{"id":61,"date":"2015-03-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2015\/03\/30\/holy-week-monday\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:26:35","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:26:35","slug":"holy-week-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/holy-week-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Week: Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

John\u2019s gospel, 12:1-11, points out three interesting things that help to
\n clue us in to Who Jesus is and what is about to happen. First, the
\ngospel tells us that six days before the Passover, Jesus was in Bethany
\nwith Lazarus, Mary and Martha. It\u2019s interesting that just a week before
\nHis own resurrection, Jesus visits the man who had already been brought
\nback from the dead. Perhaps Jesus was trying to give His followers a
\nreminder that being laid in the tomb isn\u2019t necessarily the end.<\/p>\n

Next we see the anointing of Jesus by the woman who uses her hair to
\nwash His feet with expensive oil\u2014Another hint to us of His imminent
\nfate. But the greatest lesson here is conveyed in the reaction of the
\nothers to her having \u201cwasted\u201d this precious commodity when the money
\ncould have been spent to help the poor. Jesus rebukes the naysayers and
\nsays, \u201cYou always have the poor with you, but you do not always have
\nme.\u201d On the surface this seems as though He is putting Himself above the
\n poor, but we know this cannot be since Jesus has already preached that
\nwe are our brothers\u2019 keeper. So what can we glean from His words?<\/p>\n

First, we have to recognize the primacy of God. We are to put Him
\nfirst\u2014above riches (the money spent on expensive anointing oil instead
\nof worldly wants or necessities), above the needy (not because the needy
\n should suffer or because we should be indifferent to those in need, but
\n because if we put God first, He will ensure the needy will be helped.)
\nIn this instance, Jesus knows that His impending Passion will ransom
\nboth the wealthy and the poor from an eternity separated from God, even
\nthough those in attendance do not know what is about to happen.<\/p>\n

Which leads us to the second lesson: We should not be judgmental. Why? Because we don\u2019t know everything.<\/p>\n

But God does. (Which ties in with why we should put Him first in our lives.)<\/p>\n

These naysayers are quick to judge this woman for her (seeming)
\nwastefulness, but God does not condemn her. In fact, her devotion to Him
\n outweighs all else. Ask yourself: Does your devotion to Jesus outweigh
\nall else?<\/p>\n

Today, let\u2019s recall all the times we have been quick to judge outward
\nappearance, those times when we easily condemned the actions of others
\nwithout first gathering all the facts. Let\u2019s call to mind the times we
\nfailed to put God first, even if we had good intentions (The naysayers
\nin John\u2019s gospel wanted to use the anointing oil money to tend to the
\npoor\u2014a worthy endeavor, if not misplaced at that moment.) We are to put
\nGod first at all times, regardless of how it looks to others and
\nregardless of the cost to ourselves. When we put God first, we open a
\npathway to grace and salvation.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pray: Lord, help me to be discerning and not to judge too quickly
\nor too harshly without having all the facts. Help me to put You first in
\n my life, and all else second so that You can shine through my actions
\nand be a light to the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John\u2019s gospel, 12:1-11, points out three interesting things that help to clue us in to Who Jesus is and what is about to happen. First, the gospel tells us that six days before the Passover, Jesus was in Bethany with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. It\u2019s interesting that just a week before His own resurrection, Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[509],"tags":[37,38,39,40,41],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-spirituality","tag-devotional","tag-easter","tag-holy-week","tag-meditation","tag-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}