One of the organizations I’m actively involved with recently held a business meeting to go over our annual budget. As we looked over the numbers, it became quite evident that we were well below the expected revenue that we generally rely on to pay the operational expenses and still be able to serve the community effectively. We ultimately agreed that perhaps it was time to plan a fundraising campaign.
We met again two weeks later and a donor spreadsheet was made available to everyone in attendance. This report listed all of our current donors, including the past five years of their charitable giving to our organization. As I perused the list of names, the most generous donors immediately caught my attention. But then I began looking at the names near the bottom of the list who gave the least.
I asked the director, “What’s with this guy who gives only 5 bucks per month? Does he not realize that we probably spend that amount each month just in postage expenses to mail him newsletters and flyers of upcoming events?” The director responded, “This guy has given to us for as long as I can remember. He used to give more, but he lost his health a few years back and has since been unemployed. So he gives what he can. And I appreciate his consistent giving just as much as I do any of those names at the top of the list.”
While Jesus was visiting the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to see him. With her she brought an expensive bottle of alabaster perfume, and she broke it open and began pouring the oil over Jesus’ head as an offering. Mark goes on to tell us in chapter 14 that Jesus’ disciples rolled their eyes and became indignant at this woman’s kindness. “Why this waste of perfume?” one of them asked. “This could’ve been sold for more than a year’s worth of wages and the money could’ve been given to the poor!” But Jesus was quick to put them in their place. “Why are you bothering this woman? She came here to do a beautiful thing to me.” “She did what she could. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached, what she has done will be told, in memory of her.”
Oddly enough, the disciple who spoke out against this woman’s generosity was none other than Judas Iscariot, the one who not long thereafter would go on to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
“She did what she could.”
Who can we more easily relate to today? The woman who was willing to give everything she could to Jesus, or the man who was looking only to gain?
Former Blackout Artist 