'A Time for Extravagance' - Matthew 26:6-9

Jesus was in Bethany. He was at the house of Simon the leper. While Jesus was there, a woman came to him. She had an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume. The woman poured this perfume on Jesus' head while Jesus was eating. The followers saw the woman do this and became upset at the woman. The followers asked, "Why waste that perfume? That perfume could be sold for much money and the money could be given to poor people."

—Matthew 26:6-9

Key Thought
Extravagance! We hate it wasted on others; we often find a way to justify it for ourselves. But God is the God of extravagance. Because of his extravagant grace, we have a beautiful and marvelous universe. Because of God's extravagance, we have a wonderful Book full of his truth. Because of God's extravagance, we have a wonderful Savior in Jesus Christ, God's Son. Because of God's extravagance, we have the wonderful promise of an eternity with him in heaven.
While God doesn't want us to be selfishly extravagant on ourselves, he does want us to be generous with others and wants us to be joyously appreciative toward him.
While the disciples were correct that waste is not welcome, they were failing to see the incredible worthiness of their Master—that he is worthy of their most extravagant gifts because of the incredibly extravagant gift he was about to give them.
The real question for us today is, what have we done, sacrificed, or offered as our appreciation for God's awesome and extravagant gift to us in Jesus?

Today's Prayer
Holy and sacrificial Father, I have no way of truly understanding your gift of Jesus and what it cost you. Your extravagant sacrifice has saved me, redeemed me, pardoned me, and delivered me from death and given me the promise of life with you in heaven. How can I ever thank you? What gift could I give you to show my thanks and appreciation? I know of nothing that I can give you worthy of your sacrifice, so I will give you what I can. Today I give you my heart and will seek to live my life today, and each from this day forward, alive in the joy of your salvation and living to your glory. In Jesus' matchless name I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context
After Jesus finished saying all these things, he said to his followers, "You know that the day after tomorrow is Passover. On that day the Son of Man will be given {to his enemies} to be killed on a cross." Then the leading priests and the older Jewish leaders had a meeting at the palace where the high priest lived. The high priest's name was Caiaphas. In the meeting, they tried to find a way to arrest Jesus without the people seeing it. They planned to arrest Jesus and kill him. The men in the meeting said, "We cannot arrest Jesus during Passover. We don't want the people to become angry and cause a riot." Jesus was in Bethany. He was at the house of Simon the leper. While Jesus was there, a woman came to him. She had an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume. The woman poured this perfume on Jesus' head while Jesus was eating. The followers saw the woman do this and became upset at the woman. The followers asked, "Why waste that perfume? That perfume could be sold for much money and the money could be given to poor people." But Jesus knew what happened. Jesus said, "Why are you troubling this woman? She did a very good thing for me. You will always have poor people with you. But you will not always have me. This woman poured perfume on my body. She did this to prepare me for burial after I die. I tell you the truth. The Good News will be told to people in all the world. And in every place where the Good News is told, the story of what this woman did will also be told. And people will remember her." Then one of the twelve followers went to talk to the leading priests. This was the follower named Judas Iscariot. Judas said, "I will give you Jesus. What will you pay me for doing this?" The priests gave Judas 30 silver coins. After that time Judas waited for the best time to give Jesus to the priests.Matthew 26:1-16

Related Scripture Readings
God is the One who gives seed to the person who plants. And he gives bread for food. And God will give you {spiritual} seed and make your seed grow. He will make a great harvest from your goodness (giving). God will make you rich in every way so that you can always give freely. And your giving through us will make people give thanks to God. This service that you do helps the needs of God's people. But that is not all your service does. It is also bringing more and more thanks to God. This service you do is a proof {of your faith}. People will praise God because of this. They will praise God because you follow the gospel of Christ—the gospel you say you believe. People will praise God because you freely share with them and with all people. And when those people pray, they will wish they could be with you. They will feel this because of the great grace (kindness) that God gave you. Thanks be to God for his gift that is too wonderful to explain. — 2 Corinthians 9:10-15

But the Spirit gives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law that can say these things are wrong. — Galatians 5:22-23

Those non-believers think that it is strange that you don't do the many wild and wasteful things that they do. And so they say bad things about you. But those people will have to explain about the things they have done. They will have to explain to the One (Christ) who is ready to judge the people who are living and the people who have died. — 1 Peter 4:4-5

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