Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
[My word that goes out from my mouth]…will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:2-3, 11 NIV)
A few weeks ago I had a catch-up conversation with a friend who is about twenty years older than I am. We hadn’t talked much in the last handful of years, first because of Covid Chaos, and then because she was caring for her elderly mother. Last fall, at age 99, her mother passed away, and my friend has been able to turn her attention to other areas of her life, even as she’s settling the last details of the estate. In the midst of our conversation she mentioned a couple pieces of her own funeral plans, one of which was the Bible verse she wants at her service: “She did what she could.”
I make no claims to be a Bible expert, but I couldn’t figure out where that came from. So I asked. She reminded me of the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with oil. His companions begin to complain about her wasting money, but he shut them down.
“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Mark 14:3-9 NIV)
I don’t know how many times I have read this passage, but I’ve never noticed that one line: She did what she could. When you’re reading it kind of goes by quickly or gets lost in Jesus’ rebuke of the men around him. But if we pause and sit with that short sentence, it’s powerful. She did what she could. She didn’t do what someone else could do. She didn’t ignore or give up on what she was supposed to do. She did what she could do.
There are definitely times when God works on us to grow our strength, stamina, or capacity, so in those times we are doing more than we knew we could do in our character or abilities. But it’s pretty easy to get pulled into a mindset of “I’m not doing enough” or “I should be…” when we actually are right on track with where God needs us to be. When the Apostle Paul talked about the Church, he used the metaphor of a body – that an eye can’t be a hand, the hand can’t be the ear, the ear can’t be the feet, etc. (1 Corinthians 12:12-26) Every member of the Body is valuable and has an important role to play in the Body functioning well. But the eyes can’t do what the hands do; the ears can’t do what the feet do. They each have to do what they can do. No more, no less. Just what God designed them to do.
This woman did what she could do. She poured one flask of oil on Jesus – not 2 flasks or 10 or 200. She had the resources to obtain that one flask, and she intentionally chose an oil that was precious and used for preparing bodies for burial. She didn’t write Jesus a song, or organize him a party, or fix him a meal – she poured oil over his body in an act of worship. That’s what she could do in that time and place.
May we also be doing exactly what God wants us to do.
God,
Thank you for the image of this woman who Jesus said did what she could do. Thank you for the reality that you create each of us as distinct individuals, with specific purposes and roles in your Kingdom. Thank you for Holy Spirit’s guidance, for Jesus’s grace when we fail and ask forgiveness, and for your power and presence that leads us onward. Give us courage and faith, discernment and wisdom, to do what we are each supposed to do. May the word that goes out from your mouth not return to you empty, but accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it. We ask these things in Jesus’s name, AMEN.