"Value"

"And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?" Mark 14:3,4

A couple of days ago I gave this definition of value: "The value of something is determined by the price that one is willing to pay for it." In the account above this woman took her greatest possession and poured it out on Jesus. She did so completely and without reservation. She held nothing back. This bottle represented her future, her security, her wages, a lot of hard work, her savings, it was basically all she had. Yet she freely gave it up on Jesus. From our estimation, based on the definition of value as stated above, this woman highly valued Jesus- He was worth everything.

In this same account we see another group of people- the ones who sat by and watched as this woman poured out her best and all she had on Jesus. They didn't pour anything out on Him- they gave Him no gift, they laid nothing at His feet, they were there empty handed. All they had was criticism for what she did. Based, again, on this same definition of value, we can conclude not only by the fact that they gave Jesus nothing but by their remarks that they considered Him "valueless". They called what she did a "waste". They considered it a waste to pour such costly and precious ointment on Jesus. To say it was a waste to pour it on Jesus was saying that He was of no value- the only way you waste something is if you use it on something that has no value.

There were two groups of people represented in the verses above- those who value Jesus and those who don't. Which group are you in? Is He worth everything you have? Do you give Him your best, a little, the leftovers or just enough to get by? Do you consider it a waste of time to spend time in prayer and reading His word? Do you consider it a waste to support the work of His Kingdom with your time, money or talents? If so, then you are saying that He has no value, or very little. The other day I also said that He placed a high value on you because He gave up all He had for you- His life. There is no question about how highly He values you, the question is, "How highly do you value Him?".

Have a great day. How valuable Jesus is to you is determined by what you are willing to give to Him.

For further reading:
1 Corinthians 6:20
John 12:1-5

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Coffee Break is a morning devotional written by Lorraine Ezell
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