The Sunday News
Itai Chipunza
Matthew 26: 7-13
A WOMAN came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
When you bless a man of God you access a power source that was designed by God himself. In the above scripture we see a woman that gives a substance to Jesus himself. In doing this she gets access to a blessing from Jesus. The fact that you are actually reading about her, and thousands of other Christians read about her from the Bible means the blessing Jesus promised her was fulfilled. Jesus clearly said for what she has done, she will be remembered when the gospel is preached around the world. Now more than two thousand years later, we are still talking about her.
So it is scriptural to take something of value and bless a man of God with it. After you have done this, God will honour whatever blessing they pronounce on you. This has nothing to do with tithing and offering. It is also not a gift to the ministry or the church. This is a personal gift. One that is to be used by receiver as he sees fit. Let us analyse the events that took place.
Matthew 26: 7
A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
The jar was of expensive perfume. This means that it was something she valued greatly. This does not mean that you must always give out things dear to you. You must give as you feel in your heart. Remember God loves a cheerful giver. When you give grumbling God does not honour that, you might as well keep your gift. But instead it means the more value of what you are giving away to the particular person will be directly proportionate to the blessing that you will get. This woman understood this, probably from the teachings of the Old Testament of people that gave away to prophets of God and life changing events took place after that. For example, the widow of Zeraphath giving to Elisha and God honouring the blessing spoken to her by the prophet.
Matthew 26: 9-13:
9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Those that do not understand will always discourage you. They always seem to have better ideas of how the gift should be used better, the disciples said the gift should have been sold and the money given to the poor. Carnally speaking, this is a great idea, but think of this, if the gift was sold and the proceeds given to the poor, would that have had a result that lasts for generations? Would all the poor be fed? Would the world cease to have poor people? Would it unlock the same blessing to the giver of the gift? But when given to Jesus, it unlocked a gift of being spoken of positively for generations to come. Most of our names would be forgotten by people soon after we die. Even our families forget about us a few months or years after we die. But with this woman, it has been thousands of years. We still talk of her. Wouldn’t you want to be talked about in this manner after you are gone? To be talked about as the one that blessed the Messiah himself with a gift. This requires understanding of the forms of giving. I am not suggesting that we should forget about the poor. We should remember and help as much as we can. But giving to a poor man will solve his problem for a day. But he is still a poor man. Poverty is a mental and spiritual state. I know poor people that seem to have money. For example, there are people that go to work at a good job for years, they retired at an old age and they have not made plans to support themselves after they retire. This is a sign of poverty. Poverty is a state of mind and a spiritual state, not a physical state. So giving the gift to a poor man would not have solved his problems. Just like if you take two people, a rich man and poor man. Send them to a new place, where they have no connections and are both new there. Give them each ten dollars. Come back after two years, the rich man will have a lot more money, the poor man will be complaining about how you sent him there to die.
Jesus says, she has done a beautiful thing to me. The gift you give must excite the person who is getting it. It should be something that they find exciting. This act on its own is power source. Bless your pastor with a gift and you will be surprised by what happens in your life.
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