A Message from Pastor Kaji

Can you believe that it’s already the fifth Sunday in Lent? As you think about wrapping up the Lenten season, I invite you to think about what God has accomplished in you this Lent. What has God accomplished in you this season? What remains? What might you do with these last few days of the season?

I’d also love to remind you of the Enough for Today Wednesday morning prayer calls from 8:00–8:10 am. Many thanks to Elder Yohon Tatum for leading us in such powerful prayer. There is still time to register and join us in this meaningful midweek rhythm. And as we move into Holy Week, we will gather for daily calls from Holy Monday through Maundy Thursday. Our devotion together will culminate at the powerful Good Friday service at St. Ignatius Loyola. This year, I’ll be preaching on Jesus’ Fourth Word: Woman, behold thy son.

Next Sunday, we will begin Palm Sunday and step together into Holy Week—not only in worship, but through shared action. After church next week, please stick around after service to help us to package the items for our The Park Sets the Table meal kits. We are doubling the amount we are sharing this time, thanks to the incredible grant that we’ve received. The money is in our accounts, and Chef Jasmin, Treasurer Candace and our staff have placed the orders for the foods we will share. I am also thrilled to share that, thanks to this gift, we have received the funds we need to complete our kitchen! The orders are in and we will have this equipment installed in the coming weeks. God is amazing, and so is this church. Please sign up here to let us know you’ll lend a hand on Sunday.

Please note that we are continuing to implement our security protocols. After church, we invite you to stay for coffee hour and any programming we schedule. We will then be clearing the building, by no later than 1 pm unless we have other scheduled programming. We thank you for your understanding and compliance with this important protocol so that we can keep us all safe.
 

In worship this Sunday, we turn back to Matthew’s account of the woman who anoints Jesus in Bethany. I last preached on this in October, and if you’d like to remind yourself of that message, called The Edge of Oil Things, it’s here.

This is a brief passage, but it carries extraordinary weight. A woman enters the room with an alabaster vessel of very costly balm and pours it over Jesus’ head. The disciples react with anger. Jesus receives her act as good, beautiful, and timely.

If you were with us back in October, you may remember some of the Bible Nerd details about the balm itself.

This is nard, a perfume of staggering value, imported from far away and precious enough to be stored in alabaster, a stone vessel used to protect costly ointments. Think of this as concentrated wealth. It was tender devotion poured out in public.

That helps us understand why the disciples were so alarmed. Yes, they name the cost. This could have been sold for a great deal and given to the poor. But that is not the whole texture of the moment. They are also watching a woman act with startling freedom. They are watching someone interrupt a meal and cross ordinary social boundaries. They are watching Jesus receive a gesture that looks extravagant, intimate, and impossible to regulate. And they are doing all this in the shadow of Jerusalem, when the pressure around Jesus is already building. Her act reveals how tense the room already was.
 

Study Guide

Matthew tells us that the balm was carried in an alabaster vessel. That detail matters. Alabaster was beautiful, delicate stone, often used to hold expensive perfume or ointment. The container tells you the contents are precious before a single drop is poured. The balm itself would have been rare and costly. In Mark’s telling of this scene, some estimate its value at more than three hundred denarii, roughly a laborer’s yearly wages. That kind of number helps explain the disciples’ shock. They are reacting to economic value, social disruption, and the discomfort of seeing Jesus honored in a way they do not understand.

And then Jesus reframes the whole scene. What they call waste, he calls good. What they treat as trouble, he names as preparation. What they want to stop, he promises will be remembered wherever the good news is preached.

Questions for Reflection

• Why do you think this woman’s act troubled the disciples so deeply?
• When do you find yourself focusing on cost before meaning?
• What might it look like to honor Jesus with your whole heart, even when others do not understand?