Extravagant – When Worship Becomes LifestyleSample

A New Normal: When Generosity is About Giving Not Getting

Though the idea of reciprocity is a good one, I love the fact that the Kingdom gives without strings attached. When Jesus taught people, He made reference to the normal practice of reciprocity:

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?”

“And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?”

“And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?”

But note how He concludes:

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

It looks like Jesus is reinforcing reciprocity when it comes to the Kingdom, but He’s actually doing the opposite. Jesus challenges the concept of “safe giving.” In other words, only giving to those whom we know will give back; only lending to those we know can repay us. Instead, Jesus shows us a Kingdom mind set that gives without expectation of receiving anything back from those to whom we give. He encourages us to be givers, because it is a Kingdom thing to do. We give, and we leave the reward to the Lord. Later on in the same passage of today’s reading Jesus concludes,

“Give, and it will be given to you…”

Generosity that gives to give and not to get creates a new normal.

When the woman broke her bottle that night, she wasn’t looking for a hundred-fold return. She wasn’t making the spiritual down payment on the perfume store she hoped to own one day. She just wanted to please Jesus, thank Him, serve Him and love Him. Other than the spoken response we read Jesus giving, we’ve no idea what reward this lady received after the conclusion of this story. She wasn’t thinking about a return when she was washing and kissing His feet. She wasn’t concerned about what she would get out of this when she cracked open her perfumed nard. She wanted to give because Jesus’ extravagant love had drawn an extravagant response. That’s what made this moment so reckless, so wild and over-the-top – because she didn’t care what she got back. She was only focused on Him!

If we give to give, then extravagance will be our new normal!