I have been intrigued all week by a passage found in Matthew 26:1-8 (NIV). The setting and the people involved provide a Kingdom insight as to the response and the reaction of various people types when truth is injected into our atmosphere.
The people: Jesus the Christ, the truth teller; his disciples, the called out ones; the religious leaders of that day and a woman, the common folk for whom Christ died.
Jesus, simply comments to his disciples about his pending fate: “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” No record of drama is implied around the response of the disciples, though I am sure they were still resisting this as a reality. My question: how could such an elect group, who sat in the presence of the Very God, appear so aloof during this intense Kingdom moment?
The second caveat is occurring in the palace of the high priest (apparently the prosperity doctrine was alive in that time as well) where the religious leaders had gathered to plot against Him. My guess is that the truth that Jesus spoke, so penetrated the spiritual realm, that it had incited the malicious hearts of these cowardice leaders, who were cautious not to take Him during the Feast, lest there “be a riot among the people.”
The interesting thing with these “leaders” is the blindness possible among those so indoctrinated in the law and the prophets? As well, the power of God to insure the accuracy of the very providence resisted by them, that Christ would die as the Passover Lamb! Yet their malicious intent continues to cloud any personal revelation of the many prophecies previoulsy studied. This should shout caution to our seminaries!
Then the woman enters this New Testament picture, painted by Matthew long after Calvary, though now fresh with the insight and the power provided through the post Pentecost presence of Christ in Him!
This woman is responding to the truth that the elect had missed, and the religious fumed over. She pours out her life savings, her alabaster box of expensive perfume, lavishing her Lord and God.
The disciples, still stuck in the throes of making life work around this new minister they were following, are indignant about her waste.
What a snapshot of life on this planet! When prophetic Kingdom truth is released, it seems at times to extract the least energy from those who are the most privileged, the called out ones; while it incites the demonic works among the religious as they recoil at the very truth they pored over as a student. Yet the hearts of those hungry for the gospel, most pure in their intent, continue to respond to the Christ and His truth marches on!
Meanwhile the churches and the entrepreneurs that keep them afloat, even when the Spirit is calling elsewhere, miss the wonder that only hungry hearers can enjoy!