Human beings have the capacity to perform acts of both stunning
ugliness and incredible beauty. On the ugly side are acts like
war crimes, torture, other acts of cruelty and oppression.
On the beautiful side, people often surprise us with acts of
kindness, compassion, understanding, service,
sacrifice. Think of doctors willingly
heading into war zones to save lives.
Sometimes even a small, seemingly insignificant act of
love can be so moving it brings you to tears.
Both the really ugly acts and the really beautiful acts have
something in common. They both reveal what a person
values. Specifically, they reveal an
equation or comparison that person values something more
then they value something else. What makes an act of cruelty
horrifically ugly is that the perpetrator values their own
power or pleasure above someone else's basic human dignity.
They treat the other person as less than human.
They value their own enjoyment or profit more than the other
person's humanity. What makes it truly beautiful?
Act beautiful isn't the person who's valuing someone else's
well-being more than something else that would otherwise be
valuable to them. Someone who dives into an icy
river to try to save a drowning child values the possibility of
saving that child's life more than the certainty of otherwise
preserving their own. They're counting that child's
life as more valuable than their own.
And so both ugly acts and beautiful acts are revelations.
They're flashpoints. They show in an instant what
someone is made of. They show what they value.
They show what someone puts first in their heart.
This morning we continue our series in Mark's gospel with
chapter 14, verses 1 to 11. If you don't have a Bible, you
can feel free to put up your hand.
Someone will bring you one. If you don't have a Bible, like
at home, you can feel free to keep it, read it.
We'd love to talk to you about it.
I don't see any need for Bibles. All right, that's fine.
In this passage, Mark 14-1 to 11, the wheels on the train
leading to Jesus's death begin to turn.
What Jesus promised will happen, that he will be betrayed to his
death now begins to happen. Our passage holds up two
intensely ugly evil acts that mirror each other and one
intensely beautiful act that not only contrasts with the evil
acts, it even confounds those who saw it happen.
This was an act that was so beautiful only Jesus understood
it rightly. Please listen as I read Mark 14,
verses 1 to 11. It was now two days before the
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief
priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by
stealth and kill him, for they said not during the feast, lest
there be an uproar from the people.
And while he was at Bethany, in the House of Simon the Leper, as
he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster
flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, And she broke the
flask and poured it over his head.
There were some who said to themselves indignantly, Why was
the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have
been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.
And they scolded her, but Jesus said, Leave her alone.
Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing
to me. For you always have the poor
with you, and whenever you want you can do good for them.
But you will not always have me. She has done what she could.
She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is
proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done we'll be told
in memory of her. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one
of the 12, went to the chief priests in order to betray him
to them. And when they heard it, they
were glad and promised to give him money, and he sought an
opportunity to betray him. In our passage, the two
intensely ugly acts form a sandwich around the one
intensely beautiful act. In verses one to two, the
religious authorities plot to kill Jesus.
In verses 10 and 11, Judas, one of Jesus 12 disciples, decides
to betray Jesus to the authorities to hand him over to
death. Stuffed in between In verses 3
to 9, an anonymous woman shows extravagant devotion to Jesus.
She performs an act that values Jesus so highly nobody
understands it but Jesus. So as we walk through the
passage, we're going to consider first the beginning, then the
end, then the middle. We'll spend most of our time on
the middle. These ugly acts and the one
beautiful act turn on one question.
What does Jesus deserve from you?
That's the key question our passage raises.
What does Jesus deserve from you?
The contrasting actions in our passage reveal how much the
different characters valued Jesus.
For the High priest in Judas, he was nothing.
In fact, he was less than nothing.
For the anonymous woman, he was everything.
What does Jesus deserve from you .1?
Not hatred. What does Jesus deserve from
you? Not hatred.
But hatred, of course, is what the religious authorities felt
and showed toward Jesus. Hatred is what motivated them to
plot his death. We just saw this in verses one
to two. Looking at the beginning of
verse one, it was now two days before the Passover and the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. This makes it the Wednesday
before Good Friday. The Passover and the Feast of
Unleavened Bread were two parts of a single week long religious
festival. The Passover was a meal that was
celebrated on a single night. It was a yearly memorial of
God's saving work in the Exodus. And the Feast of Unleavened
Bread followed the Passover for the next 7 days.
For those seven days the Israelites would clean out all
the leaven from their homes and they would eat unleavened Bread
as a reminder of the time when God brought them out of Egypt in
such a hurry they didn't have time to have any leavened bread.
So you could use the term Passover for either the one
night meal or the whole festival that extended for a week.
Verses one and two continue. And the chief priests and the
scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill
him, for they said not during the feast, lest there be an
uproar from the people. The chief priests and the
scribes are religious authorities who have opposed
Jesus throughout Mark's Gospel, and here their opposition to Him
comes to a head. They're not content with
opposing him. They want to eliminate him.
But they have a problem. During the Passover, in the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, the population of Jerusalem swelled
by a factor of at least five, maybe 10.
Jerusalem might have had about 30,000 year round residents, but
during the three yearly pilgrimage feasts that would
balloon to at least 150,000, maybe more like 300,000.
And during the Passover, expectations of deliverance ran
high. The festival celebrated the time
when God delivered his people from living under an oppressive
other nation. Here in Jerusalem in the 1st
century AD, the Jews are once again living under an oppressive
foreign power, so tensions were high.
Passover was not only a reminder of God's faithfulness to His
people in the past, it was also a reminder of everything that
was painful in the present. And the scribes and chief
priests know that Jesus is a popular teacher.
Jesus has been teaching openly in the temple before large
crowds. The authorities want to kill him
off, but they can't just come in and snatch him out of the
temple. It might cause a revolt, it
might cause a protest, and that might either result in direct
opposition to them, or it might cause such a stir that the
Romans come in and stamp it out and then revoke or restrict
privileges and liberties that they've had.
So they don't want the people to oppose them.
They don't want the people to make such a mess that Rome is
going to come in and crack down. So the authorities are caught
between a rock and a hard place. Their hatred of Jesus means they
want him gone, but they don't know how to do that without
hurting their own position. So it's likely that they simply
wanted to wait out the week long festival before taking action.
It's only two days away. It only lasts for a week.
People will then go home. Things will quiet down.
Then they can find a way to quietly remove Jesus from the
scene. That was their intent.
Part of their plan came true. They would arrest Jesus and have
him killed. But it wouldn't be on their
timeline. It would be on God's timeline.
What timeline was that? Jesus would be killed two days
later on the very day of Passover.
Ancient Jews counted days from evening to evening, so the
evening of the Last Supper and the morning of the crucifixion
were considered one day. It's still the Passover when
Jesus gets killed. Why was Jesus crucified on the
very day of the Passover? Because he is the true and
perfect Passover lamb. Israel were slaves in Egypt and
God rescued them from oppression, but he also taught
them a lesson about a deeper bondage that they lived in a
greater debt than anything that a slave could be in is the
bondage and burden of their sin. On the night when God brought
them out of Egypt, He sent a destroyer, an avenging Angel, to
strike down all the first born of Egypt as his wrath against
the Egyptians. And he had the Israelites kill a
lamb. It's mere blood on every
doorpost of every household, so that the destroyer would spare
those houses and those houses only.
The Israelites were not redeemed because they were better than
the Egyptians. The Israelites were not redeemed
because they were morally superior to the Egyptians.
The Israelites deserve to have that avenging Angel due to their
own first born, exactly what God did to the Egyptians.
The only difference was they had the blood of a lamb smeared
above their door. This is one of the clearest
pictures in the whole Old Testament of what Jesus came to
do. He came to become the true and
perfect Passover lamb. Each of us deserves death for
our sins. Each of us deserves God's wrath.
Each of us has rebelled against Him.
Each of us has turned against God.
And what we deserve is to be struck down, not merely in our
mortality, but struck down eternally in hell forever.
The ultimate purpose for which God the Eternal Son became
Incarnate was to become this Passover lamp, to shed His blood
for the complete forgiveness and redemption of everyone who turns
from sin and trusts in Him. If you've never turned from sin
and trusted in Christ, believe in Him today.
His blood is the full price paid for all of the sins of all who
will believe, so repent and trust in Him.
On the third day he rose from the dead, showing that death had
no power over Him, and death will have no power over all
those who trust in Him. If you believe in Jesus, you
will be raised forever by the power of His resurrection.
Brothers and sisters, members of Trinity Baptist Church marvel at
God's Providence. Human hatred led to Jesus's
death, but God works through that evil on His own timeline to
bring about the redemption of all who believe.
JC Raul has a beautiful reflection on how God's
Providence is displayed in these verses.
Raul says in every way the counsel of these wicked men was
turned to foolishness. They thought they were going to
put an end forever to Christ's spiritual Kingdom, and in
reality they were helping to establish it.
They thought they would make him vile and contemptible by
crucifixion, and in reality they made Him glorious.
They thought to have put Him to death privately and without
anyone seeing. Instead they were compelled to
crucify him publicly and before the whole nation of the Jews.
They thought to have silenced his disciples and stopped their
teaching, and instead they supplied them with a text and a
subject forever more. If you're not a believer in
Jesus, how would you describe your own attitude toward him?
Maybe neutral or indifferent? Maybe kind of distantly
respectful of his teaching? Maybe curious but unsure.
I doubt you'd say that you flat out hate him.
But I want to ask you, what about Jesus and his teaching do
you not like? Is there anything in Jesus
himself, or the things he says and does that provokes maybe
even intense dislike on your part?
If there is, what's the what's the root of the conflict?
What's the nub of the issue between you and Jesus?
When it comes to responding to Jesus, there ultimately is no
neutrality. Finally, there's no
indifference. In the end, you're either for
Jesus or against him. You're either with Jesus, or you
will suffer for all eternity without him.
Jesus often provokes dislike. Jesus even provokes hatred, but
he never deserves it. He's got the Son Incarnate.
He's perfectly righteous and perfectly merciful.
He's perfectly holy and perfectly compassionate.
He deserves not hatred, but the precise opposite of hatred,
namely perfect love. So often we give Jesus something
much more like the opposite of what He deserves.
Certainly that's what his follower Judas did in the most
grievous, imaginable way. So point #2 not betrayal.
What does Jesus deserve from you?
Not betrayal. Remember, we're considering the
outside parts of the sandwich 1st, and now we're skipping to
the end looking at verses 10 and 11.
In verses one and two, as we just saw the scribes and chief
priests start trying to plot Jesus's death.
Then in verses 10 and 11, Judas becomes the key that can set
their plot in motion. Look again at verses 10 and 11.
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12, went to the chief
priests in order to betray him to them.
And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give
him money, and he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Judas's actions here are the mirror image of the scribes and
chief priests they were seeking. He was seeking, they were trying
to figure out how to get rid of Jesus by stealth, and he was
seeking an opportunity. They wanted to seize and kill
Jesus. Judas wanted to hand him over so
that they could. Judas had unique access to
Jesus. The 12 disciples were Jesus's
inner circle. So Judas could give the scribes
a way to seize Jesus. Perhaps in the quiet, in the
dark, away from crowds where nobody would interfere, Judas
could provide just the opportunity they were looking
for. Now, the Gospel of Mark is not
explicit about Judas's motive. It does come right after the
woman's a seemingly wasteful gift, and the report of these
events in John's Gospel makes Judas's greed explicit, so we're
probably justified in seeing greed as the last straw that
broke the camel's back. We do learn that the scribes
offered to give Judas money in exchange for betraying Jesus,
but we don't know whether Judas would have counted on that as a
reward or they just did it to sort of sweeten the deal.
Instead, Mark's focus here, by not even explicitly specifying a
motive, is to simply focus on the sheer hatred and act of
betrayal. Mark doesn't give us an explicit
reason, because there is no good reason.
Judas heart toward Jesus is just as bad as the scribes, and even
worse. He doesn't just hate him, he
betrays him. He doesn't just oppose him, he
takes advantage of the unique access he had to him in order to
have him destroyed. Did you notice the telling
detail at the beginning of verse 11, speaking about the scribes
and the chief priests? And when they heard it, they
were glad. What a haunting detail.
What a bitter truth. When Judas came offering a way
to fulfill their plan, they rejoiced.
Their hearts were so thoroughly turned against Jesus that the
prospect of their plans being fulfilled brought them a thrill
of sinful pleasure. We learned in both Luke and John
that Judas's betrayal was incited by Satan himself, and
yet Judas remains responsible for the evil of his own heart.
Obviously, Judas's act of betraying Jesus is unique, and
it is uniquely terrible. This is the single greatest sin
anyone ever committed against Jesus.
So we want to be careful not to identify too quickly or to
totally with Judas. Yet an analogous way, we can
still be tempted to betray Jesus in a whole variety of lesser
ways, though none of these might be as serious as Judas's
betrayal. We can be tempted to betray
Jesus by minimizing or hiding our commitment to Him when we
think it'll cost us with other people.
We can betray Jesus by compromising with the world's
values, beliefs, and morals. We can betray Jesus by
ingratitude for what he's done for us, by treating his dying
love for us as a light thing. No big deal.
We can betray Jesus by choosing sin over serving him.
And the sad reality is that some professing Christians do betray
Jesus by abandoning him altogether.
Now all true believers persevere to the end.
No true believer can give up Jesus fully or finally.
Yet many who claim to believe in Jesus do completely turn away
from him. Hebrews 6 describes those who
fully give up on Jesus as doing the following.
They are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm
and holding him up to contempt. Apostasy is the greatest act of
betraying Jesus. What can you do to guard against
the very first creeping roots of a temptation to betray Jesus?
What could tempt you to sell Jesus out?
Would you ever sign on the dotted line if the world
promised you X in exchange for betraying Jesus?
How would you fill in that blank?
Or how can you help others resist every impulse that points
them in the direction of betraying Jesus?
What has Jesus done to deserve betrayal, whether Judas's or
ours? Absolutely nothing.
What does he deserve instead? Not hatred, not betrayal .3, but
devotion. What does Jesus deserve from
you? Not hatred, not betrayal, but
devotion. This is the main point of verses
3 to 9, and it's really the main point of the whole passage.
Mark sandwiches it between these acts of hatred and betrayal to
highlight it by contrast. Now, because this is such a rich
and full section, I'm going to walk through it in three sub
points. What Jesus deserves from you is
total devotion. Here comes three features of
that devotion #1 which we see in verse 3.
Devotion to Jesus is costly. Devotion to Jesus is costly.
Jesus deserves that you give him everything.
Looking at verse 3. And while he was at Bethany in
the House of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a
woman came with an alabaster flask, appointment of pure nard,
very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his
head. Bethany is a small town just
outside Jerusalem where Jesus and his disciples have been
staying in the days leading up to the Passover.
Here Jesus and his disciples are at a meal that would have had
the character of a banquet or a party.
That's what the phrase at table means.
If they're reclining at a table, that's a kind of festive
occasion. Now the meal is being hosted by
Simon the leper. We don't know anything else
about this Simon. Presumably he was someone whom
Jesus had healed of leprosy. Ancient Jews didn't use
surnames. They didn't have last names, and
Simon is one of the most common names of the day.
So just about every Simon would have had some kind of nickname
or tag, a way of identifying who they were.
So Jesus and his disciples are in the midst of this party when
an anonymous woman enters and does something very unusual,
something very unconventional. John identifies this woman as
Mary, the sister of Lazarus, but Mark keeps quiet about her
identity, so we'll just stick with her anonymity.
The guests at the banquet were presumably all male.
It would have likely been Jesus, his disciples, maybe a few other
male guests. At a banquet like this in 1st
century Judea, it would have been customary for women to only
enter to serve food and drink. So this woman enters, in a sense
to serve, but by no means to serve food and drink to the
guests. She brings in a jar of very
fine, very expensive perfume in a jar that is itself very
valuable. We learn in verse 5 that the
perfume was worth 300 denarii, which was an entire year's wages
for a day laborer. Call it $50,000 in today's
money. What did she do with it?
She breaks the jar and she pours the whole bottle over Jesus's
head. Now, anointing with perfume was
a sign of honour and affection. It's something that ancient Jews
might have done to show hospitality to an especially
honored guest. And the normal way to do it will
be to trickle out just a few drops.
That's all you needed to get the effect.
Just like with perfume or Cologne today, a little bit is
enough. That's also why the jar this
woman had would have likely had a long neck with a very thin
opening. Why?
So that when you pour it out, only a few drops come at once.
The valuable perfume would come out a teeny bit at a time.
But that's not what the woman does.
Instead, she breaks the jar and dumps the whole thing out.
This is essentially a family heirloom.
It may well have been passed down through generations.
It's something like a life savings in liquid form.
It could well have been a kind of financial security against
potential hardship. What does she do with it?
She pours it all out on Jesus. She gives it all up for Jesus.
As Sinclair Ferguson put it, in gratitude for the past.
She poured her future and her security on Jesus.
What is this picture? Jesus deserves your total
devotion. This woman's baffling act is a
picture of that. It's way more perfume than
anybody needs. It's presumably the most
valuable possession she has. Motivated by love for Jesus, she
devotes it all to Jesus. She can think of nothing better
to do with her most valuable possession then spend it all on
Him in one go. No one commanded her to do this.
No one asked her to do this. Instead, she took the initiative
she considered the most meaningful, costly way that she
could serve Jesus. And she did it.
How can you live a life devoted to Jesus?
First and foremost, trust in Him to save you.
Believe everything He teaches, especially His promises.
Build your life on His promises. Devote your hopes to what He
promises you. Resolve to give Him your
complete obedience. Decide that obeying Jesus is
worth it, no matter what it costs you, no matter what you
lose, no matter what you have to give up.
Love Him more than everyone and everything.
Don't give up Jesus for anything.
Instead, give up anything for Jesus.
What might it look like for you to live a life that's more and
more devoted to Jesus? Are there any things you take
for granted in your life that you might rethink?
Any things you think are simply owed to you or that belong to
you by rights that you might willingly consider giving up?
Why does Jesus deserve this total devotion if he's just
another human being? This would be insane and absurd.
Jesus deserves this total devotion because he's God
Incarnate. Just like a couple chapters ago
where the widow gave 2 coins all she had to live on, this woman
gives Jesus all she had. And in so doing she doesn't
contradict but instead fulfills the command to love God with all
her heart, soul, mind, and strength.
She loves God with all her heart, soul, mind and strength
by giving all she has to Jesus. One of the challenges of
applying this passage practically for us today is that
the woman's act was fitting because it was done to Jesus
himself in person, His body. She could show her devotion to
Jesus by doing something directly to Jesus.
Now that Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven,
we don't have Him here with us. So how do we show our devotion
to Him? In addition to the spiritual
postures toward Him that I've already mentioned, we also show
our devotion to Jesus by serving His people, as Jesus says in
Matthew 2540, referring to those who believe in Him.
Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these,
my brothers, you did it to me. What we do to other believers
for His sake, we do to Him. When you serve other Christians
out of love for Christ, you are devoting yourself to Christ.
We don't have Jesus with us bodily like this woman did.
So how can you show your devotion to Jesus?
By caring for His spiritual body.
She prepared His physical body for burial.
We prepare His spiritual body for resurrection.
What can you do this week to show Jesus your devotion to him?
Whatever it is, it's going to cost you something.
Devotion to Jesus is costly. Sub .2 devotion to Jesus is
criticized. We see this in verses 4 to 5.
Devotion to Jesus is criticized. Look at verses four and five.
There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was
the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have
been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.
And they scolded her. Note that it's some in the
plural who grumble about the woman's act.
These are presumably some of Jesus disciples.
We learned from some of the other gospels that Judas himself
objected, but Mark here says some, so Judas can't be the only
one. This also means that whatever
Judas's objective or or motive for objecting was, it doesn't
mean that all those who objected shared Judas's motive.
I think most of those who objected simply saw this as a
waste. You could call it poor
stewardship. Doesn't make economic sense.
Think how many poor people a year's wages could feed.
Think of all the good that this wasted perfume could have done
if somebody had just sold it and then carefully stewarded the
proceeds. Doesn't that good to many people
outweigh this weird, wasteful act?
So I don't think we're meant to find the objection itself to be
evil. I don't think we're even meant
to find it kind of unreasonable in human terms.
Under normal circumstances, it would be entirely reasonable,
but these aren't normal circumstances because Jesus is
there. Jesus deserves total devotion.
What this woman did was fitting because she did it to and for
Jesus. The equation makes sense only
because Jesus was the recipient. We'll talk about that more in
the next sub point. For now, we need to consider the
fact that this woman was criticized.
And notice she wasn't criticized despite her devotion to Jesus.
She was criticized for her devotion to Jesus.
She is the only woman in a room full of men besides Jesus.
All the men in the room get it wrong.
This one woman surrounded by men is the only one to get Jesus
right, and Jesus is the only one who gets her right.
As we'll see. Jesus himself will defend and
praise her for her act. Sometimes non believers
criticize Christians devotion to Jesus.
It looks like a pure waste. If you're not a Christian, they
might say to you that that money you're spending on church stuff
that could be better used serving people and meeting
practical needs in the community.
They might think that time you spend studying the Bible would
be better spent learning about wrongs in the world and figuring
out how to write them. By definition, to a non
believer, it's in a sense reasonable to consider devotion
to Jesus as a waste. A waste of time, a waste of
talent, a waste of money, a waste of effort.
Couldn't you be spending all that in better ways?
Sometimes, though, professing believers criticize devotion to
Jesus. Sometimes their criticism
reveals that, in fact, the ones doing the criticizing aren't
actually believers at all. If you criticize other
Christians for being so zealous about going to church or sharing
the gospel or reading the Bible and praying, take a good look at
your own heart. It might just be that the
devotion you're criticizing is absent completely from your
heart, and that's why you're criticizing it.
It might be that your lack of devotion to Jesus gives the
spiritual state of your own soul away.
Sometimes though, not only non Christians criticizing devotion
to Jesus, not even those who may prove to be false Christians
criticizing devotion to Jesus. Sometimes even genuine born
again believers will criticize other believers for not despite
their devotion to Jesus. This can especially happen when
someone else's devotion to Jesus might cost you something.
Over the centuries, countless Christian parents who I trust
were genuine believers have pleaded with their children not
to become missionaries. I don't claim to speak to every
possible circumstance here or every possible situation or
rationale, but sometimes what you have in the situation of a
parent or family member pleading with someone not to go far away
for Jesus sake is a genuine believer criticizing another
genuine believer because of their devotion to Jesus.
Someone has to set their face toward a place where Jesus is
not known or very little known, and they have to do all it takes
to get there. They have to do all it takes to
stay there. They have to do all it takes to
not look back. Somebody's got to do that to
keep on fulfilling the Great Commission.
These days, with air travel and with electronic communication,
it's easier than ever to come back.
It's easier than ever to get pulled off the field.
Someone has to make that resolve and keep that resolve.
And often in the face of initial opposition from family or
continued opposition from family.
It might not be a sacrifice that someone makes for the sake of
advancing the gospel, might not be universally understood by
those who know and love you, but it's worth it.
Why? Because Jesus is worth it.
Because it's an act of devotion to Him.
That type of devotion is the equivalent of breaking the whole
jar of your life and pouring it out on Jesus.
Sometimes you might let even the anticipation of being criticized
by a fellow believer turn you away from some act that would
express devotion to Jesus. Joe Bird gave me a good example
of this this week, reflecting on some of his own experience,
which also reflects some of mine.
Say a group of Christian friends are out together at a
restaurant. Is is somebody going to be that
awkward, pushy Christian who shares the gospel with your
server? Maybe it should be you, but you
think, oh, I don't want to be the extremo Christian.
I don't want to be the awkward Christian.
I don't want to be the one to make everybody else
uncomfortable. What's going on there?
You're anticipating criticism, or at the very least awkward
glances, a cold shoulder, implicit criticism, and how your
friends then relate to you. But think about what's happening
there. So often.
God uses one person's boldness to encourage, to inspire, to
embolden other Christians. Your example could elevate the
whole group. This happened to me.
I remember a time about a year and a half ago, I was out to
lunch with a group of Christian friends.
Joe's example brought this to my minds as we were leaving.
My dear friend, one of the best evangelist I've ever known,
Welton Bonner, shares the gospel with our server on the way out.
I was encouraged. I was convicted.
Man, I should have done that. I was it.
It so stuck with me that later that afternoon, like the next
thing I was going to was an appointment at a bank with one
of the reps of the bank. I'm like sitting across.
We're getting to know each other.
Welton's example so inspired me that I had a spiritual
conversation with that that bank Rep and invited that person to
come to church the very next Sunday.
Welton's boldness elevated me. Welton's boldness convicted me.
It made a difference. His costly devotion to Jesus
directly bore spiritual fruit in my life that very day.
Don't let other believers standards lower yours.
Instead, be willing to raise the bar on others devotion to Jesus.
Don't be surprised by criticism of your devotion to Jesus.
Don't let criticism deter you from devoting yourself to Jesus.
Pray for anyone who criticizes your devotion to Jesus that they
would grow more devoted to Him. Do not work for the world's
approval. Don't even work for fellow
believers. Approval.
Instead, work for Jesus approval.
Which brings us to #3 devotion to Jesus is celebrated.
Devotion to Jesus is celebrated. We see this in verses 6 to 9.
Celebrated by whom? By Jesus look first at verse 6.
But Jesus said leave her alone. Why do you trouble her?
She has done a beautiful thing to me.
I remember they were scolding her.
They were criticizing her to her face.
So Jesus steps in to defend her. Jesus asserts that they have got
both him and her wrong and she's got him right.
He says she's done a beautiful thing to him.
Why is it beautiful? Why is it fitting?
Why is it lovely? Because the worth of the gift
matches the worthiness of the recipient.
The value of her sacrifice gestures toward the value of the
one she's sacrificing for. Jesus worth everything.
And in a symbolic sense, she gives him everything.
That's what makes her act beautiful.
That's what makes her act not a bad example, but a beautiful
example. She is an example of what it
means to forsake everything and follow Christ.
She's an example for all of us of what it means to deny
ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.
Jesus continues in verse 7. For you always have the poor
with you, and whenever you want you can do good for them, but
you will not always have me hear.
Jesus quotes the first part of Deuteronomy 15 verse 11.
That whole verse says, for there will never cease to be poor in
the land. Therefore I command you, you
shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy, and
to the poor in your land. So when Jesus quotes the first
half of the verse, he expects them to remember the
second-half. Jesus is not down grading or
diminishing the importance of caring for the poor.
Instead, he's implying that caring for the poor is a
binding, ongoing duty. Now, in ancient Israel, there
were set times and ways in which ancient Jews would donate to the
poor, and they could also do do so by free will offerings or
giving alms. So how should devotion to Christ
relate to care for others in need, both inside and outside
the church? Just a few summary applications.
Love for Christ should inspire love for both insiders and
outsiders, believers and non believers.
Devotion to Christ should lead us to devote ourselves to good
works. Devotion to Christ should
inspire us to care for others inside and outside the church in
both spiritual and physical ways.
Devotion to Christ should lead us to seek both the temporal and
the eternal well-being of both believers and unbelievers, as
Paul says in Galatians 610. So then, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to all men and especially those of the
household of faith. So in verse 7, Jesus is saying
care for the poor is a valid concern, and there are many
other times to care for the poor.
In fact, there are all other times to care for the poor.
This time is unique. Why?
Because Jesus is with them now and he won't be much longer.
As He says in verse 8, she has done what she could.
She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
She has done what she could. What does that mean?
She has given all that she had to give.
Just like the poor widow, but on a very different scale.
What Jesus cares about is not the size of the gift, but the
state of the heart. And then Jesus says she did this
to anoint his body for burial. Now, he might mean that she did
this knowingly and intentionally because she understood that his
predictions of his death were about to be fulfilled.
That's possible. It's also possible that Jesus is
saying she acted better than she knew.
What she thought was merely an act of devotion and affection
was also an act of preparation. What she did to show forth her
love for Him was also showing forth his dying love for her.
In other words, this woman's act pictures not only a proper
response to the gospel, it also hints at the gospel itself.
It hints at the infinite value of the death Christ is going to
die. It hints at the infinite worth
of Christ giving himself totally for us on the cross.
It shows that not only is Jesus infinitely precious, so is His
coming death. But Jesus commendation of this
woman's act doesn't stop with his death.
It also looks forward to and beyond His resurrection.
Look at verse 9. And truly I say to you, wherever
the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done
will be told in memory of her. This promise was fulfilled by
the very act of Mark writing it down in his gospel.
Wherever the gospel is going to go, the Gospels will go with it.
So here we are hearing about this woman's act and fulfillment
of Jesus own promise. We're on the other side of other
side of the world from Jerusalem 2000 years later.
Here Jesus promises being fulfilled.
Her act deserves such commemoration because it
demonstrates total devotion and displays the worth of Jesus's
death. But Jesus is looking beyond his
death. He's confidently looking forward
to a time when the gospel will be proclaimed in all the world.
He's implying his resurrection and his ascension and the
outpouring of the Spirit. The gospel would not be good
news if Jesus stayed dead. The resurrection is what makes
Jesus's death worth proclaiming. Devotion to Jesus is celebrated.
The world may criticize it, nominal believers may criticize
it, even genuine believers may criticize it, but Jesus himself
celebrates it. Jesus commended her devotion,
and Jesus will commend your devotion.
Jesus publicly celebrated her act of service to him, and Jesus
will publicly celebrate your acts of service to him.
So labour to win Jesus's approval, Labour to please him,
labour to win his declaration of well done, good and faithful
servant. Is Jesus's commendation of you
enough? Is Jesus's celebration of you
enough? Is Jesus enough for you when He
takes away something you counted on or refuses to give you
something you deeply desire? Jesus deserves to be enough for
you. So let the promise of
commendation from Christ on the last day enable you to endure
any hard things someone else says about you now.
Let your life be full of beautiful acts done for Jesus
sake. The difference between an ugly
act and a beautiful act is the equation deep in your heart
that's motivating it. What is worth sacrificing?
Who or what is worth sacrificing for?
Will you give Jesus what he deserves from you?
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you
for ordaining in your infinite mercy that Jesus would give
everything to everything for us and everything to us.
We pray by your grace and the empowering work of your Spirit,
we would give everything to him. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.