Extravagant Devotion
Text: Mark 14:1-11
Core Idea: Jesus is worthy of our extravagant devotion. In this story, this woman’s act was described as beautiful by Jesus, but also a complete waste by others – a beautiful “waste.” Then may we have the courage and faith to offer our lives as a beautiful “waste” to the Lord for this is how we honor the Lord.
INTRODUCTION
Good afternoon, Lighthouse. It is always good to see you. I want to especially welcome our Tugboat and Anchor friends. By now, I hope it’s clear to you that we’re a church that values worshiping together which is why we have these joint services once a month. I firmly believe in the beauty and importance of this – and I hope that you’re growing to see this as well. But I also understand how difficult this can be – children might feel bored, and adults might be distracted. Then why do we continue to do this? Just to name a few reasons: because it pleases God, because it reminds us that we’re one people united in the Lord, and because it can be a great teaching moment for all of us. If our children find themselves bored in worship, then let us teach them the significance of this event. Let us model for them the joy of worship. Let us encourage and help them to engage and participate. Let us pray that God would fill them with the same delight that we experience in Christ. But on the other hand, if adults find themselves distracted, then let the children teach us patience and self-forgetfulness. It’s true that the struggle may be real and costly now, but I firmly believe that this is worth it because, in the long run, it will prove itself to be rewarding. So, let’s continue to persevere patiently because it’s always good when God’s people worship together in unity. And of course, the leaders will continue to explore different ways to make this experience better for all of us.
Well, we are going through the Gospel of Mark – exploring the life of Jesus. Last week, we learned that Jesus will come back with great power and glory to judge the wicked, vindicate the righteous, and redeem His people back to Himself. And until He returns, we’re called to be on guard, be hopeful, and be vigilant as we faithfully do the work that He has given us. Today, we’ll see that it’s Wednesday, the fourth day of Passion week – just two days before Jesus’ death. But this was no surprise to Jesus – He was most definitely aware of the darkness that surrounded Him. In fact, He even knew that one of His very own would betray Him. And yet in this intense moment, Jesus turned His attention to His disciples and friends. He wanted to spend more time with them. So, what you’ll see today is Jesus having dinner with His friends – and it’s here that we’ll see a beautiful example of extravagant devotion that was given to the Lord. Then with this in mind, please turn your Bibles to Mark 14:1-11. And I’m going to invite Elia to the front – and she will read the passage for us.
1 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill Him. 2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.” 3 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. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. 6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” 10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand Him over.
Thank you, Elia, for reading the passage for us. And children, I hope you enjoyed the video. Let me point out three things from this passage:
· DEVOTION
· CRITICISM
· BETRAYAL
1) DEVOTION
Let’s actually start with verse 3. Here, we’re informed that Jesus and His disciples were eating at the home of Simon the Leper. Now, we can assume that this Simon is no longer a leper because if he was, by law, he would be forced to isolate himself from everyone else – in fact, nobody would want to be near him. Then it’s most likely that Simon was healed from his leprosy – and it’s possible that Jesus was the One who healed Simon from his leprosy. No wonder this man threw a party for Jesus. Then suddenly and unexpectedly, an unnamed woman came to give Jesus a gift. Now, children, what was the most expensive or most valuable gift you’ve ever given to someone? For me, one of the most expensive gifts that I ever gave was an engagement ring for my wife. It was worth almost two months of my salary – I’ve never even spent that much on myself. But it was most definitely worth it because she meant the world to me. It didn’t feel excessive – in fact, it felt like it wasn’t enough because I knew that she deserved much more. So, when the day of the proposal finally came, I was ecstatic. I had the whole day prepared and thought of all the backup plans just in case – the only thing I didn’t foresee was Hurricane Sandy. Because of the hurricane, it was raining cats and dogs and the wind was so strong that the trees were bending. Everything I had planned was ruined – and I ended up proposing to her in the car. But she was still thankful. We cried happy tears. And now we’re happily married – so, it’s all good. But the point is this: she meant so much to me that no gift was enough to show my devotion to her. Then, children, let me ask you, “What’s the most important thing in your life right now? If Jesus was coming to our church next week, would you be able to offer that to Him as a gift? Is Jesus worth that much to you?”
Well, that’s exactly what the woman in this story did. We read that she came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume that was worth a year’s wages. In today’s terms, it would be around $50,000 – that’s a lot of money. How can she afford to have something like this in her possession? Well, it could be that she was from a wealthy family but that’s probably not the case. The scholars say that it was most likely a family heirloom that was passed down for generations – which means that this wasn’t just a nice bottle of perfume that she used on special occasions. No, it was more like her life’s security. If things went sideways, if a famine came, if something bad happened in her life, if she was in great need, this perfume would’ve been her last resort. In one sense, this was like her refuge in the storms of life. Then what did she do with it? She broke it and poured the whole thing on Jesus’ head. It was like she was saying, “I have no use for this anymore.” She literally gave away everything she had to Jesus without hesitation.
Her devotion to Christ was that of complete and total surrender. She held nothing back. How was she able to do that? Because she knew the worth of Jesus. When she weighed the cost of the perfume and the worth of Jesus, it was clear to her: Jesus was more precious. So, she gave away everything to Jesus not to get something back but purely out of her reverence and affection for Him. She trusted Jesus completely – and in one sense, she saw Him as her only refuge. Her devotion was laser-focused on Jesus, and nothing was going to stop her from giving Him the worship He deserved. Even when others viewed it as a waste, she knew that Jesus was worth the sacrifice. Brothers and sisters, is this the kind of heart that we have for the Lord today – a heart that doesn’t get caught up in the noise around us, a heart that doesn’t fold to the criticisms and pressures of our surroundings, but a heart that is devoted to Him and Him alone? If not, are we at least longing for this – praying that God would cultivate this kind of heart in us?
This is not to say that planning or saving is not good. We should be wise in the way we live our lives. But if we’re not careful, our planning for the future could prevent us from ever making a sacrifice of extravagant, “excessive” devotion to the Lord. Then let me ask you, “Have you ever done something for the Lord that really cost you? Was there a time when you actually went without something in order to honor the Lord? When was the last time you had to alter your lifestyle in order to give to the Lord? Did we ever give to the Lord in faith – not just the money we have but everything we have?” Unfortunately, many of us are good at giving Jesus our leftovers – we rarely cut into our lives to give to God. But she didn’t – she basically gave up everything she had. Then the point is, “Do you have a heart that trusts the Lord with your whole life? Have you ever felt the complete freedom of totally trusting the Lord?” This is the kind of devotion we ought to have for the Lord.
2) CRITICISM
Verse 4. Mark shares that the people around Jesus were indignant, angry at what she had done – so, they rebuked her harshly, “Why this waste of perfume?” What’s most surprising is that this woman was criticized by the disciples – those who were closest to Jesus. You would think that they would’ve commended her because they knew the worth of Jesus. But they said, “Why this waste?” Why this waste? In some ways, their criticism could be understandable because they were saying that this kind of perfume could’ve been sold to help the poor – which is a very practical way of obeying what Jesus had commanded – “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk. 12:31). So, they criticized her. And yet, did their criticism stop her from what she was doing? Did she second-guess herself? No, because she knew the worth of Jesus – and this was her opportunity to honor Him.
What this teaches us is that living a life pleasing to the Lord is not easy. It’s actually easier to choose a life that blends in with others – to go with the flow of this world than to go against it. In fact, the more we try to please God, the more we’ll be ridiculed and questioned. They may ask us, “Why do you give so much? Why do you serve so much? Why do you pray so much? Why do you talk about the Bible so much? Why are you so serious? Can you just stop talking about God for one second? Take it easy. Do you realize that your passion could actually deter people from loving Jesus? Your action could be misinterpreted by non-Christians. Don’t be such a fanatic. You’re going to give Christians a bad rep. Just relax. Don’t do that in the public. Keep it to yourself.” Have you ever been misunderstood by those around you (possibly even other Christians) because of your love for Jesus? If you have, let this story encourage you because that’s exactly what happened to this woman. The people around her saw her action as a waste – but this wouldn’t be the assessment of Jesus. Verse 6, “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me.” What others saw as a waste; Jesus saw as a beautiful thing. Let that sink in for a second. One action – two perspectives.
Then here’s an application for us. Living a life pleasing to the Lord means that sometimes we may do things that the world will never understand. The world will at times view our extravagant devotion to the Lord as nothing but a waste. But brothers and sisters, don’t let the noises around you cause you to draw back and compromise. May your love for the Lord and the courage that comes from the Spirit help you cut through those noises and passionately, extravagantly devote yourself to the Lord knowing that it’s never a waste to live for Christ. In fact, this is what Pastor John Piper calls a wasted life, a tragedy, “Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now, they live in Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot fishing boat, play softball, and collect shells. They collect shells. Come to the end of your life – your one and only life – and let the last great work before you give an account to your Creator be, ‘I collected shells. See my shells, God?’ That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. I want to plead with you, don’t buy it.” Brothers and sisters, living with this kind of extravagant devotion means that the world will call our lives wasted. But we can live this way because everything the world cherishes becomes nothing to us compared to knowing Christ. The world is no longer our treasure – Christ is. This world has nothing for us because Christ is everything to us. Then this really is the main point of this whole passage: people rejected Jesus and abandoned Him because they didn’t recognize His supreme worth, but this unnamed woman knew the extravagant worth of who Jesus was and what He was about to do – and Mark is calling us to do the same. Then let me ask you, “Are you ready to ‘waste’ your life for the Lord today? Or will you actually waste your life by trying to live a life of impressing others – building your life on things that will ultimately pass away?”
But how do we do this practically? Well, Jesus tells us in verse 8 – in describing this woman’s action, He said, “She did what she could.” She gave up her family heirloom because this was what she was able to do. You don’t need expensive perfume to do a beautiful thing for the Lord – you just need to do what you can. Then what can you do today? I won’t fill in the blank for you because that probably is the role of the Holy Spirit. But let me just say this: start small. You don’t need to do something that you’re not able to do at the moment. That’s not compromising – that’s being faithful. Doing a lot, giving a lot isn’t always the answer as we saw in the example of the poor widow a couple of weeks ago – it’s the heart that matters. So then, in your context, as a child, a student, a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, a teacher, an artist, an accountant, a nurse, a salesperson, a consultant, etc., how can you show your extravagant devotion to the Lord this week? My prayer for all of us is that we would live every moment of our lives desiring to hear from Him, “You have done a beautiful thing to Me.”
And let’s not forget that we can actually live this way because Jesus beautifully wasted His life away for us. The gospel essentially is this: when Jesus died, it was utterly self-forgetful, utterly vulnerable, extravagant, infinitely costly as He didn’t just give up His life savings, a family heirloom, but His whole life. But for what end? Why did He do something like this? So that you and I would receive forgiveness and life through Him. He didn’t do this so that we could give Him something back. He wasn’t calculating the benefits He would gain by doing this for us. No, He did it just to gain us. What we see in the woman is someone who broke and poured out all that she had for Someone who is infinitely worthy. But in the gospel, what we see is Jesus Christ utterly broken, pouring Himself out, giving His whole life for us who are utterly unworthy, sinful, and deserving of death. Don’t you see how radical this is? He was in one sense “wasting” His life for us who deserved to be wasted. But because of what He has done, He now sees us as worthy. No matter who you are, what you have done, what has been done to you, what you’re going through, when you place your trust in Christ, you are beautiful in the eyes of God. Then let His extravagant love for you be the motivation for your extravagant devotion to the Lord – an expression of our love and gratefulness to our Savior.
3) BETRAYAL
Let’s actually go back to verse 1. Mark tells us that the religious leaders were scheming to arrest Jesus and kill Him because of the threat He posed against their authority and power. But the only thing that prevented them was Jesus’ popularity among the people – they didn’t want to provoke the people to revolt. So, they decided to postpone their plan until after the Passover when all the pilgrims would’ve left the city. But in verse 10, these religious leaders received unexpected support from an unexpected person – “Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.” It’s no accident that Mark described Judas as one of the Twelve. It was his way of showing how heartbreaking and horrifying this was – that one of the Twelve of all people would do such a thing against Jesus. Judas had intimate, unrestricted, and privileged access to Jesus. He lived among the disciples for three years – doing life together with Jesus. He saw Jesus’ miracles and heard Jesus’ teachings. And yet he betrayed Jesus. In fact, here’s the conversation that took place between Judas and the religious leaders found in Matthew 26:14-15, “Then one of the Twelve – the one called Judas Iscariot – went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him over to you?’ So, they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.” Judas was trying to bargain for Jesus’ life – “what are you willing to give me if I deliver Jesus to you?” 30 pieces of silver – that’s all it took for Judas to betray Jesus. At the time, this was the minimum price to purchase the lowliest of slaves. In other words, according to Judas, Jesus’ entire life was worth the lowest possible price for the lowliest possible of people. Let me put it this way. According to Judas, Jesus was worth more to him if He were dead than if He were alive – precisely 30 pieces of silver more. Judas lived among the disciples and behaved like the disciples, but he was never a true disciple of Jesus Christ. His heart was so far from Jesus that when the time was right, when the price was right, he willingly handed Jesus over to the religious leaders.
There’s a warning for us here. Judas shows us that a great knowledge of Jesus may not always lead to a great worship of Jesus. Just because we know much doesn’t necessarily mean that we will truly devote ourselves to Christ. How is this possible? Because Judas was in awe of money. The worth of money was much bigger than the worth of Jesus. It’s incredibly tragic to see that while the woman in Bethany found Jesus beautiful and gave all she had to Him, Judas found Jesus useful and sought to get all he could in exchange for Him. This woman looked for an opportunity to honor Jesus; Judas looked for an opportunity to hand Him over. There’s an interesting story from Christianity Explored that goes something like this: There was a rich man who had everything he needed and wanted. One day, a robber came, pointed his gun at the rich man, and said, “Your wallet or your life.” For some reason, the man stood quietly without an answer. The robber was getting nervous – so with greater force and anger, he shouted, “Your wallet or your life!” And the rich man shouted back and said, “Hold on, I’m thinking!” This probably is an exaggeration, but it may describe some of us today. We’re tightly grabbing onto the created things instead of the Creator – and when God comes to ask, “Will you give that up for Me?” Our response is, “Hold on, let me think.” Brothers and sisters, are you truly in awe of the Lord today? Or is your familiarity and nearness to Jesus causing you to be less vigilant and less urgent to watch and pray, tempting you to be in awe of something other than the Lord? Or even worse, are you constantly calculating – measuring if Jesus really is worth your devotion? I pray that we would all have the eyes to see the true beauty and worth of Jesus so that we would joyfully give our lives to Him – the Author and Perfecter of our faith.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, Jesus is worthy of our extravagant devotion. Then think about the way this woman’s act was described here. Jesus called it beautiful, but others saw it as a complete waste. A beautiful waste. May we have the courage and faith to offer our lives as a beautiful “waste” to the Lord for this is how we honor the Lord.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) Why did the people criticize this woman’s radical, extravagant sacrifice? Has your devotion to the Lord ever made those around you uncomfortable? What happened? How did you respond?
2) This story is placed in between the account of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus (v. 1-2 and 10-11). Why do you think Mark puts these two stories together? Compare the account of the woman and the account of Judas. How are they similar? How are they different?
3) In your life context, how can you show your extravagant devotion to the Lord this week? Is there anything that God is asking you to give up for Him?