AI-assisted analysis for orientation; read the source transcript or listen to the sermon to evaluate the interpretation.
The sermon interprets the woman’s anointing of Jesus as an act arising from love rather than calculated obligation. Christ values the inward motive of faith and affection, defends costly devotion, and gives the act significance connected with His approaching burial. Spurgeon grounds his appeal in Christ’s blood-bought redemption: those who have received extraordinary grace should not be content with ordinary or inactive Christianity. The church is therefore urged to obey the Spirit’s promptings, offer costly service, and pursue the worldwide evangelization of the nations.
Theological center: Christ’s atoning sacrifice creates a gracious obligation and powerful motive for believers to love and serve Him beyond routine duty.
Applications: Serve Directly for Christ · Give Generously to Christ · Act on Spiritual Promptings · Examine Your Service
Primary texts: Matthew 26:12-13
“Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.” Matthew 26:13 THE evangelists are of course the historians of the time of Christ, but what strange historians they are! They leave out just that which worldly ones would write, and they record just that which the worldly would have passed over. What historian would have thought of recording the story of the widow and her two mites? Would a Hume or a Smollet have spared half a page for such an incident? Or do you think that even a Macaulay could have found it in his pen to write down a story of an eccentric woman, who broke an alabaster box of precious ointment upon the head of Jesus? But so it is. Jesus values things, not by their glare and glitter, but by their intrinsic value. He bids His historians store up, not the things which shall dazzle men, but those which shall instruct and teach them in His Spirit. Christ values a matter, not by its exterior, but by the motive which dictated it, by the love which shines from it. O singular historians! ye have passed by much that Herod did, you tell us little of the glories of his temple, you tell us little of Pilate, and that little not to his credit, you treat with neglect the battles that are passing over the face of the earth, the grandeur of Caesar does not entice you from your simple story. But you continue to tell these little things, and wise are you in so doing, for verily these little things, when put into the scales of wisdom, weigh more than those monstrous bubbles of which the world delights to read. And now my prayer is that we may be endued this morning with the same spirit as that which prompted the woman, when she broke her alabaster box upon the head of Christ. There must be something wonderful about this story, or else Christ would not have linked it with His Gospel, for so has He done. So long as this Gospel lives shall this story of the woman be told, and when this story of the woman ceases to exist, then the Gospel must cease to exist also, for they are co-eternal. As long as this Gospel is preached, and wherever it is proclaimed, the story of this woman is to go with it. Our Lord’s prediction goes on to be verified, while the memorial of this woman fills the church with its fragrance. There must be something, therefore, remarkable in it, let us pause, and look, and learn, and may God give us grace to imitate. I shall want you first attentively to observe the woman, secondly, I shall invite you to look into the face of her…