Is Your Love for God Extravagant?
Devotional Scripture: Mark 14:3-11
Key Verse: “And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.” Mark 14:3
The call of the disciple is extravagant love for Christ. By definition, the word extravagant means to exceed boundaries or proceed further than necessity. In some instances, extravagance can look wasteful or crazy. To be sure, loving God excessively might look crazy to the watching world, but it’s never wasteful.
Yet, how often do we push past the boundaries? Can today’s church call its love for God extravagant? In some places, I’d say yes, but what level of crazy do you welcome? Are you willing to wake up a little earlier to start your day in God’s Word? Are you willing to make some sacrifices? What about entertainment: are you prone to stop watching a television show when it blares immorality? Some of us aren’t even inclined to go that far.
What about a pay cut? Can you see yourself giving up financial security for gospel incentives? Are you ready to announce to an increasingly hostile society that you follow Jesus? What risks are you willing to take? Are you willing to risk getting sick? Not just here, but would you fly to the ends of the world if Jesus asked you? Do you trust Him with your life, or have you placed boundaries around your faith? This far. I’ll go this far and no further.
Extravagant Love Is Never Wasted
Mark 14:3-9 records a beautiful example of extravagant love. Mary, Martha and Lazarus’s sister, broke her alabaster flask of pure nard ointment—very costly—pouring it over Jesus. Verse 3 says she poured it over Christ’s head. Then she anointed His feet, wiping His feet with her hair (Jn. 12:3). Extravagant? I’d so say.
Not only was that alabaster flask probably the most valuable thing she owned, but it was likely her dowry. Without it, she had little to offer potential pursuers. But what gets me is that Mary didn’t pull Jesus aside to anoint Him privately. She extravagantly loved Him in front of all those attending the party. How many people sat watching? She didn’t care. What would they say? It didn’t matter to her.
The passage holds no hint of immorality—only buckets of humility, sacrifice, and devotion. Jewish women kept their hair covered, but Mary uncovered hers to administer the lowest of tasks generally reserved for gentile slaves: wiping a person’s dirty feet. As the fragrant offering filled the room, Mary didn’t grab for a towel but instead bent low to use her hair.
Judas Iscariot—who couldn’t handle watching the costly perfume wasted in such a manner—spoke out in disgusting resistance. But Jesus quickly asserted that Judas leave her alone. “She has done a beautiful thing to me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial” (Mk 14:6, 8). My friend, please note, God doesn’t waste extravagant love.
Extravagant Love Develops Out of Habits
Scripture records Mary at Jesus’s feet two other times as well. In Luke 11:39, Mary is sitting at Christ’s feet, listening to His teaching while her sister, Martha, is hustling about the kitchen. In John 11:32, when Christ arrives a little too late to heal Lazarus, Mary runs and falls, weeping at the feet of Jesus. It’s a familiar spot for her. Whether she was content and happy, upset and grieving, or trying to make sense of life, Mary consistently sojourned at the feet of her Savior.
Throughout Scripture, life-altering things take place at the feet of Jesus: healings, miracles, forgiveness, freedom. So why don’t we spend more time there? I’m not sure.
The answer to loving Christ more is simple: spend more time with Him. Put yourself at Christ’s feet whether you’re happy or sad, mad or glad, or downright confused, and your love will increase. How do I know? It’s worked for me.
Extravagant Love Is Not Cheap
I don’t know if Mary understood the implications of her actions. (Jesus was just days away from crucifixion.) But one thing I do know: Mary loved Jesus. She may or may not have counted the cost of breaking that alabaster flask, but it was worth it to her. A year’s worth of wages spent on her Savior—I don’t doubt she’d do it again.
I’m not saying extravagant love is cheap or easy. There’s a good chance choosing Christ over the world will cost us something. It could cost us our reputation. Some may lose their jobs (some already have), and for others, the cost will rise even higher.
But that’s what extravagant love does. Come what may, I’m with you, says the faithful servant of Christ. The less committed (and the lost) will question how we could make such an outrageous choice with so much at stake. Some will murmur behind our backs, while others scold our faces. What a waste, they’ll say. Why not just pretend you agree with the world yet silently stand with Christ? Because that’s not how Jesus loved us.
Extravagant love cost Jesus His life.
Extravagant Love Is Worth the Price
But here’s the promise: choosing Christ guarantees us an incredible return on investment, not necessarily monetarily or momentarily but a hundredfold spiritually and eternally. Jesus said of Mary, “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (v. 9). And it’s true. We’re still talking about her today.
But I know Mary’s reward included more than that. Psalm16:11 says in God’s presence, “there is fullness of joy,” and at His “right hand are pleasures forever.” And that’s where Mary worshiped God—in His presence—literally sitting on the floor at His right hand, spilling her treasures at His feet.
Mary loved Christ no matter what it cost her, despite what it might mean for her future, and in full display for all to see. And I have no doubt God blessed her for it. Mary knew the joy of following Jesus with her whole heart.
Where is our joy, we wonder? It’s in the presence of Jesus. Where is our satisfaction? It’s in loving God no matter the cost. The problem is we put up parameters. We love God under our conditions instead of loving God unconditionally.
So here’s the question that needs an honest look: what parameters have you placed around your love for Jesus? Is your love for Christ cushioned with pride or founded in extravagance?
It might feel scary to dismantle the barriers surrounding our faith, but there’s no better decision. So go ahead and be crazy, my friend. Love Christ in excess no matter what it might cost you, despite the fear, and in full display for all to see. Let the world say what they will because it’s not wasteful; it’s worship.
