“While He was in Bethany, realigning at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.” (Mark 14:3 NIV)
The love of Jesus transforms us, and thus transforms all we say and do. This woman (the gospel of John identifies her as Mary, the sister of Lazarus) had fallen in love with Jesus and thus poured out everything she possessed in His honor, without regard for the cost of her worship or the eyes upon her.
I still remember falling in love with Jesus. It was just after we had moved to San Antonio in 2010. I’d finally fully committed to daily time in the Word a few years prior. I’d recently been filled with the Holy Spirit after fourteen years of pursuit. My life was being transformed from the inside out. And one morning in early June, I was in the produce aisle at HEB ,when I found myself humming happily. It was the joy I had in the most mundane of tasks that caught my attention that day. Amidst the apples and oranges; I suddenly realized I was a woman in love. I literally laughed out loud at the epiphany. Jesus had totally enthralled my heart. He had ruined me for life apart from Him. And truly, I have never fallen out of love since.
Love has consequences. I live my life by a different set of values these days. I ask myself questions: will the delight Him? Is this in keeping with the plans He’s making? How might I include Him in the day-to-day?
My love for Christ has altered other relationships, too. My poor husband was demoted immediately. He had to learn to live as Second instead of First. Eventually, he discovered that a wife smitten with Jesus meant a better life for him. My kids have had to adjust, as well. My incessant talk and teaching of Jesus, may have annoyed them initially, but eventually they, too, decided that a Mom given over to God was better than the Momster they had endured before. My allegiance to Jesus has cost some friendships and offended some family members; the intensity is too much for some. But that’s ok, the most wonderful connections on earth could not offer me what Jesus gives freely.
Falling in love with Jesus has been the most transformative endeavor of my life: more than learning to read or write or setting foot in another country or even getting married. Loving Jesus has sent me on a journey of healing and wholeness and love for others that could not have happened by any other means.
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with seizes your imagination, will effect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how your spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” (Pedro Arrupe)
This reality of falling in love with Jesus makes martyrdom sensical. Suffering for an ideology is one thing, but laying your life down for the One you love: that is wholly understandable. Jesus points us toward this type of all-encompassing love when He gives us the Greatest Commandment.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30 NIV)
The Greatest Commandment is our highest priority and it is exactly the kind of love Jesus demonstrated. The love He had for the Father prioritized God’s will above self-preservation. And because God is good: it is safe to love Him with such surrender. He can be trusted with our complete concession.
Lord, please help us to learn to love You with total abandon. We read of Your good nature and we learn that You can be relied upon entirely. Help us defer to Your glory and spend our days devoted to You. Amen.