Christ's Name.
"His Name is as ointment poured forth." We apply the text to him. It cannot be shown that such application is wrong. Perfumes largely used in the East—in acts of worship; in entertainments, as marks of favour to honoured guests (cf. Psalms 23:1-6.; John 12:1-50.). The Name of Christ is here likened to such precious perfume, the sweet odour of which fills the whole house, as did that which Mary poured on the Lord. The "Name" stands for all that Christ is to us. The comparison is appropriate if we consider concerning such perfumes—
I. THEIR COSTLINESS. They were on this account exceeding precious, large sums of money being demanded for them (John 12:3). But does not this tell of the "precious blood of Christ," and how "God so loved the world "? Think of the cost of the "unspeakable Gift" of Christ:
1. To the Father. Was the heart of God unmoved by the sorrows of the Son? Is not the touching story of Abraham's offering up of Isaac, and of his anguish at having to surrender his son, his only son Isaac, "whom thou lovest," brought before our minds when we read how "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son"? Does it not tell of the anguish of the Divine mind in that sacrifice? A God that cannot know sorrow or joy, that is not "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," is not the God of the Bible, "our Father which art in heaven." Therefore what of uttermost sorrow must he not have known when he beheld the "beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased," expire in agony on the cross?
2. To Christ himself. Was he not "the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief"? "Come, see if ever there was sorrow 'like unto my sorrow"—to whom do these words apply as to him? Cf. Psalms 22:1-31; that psalm which was in the mind and on the lips of our Lord as he hung upon the cross. The parable of the pearl of great price and of the treasure hid in the field may have other meanings than those commonly given to them. May they not tell of our salvation, and how our blessed Lord was set upon obtaining this, and therefore, though "he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor," that he might obtain this, to him, most precious pearl, this treasure of untold worth.
3. To the Holy Spirit. For he it is who takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us; who seeks men, and woos and wins them for Christ. The whole of the Passion of our Lord is patterned forth and perpetuated in the grievings and outrages, in the Gethsemane-like "groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:1-39.), which tell of what he suffers to save men.
4. And if we think of the Gift itself, the very Son of God—no creature, no man, no angel or archangel, but he who was one with the Father—that sacrifice was the cost of our redemption. All comparison fails, no matter what of worth and value in earthly things are thought of; they can but faintly image the worth and preciousness of Christ.
II. THEM COMBINED EXCELLENCE. The choicest perfumes were composed of many ingredients. Cf. the sacred anointing oil (Exodus 30:31-38). And so Christ is "made unto us," not one thing only, but many—"wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Whether we think of the combined excellences that are in his own nature and character, or of those which he bestows upon us—so many, so manifold, so precious all of them—the comparison is true.
III. HOW GRATEFUL THEY ARE TO THOSE ON WHOM THEY ARE POURED. To this day Orientals delight in such perfumes. They deem them to be as healthful as they are pleasant; and still they are given to honoured guests, as Simon should have given them but did not, but as the Magdalen and Mary of Bethany also did to our Lord. "Thou anointest my head with oil," tells in the twenty-third psalm of the exuberance of joy that the believer has in his Lord. "How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds!" so still his people love to sing. And what they sing is true.
IV. THEIR DIFFUSIVE FRAGRANCE. "Poured forth," released from the vessel which contained it, and in consequence spreading its sweet odours all around. Again the comparison is just. Has not human life become sweeter in innumerable places because there the Name of Christ has been poured forth? Heaven is heaven because there his "Name is above every name."
V. THAT THEY MAKE FRAGRANT AS WELL AS ARE SO IN THEMSELVES. By this may we know whether we are Christ's. If character, temper, spirit, life, be of ill odour, how can we have known Christ's Name?—S.C.