mull over as we conclude. Did the woman intellectually
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  comprehend the intricate systematic theology of the
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  atonement and burial when she broke the flask?
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  Did she have a perfect grasp of the covenantal sacrifice?
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  Or does true, uncalculated love for Christ intuitively align
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  with God's sovereign timeline, even when our theological
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  understanding is incomplete? Does your own devotion require
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  perfect understanding before you act, or simply a willing
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  surrendered heart? This raises an important
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  question for all of us. True worship often outpaces our
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  systematic frameworks. It truly does.
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  The valuation of Christ in the soul is not about calculated
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  numbers on a spreadsheet. It is about a willing heart
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  breaking its most precious possession for the king.
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  Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.