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“…bought spices
so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body…” Mark 15:1
All of us love to serve God and want to be used by God. At times
we make plans on how exactly we are going to serve God because
we sense a need in the body of Christ. Over the years, I have
also “sensed” a “need” and made appropriate plans only to find
out that my view of the “need” was not really a need. Maybe you
are making plans to serve God in some particular because you see
a “need” in the body of Christ. What if you were to find out
later on that those plans availed nothing? It can be quite
disappointing.
We read of one such instance in the bible. Mark 15: 47 says,
“Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where He was
laid.” Two women saw where the body of Christ was laid for
burial. The Amplified Bible puts it this way: “they were
attentively observing where He was laid.” The next verse, Mark
16:1 says, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the
mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go
to anoint Jesus' body.” A few women attentively observed where
the body of Christ was laid, and they “sensed” that there was a
“need” to anoint the body of Christ. So after Sabbath was over,
they bought spices and came to execute their “service” based on
their understanding of the “need.”
When they came to the tomb, they found out that Jesus had risen
from the dead and He wasn’t there! What were they going to do
with all those spices they bought? I wonder how much it cost
them to buy those spices. I wonder who took the trouble of
carrying those spices all the way to the tomb. Maybe they shared
the load. They had bought the spices on the previous day, so the
spices had to be stored overnight at someone’s house. Let us
suppose it was at Salome’s house. I wonder if anyone at home
would have asked her what she intended to do with those spices.
I am sure she would have told them about the “service” she and
her friends were going to do the next day. I wonder if they had
discussed between them on how they were going to anoint his
body. “You do the hands, I’ll do the legs.” Maybe. Maybe not.
Anyway, what’s the use? At least if Jesus had been there they
could have showed Him the spices to let Him know how much they
loved Him. What a waste. A waste of time. A waste of money. A
waste of…
A few days earlier a sinful woman in the house of Simon the
leper had broke open an alabaster jar full of expensive perfume
and poured it on Jesus. In response to this act, Jesus says in
Mark 14:8: “She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare
for my burial.” Note the word “beforehand” The need of the body
of Christ to be anointed for burial was already taken care of
“beforehand!” Well you would say, if only those 3 women knew! It
is not fair! It is out of their love for Jesus that they planned
all this. Now all those plans have gone down the drain! How sad!
I have been there many times and the disappointment hardly lasts
long. Why do I say that? Because they received a revelation of
Christ that no one else had. Nobody else knew that Jesus had
risen from the dead! These 3 were the first ones to receive that
revelation. Not only that, they were also entrusted with
preaching the news of the resurrection to the Apostles of the
New Testament church! Can you imagine that? Mark 16: 7 “But go,
tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into
Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'” WOW! The
service they had planned to do was to anoint the body. However,
an angel from heaven ordained them to the service of preaching
the news of the resurrection to Peter & Co. Who cares about the
spices now? :) A new revelation! A new ministry!
Sometimes the reason our eyes see a version of the “need” is so
that we will get to the place where we can be entrusted with a
greater ministry. If those three women did not act upon their
“sense” of the “need,” they would have never got to the tomb.
i.e. the place where they received a new revelation and a new
commission. Never be disappointed when plans regarding service
go wrong. It is often the place where a new revelation is born
and a new commission is given. Never sulk about the price you
paid for the spices. How much did those spices cost? I don’t
know. But I do know the resurrection gospel is far more precious
than that.
Having said all this, I get reminded of the story of a little
boy whose name was David. His plan of service was to go and give
food to his brothers. He found his brothers weren’t where they
were supposed to be. His plans went wrong. He wasn’t
disappointed though. He continued to search for his brothers and
eventually found them. It turned out that his brothers were
angry with him for being there. How rude! David had taken the
trouble to come all the way there to give them food. However he
did meet a man THERE called Goliath. The rest, as they say, is
history.
Read Mark 15:42-16:7 |
