SHE LOVES MUCH

Over the past four weeks, we’ve been looking at Martha and Mary. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure Martha has to be a first-born of her and Mary. She just has that flavor about her. It’s easy to dissect where leaders make mistakes because they are the ones up front and center and the ones leading visibly, but I think Martha also had some wonderful qualities as well. She was intelligent. She could motivate people to action, and she was generous.


This being said, I began to wonder about Mary. When I looked Mary up in my concordance, it showed me Mary the sister of Lazarus and gave me two additional scriptures Matthew 26:6-13 which is about the woman and the alabaster jar of perfume and Luke 7:36-50 which is the one I want to focus our attention on today.

In verse 37 says a woman with a sinful life in that town went to see Jesus. She was known by her actions in the whole town. In your family, what do your actions say? What about your church? She did not pretend to be more than she was either. Ladies, sometimes we have socialized our sin. We put it on a graded curve from a little, white lie to a big, black lie, and I’m pretty sure God doesn’t see it like that. Your little white lie put Jesus on the cross just like a big, black sin of someone else’s. You are no better than they. The only difference is Christians have been redeemed. Soak in that for a minute. Not too comfortable, is it? I didn’t think so either.

In verse 38 she stood where? BEHIND Jesus. Where was she? AT HIS FEET. What was she doing? WEEPING. When was the last time you wept over your sin? Just asking because it convicted me. Her tears wet the feet of her Savior – the feet that would be pierce for her iniquity, her sin. She was sobbing. Then she wiped them dry with her hair, and what happened next caught my attention. It made me stop in my tracks. I’m not going to tell you either. You have to look it up. Then and only then did she pour the perfume on His feet. Oh, the love she had for her Lord. I want that. I want what she had. I want that softness of heart and Spirit, so His Words convict me and pierce through the walls I’ve constructed around my mind and heart. Jesus recognized her for her love. Check out verse 47. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for SHE LOVED MUCH. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

I may not have ever murdered anyone in cold-blood, but I may have in my mind. I may not have acted on a hatred, but I may have held it in my heart. I might have envied and coveted without stealing, but in my mind, I’ve taken many things. I want my Jesus to recognize me as “SHE WHO LOVED MUCH.” It’s because of her love of Jesus that she served. She served from the overflow of her love for Him. How much do you love Him? Will He say, “She who loved much” or “she who loves little?”

During this holiday season when we are so rushed going here and there, buying this present, and preparing this meal or that, will your family, friends, neighbors or coworkers see you serving from the overflow of your love of Christ? OR will they see you serving man for the recognition by man or because it is required?

Jesus LOVES MUCH. It’s why He chose to humble Himself and make Himself the most vulnerable as an infant, so He could reach the most common, everyday people – you and me. How will you serve Him this season?