Matthew 26:13

Matthew 26:13

There can be no question but that in this action of Mary there was something deeply symbolical. I am not going to say that Mary meant it to be so. There may often be far more in our own actions than we imagine. Perhaps, though, her ardent love led her to do just the right thing at the right moment, and that is the highest wisdom. The act of Mary suggested to the mind of Christ the greater act He was about to perform; and in that pure offering of Mary's love He saw symbolised the greater offering He was about to make, prompted by a love infinitely deeper than hers. He saw the broken alabaster box; He noted the flowing ointment; He smelt the sweet savour that filled all the house, and He said, "This Gospel the Gospel that is in figure here this Gospel, wherever it is preached, shall be linked with Mary's action, for there is a spiritual affinity between the two."

Note:

I. The woman's sublime devotion; and she may serve as a model to all God's children in one or two respects. (1) She was completely under the sway of devoted love to Christ's Person. If you read the record you will see how Christ distinguished, all the way through, her personal attachment to Him. "She hath done a good work unto Me." In the mind of Christ devotion is the chiefest of Christian virtues. (2) Her devotion was both original and fearless. The disciples had only one idea for doing good. Charity was their hobby, and so the moment they saw Mary pouring out this ointment upon Christ, they began to count up the cost, and said, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" They were spiritually stereotyped in their mode of action. Love must always be original. Let a person only love, and he becomes a genius in manifesting it. (3) This manifestation was magnificent. The woman did not think simply how little she could give and yet maintain her character. It was, "What does my heart prompt?" Let us ask our souls this question, "My heart, hast thou ever done a magnificent thing for Christ? Hast thou ever known what it is to be, in the judgment of the world, extravagant for Him?

II. Christ's chivalrous championship of this woman. In espousing her cause He was espousing His own. Note the resemblance that exists between this woman's action and our Lord's action in a few hours after the incident the resemblance that leads Him to say, "This Gospel." There is a resemblance: (1) In the motive; Christ knew that it was pure love which prompted this gift of consecration. He saw in this a symbol of the motive power of His own action. (2) Mary's work resembled His in its self-devotion. In the broken alabaster box He saw His own offering unto death, and therefore said, "Wheresoever this Gospelis preached."

A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit,No. 1,085.

Christ anointed for His Burial.

I. There can be no doubt that the majority of Christians, if they candidly gave utterance to their sentiments, would express surprise at the high honour promised to Mary for so slight a service. What she did was unnecessary; it was of no utility; it could be in itself of no value to our Blessed Lord. If disproportion exist between the service of Mary in anointing Him, and His commendation, the whole passage of Scripture must remain obscure. But is there such disproportion? We are prepared to argue that there is not; that light and trivial as the action seems of her so blessed, it contained in it enough to merit the gracious promise of remembrance which Christ enunciated. What is our ideal of a religious character? Is it not that a man should be uniformly upright, sober, just, and regular in his habits? The result is, that the temper of our religion is the reverse of enthusiastic. And from our national prejudices it arises that such narratives as that in which the text occurs, seem strange and hard to understand. The conduct of the woman who anointed our Lord was the result of an overflowing love, which mastered all her powers to suppress. He who measures every act of His creatures, not by its intrinsic value, but as it has Himself for its source, its object and its end, may, and it would seem does, rate the offering of the heart's deep love higher than all. It may have been to teach us this, that in the days of His sojourn below the Eternal Son bestowed praise so high upon Mary's simple act of love, and promised that wherever His Gospel should be preached that thing which she had done should be told for a memorial of her.

II. The woman in the text offers also an illustrious example of implicit faith. It is probable that she, like the disciples, had heard the Redeemer speak of His death. On the very day upon which the feast in the abode of Simon the leper took place, He had said to them, "Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified." He made mention of His death, and her mind travelled at once to His entombment. She took the precious ointment, and anticipating in her love and faith those sorrowing women who, a few days later, came early to the sepulchre, she brake the box and poured it upon His head. She who anointed Him for His burial was the first who signified her assent to the mystery of His death, with a love that could not be restrained, and a faith that nothing could withstand.

J. R. Woodford, Occasional Sermons,p. 84.

References: Matthew 26:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 286; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., pp. 331, 333; W. M. Taylor, Three Hundred Outlines from the New Testament,p. 28. Matthew 26:14. C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons chiefly Practical,p. 115.Matthew 26:14. Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 272.Matthew 26:14. Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. iii., p. 204.Matthew 26:20. F. W. Brown, Christian WorldPulpit,vol. xiii., p. 58. Matthew 26:20. J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories,p. 74.Matthew 24:20. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 371.