What kind of love is this
That gave itself for me
I am the guilty one
Yet I go free
What kind of love is this
A love I’ve never known
I didn’t even know His name
What kind of love is this

(Music and Lyric by Bryn and Sally Hayworth)

Her teenager had lost her way in a world that drew her into self-medicating and self-satisfying.  She was all about self.  She demanded control and thought she could take on the world all by herself.  Her mom loved her dearly and told her daily.  She wanted God’s best for her child.  But all the love and help she offered to her daughter was met with eyerolls, sarcastic put downs or ignored altogether.  The daughter left home one day with a few bucks in her pocket.  She was not heard from by your family for a couple of years.  But her mom never stopped praying for her girl.  She prayed for her daily, asking God to protect her. 

Eventually the teen came to the end of her resources, the end of what she could do to save herself.  She had sold herself to others so many times she was now ragged, tired, and without hope.  She wondered if her mom even remembered her.  She finally borrowed a phone and called her mom.  The mom heard weeping before the voice of her lost daughter said, “Mom, I’m sorry. Do you still love me?” and “Can I come home?”  The mom didn’t tell her what she would have to do, how she would have to clean up her act, or what rules must be followed.  The mom simply said, “There is nothing that you will ever do that will stop me from loving you, come home.”

Revolutionary Love.

What kind of man is this
Who died in agony
He who had done no wrong
Was crucified for me
What kind of man is this
Who laid aside His throne
That I might know the love of God
What kind of man is this

Matthew 26, The Message

Anointed for Burial

^1-2 When Jesus finished saying these things, he told his disciples, “You know that Passover comes in two days. That’s when the Son of Man will be betrayed and handed over for crucifixion.”

^3-5 At that very moment, the party of high priests and religious leaders was meeting in the chambers of the Chief Priest named Caiaphas, conspiring to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. “We don’t want a riot on our hands,” they said.

^6-9 When Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him as he was eating dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. When the disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. “That’s criminal! This could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor.”

^10-13 When Jesus realized what was going on, he intervened. “Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives, but not me. When she poured this perfume on my body, what she really did was anoint me for burial. You can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she has just done is going to be remembered and admired.”

^14-16 That is when one of the Twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the cabal of high priests and said, “What will you give me if I hand him over to you?” They settled on thirty silver pieces. He began looking for just the right moment to hand him over.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We know that Jesus came to earth to demonstrate the revolutionary love of God fully and completely.  This love is revolutionary because it changes the way mankind thinks about love that is without conditions or condemnation.  This love is so revolutionary that many do not accept it or understand it, feeling the need to work for it—but most people want it.  The woman who came to Jesus to anoint his feet with her expensive perfume oil understood this love enough to sacrifice what she had in an offering to Jesus.  This special oil was probably purchased and saved on the shelf in her home for her own burial.  This was the custom in that day, a “burial policy,” if you will.  Her only thought was wanting to give of her best for her Master, the One she loved greatly because He loved her first in a way she had never known. 

Jesus, who knew her heart, understood her motive to love Him back in this way and allowed her to anoint Him.  Imagine the scene.  She would have had to break the seal of preservation and spill out this precious, perfumed oil used in embalming practices, knowing that once it was broken and spilled out, it could not be put back.  What kind of love is this?  Revolutionary!

Judas, the treasurer of the group, along with the other disciples surely did not “read the room!”  They only thought about the price of the perfume—not the sacrificial love bestowed on the One who would soon sacrifice His body for their sins—our sins—all the sins of the world because of His sacrificial love.  We will read and meditate on more acts of Jesus’ revolutionary love as recorded in Matthew.  Jesus will soon demonstrate, even to Judas, just how revolutionary His love is.  But for now…

“There is nothing that you will ever do that will stop me from loving you, come home.”

By faith I have been saved
It is the gift of God
He destined me to be His own
Such is His love
No eye has ever seen
No ear has ever heard
Nor has the heart of men conceived
What kind of love is this…

Lord,

Thank you for your sacrifice, and most of all, for your love that held you to the cross for my sins. Help me to love without conditions like you love me.  I love you with all that is in me.

In Jesus Name, Amen