Sacred Subtraction: Giving Up What We Love for What We Love More
In a world that constantly tells us to accumulate more, achieve more, and hold onto everything we have, the concept of sacred subtraction seems counterintuitive. Yet authentic Christian living often requires us to give up what we love for what we love more. This principle isn't about deprivation—it's about discovering the freedom that comes from proper priorities.
What Does Sacred Subtraction Mean?
Sacred subtraction is the spiritual discipline of releasing good things to make room for God's best. It's the recognition that sometimes our attachment to lesser loves prevents us from experiencing greater ones. Just as a marriage requires mutual sacrifice where each partner looks out for the other's best interests rather than their own, our relationship with God requires us to surrender our will to His.
This isn't about legalistic rule-following or joyless sacrifice. Instead, it's about understanding that God's ways are higher than our ways, and His plans for us are better than anything we could devise for ourselves.
Why Did Mary Pour Out Her Most Precious Possession?
In Mark 14:3-9, we encounter a powerful example of sacred subtraction through Mary of Bethany. She entered a room full of influential men—breaking social barriers that could have cost her dearly—and poured expensive perfume worth a year's wages over Jesus' head.
The perfume wasn't just expensive; it likely represented her life savings. In a time without stock markets, people stored wealth in commodities like spices and perfumes. Mary's gift was both financially and socially costly, yet she gave it freely.
Understanding Mary's Motivation
To understand Mary's extravagant worship, we need to look back just six days earlier to John 11, where Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. After four days in the tomb, when all hope seemed lost, Jesus spoke life back into death itself.
Mary had experienced Jesus' power in the most desperate moment of her life. She had cried out, "Lord, if you had only been here, my brother would still be alive," and discovered that even when God seems absent, He is working for our good.
What Does Authentic Worship Look Like?
Mary's worship teaches us several important principles about authentic faith:
Worship Requires Vulnerability
Mary entered that room knowing she would face criticism and social rejection. She chose to worship despite the potential consequences because her love for Jesus outweighed her need for human approval.
Too often, we invest our energy in looking good and managing our image rather than authentically worshiping God. We take multiple selfies before posting, carefully curate our social media presence, and hide behind our personalities ("I'm just not that expressive") rather than offering genuine worship.
Worship Costs Something
The disciples criticized Mary's "waste" of expensive perfume, suggesting it could have been sold to help the poor. While caring for the poor is indeed a biblical mandate, Jesus defended Mary's act of worship, recognizing that sometimes the good can distract us from the best.
Authentic worship always costs us something—whether it's our pride, our resources, our time, or our comfort zone.
How Does God Respond to Our Suffering?
When Jesus saw Mary and Martha weeping over Lazarus's death, Scripture tells us He was "deeply troubled" and filled with "deep anger." This wasn't anger at the people, but anger at the suffering itself. Our troubles trouble Jesus.
Even now, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, constantly making intercession for us. He knows our situations, understands our pain, and advocates on our behalf. When we suffer, it affects Him because suffering was never part of God's original design for humanity.
God's Timing Isn't Always Our Timing
Jesus could have prevented Lazarus's death by arriving earlier, but He chose to wait. Sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers the way we want, but it's always for our good. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
In our darkest moments—the most soul-crushing times in our lives—Jesus shines the brightest. What seems like delay or denial may actually be preparation for something greater than we could imagine.
What Did Jesus Give Up for Us?
The ultimate example of sacred subtraction is Jesus Himself. Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus didn't consider His identity in heaven something to grasp or hold onto. Instead, He released it to come to earth—born in a manger to a poor family, living without even a place to lay His head, and ultimately dying on a cross He didn't deserve.
The Bible says that "for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross." That joy wasn't the cross itself or even His resurrection—it was the relationship He could have with us. If you were the only person in history to say yes to Jesus, He still would have died for you.
How Can We Practice Sacred Subtraction Today?
Sacred subtraction looks different for everyone, but it always involves releasing our grip on something we value to make room for God's purposes:
It Might Mean Career Changes
Some may be called to leave the marketplace for ministry. Others might need to change how they approach their current work, viewing it as a mission field rather than just a paycheck.
It Might Mean Social Sacrifices
Like Mary, we might need to risk social standing to worship authentically. This could mean being open about our faith in environments where it's not popular, or choosing to prioritize church and spiritual growth over social activities.
It Might Mean Financial Generosity
God may call us to give sacrificially—not just our leftovers, but gifts that actually cost us something and require faith.
Why Is There Always More of God Available?
Any God we can fully understand isn't worthy of our worship. We could spend a thousand years studying His Word and 10,000 years in eternity and still be discovering new things about who He is.
The more of God we receive, the more we desire to worship. The more we worship, the more like Him we become. This creates a beautiful cycle of spiritual growth and intimacy with our Creator.
Life Application
This week, ask God what He might be calling you to release so you can experience more of His purposes in your life. Sacred subtraction isn't about losing something good—it's about making room for something better.
Consider these questions as you reflect on this principle:
What am I holding onto that might be preventing me from experiencing God's best for my life?
Where am I prioritizing human approval over authentic worship?
How has God shown His faithfulness to me in the past, and how should that impact my willingness to trust Him with my future?
What would it look like for me to worship God with the same extravagance that Mary showed?
Remember, God has something more for you. There is always more of Him available, and He is constantly preparing you for purposes beyond what you can imagine. The question is: what are you willing to give up to receive it?
