GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 14:6
Pouring Out Devotion
News sources have repeated in detail the trial and conviction of Hunter Biden for his inappropriate influence-peddling. There is also a picture of Hunter’s father, the President, embracing his son following his conviction. There’s little doubt that the father loves his son, but the father recognizes his son’s drug problem and the commission of a felonious act. Sometimes wholehearted love can be hard, stern, or unattractive.
In the New Testament, there are two words usually translated as “good”: agathos (ἀγαθός) and kalos (καλός). “Agathos” describes a morally good thing, yet it may be hard, austere, demanding, or stern, such as a father allowing his son to face the penalty for violating the law. “Kalos,” on the other hand, describes a thing that is not only good but also lovely, winsome, perhaps even charming, such as a father embracing his son after a conviction.
When Jesus was dining at Simon the leper’s house, a woman, whose name Mark does not record, used very expensive oil to anoint Jesus’ head. The disciples grumbled and harangued the woman about what they saw as the misuse of the valuable perfume, which, they said, could have been sold for about a year’s wage and given to the poor. “Then Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. Why are you causing her trouble? She did a good work for me.’” (Mark 14:6) According to Mark, Jesus used the word kalos to describe the woman’s act. In this context, “good work” (καλός ἔργον) was a phrase describing an act of charity, an act committed without any expectation of a return or reward. This woman poured out her perfume as a physical expression of pouring out her heart. “Leave her alone,” Jesus said “She did a good work for me.”
Scholars debate whether the woman in Mark’s account and Mary in John’s account (12:1-8) are the same person. That conundrum aside, both accounts represent the extent of devotion—complete, unreserved pouring out—and present a pattern for all future believers.
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