Holy Week - Journey to the Ultimate Overcomer: Holy Wednesday

Shelsea Becker
Apr 1
2 min read

By Shelsea Becker

Holy Wednesday - Blue - Surrender and Devotion

Before the crowd celebrated His entrance…

Mary prepared Him for His death.

Now let’s sit in this moment with Mary a little longer, because what she did wasn’t casual—it was devotion. When I began to look at the colors of Holy Week, I couldn’t ignore the color blue. Blue represents heaven, surrender, and devotion. It’s the color that draws our eyes upward, reminding us of something higher, something eternal, something beyond ourselves. When you go back to the priest’s breastpiece, the blue stone {sapphire} is traditionally connected to the tribe of Dan. Dan means “judge,” and that’s interesting because discernment and judgment are connected, not in a critical way, but in a seeing clearly kind of way. A knowing. A recognizing. And Mary saw something others didn’t.

She had just watched Jesus raise her brother from the dead. This wasn’t secondhand information or a story she heard—she saw Him call a dead man out of a grave. So when she poured out that expensive perfume, the kind of high-end oil used for the burial of a king, she wasn’t simply saying thank you. She was responding from a place of deep knowing. There is a difference between gratitude and devotion. Gratitude says, “Thank You,” but devotion says, “You can have everything.” Devotion is deeper. It is formed in those places where you realize you could not have gotten out on your own, when you understand that the only reason you are not in a pit, not in prison, not in the grave, is because a God who knows your name reached in and pulled you out. That kind of love shifts something inside of you, and when that realization truly hits, you don’t hold back—you pour out.

Mary spared no expense. Scripture tells us the perfume was worth about a year’s wages, and she poured it out in a moment. Why? Because when devotion is real, it doesn’t calculate or measure. It doesn’t hold something back “just in case.” It gives everything. And we can’t miss what happened next—the room got uncomfortable. People had opinions. They questioned her, judged her, criticized her, and she didn’t stop. She didn’t shrink back, she didn’t explain herself, and she didn’t apologize. That is how you know it is devotion, because full surrender does not answer to man. Most people will not understand your devotion, and they do not need to. That is between you and God.

And I can’t help but wonder, when we move forward to Passover and Jesus kneels down to wash the disciples’ feet, if they thought about Mary. Did they remember what she did? Did they recognize it now? Because here is Jesus, the King, the One worthy of everything, and He is now the One pouring Himself out. Mary poured out oil on His feet, and Jesus would pour out His life for theirs. That is devotion. And blue reminds us to lift our eyes, to see clearly, to recognize what is happening in front of us, because when you truly see Him, you will not be able to hold anything back.

Love, Shelsea