Let Us Fully Worship the Lord with Reckless Abandon as Mary Did

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

John 12:1-8

In this passage Mary poured a valuable perfume over Jesus’ head, feet and hands in an act of worship.

Judas full of fear criticised her and told her off as it perhaps wasn’t the most practical for her to pour out all of this valuable perfume when they were getting by day to day with very little money.

But Mary recklessly abandoned her needs to fully worship and honour Jesus. She trusted that God would provide and all that mattered in that moment was that she needed to completely and fully worship Jesus.

Jesus responding to Judas recognises her sacrifice and encourages it.

This interaction is a bit of a foreshadowing for the ultimate sacrifice to come and responses of doubt and fear that takes place.

Mary’s example of reckless abandon is something we can all grow in. We can choose to make sacrifices to honour God trusting He will look after our every need. It’s tough – so tough but Jesus never said it would be easy but He promised to be with us.

Jesus came that we may have life to the full despite our flaws and constant sin and not only that but that we may have eternal life with Him!

Sometimes I think we get too used to hearing that and not take it in, but we ought to choose to worship fully, constantly and with reckless abandon!

In moments of praise and worship we can choose to leave our worries and agenda at the door and concentrate on worshipping our Saviour. 

We can choose to make our day to day tasks acts of worship. 

Let’s choose to be proactive and bold to seek God’s grace to choose reckless abandon. 

This reflection was first published in The Lovely Commission, at https://www.kairos-eme.org/tlc.

See other Scripture Reflections from The Lovely Commission: 

• See, I am doing a new thing! –  Isaiah 43:16-21, by Pearl Mathias
• Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy – Psalm 126, by Anna Weber
• All Creation Yearns for Harmony with Its Creator, by Eilidh Graham
• Let Us Fully Worship the Lord with Reckless Abandon as Mary Did, by Hannah Clarke

Top image: Mary anoints the feet of Jesus, watercolor by James Tissot (French, 1836-1902), from the Brooklyn Museum collection On the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Tissot. Image in the public domain.