Column: Doing beautiful things
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Pastor Joel Whiteside First Presbyterian Church
Matthew 26:10: “Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.’”
In the last few days before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus was eating at the home of someone who had been healed from the illness of leprosy. Jesus had healed him and now welcomed him into full fellowship by being a guest for dinner.
Only men, according to custom, would be allowed at this dinner. Nonetheless, a woman broke into that gathering of men and went right toward Jesus. She carried a precious alabaster jar of expensive perfume which had been closed with a permanent seal. She broke it open and poured it upon Jesus as an anointing and a sign of respect and devotion.
Of course, this woman’s action drew criticism, some saying that this was a very careless waste of an important resource. Jesus answered the criticism, explaining that what she had done was a beautiful thing. The act of devotion would help prepare Jesus for his pending sacrifice on the cross.
Surprisingly, Jesus says that she has done a “beautiful” thing, not a “good” thing or a “true” thing, but a “beautiful” thing.
Jesus did not say she did a true thing. Truth, we uphold and defend. Truth inspires and motivates us. But Jesus did not say this. Neither did he say she did a good thing. We admire those who do good things, who adhere to a code of ethics and who seek to choose the right thing regardless of the cost. But Jesus did not say she did a good thing.
She did a beautiful thing.
Beauty has a way of impacting us in a way that even truth and goodness lack. Beauty has the power to transform and endure in our hearts.
There is so much beauty in this world. The fiery sunset, starry sky, fields of grain, even the wildflowers that I know are just weeds. Yet there is beauty there, too. The space telescopes have given us glimpses in deepest space of nebulae and distant galaxies.
In our meditations, we might consider the beauty of the Lord. We would consider that God is wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. These are beautiful things.
God does beautiful things. God reconciles, forgives, restores, renews and loves even up to and past the pain of the cross.
When we see a beautiful thing, we are moved in our soul. We are transformed from within.
Plotinus was a Neoplatonist philosopher of the third century of the common era. He once said, “The soul that beholds beauty, becomes beautiful. Beauty has the power to make us better people. It all has to do with our faith in God, because God is beautiful. The beauty of the Lord is transformational.”
What does it mean then to let beauty transform us?
We have many gifts to give. We have gifts of kindness, friendship, caring, concern, understanding, the ability to listen to others, discipline to see a task through, knowledge and know-how and a host of talents and abilities. Each one of these is a beautiful thing.
We can practice beauty in the most routine and ordinary ways when we offer up these gifts to the world and to our Lord.
