What We Call "Wasted"
Day 27 of our Madrid lockdown.
Over the last few days of this Semana Santa (Holy Week), I’ve been reading and reflecting on Jesus’ final week before the cross. And I found myself thinking about when Jesus was anointed with burial oils in Bethany. (Years ago I preached a message on this story, and the worst thing about being a preacher is that your own sermons come back to convict you.)
This story is told in all four gospels, albeit from slightly different perspectives (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:1-9, Luke 7:36-48, John 12:1-8).
Because of her great love for Jesus, a woman anoints Him with expensive burial ointment, most likely in the final week of His life. Details differ in each version, but what they all pretty much agree on is this: the disciples’ immediate reaction was to call this gesture a WASTE. A waste of money. A waste of perfume. A waste of an action. And Jesus redeems the gesture by saying that this story will always be referenced because of her great love for Him.
In the sermon I preached years ago I referenced this redemptive nature of God. We’re so quick to call “waste” what God is *still redeeming.* For example, the Bible is very clear about redeeming TIME. And time is one of the things that we cannot really understand. I mean, most of us would refer to the past month as wasted time. We’ve been in our homes under quarantine. I’m a missionary, but I can’t even leave the house. It feels like a waste to me.
Think about the silent Saturday between the Friday cross and the Sunday resurrection.
Surely the disciples thought that Jesus had lived a “wasted life” because it didn’t turn out as they believed it would. Maybe they even thought that they had wasted the previous three years following Him.
They could not see how God could redeem such a horrible death, yet we know that his death had a far greater redemptive purpose that they could ever have imagined. So when we’re tempted to look at this quarantine as wasted time, what we cannot see is all the ways that God is redeeming it for His greater purposes.
People have come to Christ during this crisis—here in Madrid and around the world; He’s redeemed souls!
Many have reconnected with family and friends; He’s redeemed relationships!
God has answered years worth of my prayers during these past 27 days, and I believe we will STILL see the redemptive purpose of God manifested for a long time to come because of this forced time to stop everything else—all the distractions and busyness of life—to spend more time with HIM and more time with each other.
Perhaps you can testify of how God has redeemed things in your life during this quarantine, and I’d LOVE to hear about them! Comment or message me how God has redeemed this “waste” in some way for you or your family.