Wasteful things irritate us.
Wasting food. "Did you clean your plate or are we throwing away perfectly good food?" Waste of time. "Was that 16 hours best served sitting in front of a television playing Halo or Farmville or Facebook?" Wasting of money. "I just bought an i-Phone last month and the new one comes out next month." Wasting energy. "Nic, did you realize that the bathroom light has been on all day while we were at work?" Wasting opportunities. "I work so hard during the week, I really just want to sleep in on Sundays."
Many times, whether or not you are wasting something depends on your perspective. Some people would say that not cleaning your plate is actually better for you and is not a waste of food. Some say that the hours spent on Facebook is actually helping them connect with friends and isn't a waste of time. But what happens when two different perspectives clash over how to appropriately honor Jesus? Before we really dig in, let's pray.
We're going to be studying Mark 14 today if you want to follow along in your Bibles.
Jesus was anointed at Bethany.
Mark 14:1-11 (NIV) says, "Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 'But not during the Feast,' they said, 'or the people may riot.' While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head."
"Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, 'Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor.' And they rebuked her harshly. 'Leave her alone,' said Jesus. 'Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.' "
"Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over."
Jesus has entered the final week of his life on earth.
From here till the end of the gospel, Mark is entering the time known as the passion, the events leading up to his death on the cross. For the last couple of weeks we've seen Jesus trash the temple courtyard, irritate and infuriate the religious leaders, commend a widow for incredible faith and trust in God, and predict the destruction of the temple and the Jewish way of life as they knew it.
One of the other things that we also learned is that chapter divisions and headings aren't really that helpful in understanding the Bible, but are only useful for finding your place in your reading. The reason I say this is because today's passage is like some of the earlier sections where Mark likes to create a sandwich, kind of a biblical "Oreo", if you will.
In Mark 14 Mark describes a dark backroom gathering of religious leaders hatching a conspiracy to murder Jesus. On the other side of this passage is the traitor Judas slithering off to meet this group. Then you have this beautiful section in the middle about Jesus being anointed as an act of worship. This is a common tactic of the gospel writers of illustrating contrast in order to prove a point. So three seemingly unrelated episodes come together to paint a better picture than they could on their own. We'll dig into the religious leaders and Judas' betrayal a little later on, but let's focus on the white center of our Oreo for a while.
Jesus and the disciples were in the home of Simon the leper.
Picture for a moment everyone sitting around eating a great meal and talking about what's been going on in their lives. First off, you've got the fact that you're in Simon's house, who is called Simon the leper. He's probably saying things like, "I can't believe I'm actually home! After all these years of not being able to be around my family and not being able to associate with anyone except for the other lepers. Having to live as an outcast, my body starting to fall apart, and now here I am, completely healed and sitting across the table from Jesus." Then Peter jumps in, because that's what he does as the resident story topper and says, "Hey, remember that time that I walked on water?" Everyone kind of looks around because that's a hard one to beat. Then finally Lazarus clears his throat and says, "Oh yeah. That's a great story Peter. I love hearing that one. Almost as much as the one about being dead, and then not."
We forget sometimes that these are real people that Jesus is sitting around the table with, and they all have a story of how Jesus has radically changed their lives in some way. All of them have a reason to show love and gratitude for the way Jesus has impacted them deeply.
Then right in the middle of this meal, Mary shows up with an alabaster jar full of perfume and pours it on Jesus' head and feet. This is the part of the story that I really want to focus on. I love this particular section of scripture because I think it paints a picture of what I like to call, "Wasted on Jesus."
Mary "wasted" the perfume by pouring it on Jesus.
I've read this particular passage and heard it preached about, but it wasn't until recently that I found out just why this was such a big deal. I mean, pouring perfume on somebody's head was actually customary to honor a guest. I'll admit that pouring the entire thing seems a little strange, but I still didn't get the significance of the act. But if you look back in Mark 6:30-37 you'll remember that there are 5,000 men, not including the women and children, following Jesus around, and it's dinner time. Jesus turns to the disciples and tells them to feed the crowd. Their response is in Mark 6:37 (NIV) is, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" Now jump back to this picture. It says that the value of her jar of perfume could have fed over 5,000 people. It might also help to think about it in modern terms. The national average income according to Social Security Online is $40,934.93. Imagine dumping this amount of money on Jesus' head. All of a sudden it makes sense that there is a burst of outrage and confusion.
The response to Mary's loving act of devotion was, "Why this waste of perfume?" which literally meant, "What's the point of this destruction?" In reality they were saying, "We can think of better things to do with your money than waste it on Jesus." Mark just says that some of those present started to rebuke her strongly, but in the other gospels it specifically mentions Judas as being the spokesperson. It also mentions that he had been stealing from the disciples' finances.
Being generous evokes strong responses from other people.
Generosity is pretty easy when we're talking about other people's money. Generosity has not necessarily always been a strong point in my past, but I definitely recognize it in others when I see it. If you know someone who is unusually generous, one of two things can happen. You either want to emulate them because you see something in them that inspires you to be better, or you criticize them because you see something in them that you don''t like about yourself.
I love Jesus' response to the harsh criticism. He essentially says, "Back off! What's your deal? Can't you see what she has done is beautiful?" I want to learn how to honor Jesus in such a way that he'll in turn say to me, "You've done something beautiful." Wouldn't we all like to hear him say that we've used our time, talent, and resources to do something beautiful for him? However, to be fair, we should ask ourselves when exactly was the last time we offered our time, talents, or resources to Jesus in such an extravagant way? You might be thinking to yourself, "I definitely don't have $40,000 just laying around waiting to use for Jesus."
Initially, I wasn't going to preach about money. I personally really identified with her act of worship before Jesus as an extravagant display of love, which it was. However, it was her act of sacrificially offering this gift, and the responses it incurred, that made it more clear that the attitude associated with the money and resources in general was at the heart of this story. One of the reasons that Jesus says that it is a beautiful thing is because, "She did what she could." This is strangely reminiscent of what Jesus said about the widow in Mark 12 who gave two small copper coins. The widow gave what she could.
So where was the outrage by the disciples as the widow was giving her two copper coins? Wasn't her offering an act of devotion and love? In comparison, her two copper coins might as well have been a year's wages for her. I wonder if the disciples really cared as much about the poor as they claimed? I'm sad to say, I wonder if we really care about the poor as much as we claim to. I think the next verse has been misinterpreted into saying what some want it to say. Jesus goes on to say in Mark 14:7 (NIV), "The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me." There are those who want to write off the poor around us. We rationalize, "They're poor because they're lazy. I don't want to help them, they'll just buy booze." We tell ourselves that there will always be poor people.
The poor will always be with us. What is our response to them?
I think that Jesus' comment was an indictment on his disciples' attitudes and about Jewish disobedience, rather than about a statement of unchangeable fact. In the Jewish law, God had set it up so that every year of Jubilee, all debts were be erased and property returned. However, in Jesus' day, people were continuing to unfairly take advantage of others, thereby keeping them poor. Today we often look at people who are poor and convince ourselves that they're poor because of something they did or because God wants it that way. In reality, there are "godly poor" and "sinful poor". On the other hand, people like to demonize those with money and say, "Those evil rich people should be giving to the poor." This is a slippery slope, considering that those are pretty much the same words that came out of Judas' mouth. Just like there are godly poor, there are also godly rich and sinful rich people. Our first priority is to look at how we are using what God has provided to us, whether it is 2 small copper coins or a $40,000 jar of perfume.
Often people wonder, "Do I worship Jesus or do I help poor people?" YES! It is not an either/or question. Yes we worship Jesus AND we help people. Anyone who shows the kind of reckless love and devotion to Jesus as this woman did is going to want to naturally turn around and love others in the same way. Jesus himself said that anything you do for the people on the fringes of society who everyone else shuns, you're doing for him.
True worship is a lifestyle.
This goes way beyond how we use our money. It extends into using everything we have and are to do beautiful things for Jesus because of our love for him. We don't do it as some kind of way to earn good favor from God. We don't do it to feel better about ourselves because we're helping someone else. We do it for them because we love him. Let me say that again. We do it for them because we love him.
I know when you saw the worship guy standing on stage about to preach, you probably thought it would be about worship. You're absolutely right. Worship is much bigger than music. Worship is much bigger than just what goes on in this building. Worship includes how we worship God with our finances, relationships, and priorities. True worship is a lifestyle. It is looking at the situation God has placed us in and saying, "Jesus, how can I use this for you?"
What has God placed in your hands that you can use for beautiful things?
Are you using your treasure for beautiful things? If you are younger and don't have a lot of money and resources, start with what you have first. If you're older and you don't have a lot, start with what you have first. Do what you can with what you have. If you have a lot, you can do a lot of beautiful things.
Are you using your time for beautiful things?
Start serving. There is no shortage of ways to serve, whether it be through Inner City Mission, your church, mission trips to Haiti, or whatever God lays on your heart.
Are you using your talents for beautiful things?
I love what one of the people at our worship arts orientation said. She said, "I know I don't have a lot of talent, and I'm older, but I'm not dead, so I want to honor him with whatever I've got."
If you're here today and you're older, saying, "I'm retired and I'm tired" won't cut it. God used Abraham when the Bible said that he was as good as dead. If you're breathing, you can still do beautiful things. If you are younger and feel like you're too busy with school and other things, that doesn't cut it either. Things will never get less busy. If you're a mother or a father and you're wondering how you could possibly fit in anything else, remember that one day your children will follow your example of generosity. Age doesn't limit the ability to honor Jesus with beautiful things. The only thing that limits us is just our willingness to seize those opportunities.
Are you using your talents for beautiful things? God has given everyone specific talents and abilities to be used for his glory. If you don't know what those are, you're not going to find out by not trying. Get involved in something. If it's not your gift, okay. Try again. There's nothing like getting into something in which you're not gifted to gain an appreciation for the beautiful things that other people are doing.
God wants us to "waste" every ounce of our lives on Jesus by worshiping him, loving him, his church, and his world in beautiful ways. From here on out, are we going to stand and criticize, or jump in with both feet and extravagantly show Jesus how much we love him?
Communion meditation.
Mark 14:9 (NIV) says, "I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Why did Jesus say that this particular woman's act of worship would be remembered side by side with the gospel? Because captured within this story and the image of what she did is a wonderful way of understanding Jesus' sacrifice. In breaking the jar, it foreshadowed the breaking of Jesus' body on the cross. In pouring out the perfume, we see the fragrant sacrifice of Christ's precious blood. People found it outrageous that she would pour out a year's salary worth of perfume. People today still find it outrageous that God would willingly allow Jesus' blood to be shed. So here we are gathered around a table, taking communion, and remembering all of the ways that Jesus has changed our lives, just like he changed the lives of Simon the leper, Lazarus, and Mary. But unlike them, we can see all the way from his anointing to his death on a cross, to his resurrection, and one day, to his glorious return. Someday, we'll be sitting around another table in heaven, adding our own stories to Simon's or Lazarus's as we share together what God has done in our lives.