Greed and Sacrafice
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The Better Sacrafice
The Better Sacrafice
*RECAP CHAP. 11 AND THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS*
If you were hosting Jesus in your home, what would you be doing? Be honest with your answer...
1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary then took a litra of perfume of very costly pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was going to betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to take from what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. 8 “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.” 9 Then the large crowd from the Jews learned that He was there. And they came, not because of Jesus only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.
Martha: Serving, busy with the work
Mary: At Jesus’ feet, anointing him with oil and giving Him special deference
Mary did not minister, for she was a disciple. Here again she acted in the more spiritual manner. For she did not minister as being invited, nor did she afford her services to all alike. But she directeth the honor to Him alone, and approacheth Him not as a man, but as a God
38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who was also seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the preparations alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
What was exactly wrong with Martha’s decision here?
What was righteous about Mary’s actions?
Truth is, sometimes we get so zoned in on doing things that, while important, are not immediately necessary. In so doing, we end up wasting the time we have in the present for the things which actually should be done.
For example, as I have begun taking classes again I am under different deadlines for classes. Time management is a very important skill to have if one is going to do as well as possible! Problem is, I’m not very good at it! And often, I will find that I have allowed myself to get bogged down too much with things that I don’t need to do right now! And it takes away from things that I should be doing right now instead. Mary knew what she should have been focusing on, and that was what she did.
What sort of examples can you think of, that relate to this spiritually
I think of such statements as “I just try to be a good person” — good deeds are good! Yet, without Christ and humbling ourselves before Him we get nowhere.
Mayhap we get too caught up in the goings on of work; we have to meet deadlines, schedules, have meetings, and all manner of other things, and in the middle of doing all these very necessary things we forget to spend time at Jesus’ feet in worship and adoration!
It’s a notable reality that our spiritual lives often take a backseat to the urgent-but-not-immediate facets of daily life.
What can happen to a person who is not devoted to spending time at the foot of Jesus this way?
Judas’ Idol
Judas’ Idol
One example of what can happen to a person is what we see in Judas:
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was going to betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to take from what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. 8 “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”
Judas is a man who is notorious throughout history precisely because he was unwilling to kneel before Christ, leading to his more egregious sin: betraying the Lord to be murdered.
What important details do we learn about Judas in this passage?
He was in charge of the money bags
He was an active thief
I don’t know if Judas started out this way — he had the call to follow Jesus just like the others, and he left his life behind to do so! But his hard was not devoted to Jesus, which was something the Lord always knew.
His weakness was idolatry.
“What do you mean by that?” — Colossians 3:5 “5 Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.” Judas was a man who, at least eventually, became ruled by his greed, worshipping the flesh through the lust of riches and gain.
John Chrysostom also says of this in regard to Judas: “For a dreadful, a dreadful thing is the love of money, it disables both eyes and ears, and makes men worse to deal with than a wild beast, allowing a man to consider neither conscience, nor friendship, nor fellowship, nor the salvation of his own soul, but having withdrawn them at once from all these things, like some harsh mistress, it makes those captured by it its slaves. And the dreadful part of so bitter a slavery is, that it persuades them even to be grateful for it; and the more they become enslaved, the more doth their pleasure increase; and in this way especially the malady becomes incurable”
Take a moment to contrast Mary to Judas:
Mary: Pours out 300 danarii worth of an expensive perfume from a far away land. She knew no attachment in her heart more necessary to her than Christ, and truly was fully given to honoring and loving Him above all else. Notice that she doesn’t treat anyone else in the room like this!
Judas: Rebukes Mary for her liberality in loving Jesus, feigning a care for the poor with his heart set on stealing what he knew that jar of perfume was worth!
1 Timothy 6:6–11 “6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evils, and some by aspiring to it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11 But you, O man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, gentleness.”
Brethren, we live among a world that is full of distractions.
Money
Envy
Lust
Vengeance
Ungodly Ambitions
And countless temptations like these.
We must ask ourselves: “Where is my heart?” Remember the very words Judas heard from Jesus as well:
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Sometimes we can become guilty of bragging over the things we have and have accomplished, yet we hardly ever will boast in what the Lord has done for us! Or, we will bemoan life over the things we do not have or have not been able to do, and there too we neglect to bring proper honor and glory to Christ the Lord for what He has done and promised us.
What are we focused on? Where is our treasure? Are we more concerned with things of earth than the things of heaven? Are we spending our time wisely in the things we need to be doing right now, remembering Christ in all things?
