Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.   But what does this mean?   Is appearance everything? Are the glamour magazines to be believed?    No, beauty comes in many different shapes, sizes, and proportions.  God has made everything (and everyone) beautiful in its time.   The discerning eye finds beauty in every form.   We know this instinctively.   Yet, we don’t believe it is true of ourselves. 

Our fallenness has given us a creaturely discontent with the Creator’s genius.   But who are the most beautiful people you know?   And why are they beautiful?  Is it the proportion of their face, their coloring, or the shape of their features?   No, their beauty appears by contrast — kindness when others are cruel, resilience in the midst of adversity, joy when sorrow is the order of the day.    Their beauty radiates through contrast not conformity.   God delights to create beauty through contrast.

He created a world of contrasts.  Contrasts which give, even this fallen, groaning, creation a beauty that leaves poets speechless.   He began with light and made the world responsive to it.   Light creates color and contour, clarity and, yet concealment.   Lighting gives everything perspective.  And changing light reveals new aspects and insights in the familiar.   Lighting and contrast are foundational to visual beauty.   Artists use lighting and shading to breathe life into their work.  

But as with all things God made, sensory experience has an analog with spiritual truth.  Spiritual truth in scripture is often taught by way of contrast.   The Bible tells the triumphal story of how God rescues us from sin, self, and Satan.   But the story only becomes compelling when we realize our desperate condition.   Until we grasp how bad we are, we cannot see how good the good news is.   The Fall plunged us into irrecoverable ruin.   And until we are convinced of this, we will never seek Christ and find redemption.    The beauty of the gospel can only be appreciated in contrast to the ugliness of our condition apart from Christ.  

In Mark 14:1-11, the inspired writer creates one of his characteristic contrasts. Sandwiched between the murderous plot of the religious leaders and the sad treachery of Judas is the beautiful account of a woman who anoints Jesus with a bottle of rare and costly perfume.  In the midst of death and betrayal, the Holy Spirit places a woman whose love for Christ is so fragrant that it perfumes the gospel wherever and whenever it is read and preached.  The beauty of her action is set in start relief against the ugliness of betrayal.

What animates her action? And theirs? Where does betrayal come from? And what does it look like?  And beauty?  What action is so beautiful that it evokes the Savior’s praise and warrants a stern rebuke for its critics? Beauty or betrayal?  Which fragrance does your life effuse?

Join us this Lord’s Day as we examine Mark 14:1-11 and consider the contrast between beauty and betrayal.  We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.