August 28th

August 28th -- John 12:1-11

Please go and read the passage!

Okay... so I really don't have much to say on this passage, because it was short and just a telling of events, really.
I do want to comment, though, about the perfume on Jesus' feet and Judas' comment on it. I find it fascinating that Judas points it out, but also fascinating that in this moment, we see Judas, who is so often hated/disliked by Christians for being the betrayer of Jesus, showing one of the most common traits among all people. He was being selfish. Self-absorbed. Self-concerned. Call it what you want, he was prioritizing himself over the others. How? He thought the perfume should have been sold because all the money would have gone into the money box, which he kept, and had been stealing from, apparently. The fact those wages went to perfume and not to somewhere he could have stolen some of them bothered him. (More about his stealing of the money and that being the reason for his reaction to the perfume can be found here) In that moment, instead of seeing the beauty of the act Mary was doing, he was concerned only with himself and what he felt he lost for it. We do that so often. Instead of being happy for what someone else has gained, even where we may have lost something, we gripe about what we lost and refuse to see any other side of things. I just wanted to point this out so we recognize two things. 1) We are just as human as Judas Iscariot and Judas Iscariot is just was human as we are. 2) We need to be less self-concerned and selfish all the time and allow ourselves to see all the sides of things and be happy for others instead of wallowing in self-pity.

Just think on it a bit! God bless! Shalom!