DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Matthew 26:6-16
(4/23) Gospel at
Vespers & PreSanctified for Great & Holy Wednesday
Generosity
and Covetousness: St. Matthew 26:6-16, especially vss. 13, 14, 15: “‘What
this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.’ Then one of the twelve, called Judas
Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to
give me if I deliver Him to you?’” The Gospel today portrays two opposites
- the overflowing of generosity, and the corrupting of covetousness. In only one sense can these two be
compared - both are conditions of the heart. Otherwise, in all respects, they are
polar opposites. The first is
natural and life-giving, while the second is unnatural, producing only aberrant
distortions of God’s creation.
Of all of the Ten Commandments, only the one which directs us not
to covet (Ex. 20:17) addresses a state of heart. The rest, at face value, are
commands to act or to refrain from specific acts. However, the Lord Jesus, in His Sermon
on the Mount (Mt. 5:1-7:29), actually erased this surface distinction among the
Ten Commandments when He revealed that all of them are matters of the heart. We are not animals who simply act and
react, but, rather, spiritual beings in the image of God with the ability to
choose - to give love, to honor, and to worship. It is just this unique inner capacity
that makes it possible, as we read this account of the Lord at
Brethren, ascend the heights to blessed generosity! Choose life! The display of Divine generosity strikes
us before all else, as we observe the Lord Jesus visiting Simon, a leper (Mt.
26:6). We may thank St. John
Chrysostom for having us notice that “not without purpose did the
evangelist mention the leprosy of Simon....For inasmuch as the leprosy seemed a
most unclean disease, and to be abhorred, and yet...Jesus had both healed the
man (for else He would not have chosen to have tarried with a leper), and had
gone into his house.” The
generosity of God excels even our best unselfishness, for He comes into our
very worst of conditions with healing love.
Notice that the generosity of our Lord does not end with His visiting
and healing Simon, but is poured out also upon the woman who came to honor Him
by anointing His head with “very costly fragrant oil” (vs. 7). Sadly, in reaction to her act of
worship, she was made the brunt of the disciples’ indignation: “Why
this waste? For this fragrant oil
might have been sold for much and given to the poor” (vss. 8,9). The loving Christ rises to her defense,
liberally reframing the vision of the disciples to see the generosity
underlying her actions: “she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always,
but Me you do not have always. For
in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial” (vss.
10-12). Do not miss how carefully
Christ Jesus prepares us to see His boundless, overflowing generosity, both in
assuming a body and becoming one of us, and in munificently embracing death and
burial for our salvation!
Surely, let us also remember the woman’s generosity. As
Against the beauty of all this generosity, let us also tremble at the
ugly coveting shown here.
“Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief
priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to
you?’” (vss. 14,15). Do
we not know full well that the commandment against coveting, “directed as
it is to the heart, foremost is a warning that greed unchecked will likely lead
to active transgression”? It
set Judas on the path to betrayal!
O my God, keep me from envy, jealousy, stinginess, and longing for
anything that is another’s; rather grant me a gracious, generous heart
toward all, even as Thou hast toward me.