Day 24 - Missed opportunities

Reading: John 12:1-19

Have you ever misread or misinterpreted situations, only to find out later that you have missed out on God’s clarity for that particular moment? I know I have. I remember once taking a short ship up a very long river. My focus was on making plans for when we would arrive and getting the ship to its destination as quickly as possible so that it could start to deliver urgently needed medical care.  Unfortunately, I completely missed the opportunity that half the crew had no faith and that being cooped up with them for 3 months could have been an ideal opportunity to get real about my faith with them.  Regrettably, this story definitely gets filed in my ‘missed opportunities tray’.

In today’s reading we are privileged enough to read about Jesus’ final day or so on earth.  We see Mary’s complete belief in Jesus as she displays the perfect example of humility and servanthood by bathing Jesus’ feet in valuable perfume and then wiping his feet with her hair.  We see the polar opposite from Judas, as he demonstrates his complete unbelief in Jesus as he rebukes Mary for pouring a year’s wages over Christ’s feet.  The following morning we read of Jesus’ final journey into Jerusalem, as foretold, right down to the mode of transport, in Zechariah 9:9.  Even after seeing Jesus enter Jerusalem in this way, we are still told that many of the disciples did not understand who Jesus really was and why he was with them.

Is there a danger that we might stray so far from our relationship with God that we start to lose his sovereign perspective on our lives? Judas’ agenda at the time was money. What’s yours today?

Response

Let’s pray today that we are prompted to forge an even closer relationship with Christ so that we may avoid missing out on God’s agenda for our lives.

James