THE CHRISTIAN WALK: NEVER A WASTE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on His head as He was reclining at the table.

When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me. When she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Matthew 26:6-13

While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of 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. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Mark 14:3-9

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of My burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me.”

John 12:1-8

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, He went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who is touching Him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, Teacher,” he said.

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then He turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing My feet. You did not put oil on My head, but she has poured perfume on My feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Luke 7:36-50

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever wondered about what might have pushed Judas Iscariot over the edge toward betraying Jesus?

We get a hint in today’s devotion as we look at a wonderful act of devotion toward Jesus, a misinterpretation regarding the most important thing in life, and a rebuke meaning to instruct but resulting in prideful resentment.

First, the wonderful act of devotion.

The scene here is the home of Simon, a Pharisee who the scriptures tell us is or was a leper. The belief is that he was a man who once suffered from leprosy but was healed by Jesus. To distinguish him from other Simons, he maintained the label “the Leper”. Another hint that he was cured from his leprosy was that it was a communicable disease and so it would be highly unlikely that a leper would draw a group of people to have dinner with him and we know this was the purpose of this gathering, a dinner to pay honor to Jesus.

As for where the dinner took place, the scriptures tell us it was in Bethany, the place where not only Simon made home but Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary. You’ll remember that this is the same Lazarus who Jesus resurrected four days after he had died. You’ll also remember a certain gathering before this when Martha was busily working while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, giving Him her undivided attention. The scriptures tell us that Martha asked Jesus to rebuke Mary for not helping her but Jesus rebuked Martha instead, telling her that her sister had chosen the better thing to do.

Turning back to our scripture passages for today, a dinner held in Jesus’ honor by Simon the Leper six days before the Passover and attended by not only Jesus but His twelve disciples as well, we find Mary still fully devoted to her Lord. For when we read John’s account, we find she is “the woman” mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke who adds that Mary was a sinful woman, something that would frankly apply to any woman but it was an important point to add based on what people in attendance were thinking and how Jesus addressed those thoughts. In addition to this, and of little surprise, we read that while Mary is busy giving her attention to Jesus, Martha was serving those at the dinner. Some things never change, right?

So how did Mary show her devotion to Jesus?

Well, it came in the way of a special anointing with expensive perfume made of pure nard which Mary poured from an alabaster jar onto Jesus’ head and feet while he was reclining at the table. John’s account tells us that the house was filled with the perfume’s fragrance.

In Luke, we read where Mary cherished Jesus so much that she was weeping, her tears falling on His feet, wetting them before wiping them with her hair. She then kissed the feet of Jesus before anointing them with the costly perfume.

Mary not only freely poured out the nard onto Jesus but she also poured out the fullest measure of respect, honor, and affection for Him, something He appreciated so greatly that He made the following promise to her and everyone present:

“Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” Matthew 26:13

Well guess what? We are still reading and discussing Mary’s wonderful act of love and caring more than 2,000 years ago since she performed this blessed anointing of the Savior of the world, and we’ll continue to talk about it for as long as we have breath and the gospels to study and share with others.

As we move into the second part of this devotion and the events that took place that day six days before Passover, and therefore just a week before Jesus would be crucified, we see that not everyone present at dinner was appreciative of what Mary had done. In fact, the scriptures seem to indicate that only Jesus approved.

In Matthew and Mark’s account, we read where Jesus’ twelve disciples and possibly some others were indignant over what had happened. They saw what Mary had done as a waste, feeling that it could have been put to better use, like caring for the poor, than being poured out on their Master. Those raising objection cited the value of the perfume, worth a year’s wages or around 300 denarii. One denarius was approximately equivalent to $32 today and so if we were going to translate the full cost of the perfume used, it was around $9,600 and that would have definitely been a lot of money in biblical times (or even today for that matter).

As we look at John’s gospel, we see that Judas was the front man for the Twelve in the matter at hand. It’s very possible that he was actually the spokesperson for the rest as he was the money man, the keeper of the money bag. We don’t know where the money came from and certainly there is no indication that Jesus ever asked for money to support His ministry. Rather, we find Him always placing His faith in God to provide for Him and His followers, and God did just that. After all, remember Jesus had exhorted His followers to refrain from storing up treasures on earth, concentrating more on the treasures of heaven, and we know Jesus always perfectly practiced what He preached.

Judas Iscariot must have been asleep when Jesus offered this teaching because as we read, he was all about storing up treasures on earth to benefit himself and himself alone.

How bad was Judas’ problem?

So bad that he thought it was okay to steal money from the very money bag of His Master and fellow disciples. Maybe Judas was also not paying attention when God commanded His people not to steal.

Well, Judas and the other eleven disciples weren’t the only objectors to Mary’s action because Luke’s Gospel shows us that Simon, the host of the dinner, also had issues with what happened but for different reasons. Look again at his protest here:

When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who is touching Him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, Teacher,” he said.

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:39-50

Note here that Simon doesn’t start by addressing Jesus directly. He is simply wondering to himself why Jesus, someone he viewed as a prophet, would allow a sinful woman to do the things to Him that she was doing. The irony here is that Simon was once struck with leprosy and knew full well what it felt like to be ostracized and pushed to the fringes of society. Now, he was basically saying to himself that Mary had no right to touch Jesus because she was a sinner.

I guess Simon failed to get the memo that Jesus could see into the hearts and minds of anyone, and it’s obvious that He was fully aware of what His host was thinking and feeling. We know this because Jesus tells him he has something to tell to which Simon encourages Him to share, referring to Jesus as Teacher.

Well, indeed Jesus was a teacher and one of His favorite teaching tools was the parable. It was His go to way to drive His spiritual instruction to His followers and as we see, this moment with Simon was no different. Jesus provided the following scenario for Simon to ponder and then asked a question:

Now I think the average person would have agreed with Simon’s response. It made total sense that the person who owed the greater of the two debts would be the more appreciative after having that debt forgiven by the moneylender.

Then Jesus went onto the moral of His parable story.

You see, Simon wanted to make up Mary as being a greater sinner than he was when the truth of the matter was that they were both equally sinful in the eyes of Jesus. There is no pecking order among sinners, no ranking system for transgressions. One sin makes a person as much a sinner as the one who has committed 100. Paul simply states in Romans 3 that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. There need be no quantifying sin. It all is unacceptable to God. Any sin puts a person at odds with a God who hates sin and this is why sinners need a Savior. God, out of His great goodness, gave us just that in His only Son Jesus.

So since Simon was too busy condemning Mary to see his own failings, Jesus spelled them out for him, and did so comparing and contrasting him to the woman he viewed as too sinful to touch Jesus.

Simon was the host and yet he didn’t act very hospitable toward his guest of honor. In fact, Simon didn’t provide Jesus any water for his feet, something customary as people would walk dusty roads in sandals and therefore would see their feet become very dirty during travels. Thus feet washing was common and very much appreciated by guests who would travel to pay someone visit. It’s obvious Simon failed to extend this courtesy.

Mary on the other hand did what Simon didn’t and did it with what she had to give. She wet Jesus feet with her tears and then wiped them with her hair. Think about the level of care this expressed, Mary for her beloved Jesus.

Simon also failed to kiss Jesus when He arrived, again a common gesture practiced in biblical times. In his epistles, Paul would often encourage people to greet one another with a holy kiss. Simon didn’t feel it was important.

Conversely, Mary not only washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, she also kissed Him on the feet. It was a humble way to worship and pay tribute to Him, far more than Simon was willing to do and as we see, Jesus rewarded her, making the following statement that caused a collective gasp in the room:

“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven...Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:47-48, 50

Why was this so problematic for those who heard Jesus’ words?

Because the Jews believed that only God could forgive sins and here Jesus was asserting He could do likewise. You see, people still had not put two and two together, realizing Jesus and God His Father were one in the same. This is why those at the dinner began saying to themselves:

“Who is this who even forgives sins?” Luke 7:49

That was how Jesus took care of Simon. As for Judas and the other eleven disciples, Jesus simply told them to leave Mary alone, citing the beauty contained in her actions, a beauty that was lost in all the focus on money.

Then Jesus got right to the main point. He wasn’t going to be with His disciples and other followers much longer. His death was just a week away and so Mary’s anointing was an advance on the preparation Jesus’ body would go through prior to His burial in the tomb.

Jesus wanted the disciples to know that there would always be time to help the poor but at this particular time, they, like Mary, needed to have their fullest focus on Him. His rebuke was meant to get their attention and turn their hearts and minds away from those treasures on earth, specifically the money associated with the perfume Mary used to anoint Him.

But Judas didn’t take the rebuke this way. Not even close.

For when we read God’s word in 1 Timothy, the scriptures tell us the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And Judas would soon become an example of this statement’s validity as he agrees to sell out His Master for 30 silver coins. We’ll be looking at this in a future devotion but the main focus of this message today is Mary and the devotion she shows Jesus.

Through her actions and Jesus’ subsequent positive endorsement, we find the scriptures showing us the way we should respond to our Savior in the way we live. For like Mary, we should be willing to dedicate all we have for the cause of Christ. No sacrifice should be ruled out because of the cost and anything we do to honor Him will never be wasted, especially when nothing Jesus did to save us was wasted effort.

In the end translation, God the Father lavished us with His love by sending His Son to save us. Jesus lavished His love upon us by offering Himself up as an atoning sacrifice to pay the price for our sins. When it comes to our response to both, let us always commit ourselves to lavish them with the best we can give.

They deserve nothing less than that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Monday, January 18, 2021

NEVER A WASTE

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