Any
who have gazed or been heartened by the warmth of peace that flows via Holy
Spirit life will no doubt sit amazed at spirit life’s dichotomy to normal life.
Spirit
life is usually the opposite to our default, it is the enigma to our control,
it is the frustration fear and terror to any way of life we have known. Natural
persons crave it, the rich play with it, the poor reflect on it. All touch it
some become it.
Holy
Spirit life is the most peaceful and beautiful state of being that any can
glimpse into or glance off. In glancing off so many strive to add it to the
comfort or control of what they have attained. Perhaps to bring understanding
to this we see verse and passages in the bible that are beyond our capability
to grasp and one such passage is in the beginning of John 12.
[Jhn
12:1-5 NIV] 1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where
Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given
in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the
table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive
perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the
house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples,
Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 "Why wasn't this
perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's
wages."
A
few parts to note.
- Worth a year’s wages
- Poured on feet.
- Wiped with hair.
We
can see a beautiful picture of a prelude to Holy Spirit life and do well to
note Mary poured out perfume worth a year’s wages. So let’s say it this way.
Mary poured a bottle of rare perfume worth a minimum of $60k in our world on
the feet of a man. Then to add natural stupidity to it she wiped His feet with
her hair. Feet that walked dusty street. The religious want to get all fluffy
about this passage and say it’s because it was Jesus. Realistically what a
beautiful demonstration of Holy Spirit life a life that is no respecter of
persons.
In
spirit life there is no value, there is no concern for today or tomorrow there
is only peace and that peace is not derived from financial security (if there
is such a thing). But we can see the two paths of life so simply in this
passage. Judas who took the natural way saw the needs, saw the value and failed
to see the life. To him as to all natural or religious they see money and value
of the temporal.
Spirit
does not see or has no value in anything of this world. It lives a quality of
life not comprehendible to a Judas. To Judas he was lost in the temporal. Mary
was living the eternal of her gift and what flowed from her spirit. An
interesting side note. Judas, like most today strived for things. He was the
one who kept the money for Jesus and ultimately sold Jesus for 30 pieces of
silver. Yet here he was envious of the waste. Yet a simple humble spirited
woman, one the world would call simple or silly had a crazy expensive perfume
and she tipped it out. Amazing to me! And a beautiful expression of spirit
life.
Yes
she was appreciative of Jesus but if you want to take that line Mary would have
been better selling the perfume with Judas and ministering to the needs of
Jesus financially. After all Jesus was homeless and needed woman to take care
of Him. Jesus lived beyond the chains of the temporal and beckons for us to
have the same pleasure.
Funny
thing I see myself in Judas more than Mary. My brain would fight my spirit on
this one. I would like to waste $60k on the feet of someone I love. But
realistically my natural would be to sell the fragrance and take them to lunch.
Maybe pay a few of their bills, you know something that would make me feel like
I was a good guy in Spirit. I would wrestle with the humbleness to clean feet
with my hair. Yes I could possibly talk my religious old part into this
scenario but when I have to think about it all it would reveal is I don’t get
it. In reality Mary was lost in something I see and are aware of, it is life,
true spirit abandoned life. A romantic flow of energy and creativity that is
never ending, limitless, full of ingenuity, originality and passion. The purity
of who a Spirit person is can be no less that amazing. No care for anything,
not by conscious choice but by abandonment to their co-joined gift.