Slideshow image

What do you think of spending a lot of money to buy a gift for someone else? I remember talking with a pastor friend of mine once. He described the night he proposed to his future wife. He rented a limousine, took her to the most expensive restaurant in town and then took her to the top of the Calgary Tower. There he proposed to her with an expensive ring he had purchased. I think he said the evening cost him a several thousand dollars. His fiancé really appreciated it at the time. But then he said “If I tried something like that today, she would say save that money for the mortgage.”

We face this tension between extravagant gifts of love and responsible use of money all the time. When is it appropriate to spare no expense? We are in a time now where everyone is pulling back on their spending because of the uncertainty before us. If we spent a large sum of money just to buy a gift for a loved one, many would think it foolish and irresponsible.

So with that in mind, consider this event from Easter week.

Matthew 26:6-13 (ESV)
6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

What a foolish act! The woman wasted the expensive ointment on someone who would be dead in a matter of days. It certainly could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Yet Jesus does not see it that way. He says she has done “a beautiful thing to me.” It like He’s saying, “There is no price too great that you can put on loving me. Love for me is the most important spending of your life – more important than buying a car or a house or a business.” Love of God must replace the love of money.

1 Timothy 6:16-18 says – “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be proud, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”

This crisis has completely exposed the uncertainty of riches. But God’s love remains sure and certain.

“O God, thank you for your steadfast love. Forgive us when we say we love you but live by loving money. We put our hope on uncertain riches way more than you. Please use this time to reshape our hearts to put you in the place of our number one love.”