Valuing Jesus?

‌When I was a kid, I didn’t always value my friends as much as I should have. One of my biggest regrets is losing a friend I once had in elementary school named Lee. I used to play with him all of the time. But as time went on, we kind of drifted apart. I’m not sure why, exactly. I just got some new friends, and for some reason, we stopped playing together.

‌I do remember one time pointing out his house to one of my new friends, and right at that moment, his mom came out and asked if we wanted to play with Lee. And for some stupid reason that I still can’t figure out, we said no and ran away. I mean what were we thinking? Who does that?

‌Anyway, I don’t know if he saw or heard that, but what I do know is that by the time we hit junior high school, he really disliked me. We never had a fight or argument or anything like that, but he made it really clear he disliked me. And that continued all the way through high school. I’ve always wondered how things might have been different if my friend and I had invited him to play that day. Maybe things would have been different, maybe not. But it did teach me the importance of valuing my friends, and it’s a lesson I’ve tried to keep in mind to this day. Not just with my friends, but also with my wife and my daughter as well.

‌But as important as it is to value the people we love, it’s even more important to value God in our lives. And to value his Son. How often, though, do we take God for granted? What do your attitudes and actions show about how much you truly value Jesus in your life? Let’s think about those things as we look at Scripture today. Take a look at Mark 14 verse 1.

‌It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and kill him. “Not during the festival,” they said, “so that there won’t be a riot among the people.” (1-2)

Now the timeline in chapter 14 is a little weird. In verses 1-2, Mark tells us that it was two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These were two religious celebrations in which the Jews remembered how God had freed them from slavery in Egypt.

And Mark tells us that at this point, the chief priests and scribes were plotting on how to get rid of Jesus. But as they talked it over, they decided, “We probably shouldn’t do it during this festival. Jesus is still too popular. If we try to arrest him, we’ll probably start a riot.”

They were especially worried about that because for years, many Jews expected Messiah would rescue them from Rome on Passover night, just as God had rescued them from Egypt. The Romans were well aware this, so the Roman governor would actually move his headquarters nearby during Passover season so that he could keep an eye on the situation.

But anyway, what’s weird about this timeline is that it seems that after talking about the religious leaders’ plans, Mark then does a flashback to four days earlier. Because according to John’s gospel, what we’re going to read next actually happened the day before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:1). This isn’t totally unusual, though. The gospels often order events by themes instead of by chronology. And we’ll see that Mark organizes these events by one major theme: people who honor Jesus and people who don’t. We’ve already seen the chief priests and scribes didn’t honor Jesus. They were actually plotting to kill him. But now let’s look at one person who did honor Jesus. Verse 3.

‌While [Jesus] was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured it on his head. (3)

There tends to be a lot of confusion about this story among Christians because there are actually two times that Jesus get anointed by a woman. And both happen at the houses of men named Simon. One wonders sometimes why people didn’t vary their names more back then. I mean even among Jesus’ disciples, there were two men named Simon. So it can all get a bit confusing. But anyway, the first anointing happened at the house of a Pharisee named Simon. This anointing happened at the house of another Simon who perhaps was a former leper that Jesus had healed.

We also see in John’s gospel that the woman who anointed Jesus in this story was Mary of Bethany. This Mary was the sister of Martha and a man named Lazarus who Jesus had raised from the dead. Mary was another common name at that time. And so many people actually think a different Mary, Mary Magdalene, was the prostitute that anointed Jesus in the first anointing. But there’s three problems with that. First we see no where in scripture where Mary Magdalene was called a prostitute. Second, we don’t know who anointed Jesus in the first anointing. And third, we don’t know what her sin was. She may have been a prostitute. It’s a reasonable guess, but we don’t know.

Anyway, to be clear, it was Mary of Bethany, Lazarus’ and Martha’s sister who anointed Jesus here. And according to Mark, she anointed his head with some very expensive perfume. John adds that she also anointed his feet and wiped them with her hair.

Why did she do that? What exactly was she thinking? In those days, anointing important guests with oil was considered a common courtesy. But this seems to be overkill. It’s possible she thought that this was acceptable because she believed Jesus was the Messiah, God’s King and Savior for Israel. Perhaps she thought he was ready to declare himself as such. But if that was her thought, Jesus would soon have to correct what she probably thought that Messiah would do. She, like everyone else, probably thought Jesus had come to free them from Rome. But Jesus had come to save them from their sin by dying on a cross.

Whatever her motives, what’s crystal clear is that she valued Jesus greatly. You don’t pour a whole bottle of expensive perfume on someone you don’t value. I love the picture John gives in his gospel. He says that when she poured the perfume over Jesus, the whole house was filled with its fragrance. (John 12:3)

Unfortunately, that fragrance was soon replaced by some pretty putrid words from some of the people in the room. Verse 4.

‌But some were expressing indignation to one another: “Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor.” And they began to scold her. (4-5)

Mark is very kind here. He doesn’t mention the fact that it was the disciples that were saying this. And they seemingly followed the lead of one particular disciple. But this time, it wasn’t Peter who said something stupid. According to John in his gospel, it was Judas who started all this. (John 12:4-5)‌

He essentially told Mary, “How could you be so stupid? That perfume was worth almost a year’s wages. Do you know how many poor people we could have helped if you had sold it instead of wasting it in this way? Foolish woman.” And according to Matthew’s gospel, apparently, the other disciples joined Judas in his criticism. (Matthew 26:8)

How do you think Mary felt? She was probably withering right where she stood. What’s worse is Judas’ motivation. Looking back, John notes that Judas was the disciples’ treasurer. And after he died, they soon realized he had been stealing from them for 3 years. For all his talk of love for the poor, all Judas really was interested in was filling his own pockets with money. (John 12:6)

Now Jesus sees all this. He sees how Mary is withering right in front of his eyes, and so he rebukes his disciples. Verse 6.

‌Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a noble thing for me. You always have the poor with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body in advance for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” (6-9)

When I was a college student, I remember a friend of mine getting really bothered about Jesus’ reply. Apparently, his religion professor brought it up in class. And my friend said, “Man, Jesus is so arrogant. ‘You always have the poor, but you won’t always have me.’”

And at first glance, it might indeed look arrogant. But here are some things to keep in mind. First, Jesus’ main thought was to defend a woman that his disciples were beating up on. His point wasn’t, “I’m much more important than the poor.” His point was, “Stop criticizing her. She’s done nothing worthy of all your criticism. She’s done a beautiful thing, a right thing.”

Second, Jesus seems to be quoting a passage from Deuteronomy 15:11. In it, Moses told the people,

‌For there will never cease to be poor people in the land; that is why I am commanding you, ‘Open your hand willingly to your poor and needy brother in your land.’

In other words, Jesus isn’t saying, “Don’t give to the poor. Give to me.” He quoted a passage that specifically commanded giving to the poor. Not only that, from Judas’ words, it seems that part of Jesus ministry was actually giving to the poor. But then Jesus pointed out, “While it’s a good and beautiful thing to give to the poor, and you should, it’s also a good and beautiful thing to honor me. And the window of opportunity to do some worthy deeds are shorter than others. My time is now very short. I won’t be here much longer. This is the last chance Mary has to show how much she honors me. And though she doesn’t know it, she has anointed my body in advance for burial.”

That proved to be important, because after Jesus died on the cross, his friends had no chance to anoint his body before burying it. Later some women did come to do so, but by that time, Jesus was already risen from the dead.

Anyway, I imagine Jesus looked at Mary as he said, “What she did here today is going to be remembered forever wherever the gospel is preached.” That proved to be true. We’re talking about what she did thousands of years later.

So what can we get from all this? I think there’s a couple of things. First, do we ever criticize people for how they choose to honor Jesus? I’m sure there are some of you who walk in here and see people closing their eyes and raising their hands during the worship time, and wonder, “What in the world are these people doing? They’re so strange.”

But on the other hand, sometimes people who lift their hands to worship God look at those who don’t and say, “Well, that person must not be so spiritual. They obviously don’t love or honor Jesus so much.” Have either of those thoughts ever crossed your mind?

The truth is, we don’t know what people’s hearts are. There are those who raise their hands and they’re worshiping God with all their hearts. Others raise their hands and all they’re thinking about is who is watching them. There are those who are not raising their hands and are basically just singing karaoke. But there are also those who don’t raise their hands and yet are worshiping God with all their hearts. Don’t be so quick to criticize people for how they choose to honor God. God sees their hearts. And all worship done in spirit and in truth is pleasing to him. (John 4:24)

But the second thing is, do we truly value Jesus in our lives? Do we honor him? We can show Jesus honor in many different ways. We talked about two of them a few weeks ago. One is by how we use our money and another is how we use our time. In today’s story, Mary was willing to use nearly a year’s wages to honor Jesus by anointing him with that perfume.

Mary was also someone who honored Jesus with her time. In Luke 10, we see her honoring Jesus by putting aside the things she had to do in order to sit as his feet and listen to him. How about you? What does the way you use your time and money show about how much you value Jesus?

The most important way we honor Jesus, though, is by obeying him. Mary’s sister Martha did that in another story. Her brother Lazarus had died, and Jesus had told her to remove the stone covering his tomb. At first, she objected because Lazarus’ body had already started decaying. She probably didn’t understand why Jesus asked her to do that. But in the end, she chose to trust Jesus and obey him. And Jesus proved worthy of that trust by raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11). Are there areas in your life right now where you’re struggling to obey Jesus? Jesus said the person who has his commands and keeps them is the one who loves him (John 14:21). Do you love and trust Jesus enough to honor him with your obedience, even when you don’t understand the whys?

It’s not always easy to honor Jesus, though, is it? There are many things that can hinder us from honoring him. One is a fear of being misunderstood and criticized. Mary opened herself up to being misunderstood and criticized when she anointed Jesus. You see, as I mentioned before, when she anointed Jesus, she also let down her hair and wiped his feet with it. That was scandalous in those days. Jewish women never exposed their hair like that in public. They only did so for their husbands. So people in that room were probably questioning her motives. Was she trying to seduce Jesus? And of course, Judas accused her of great waste.

When we choose to honor Jesus, we open ourselves up to being misunderstood and criticized, by our friends, by our family, by our boss and coworkers, by people in society. Some of you know this because you’ve experienced it firsthand. Others of you hide your faith, you hide what you really believe because you’re afraid of how the people around you will react. But if we’re going to honor Jesus, we need to risk being misunderstood and criticized, even by those we love.

But there are other things that keep us from honoring Jesus too. Think about the religious leaders. They didn’t value Jesus at all. They wanted to kill him. As you read the gospels, there were many reasons for this. One was their fear that the people would declare Jesus king and that the Romans would take away their temple and their nation (John 11:46). And they didn’t want to lose what they had. Another reason was their jealousy for Jesus’ popularity (Mark 15:10). And a final reason was Jesus’ sharp criticism of their sin and hypocrisy that he exposed when he cleansed the temple (Mark 11:15-18). Now, deep down, they had to know their hearts were wrong. But instead of repenting, they wanted to kill Jesus.

One thing that keeps us from honoring Jesus is clinging to our sin. Sinful desires, sinful thoughts, sinful actions that you know God says are wrong, but you refuse to repent of. Instead, you make excuses for them. You say, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” Or you try to justify your sins, blaming other people or your circumstances. Some of you may even be trying to convince yourself that what you’re doing is not wrong at all, despite what God has said in his Word. You can’t honor Jesus that way. Is there a sin God’s speaking to you about right now?

Another thing that keeps us from honoring Jesus is fear of losing what we have. Maybe you’re afraid of losing your boyfriend or girlfriend. They’re pressuring you to sleep with them, and you’re afraid that if you don’t, you’ll lose them. Maybe you’re afraid of losing the good relationship with you have with your family. I’ve known those who really struggled about whether to get baptized or not for that very reason. Is there something you’re afraid of losing?

One final thing that can keep us from honoring Jesus is our pursuit of something else. Judas seems to have been like this. If you look at verses 10-11, this story ends with Judas dishonoring Jesus by betraying him to his enemies. Why? Mark doesn’t tell us. But considering that he was regularly stealing money from the disciples and betrayed Jesus for money, it’s entirely possible his pursuit of money was what led to his actions. How about you? Is there something in your life that you’re pursuing more than you’re pursuing Jesus? Money? Career? Even marriage? None of these things are bad in themselves. And I’d say that having a career and getting married are good things. But if you’re pursuing these things more than you’re pursuing Jesus, they can keep you from truly honoring him in your life.

I’ll be honest. I don’t always value Jesus the way I should. There are times I fail in all the things I talked about today. But the amazing thing to me is how much Jesus values us. Because not long after that jar of perfume was broken and its contents poured out on Jesus, something far more valuable and precious was broken and poured out for us. Jesus went to the cross, and his body was broken there for us. His body was torn apart by whips. His face pummeled beyond recognition. A crown of thorns pounded into his scalp. Spikes pounded through his wrists and his feet. And there on the cross, he poured out his blood.

Why? For us. For people who had rebelled against God. For people who deserved God’s wrath and punishment because of every single wrong thing we’ve ever said or done. For people who looked him in the eye and essentially said, “I don’t need you, Jesus. I’m perfectly fine without you in my life.” Yet though we devalued Jesus, through we had rejected him and gone our own way, Jesus valued us enough to take the punishment we deserved upon himself. And unlike Judas who thought it was a waste to pour out that expensive perfume on Jesus, Jesus didn’t think for a moment that it was a waste to pour out his precious blood for an indifferent, ungrateful, and even rebellious people like us. He thought we were worth every single drop of blood he spilled on that cross.

That’s amazing love.

And that’s why I want to honor him. That’s why I value him. And as extravagantly as he valued me, I want to extravagantly value him. How about you?