Scripture

Matthew 26:6-10, 12 NIV

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.…When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.”

Consider

This lovely story of a woman’s adoring act appears in the midst of an ugly conspiracy to secretly arrest and murder Jesus. The woman picks her way through a room full of men having supper and bravely approaches the notorious rabbi. Then she astonishes everyone with an outrageous demonstration of devotion. We can’t know if she’s guessed that Jesus will soon die a criminal’s death that would deny him the customary burial anointing, but Jesus accepts her ministrations in that spirit. Indeed, Jesus seems the only person in the room who recognizes the beauty and spiritual depth of her act.

In stark contrast, the disciples witness her extravagance with indignation and mockery. They scold her for squandering her valuable resource on a meaningless gesture. What they see as a shameful waste, however, Jesus calls a beautiful thing. The price of the perfume itself means little to him. Jesus accepts her gift of love and honors her desire to draw close to him in the only way she knows how. He understands, as the disciples do not, that soon he, too, will walk a path of mockery and humiliation toward a sacrifice that many will misunderstand and consider wasteful. Her gesture of devotion joins her with Jesus in God’s own extravagant and misunderstood intention to save and heal a broken world.

Our forgiving one another can also be seen as extravagant and quite often misunderstood. Although some might receive your forgiveness with gratitude, others may dismiss it with contempt. Your forgiving act may be taken as an insult—What do you mean, you forgive me? What makes you so superior? Or your decision to forgive may feel like betrayal to those who are invested in seeing justice done and cannot understand why you would “waste” your advantage on a “meaningless gesture.” You may be viewed as naïve, cowardly, or weak. You may even be accused of betraying your own injured self.

In the best case, your forgiveness will be understood as a precious gift that can soothe the forgiven person’s heart and move him or her toward you and possibly toward God. Regardless of how others react, God will always value your forgiveness as a beautiful thing because it is an act that joins you spiritually to One who desires to forgive and restore what is broken in you and in those around you.

Pray

Heavenly Father, teach me the beauty of forgiveness and the wisdom of looking to You instead of to others for personal affirmation. I ask for courage to forgive a debt and release my right to justice, even when my intentions are misunderstood and others think me foolish. Grant me the joy of your approval and accept me as a partner in your great work of bringing peace and healing to our hurting world.

Reflect

John 12:42-43; Ephesians 2:10

Ponder

When has my offer of forgiveness been rejected or misunderstood?