What You Can

She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. -- Mark 14:8

The story, there in the first few verses of Mark 14, is that a woman with a sordid past came and broke an alabaster container of rare and expensive perfume and used it to anoint the Lord.  Those who witnessed the event criticized her, thinking the costly ointment had been wasted.  If she desired to do good, she could have sold the flask and given the proceeds to those in need.  

Jesus put a stop to their analysis of the woman’s actions and motives by saying she had done a beautiful thing for Him.  The poor, He reminded them, would always be around.  “[W]henever you want, “ He said, “you can do good for them” (v. 7). 

The woman could not make up for all the sins of her life.  She could not put all the things right that had gone wrong.  She could not change the world or save the world.  Perhaps she was wise enough to know that.  Instead of fretting about what she could not do, she did what she could.  I don’t know if she realized that Jesus was about to undergo His Passion, be beaten, humiliated, and murdered by my sins and iniquities upon the Cross.  In fact, I rather doubt that she was such a prophet.   I think she saw that she could express her love for this extraordinary Man, respond to the forgiveness and reconciliation she sensed she was offered in Him, and she did what she could.  

That is all God asks of any of us.  There are so many things I can’t do, but there are a few things I can do.  I ought to do those things without worrying about the rest.  Even when it comes to something like prayer, I’m never going to be one of those people who can spend an hour or two on my knees before daylight every day.  But I can pray -- when and as I can.  I should not neglect prayer or Bible study or acts of kindness just because I can’t do it the way I want, or the way a saint, a monk, or someone of great spiritual power might.  I am not a preacher, but I can tell others what I know, what I have seen, what I believe, when the occasion arises.  I am an introvert and not pushy, but I can respond when questioned.

I don’t have the gift of healing, but I can offer to intercede just the same.  I can’t lay hands on the sick and see them recover, but I can put an arm around a suffering person and share perhaps a little of their burden.  

Whatever it is today, all you have to is what you can.    

Acting Small

She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. -- Mark 14:8

Have you ever had a job that was too much for you?  I find that a lot with projects and things that need to be done.  If I look at the whole of what is required, I wonder how I can possibly finish it all.  I hardly know where to start.   

Life in the modern world is like that.  Maybe it’s not the modern world.  Maybe it’s just life.  Right now, though, it seems we are being overrun by evil at every turn.  We are facing one tidal wave of insanity after another, and we fear being swept away.  We are clinging to the Rock of reality.  How long can we hold on?  What are we to do, and how are we to live?  We stand before the Black Gate surrounded and about to be crushed. 

Jesus was about to go to the Cross.  Hostility, antagonism, and opposition to His ministry were mounting.  The pressure was increasing.  He was on His way to His final confrontation in Jerusalem:  And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head (Mark 14:3). 

She could not save the world.  She could not go to the Cross in His place.  She could not spare Him from the suffering that He would have to endure.  What she could do was break that alabaster flask of oil and use it to express her love for the Lord.  It seems like such a small thing.  All of history turns on the Cross.  Jesus was about to bear the full weight of all humanity’s iniquity.  How could her small sacrifice and effort matter?  It mattered to Jesus.  He saw in her demonstration of devotion the reason for what He was about to endure.

We can’t save everybody.  We can’t heal every wound.  We can’t feed every hungry person.  We can’t rescue every person who is suffering or in peril.  None of us, not even working together in large numbers, can really change the world.      

Every one of us, though, can do something.  There is someone we know who needs love and comfort.  There is someone we can forgive.  There is some ill, however small, that we can remedy.  Let’s stop worrying about all that we can’t do, and do what we can.