Matthew 26:10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me.
How Do You Judge Your Success?
Have you ever been to a class reunion where you saw people you haven’t seen for ten, twenty, or even thirty years? It’s a shock, isn’t it? When we see people that are our peers or have known us in the past, it is very easy to compare ourselves to them and to judge our service to the Lord Jesus by what they say. Instead, we should concentrate on what Jesus thinks. If Jesus is not pleased, then what we are doing is not a success. If Jesus is pleased, then what we are doing is not a failure.
In Matthew 26 we read the story of a humble lady named Mary. It was her brother, Lazarus, who had been raised to life again by the Lord Jesus, so she loved Jesus and believed in Him. The Bible says, “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman [Mary] having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.”
You may know that the ointment with which Mary anointed the Lord Jesus may well have been worth about a year’s wages for the average rural worker. How did the disciples of Jesus respond? The Bible says, “But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?” The disciples characterized Mary’s giving to Jesus as a waste. If the enemies of Christ had chided Mary for this, it would have been no big deal, but these were the disciples of Jesus who followed Him and knew Him best.
If you are waiting for everyone to understand your service to the Lord Jesus and to pat you on the back for it, you are going to be discouraged. Sometimes even good people don’t understand what you are doing. Many people have made sacrifices that others just don’t recognize and might characterize as a waste.
Verse 10 says, “When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.” The disciples saw, but Jesus understood. People can see, but sometimes only God understands. He characterized Mary’s sacrifice as a good work and ordained that those of us in years to come should remember the story and be trained by the example of Mary.
Do not judge the success of your service to Jesus primarily by the affirmation of even good people. The difference between what people see and what Jesus understands is the same as the difference between a waste and a good work. We recall the things that impress us, but Jesus remembers the things we give Him. Nothing given to Him from the heart is ever a waste.