Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a calm sea at dawn

Mark 14:6 · World English Bible

Mark 14:6 Meaning But Jesus Said

But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me.

Read it in the app

What does Mark 14:6 mean?

The rush to correct her is the ego's love of judgment, the quick reflex that measures another's gift and finds it wrong. Those who scold her are troubled because open love unsettles a mind that keeps careful account, and its first move is to call generosity a mistake.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Mark 14:6 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The rush to correct her is the ego's love of judgment, the quick reflex that measures another's gift and finds it wrong. Those who scold her are troubled because open love unsettles a mind that keeps careful account, and its first move is to call generosity a mistake. To let her alone is to withdraw the judgment entirely and let the loving act be what it is, unweighed and unaccused.

A good work is any deed that comes from love rather than fear, and it needs no defense against the counting mind. The one who blesses without holding back has done the only thing that was ever worth doing, and the accusers had nothing real to correct.

Woman: the part of the mind that gives freely from love, unsettling to those who keep account

Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Christian Psychology lens

Live Mark 14:6 today

  1. Let one thing be done differently today, the loaded dishwasher, the folded laundry, the email with the odd phrasing, and say nothing about it.
  2. When someone is generous in a way that strikes you as too much or badly timed, thank them instead of correcting them. Your accounting is not the point of their gift.
  3. In a meeting where someone brings an idea that is rough but sincere, find the real thing in it and say that out loud before anyone starts taking it apart.

Whose kindness have you been quietly grading instead of simply receiving?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching

The sage does not measure and rank. Where judgment stops, people are finally free to be themselves in front of you.

Buddhism · Dhammapada

It is easy to see the faults of others and hard to see your own. The eye that sorts everyone else goes blind looking inward.

Judaism · Pirkei Avot

Do not judge another until you have stood where they stand. What looks like a mistake from outside is often the whole story from inside.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Mark 14 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store