“I am the
LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept
you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations.” (Isaiah
42:6)
As Lent
gradually draws to a close, we are presented with the very significant events
of the last moments our Lord Jesus spent on earth. A few days ago, we read
about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Jesus, who loved Lazarus as well as
his sisters, Mary and Martha stayed behind when he was told of Lazarus’
illness. Jesus allowed a dear friend to die because He had a plan; a plan that
would eventually bring glory to God.
Mary and
Martha must have felt betrayed when Lazarus died and Jesus failed to show up
but in the end, they realized that God is like a loving mother who sometimes
gives us bitter medicine to heal us. Today, Jesus was again in Bethany to
celebrate what we would call ‘Thanksgiving.’ A great miracle had just happened,
Lazarus is back to life. People come from all over the place to eat and drink
to the new life of Lazarus.
Amongst
this crowd were those who heard but wanted to see for themselves if it is true
that Lazarus is alive again. In any celebration or gathering, there would
always be different kinds of people, some who are genuinely happy with you and
some who are wishing things were bad for you. There would be some who come just
to eat and drink and some who come to transact business. There would be some
who come to make new friends and some who come with very evil intention; to
kill and destroy.
As her
thanksgiving and to express her love, Mary brought out a pound of costly
ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus wiping his feet with her
hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. Is anything
too much to offer to God? In giving thanks, we should not forget that God owns
everything in this world and He cares more about the content of our heart than
the content of our offering. God loves a “cheerful” giver not necessarily an “expensive”
giver.
The
business-minded Judas Iscariot felt Mary was wasting the oil. He protested the
thanksgiving not because he cared for the poor but because as John puts it: “he
was a thief.” We are not who we say we are, we are what we do. To those who
heard him, Judas was a philanthropist, a love of the poor but in reality, he was
just a thief. Greed makes us place money above God and when money becomes more
important to us than God, we are ready to disobey God (and even sell God)
because of money.
The chief priests
who were at the Thanksgiving party started plotting on how to kill Lazarus
because, on account of him, Jesus was gaining more followers. This is what
hatred does to us; it prevents us from thinking straight. Once we hate, we are
ready to do anything to bring people down. They were supposed to be priests
(holy people) yet they were plotting to kill someone who had just been raised from
the dead just to get at Jesus.
The same
thing happens in business, in academics, in politics, in all walks of life.
When we see others doing better than ourselves, instead of us to look inwards
and try to correct our faults, we start plotting how to bring that person down.
It is such a sad world.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, teach me to be content, to love and to appreciate those I consider
to be better than me. As Isaiah says, may I be a light to the nations, not a hypocrite.
Amen.
Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Monday of Holy
Week. Bible Study: Isaiah 42:1-7,
Psalm 27 and John 12:1-11)
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