Thursday, July 17, 2014

In Her Memory


When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.” Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. Matthew 26:1-16 

In Her Memory

No one paid her any attention
she had no resume, no elevator speech
her hands were rough, nails jagged
just another hard luck story.

His disciples had seen it all
one needy and broken person after another
too much need and never enough cash
all wanting more than they deserved.


They did not know her name
nor do we so long afterwards
and yet her actions with her alabaster jar
changed the world forever.

The one who all denied and rejected
woman, poor and set aside
became the bearer of the Gospel
the singer of the love song of God.

Her tears and compassion
set the tone and scale for all we do
offering her all to the honor of God
her memory is carried on in acts of love.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, after all the perfume should have sold and the money given to the needy. Or maybe it's all right that your eternal salvation has been made to be contingent upon a slighting of the poor?