John 12:7-11: in context

Mary of Bethany has poured a jar of costly perfume over Jesus' feet, and some have objected that it was wasteful, that the money might have gone to the poor. Jesus defends her: leave her alone; she has kept this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, he says, but you do not always have me. Meanwhile a crowd gathers, coming not only to see Jesus but to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead; and the chief priests, alarmed that many were believing because of Lazarus, plot to kill him too.

The heart of the scene is Jesus' defense of a lavish, seemingly impractical act of devotion. Mary's perfume was expensive, poured out all at once, gone in a moment; and to the practical mind it looked like waste, money that could have done real good for the poor. Jesus does not accept the objection. He receives Mary's extravagant gift and honors it, saying she has done a beautiful thing, keeping this for his burial. His words, you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me, are not a dismissal of the poor, whom he loved and served, but a defense of the truth that there is a place for devotion to Christ himself that need not be justified by utility. Not everything must be practical; not every gift must be measured by its usefulness. Sometimes love pours itself out on Christ in a way that looks, to the calculating eye, like waste, and it is precisely then that it is beautiful. There is a caution here against a purely utilitarian faith that can only value what is useful and productive, that would reduce all devotion to service and leave no room for the extravagant, impractical outpouring of love on God for his own sake. Mary's gift was not useful; it was worship, love lavished on Christ, and he called it beautiful. There is room, and need, for that kind of devotion, the gift given not because it is practical but because he is worth it.

Is my faith so utilitarian that I can only value what is useful and productive, leaving no room for lavish, impractical devotion to Christ for his own sake, or can I, like Mary, pour out something costly on him simply because he is worth it?