One Week to Live, pt 1 - “Don’t Waste Your Life”

Matthew 26:6
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,

This story is sandwiched between two subplots:


Mattew 26:3-4 (The plot)

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

Matthew 26:14-16 (The betrayal)
Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Matthew chooses to sandwich this story in-between “the plot” and “the betrayal”.

“Now when” all of this sinful stuff was happening, Jesus was being a friend of sinners!


Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 26:7
a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.

John 12:1-3
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.


Luke 7:36-39 (2 years prior)
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

“Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the greedy, the arrogant, the self-righteous, are in that danger.” - C.S. Lewis

Jesus never taught that behavior does not matter; it’s just NOT how you get accepted by God.


Luke 7:47

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”


Matthew 26:8-9

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”

Mark 14:5

*For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” *

A denarii was a day’s wage. 300 denarii was the appx. equivalent of a year’s salary!


Does your heart look more like Mary or Judas?

Matthew 26:10-13

But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

A heart that is changed by the Gospel will also care for the poor. 


Someone who is willing to pour their life out for Jesus will also be the person who takes care of those near to God’s heart!