ministry investment
Do you invest in self-care? Do you invest in concluding a ministry? Why or why not?
Mark 14: 5b-6, 8
[The disciples complained] “this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.”
Welp. There’s another thing we Millennials have in common with Jesus: no savings accounts. Any money that came in to his ministry went right back out again to pay social debts, juuuuust like mine does to pay contracted ones. There’s not even a rainy day fund.
Now, the disciples weren’t worrying about how to afford expenses for ‘a nice funeral for when Jesus is crucified’ because that’s far away. Death isn’t now, death is next week. So the woman’s broken ointment jar looks like luxury spa self-care spending, not the burial ritual it is.
Rather than create a savings fund for them, Jesus simply reprioritizes their spending as it’s happening. Asking them to think about feeding the poor as a continual investment in them, and to think about this ointment not as bougie “self care” but as pre-paying a known expense that would have felt like a surprise bill.
Do you invest in self-care? Do you invest in concluding a ministry? Why or why not?