RE Verse reading–Mark 12:28-34 (day three)
“And they rebuked her harshly.” Suddenly, they championed the poor. Well, welcome to the entire Old Testament. God had been the poor’s champion all along, but these folks just now got religion, apparently. Except they hadn’t. While they were busy co-opting the poor to cover for their own love of money, Jesus saw a moment of beauty. While they found the poor temporarily useful, Jesus exulted in a display of extravagance that had no utilitarian purpose whatsoever. Beauty is rare in this broken world, and its presence always—always—signals that God has not abandoned us. And beauty is rarely “useful” in the sense of getting done what we want done. To find people useful, then, is the height of selfishness. To find people—and their extravagance born of love—beautiful is to worship God.
