Matthew 26:8 · World English Bible
Matthew 26:8 Meaning But When His Disciples Saw This
But when his disciples saw this, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?
What does Matthew 26:8 mean?
The mind that calls love a waste is the mind still keeping accounts, still certain there is not enough to spend freely. Indignation here is the ego's arithmetic, the insistence that everything must be justified by use, that a gift given for its own sake is a loss.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Matthew 26:8 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
The mind that calls love a waste is the mind still keeping accounts, still certain there is not enough to spend freely. Indignation here is the ego's arithmetic, the insistence that everything must be justified by use, that a gift given for its own sake is a loss. What the calculating mind names extravagance is only love that refuses to be rationed, and its objection reveals the fear beneath all hoarding, the belief that giving leaves one poorer.
A mind that sees generosity and feels offended has mistaken thrift for virtue. It guards against a scarcity that was never real. The waste it fears is not the ointment spilled but the ego's grip loosening, and it is this loosening, not the loss of anything precious, that it rises up to condemn.
Disciples: the parts of the mind still bound to the ego's accounting, measuring love as though it could be spent too freely
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Live Matthew 26:8 today
- Do one thing today with no payoff attached, a walk with no steps counted, a song played all the way through. Let it be useless on purpose.
- When someone you know spends money or time on something you would not have chosen, keep the opinion to yourself. Your irritation is about your own tight grip, not their choice.
- Before you explain why something was a waste, pause and ask whether you actually wanted to do it yourself. Criticism of generosity is usually envy wearing a sensible coat.
What have you called wasteful lately that was really just love you did not know how to allow?
The same truth in other traditions
Taoism · Chuang Tzu
A gnarled tree was called useless, so no axe touched it and it grew vast. The demand that everything justify itself is the smallest way to see.
Zen
A student asked the point of sitting still for hours. The teacher said there is no point, and that is exactly why it is worth doing.
Sufism · Rumi
There is a kind of giving that accountants will always call foolish. Let them count, and keep pouring.
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