I was speaking with the Lord about rapper Kanye West’s seemingly new conversion to Christianity. And how everyone is chiming in on whether he is a fake or not. Even Christians bashing him.   It appears that he risked his famous rap career and chose the unpopular route of Christianity and THOUSANDS are being saved through his week old ministry, yet people call him a fake.  What can I make of all this?

I am reminded of two things. (1) God told me that there will be a new generation of Christians He will be raising up, fresh new radical blood. These people will unashamedly declare his name throughout the earth and they would not look like ‘Christians’.  They will minister the gospel in a way that the people of this age can understand. And even Christians will scuff at them. I have been saying this for months now I’m seeing this unfold through these unconventional souls today.  Such as Kanye.

(2) God reminded me of a story in the bible, the prostitute with the Alabaster jar of rich expensive perfume. She came in the midst of Jesus and his disciples and BROKE the jar and ANNOINTED Jesus’ feet with the perfume and used her hair to wipe away her passionate tears that fell from her eyes to his feet.  This was so very sensual, but she was a prostitute, so she worshiped in a style she knew best.  Later in today’s world many argue that Jesus had an affair with this woman, so you can imagine how she must have behaved.  The disciples scuffed at her and complained that this aroused show of affection is too sensual and that her gift of expensive perfume used to be poured on the Messiah, could have been better served to the poor.  Do you agree?  Is Kanye’s ministry too secular to be called true worship?

Let’s examine Jesus’ response to his disciples.  These were the men who had been walking with him from the earliest days of his ministry and who were front row seat witnesses to his powerful miracles, his ride or dies, all they had to say about Mary acting like she was making love to his feet and the fact that they had no idea when or if she even got saved.

Jesus REBUKED them.  He rebuked his disciples.  He then said something very strange and it just took meaning to me.  He said, “leave her alone, for she has been saved from much so she is grateful of much”.  He then went on to say, here it is, the key point; “…her story will be TOLD TO THE END OF TIME.”  Did you catch that?  I just realized what he meant by that.

When the prostitute woman, entered the presence of Jesus and his disciples, with her very expensive gift, and began to worship at Jesus’ feet in the manner in which she did.  She did not meet the disciples’ approval with that kind of worship.  It spoke to me of the converts, that will sacrifice all they have and choose the unpopular and lonely road to Christ.  And they like Mary will use their earthly talents in non-traditional ways, to minister and to win souls to the Kingdom that traditional church-goers/Christians would not approve of.  Their conversion will be questioned and their style of ministry will be ridiculed just as the disciples did Mary.   They, like Mary, were maybe considered very unlikely to be saved, and so when they get saved, their means of worship is very different than the norm. And Christians like the disciples, will scuff and turn their religious noses up at them.

Notice also that before she anointed Jesus, she BROKE the jar and poured out the perfume when she could have simply poured out the perfume and kept the jar for future use. Breaking the jar signified her total submission to Christ, to never looking back, to breaking ties with her past.  Knowing she would never have that jar as insurance if she broke it, and then pouring out all its contents on the master’s feet speaks of an uncertain future and she is risking it all to and starting over from the bottom to be fully reliant on Christ, and that her gifts would be used fully for the advancement of the Kingdom.

When the disciples said her gift could be better used for the poor, even though it sounded logical, in context it is a hypocritical self-righteous statement.  Just like Christians do today as they use religiosity to criticize people who are saved that they do not understand. Jesus is rebuking them and telling them to let them be, you do not know from what they have been saved, or the price they paid to give worship in this way.

So when people like Kanye gets saved and show worship in their own way, they are re-telling the story of Mary with her alabaster jar, and that is what Jesus meant when he said her story will be told for years to come.

Let them be.  Play your part. They are playing theirs.  They bring their very expensive gift in their own alabaster jar and pour praise and worship on Jesus in a way only they and Jesus understands. You do not know from what they have been saved, the price they pay, and why they chose to minister the way they do.