While the drama we just saw was a fictional account, it does
bring us face to face with the reality that following Jesus demands 100%
wholeheartedness. There can be no halfway commitment with Christ. Consider
His words in Luke 14:26: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his
father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes,
even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.”
Of course, Jesus does not want us to actually hate our
father, mother, wife, or children. What He is saying is that our devotion to
Him must be wholehearted. Our relationship to Him must be so devoted that it
out devotes those other relationships in which you would think you would be
most devoted! Our love for Him is to be so strong that it makes our love for
our father or mother look like hate. Following Christ demands 100%
wholeheartedness.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful pictures of 100% commitment
to Christ comes to us in the story of the woman who anoints Jesus with a
very expensive perfume. The action shocks those who witness it but Jesus
says at verse 13: “I tell you the truth where ever this gospel is
preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in
memory of her.”
So Jesus says wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ is
preached, the actions of this woman will be proclaimed. Why? Because this is
the product that the gospel of Jesus Christ is looking for – wholehearted
commitment to Jesus Christ. This is the kind of commitment and devotion that
the gospel of Jesus Christ demands.
1
Consider the picture we are given. To follow Christ we are
called to wholeheartedly to focus on Christ - steadfastly focus on
Christ. This is what the woman did. There were a million other things she
could have done with this expensive perfume. The disciples mention one. They
say at verse 8, “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and
the money given to the poor.”
Indeed, Matthew tells us in verse 7 that it was very expensive perfume.
Mark tells us in his gospel (14:1-11) that it is pure nard and that if it
had been sold it would have brought in more than a year’s wages.
She could have fed a lot of poor people with a year’s wages.
But Jesus says to the disciples, “Why are you bothering this woman? She
has done a beautiful thing to me.”
“Well,” we may say, “isn’t feeding poor people a beautiful
thing?” Yes.
“Is Jesus saying that we shouldn’t care for the poor?” No.
Read your whole Bible and you discover that the people of God
are called to care for the widowed, the orphaned, the imprisoned and the
poor.
What He is saying is get your focus right. Let your focus be
wholeheartedly on Christ and then feed the poor, then house the homeless, do
all those wonderful things but focus first on Christ. It could be argued
that someone who has their eyes fixed on Jesus will give more generously to
the poor than any other because of their assurance of who He is.
But get your focus right. Are you wholeheartedly devoted to
Jesus Christ. Are you at His feet?
John in his telling us of these events tells us this woman’s
name is Mary. And Mary, the sister of Lazarus, is always at the feet of
Jesus. In Luke 10 Jesus is eating at the home of Mary, her sister Martha and
Lazarus. Martha is in the kitchen preparing the meal, and where is Mary? At
the feet of Jesus. When Lazarus dies and Jesus comes to comfort the sisters,
where is Mary? She is at the feet of Jesus. Here at this dinner party, where
is Mary? She is at the feet of Jesus. She is wholeheartedly devoted to Him.
How is your focus? Are you focused on Him? Are you at His
feet? What does that look like? For me it is writing a sermon, thinking not
of pleasing you, but pleasing Him. For you in business it is doing your work
as if you are working for God and not for the corporation (Ephesians 6:7).
For you parents it is the realization that you are not raising your kids for
yourself but for God. Sometimes we get caught up doing stuff for God that we
forget God!
We are devoted to the stuff all right, good stuff to be sure,
feeding the poor, teaching Sunday School, driving people to the cancer
appointments but in the midst of that God calls us to be devoted to Him
first. A wholehearted focus.
2
There is here also a wholehearted service to Christ.
This woman did a beautiful thing to Jesus because it was the best she had
and she gave it to Jesus.
As I said,
this perfume is very expensive – it was worth a whole year’s wages. She
could have done so much with the money if she sold it. Instead though she
poured out over the head of Jesus.
Do you
know that between Bethany and Jerusalem there is the Mount of Olives? It is
a very short walk to the Mount of Olives from Bethany and there – this woman
could have purchased some of the best olive oil in the land and she could
have anointed Christ’s head with it – why didn’t she?
Instead
she took this very expensive perfume and used it. This perfume we are told
came only from India and was reserved for kings and queens – why use this on
Jesus?
Because
Jesus deserves the best of the best. God always asks this of His people.
I’ve been reading through the book of Leviticus and what struck me as I read
the long list of sacrifices is that everything is to be the best, the
phrase, “without spot or blemish” is repeated in reference to the animal
sacrifices over and over again.
And so our
service today – He asks for the very best. Stop giving God your leftovers,
your leftover money, your leftover time, your leftover energy, your leftover
abilities, your leftovers. Give Him your best.
If you
serve Him by teaching, then let your teaching be the best that you can make
it. If you serve Him through the gift of mercy, then let your compassion run
deep and strong. If you serve Him with money, then give generously – give to
the Lord freely, richly with what you have at the beginning of the month.
Whatever
you give to Jesus, whether it be money, time, or genius or words, whatever
it is let it be the very best you have and He will call it beautiful. It’s
not the amount that matters. It is that it is the best you have to offer.
And notice
too, connected with this is that she poured out the whole of it. She didn’t
pour out half of it, she didn’t give just a portion of it, she didn’t dip
her finger in it and put some of the perfume behind His ear, and some on His
wrist. She poured it all out on Jesus. She didn’t try to retrieve any of it.
It was wholehearted extravagance lavished on Jesus. Is it any wonder that
Jesus called it beautiful?
O, that we
would give our all to Jesus. Let the gift be small or let the gift be large,
it does not matter - only let it be your all.
What do
you have in your alabaster jar? What do you keep bottled up and refuse to
give to the Lord? What is it that is most precious to you and most dearest
to you and you refuse to give to God?
I asked
you this last week, didn’t I? I don’t know why God has led me to preach on
this again. But there it is - perhaps some of you are still holding out on
God. You heard the message last week, but you still have that thing, that
relationship, that talent, that education, that is most precious to you but
you haven’t yet given it to God.
Jesus said
we are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind.” Have you given all your mind to Jesus
Christ? Do you think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, that which is excellent, or
praiseworthy? (Philippians 4:8,9) Have you given your whole mind to Jesus
Christ or are you allowing your mind to dwell on that past hurt so that you
are seething with anger? Are you allowing your mind to be formed by the
opinions and ideas of this world instead of being transformed by the Word of
God? Are you allowing your mind to be directed by the Holy Spirit?
Have you
given your heart which could be argued to be your emotions? Have you given
your emotions to Jesus Christ so that you bring to Him your adoration and
joy and thanksgiving in worship? The heart could also be called our will.
Have you given your will to Him so that He directs all your decisions?
Have you
given Him your soul. so that you trust Him and Him alone for your eternal
life and destiny? O, that we would hold nothing back from our Saviour and
Lord.
A
wholehearted focus. A wholehearted service, giving your best and
whole.
Then
consider the wholehearted worship of Jesus Christ. This disciples
when they saw what this woman did complained. “What a waste! To pour out all
this expensive perfume on Jesus is a huge waste! The money could have been
used in a different and better way!”
What is
waste? Waste is going to the grocery store for an advertised special and
discovering that the item is out of stock. “That was a waste of time!”
Waste is giving more than necessary. It is paying 20 dollars
for an item at an auction that is only worth 10 dollars. “Well that was a
waste of money!”
Waste is
getting a minimal return for a maximum payment. All 12 disciples thought
that this service to Jesus Christ was a waste.
In the disciples’ economy this service, this gift, this act
for Jesus was giving more than necessary. What the disciples didn’t count
on in their economy was the immense worth of Jesus Christ.
And this is what we have to ask ourselves. Is any monetary
gift given to honour Jesus, is any ability, any time, any effort given for
the Kingdom of God for the glory of Jesus Christ a waste?
As one scholar writes, “The whole idea of waste only comes
into our Christianity when we underestimate the worth of our Lord. The whole
question is: How precious is He to us now? If we do not think much of Him,
then of course to give Him anything at all, however small, will seem to us a
wicked waste. But when He is really precious to our souls, nothing will be
too good, nothing too costly for Him; everything we have, our dearest, our
most priceless treasure, we shall pour out upon Him, and we shall not count
it a shame to have done so.”1
To be sure, the world thinks any service to the Lord is a
waste. What are you going to worship for, says the world - what a waste of
time!
And we answer no, not real worship, in which we are
privileged to come into the very presence of God and lavish on Him praise
and glory and honour – why? Because He is worthy.
Janet and I were getting into the car to go to our small
group Bible study the other week and our neighbour greeted us. “Hello, where
are you two off to tonight without your kids?” And we answered, “We’re going
to a Bible study.” ”O,” she said, “poor you.” She was thinking, “What a
waste of a night out alone!”
That’s the way the world thinks. Or if a young person goes
into the ministry or decides to go into mission work – the world thinks what
a waste of talent, what a waste of intellect. Indeed there are some in the
church who think the same thing. I am amazed at the number of Christian
parents who try to talk their children out of going into the ministry or
into mission work, saying it’s a waste.
Watchman Nee, a brilliant man of God who was instrumental in
the work of the church in China, tells of a time when he was physically
spent because of his work for the church. He was walking with a cane and was
hobbling down the street when he met one of his old college professors. His
professor took him out for tea and they sat down. The professor looked
Watchman Nee up and down, and then said, “Look here - during your college
days we thought a good deal of you, and we had hopes that you would achieve
something great. Do you mean to tell me that this is what you are?”
Looking at Watchman with penetrating eyes he asked Watchman
that very pointed question. And Watchman says that upon hearing it his first
inclination was to break down and weep. His career, his health, everything
he had was gone and here was his old professor who taught him law in school
asking him, “Are you still in this condition, with no success, no progress,
nothing to show?”
But Watchman said, the very next moment – I really knew what
it meant to have the Spirit of glory resting upon me. The thought of being
able to pour out my life for my Lord flooded my soul with glory. Nothing
short of the Spirit of glory was on me then. I could look up without
reservation and say, “Lord, I praise you! This is the best thing possible;
it is the right course that I have chosen!”2
Wholehearted focus, wholehearted service, wholehearted
worship – a waste? Never! For He alone is worthy!
Copyright MBC
and Tom Cullen - May 2005
