Turning a Good Thing Into A Bad Thing

Have you ever turned a good thing into a bad thing? Someone sends some money to help feed families in Africa, and you're upset because there are starving children in America. Someone buys another person's meal, and you think that money could be better used. Perhaps you've been the victim of that kind of talk. You did good for one person, why not that person? You can't do good for anyone any more because everyone is a critic. I know people are reading this thinking "Jeff, aren't you a critic?" Yes. Yes I am... The good news is, us critics are in good company, but we're told to stop doing that. 

In Mark 14, a woman anoints Jesus with "nard" from an alabaster flask.

Alabaster is a soft, carvable rock that resembles marble and was expensive to own, but worst of all, it could only be used once because it required the top to be broken off to pour, but that isn't the expensive thing mentioned here.

The "nard" or spikenard is basically an essential oil that is derived from a flowering plant in the Himalayas. To acquire this oil, someone had to hike the Himalayas, bring back part of the plant, press it, bottle it, then transport the oil from India to Jerusalem. It was known for a pungent smell that would cover up  body odor because it wasn't nearly as easy to get a bath in Ancient Jerusalem. The Apostles tell us that it would have sold for over 300 denarii, 1 denarius being a day's wage for a laborer. That translates to about $20,000.

Jesus is often accused of hanging out with "tax collectors and sinners," but we often fail to appreciate how rough the crowd was. The owners of this nard were often prostitutes. They used it to lure their customers in with pleasant aromas. Mark does not say this woman was a prostitute, but it is possible. We do know from her mere possession of this oil that she was wealthy. 

The Apostles are indignant! They complain that the oil could have been sold and given to the poor! To waste it was absurd to them. Arguably, they were right! But Jesus' answer is that this woman had done a good thing. She honored her Lord. She pre-prepared him for burial. He tells them to leave her alone. 

So, when we look around and see others doing good things, but we have our own opinions about how they could have made it better, maybe we should take a step back and think about them. Surely, and we must give them the benefit of the doubt, their intentions were good. Why judge them? Leave them alone, or better yet, lift them up! If you're the victim of judgment, be confident that as long as you were doing good, you have nothing to be ashamed of.