Matthew-118

 

Today, we will turn to the Word and look at Mark 14, the parallel passage of Matthew 26, because Mark14:1-9 is more detailed.

 

Mary’s anointing of the Lord Jesus is permanently attached to the preaching of the gospel

The last verse of this passage tells us that wherever the gospel will be preached, the very significant deed that this woman had done would be forever told in memory of her. There is no other passage with such a statement by the Lord Jesus that a person’s action is par­ticularly to be attached to the preaching of the gospel. Yet in all my life as a Christian, I don’t recall any clear message being expounded on this passage. I wonder why, and whether it is a symptom of the problems of the spiritual life of the church today. We shall begin to see more clearly why the Lord Jesus said that this should become a part of the preaching of the gospel.

The parallel passage to this is John 12:1-8 where again, we can find some further details. John 12:1-8 tells us that Lazarus was present at this particular party or invitation. We must however not make the mistake of thinking that because Lazarus is mentioned, this party took place in Lazarus’s home, nor because Martha, Lazarus’s sister served at this party that it also proves it took place in Lazarus’s home. Not at all. Lazarus is mentioned in John simply because John has mentioned him being raised from the dead in the previous chapter, chapter 11. Therefore Lazarus was well-known in Bethany. He was invited and was prominent in that particular party, but it doesn’t mean that he was at his home. Martha was a very capable worker, and she helped with this fairly public party if you like, which took place in the house of Simon the leper, as this passage tells us in Mark.

Now being called “Simon the leper” does not mean that he was still suffering from leprosy at the time because if he were, no one would meet at his house for sure. It means Simon, who used to be a leper, was no longer a leper; but he was so known by the fact that he was once a leper. “Leper” was a much wider term than the narrower term used in medical language today. “Leprosy” in Biblical terms could refer to a variety of skin diseases which could cover the whole body or parts of the body, but was not limited to the kind of leprosy such as we normally speak about today, which results in the rotting off of the nose, or hands, or other parts of the body. It is important to understand that any skin problem of the most serious kind spread­ing throughout the body would have been known as “leprosy” in Biblical language. So Simon, who used to be a leper, invited the Lord Jesus as well as Lazarus, Mary, Martha, the Lord Jesus’ disciples and other people to this meal. From John, we see that all the disciples were present including Judas.

 

Jesus was anointed by very valuable ointment shortly before the Passover

Also, in John’s account, the party took place six days before the Passover. Now in Mark 14:1, it mentions two days. This is not a prob­lem at all, because anyone who is familiar with the way Matthew and Mark present their Gospels is aware that they don’t adhere strictly to chronology, but organize their material for a spiritual purpose. This is well-known to all scholars and that is nothing particularly significant or new. It is clear that this event took place very shortly before the Passover, otherwise we will be speaking of two almost identical events, one happening two days before the Passover and one six days.

We know from John that this woman is Mary, and this Mary is the sister of Lazarus. Now the Synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke don’t mention Lazarus. Generally speaking, they don’t mention this particular family, but it figured prominently in John’s Gospel. Clearly, John had some specific relation to this family. We won’t spend too much time in these technical details.

Bethany is just across the valley from Jerusalem. You can see Jerusalem just behind the Mount of Olives when you turn around the corner of Bethany. So Bethany is within walking distance from Jerusalem, and it is where the anointing of Jesus took place. The Lord Jesus was invited there, but we are not told why. Presumably, the host wanted to talk with this very well-known preacher, but a very controversial figure. He seems to have quite some influence but he is rejected by the establishment – the whole temple priesthood, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. What sort of person is this? So this kind of invitation was often extended out of curiosity. Perhaps the reason for the invitation was nothing much more than curiosity, especially judging from the not exceptionally warm welcome that Jesus received.

During the meal, this woman Mary comes and produces an alabaster jar of a very valuable ointment. An alabaster jar is without handle, usually with a thin and narrow neck. If you go to a museum, you will be able to see alabaster. It is the nearest thing in ancient days to modern day glass. It is a translucent, whitish glass-like substance that lets light through, but not transparent. The value of this ointment is phenomenal! The Bible tells us that it is worth 300-days’ pay of the average working man. In terms of Canadian standard, 300 days’ pay of a working man would be worth a lot of money. Today, the average worker earns by the hour not by day, and 300 hours would be a lot to the average working man, not to say 300 days. So the ointment was indeed a exceedingly valuable. It could have been used to feed say, more than 5,000 people at one time, as in the feeding of the 5,000. In fact, according to some scholars, in those days, the price mentioned here is low because it was cheaper in Palestine. This price would have been a bargain in Rome, and people would have lapped it up straightaway!

So this woman produced this alabaster jar and literally smashed off its top. The word is a strong word meaning to crush, to smash, expressing a certain determination, not hesitant, not giving it a few taps and being gentle with it. The jar itself was fairly valuable but she just smashed off the top of the jar, and poured out this valuable ointment upon the Lord Jesus’ head and feet, as we put the accounts together.

 

Reproached by others but remembered by Jesus

Once she has done this, this brought forth not applause but indignation and reproach, sad to say, from the disciples. If the guests had said, “This is a terrible waste,” it’s one thing. But for the disciples to have joined in this chorus is tragic! From John 12:4-5, the traitor, Judas Iscariot was the one who led the chorus of reproach among the disciples. So this poor woman got reproached by everyone in the house except the Lord Jesus, for taking all the trouble to make this act of devotion and sacrifice. He spoke out and said that she had done something beautiful, excellent, very significant, as she had prepared his body for the burial. Then he went on to say that what she has done will be proclaimed wherever the gospel is preached. We will see why before we finish this sermon. What did she do that was worth remembering? What was so significant about her action?

 

Your spiritual direction is fixed by your spiritual values

Today’s message is the third in the series of exposition on “Spiritual Direction.” In talking about spiritual direction, nothing is more urgent than understanding spiritual values, for clearly, whatever is valuable for you is what you will direct your life to. If money is valuable for you, then you will direct your life to money. If status, prestige, the praise of men are important to you, clearly, you will direct your life to those goals. On the contrary, if spiritual things are of value to you, then you will direct your life to spiritual goals. So the question is what are the things that are valuable in your life? You will regard as waste things that are not going towards the end which you desire them to go to. What is your definition of waste? It depends on what is your definition of “value.” They regarded pouring the expensive ointment on the Lord Jesus as wasted! It depends on what you see is valuable or not valuable. To them, pouring this ointment on the Lord Jesus’ head and feet is a waste. It is nonsensical to do this. You have better use for this money. Give it to the poor. Is that what you think?

This passage scares me because at times, I find myself almost agreeing that what Mary did was a waste. Is it necessary to spend this whole bottle on Jesus? Let us take a little bit out and keep the rest of the bottle. There is no need to go to extremes. This ointment is going to evaporate into the air after the bottle top is smashed! She should carefully remove the cork, and then modestly pour a little bit out, and put a little bit on the Lord Jesus’ head, and a little bit on his feet. Certainly, this is sufficient to express how much she loves him. To me, that makes sense. Doesn’t it make sense to you? Surely, that is the way to do it. We don’t want to smash this beautiful jar and pour out all the ointment on the one body of Jesus when it is enough for 500 bodies. That is excessive! There is no need to do this. I find myself tending to agree, don’t you? That is where this passage begins to disturb me because it reveals my sense of value to me.

 

For some, the gospel has value but purely on the social level

I wonder why this passage is not preached today when the gospel is preached. Do you see why? It’s because the whole nature of spiritual value is embodied in Mary’s action, which is crucial for the preaching of the gospel. How much the gospel is worth to you depends on your sense of value. It may be worth a bit. It may be useful on the social level. For example, many parents think the gospel is good for their children. In Liverpool, we drove the church bus to pick up the children for Sunday School. The parents don’t want to be Christians, but they are very happy to send their children to Sunday School to learn good manners and high moral standards, like giving to the poor. They see that the little boys and girls are well-behaved most of the time, so when we ask them, “Would you like your children to go to Sunday School?” “Oh sure! Take them all!” Eventually, we had to get a bus to bring them all to Sunday School. As far as they are con­cerned, the gospel has purely social value and no particular spiritual value.

Here is where this passage x-rays us. What is your concept of the gospel? Why do some people go to church? There are nice people in church. Where do you find such nice people in the world? If you ever get into a jam, when your worldly friends disappear, the people in church probably will still stand by you. This is the right crowd. This is a social reason. Or a businessman goes to church because there are other businessmen who go to church, so after church, they can get on with their business. I wonder what is our sense of values after all?

Why do people serve God? Is it always because of a spiritual reason or are there some other less spiritual reasons for serving him? I often suspect there are less spiritual reasons for serving God.

This is precisely why I say that this passage scares me, whether it shows something about my sense of values as being out of line with the Word of God. Why do I feel myself agreeing with Judas that it seems excessive, just as the disciples did? Don’t you feel it saying just that to you? No wonder a preacher cannot preach this passage without feeling the sword of the Word of God stab right into his heart to expose him! He asks himself why is he preaching the gospel after all? Could there be some less than spiritual reason for doing it? Notice carefully, the Lord Jesus wanted this passage established in the whole preaching of the gospel, wherever the gospel is preached. He said, “Preach on it and see if you can.” You try preaching on it sometime and you will see what it does to you. We will constantly have the nagging feeling there is something too excessive in here. Therefore we immediately ask ourselves what is our sense of value?

 

Mary poured all on Christ out of a powerful, burning gratitude

Why did Mary do this? Mary’s life had become entirely transformed by God when she came into contact with Christ, Jesus. He had come into her life and her life was never the same again. She was freed from this grip of sin. Her life which was once in darkness so that she did not know where she was going, has spiritual direction now! Her life which was entirely inward, locked into herself, was now released into a freedom to love others and live for others, and it brought a joy that she had never understood before. She never knew life could be so wonderful! Her life was touched by the fragrance of Jesus and instilled a sense of spiritual value that she never knew before. It must be a powerful sense of gratitude which few people experience! So deep was her gratitude that for her, pouring out this extremely expensive ointment was neither waste nor sacrifice. Clearly, the way she did it showed that if she had three more bottles of this, she would pour three more bottles on Jesus. If there were five more, she would pour five more on Jesus. And let no one tell her that she has been wasting it! She would have loved to give all she could ever get hold of. Such was the profound sense of burning gratitude!

It is clear that you cannot give that response unless you have her experience. Now did God and Christ Jesus at any time touch your life in such a way that you could feel this kind of thankfulness to say, “Yahweh God and Christ Jesus, if I had anything more to give, that wouldn’t be too much to give!” It’s almost expressing the words of Wesley’s song, O, for a thousand tongues: “I only have one tongue, but if I had a thousand tongues, my whole being would sing praise to them with all one thousand tongues!” You cannot sing those words with the same feeling as Wesley sang them because you may not have had the same effect as Wesley when God came into your life through forgiveness by Christ’s blood.

The reason for that is our approach to God has been “the chained door policy,” much the same as our approach to others. We talk to God through the chained door. We say to God, “How are you doing today? It’s nice to see you but don’t come through this door. My life is open to you as much as this chain will allow it to go. Perhaps I’ll put on a longer chain someday, but for now, it’s only this long. So I’ll talk to you through this opening.” This is “limited Christianity.” We don’t like “lavish Christianity.” We don’t like the lavish outpouring that God always gives us. We like this “limited Christianity” because we regard this as “balanced Christianity,” which is sensible and fair.

How can we grasp this matter of spiritual value? What would enable us to respond in the same way as Mary? Let us study a few points as we keep this question in our minds.

 

The spiritual significance of Mary’s action:

1. Mary’s spiritually useful, praiseworthy action shows profound gratitude

Let us try to see the spiritual significance of what Mary did. One must not assume that she understood the spiritual significance of what she did. But the value of an action does not lie in your understanding the meaning of that action so long as it is done with a totality of devotion. The prophets often did not understand the full significance of what they prophesied, but their prophecy was not less valuable because they could not understand its full significance. In the same way, we saw in Matthew 25 the sheep, the disciples of Jesus who visited others in prison and the sick, and fed the hungry, did not realize that they were doing this not just for imitating him, but to him. But their action was not less valuable because they failed to realize the spiritual significance of their action. We will look at the spiritual significance of Mary’s action which she did not in the least realize.

The Lord Jesus said in verse 6 that “she did a beautiful thing.” The Greek word kalos, is translated “beautiful” when referring to out­ward appearance. But when referring to quality, we don’t translate it as beautiful. Here the action is clearly of quality rather than of appearance. So the word should be better translated as “excellent” or “precious”, “praiseworthy,” “advantageous” or “useful,” These are the definitions you would get on this word, kalos from the Greek dictionary, and all this is expressed in her act of devotion. Here Mary’s action is spiritually useful, although the person without the sense of spiritual value cannot see any usefulness in it.

What is useful or praiseworthy of Mary’s anointing the Lord Jesus? It is praiseworthy insofar as it expresses a profound gratitude. I find it striking that I don’t see this kind of gratitude among Christians. That shows you the level of your spiritual life. If you really believe as you say you do, that God sent Jesus to die and redeem you from eternal destruction, and give you eternal life and a place among God’s people in his eternal kingdom; if you believe that Jesus’ blood brings God’s forgiveness of your sins, to set you free from sin and from death and from bondage, to give you a new quality of life which is not only eternal in duration but eternal in quality, where is your gratitude for all this? If someone gave me a nice present, I would be deeply grateful. And if the present were more valuable, one is even more grateful. Can we receive a gift of eternal life and show minimal gratitude?

I don’t think we believe what we profess to believe. If a person tells me he believes that God has given him a new life through Jesus, and I don’t see his deep gratitude to God and Christ, I don’t believe a word he says. I don’t think the non-Christian believes a word you say either. You think that God gave you an insignificant thing, therefore you don’t need to get too excited about it. No wonder the world doesn’t believe our confession of faith because of our sense of spiritual value!

If I gave you a comb, you may say, “Thank you that you thought of my hair.” But you are not going to be dancing on the street because of a comb. If I gave you a house in very cold weather, you would have reason to feel gratitude. But God is giving you something far more than a house, He is giving you life! Do you have any sense of spiritual values at all? Do we know what eternal life is? Even if you don’t know what it is, can you not grasp the value of this incredible gift? Clearly not, judging from the response of most Christians!

Our sense of spiritual value is hindered by our sense of spiritual perception. We don’t grasp, therefore spiritual reality is non-reality. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:18,

He grasped the spiritual value of these things, therefore in the previous verses he says, “All that we suffer now is simply nothing compared with the value of all that God has given, is giving and will give to us.” Our spiritual direction is fixed by our sense of spiritual values. This is what we are driving at today. And if you don’t have any sense of spiritual values, then you have no spiritual direction.

There are only two possible directions in your life. If it’s not spiritual then it has to be carnal. It’s only one of the two because you don’t have a third alternative. Being carnal means you are living for the enjoyment of your flesh in this world, which is all going to pass away. You are living simply for money, for the applause of others, for various lusts. What else can you live for? There are only two possible directions of life: either carnal or spiritual.

Paul says we fix on the things which our fleshly eyes cannot see. The things which our fleshly eyes can see are all temporal, they all pass away. Look at yourself in the mirror, you will pass away. That is the spiritual perception and the spiritual sense of values. The non-Christian would say, “The only things which are real are the things you can see. The things you don’t see don’t even exist let alone be eternal!” Love cannot be seen. Presumably, it doesn’t exist. There­fore people don’t believe in love. Love that goes on in the church is a good feeling, but it’s not real and doesn’t last. The carnal man sees things exactly the reverse as the spiritual man sees it. For Christians, the spiritual things that are not seen are eternal. For non-Christians, the things which are not seen don’t exist! Of course, the sense of value has to be vastly different.

How is it possible that we come to a belief in which the things which are not seen are in fact the only real things? How can we arrive at this? It is only possible through the death of Christ and contact with his life and his death which opens your eyes and suddenly, you see the things which you never saw before. For the first time, spiritual things become a reality which did not so much as exist before. Now they become reality, and as you go on, they become the only reality. The other things don’t even matter anymore. So Mary did an excel­lent, praiseworthy thing, expressing her gratitude for what Jesus had done.

 

2. The only anointing Jesus ever got for his burial was Mary’s anointing

The second thing the Lord Jesus says is that she prepared his body for the burial. I doubt very much that she herself knew that she was preparing Jesus’ body for the burial. As you know, Jesus rose from the dead before they could really embalm his body. The practice was that when a person died, you put ointment all over him to preserve the body. It is the last gift to the person who has died. But in the circumstances of Jesus’ death, he was taken down from the cross immediately before sundown. After sundown, it was the Sabbath, and the law did not allow doing any work. They could only have time to put him in the tomb and close it up, but they could not anoint his body. Therefore they came to the tomb to anoint his body, early on the first day of the week when they were able to work, only to discover that he had risen. This was the only anointing for his burial that he was ever to get.

 

3. Mary became “prophetess and priestess” for anointing Christ

The third thing I find most striking is that Jesus is called the Christ, which means the Messiah. The Messiah means someone who is anointed. In the Old Testament, prophets, priests and kings were anointed. Jesus, by being called “the Christ,” the Messiah (the Anointed One) indicates that he is Prophet, Priest and King. But did it ever cross your mind to realize that Jesus was never literally anointed until this very moment! That is striking indeed! Now anointing was normally carried out either by a prophet or a priest. Mary was neither prophet nor priest as far as she knew, and at this moment, she became both a prophetess and a priestess! In the amazing act of devotion, she anointed the Messiah, the Anointed One! If we express our devotion, we may in that very act of devotion do something far beyond we ever imagine we could have done.

 

4. Mary acted out Jesus’ self-giving death, pouring out himself for us

There is a fourth spiritual significance in what Mary did. In the Bible, the body is spoken of as a vessel for example, 2 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:20-21 and so forth. The breaking of a vessel symbolizes death, particularly in the breaking and the pouring out of its contents. Paul himself uses exactly this picture in Philippians 2:17. He said, “I’m ready to have this jar of mine be broken for you and poured out as a libation upon your sacrifice of faith.” In that picture, Paul is representing himself as a vessel, and pouring out this water, or oil, or wine of life, whichever it is in the vessel, as he gives himself for the church. Therefore, in the breaking of this alabaster jar and pouring out its content, death and self-giving are symbolized. As it were, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus was about to do. His vessel was to be broken, just as he said at the last supper: “My body which is broken for you.” In fact, we proclaim his words at the communion, “My body which is broken for you,” as a vessel is broken, and his love is poured out for us as a sacrifice for our salvation. So in her act of devotion, Mary acted out the parable of Jesus’ death, portraying the picture of Jesus giving himself totally for us.

When we receive his poured-out life, our whole being is filled with a sense of fragrance, and we in our turn give ourselves totally to God for his church, imitating him.

In other words, total commitment is enshrined in the one act of smashing the jar, the pouring out of all the ointment. No particular action could better portray the whole meaning of total commitment.

 

Doubtful spiritual values in the church, hence uncertain spiritual direction

Yet, for this action of total commitment to Jesus, she was reproached even by the Lord Jesus’ disciples. The Jews are God’s chosen people. This passage alarms me because it shows that even the church has a doubtful sense of spiritual values. Therefore, the spiritual direction of the church would very quickly be in trouble, as church history has proved to us again and again. Church history is a history of constant failure to maintain spiritual direction, failure to have a clear sense of spiritual values. In this anointing of the Lord Jesus is the prophecy of what is going to happen to the church as a whole. It is almost as though he had said, “This woman did this useful, praiseworthy thing to me and yet she is criticized. I pour myself out in total commitment to you for your salvation, is it too much to pour out some ointment for me? Do you find that worthy of criticism?”

 

A brother leaves Cambridge to serve God. “What a waste!”

Yet I find this happening again and again. A dear friend of mine, a Vietnamese brother and a brilliant student, gave up his studies in Cambridge when God asked him to leave Cambridge. With it, he lost his scholarship, and his place in one of the best universities in the world.

Do you know who criticized him? Christians! “This is excessive! This is unnecessary! This is ridiculous!” And he said to me, “I can’t under­stand why the things of this world are so important to Christians. They confess to have spiritual values, yet when it comes to the test, they show their hypocrisy.”

What is your sense of spiritual values? I beg of you to search your own heart very clearly. What constitutes “waste” for you?

 

A doctor gives up medicine to preach the gospel. “What a waste!”

Lately, Helen was able to contact an acquaintance of mine in England, whom I got to know through preaching at a meeting of professionals who were all devoted to the Lord, in a place near London. And after the meeting, a very tall, (probably 6 foot 2), very thin Englishman came up to me and said, “Where are you staying tonight?”

I said, “Probably in a hotel somewhere.”

He said, “No, no, Stay in my home.”

And I said, “Where is your home?”

He said, “It’s in London.”

He drove for an hour and a half to send me there. When we arrived, he simply handed over the keys of his house to me, a complete stranger! And he said, “Make yourself at home. I have to go back to the meeting and I’ll come back in one or two days’ time. My house is your house.” He had only heard one message from me and he had not known me before, but he just turned over his keys to me! Now this brother was a doctor and his wife was also a doctor. She was away at the time visiting her parents and he was at this meeting which would continue after the message I gave. He welcomed me with open heart, someone he did not know apart from having met at one meeting.

I wanted to thank him so much for his hospitality, but in my travels, I misplaced his address, and I thought, “How am I going to write a letter to thank him?” I knew the approximate area but I could not remember the address and this disturbed me no end. This was three years ago, and I still could not find the address to thank him, and I did not know how to get in touch with him. About two weeks ago, I was clearing through some papers to be thrown out, and I found his address! There it was at last, written on the back of an envelope that I hurriedly jotted down before I left. Immediately, I told Helen, “Please contact this dear brother and express to him my thanks and appreciation for his love.”

Helen wrote back to say this dear brother has given up medicine and is now preaching the gospel. I thought to myself, “How wonderful this is that God has accomplished this thing in his life!” But, do you feel immediately: “What a waste! Six, seven years of medical training could help the poor!”? In fact, he was already ministering to the poor in the East End of London. He lavishes upon God and Christ all this medical training and some more years of medical help that could have been given to the poor.

“Surely it’s not necessary, Mary! Just take a little bit of the ointment out of the bottle and anoint the Messiah on the head. Take a little bit, and if you think that is too little, pour a handful but not the whole bottle! What a waste!” Do you have this feeling?

Or if someone in engineering leaves his job to preach the gospel to the poor and illiterate, most people would say, “What a waste! There are lots of other people to preach the gospel! This is excessive! This is going too far!” Do you feel it again? Immediately, the criticism comes! Strange, isn’t it? In fact, strangely enough, I can tell you a whole list of my friends who were doctors, who are all preaching the gospel today and not practicing medicine. Why the waste? Martin Lloyd-Jones put aside his career as a heart specialist and preached the gospel. What a waste! You could do part-time medical practice here and there, why do you preach the gospel? Look at all the poor, the sick, the dying out there! They desperately need you! We find this question, “Why the waste?” coming at us time and again.

Or if you are serving God as a full-time church worker, how many times you might be tempted to think, “My great talent all gone down the drain! What a waste!”? What constitutes waste? You cannot go far in the Christian life when this feeling is getting at you all the time.

 

This passage makes me anxious about our spiritual direction in five ways:

Let me close with five points as we analyze even more closely Mary’s anointing of the Lord Jesus, and see why it makes me feel so anxious about our spiritual direction, and how easily we pervert the spiritual gospel into a social gospel. We think that by giving to the poor, we have done something that cancels out the spiritual. What a piece of deception!

 

1. Devotion that doesn’t see anything too valuable to give to God and Christ is so rare in the church!

The first thing that this passage disturbs me about is, this kind of devotion that doesn’t see anything too valuable to give to God and Christ is so rare in the church. In the church, among the people who claim to be redeemed, this one woman is criticized for an act of devotion which should have delighted the hearts of the disciples. Did they say, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Here is someone who is so grateful!”? No, they grumbled; they criticized. It disturbs me that we talk about total commitment but our commitment is very much less than total. Therefore our whole spiritual direction is going to be very, very uncertain.

 

2. We give God and Christ what is not valuable to us

Secondly, although we speak of a total commitment, yet when put to the test in relation to something we really love, again, our commit­ment becomes much less than total. What do we mean? You say you love God and you are prepared to give. But the things we are prepared to give are not the things that are valuable to us! We are hypocrites! We are prepared to give money to God so long as that money that we give does not hurt us, or not too much anyway. If you earn $3,000 a month, $1,000 is peanuts! I can give $1,000 without even slightly affecting my standard of living. We can give so long as it’s not going to touch us too much at the things that matter to us. Our spiritual direction is very much in doubt, brothers and sisters, when we see these things happening.

We are willing to give of our time provided it is our spare time. “Spare”, that is to say, we could have watched TV with it. When we don’t watch TV, we will read the Bible a bit. Reading the Bible is for your benefit. Who does it benefit but yourself? Do you think you have given something to God when you read the Bible? You have given nothing. You have got something for yourself.

When we pray, most of our prayer is for ourselves. We don’t give anything to God at all, not to say five drops of ointment. We have only collected five drops of ointment. What do we give? Often, the end result is absolutely nothing.

We define total commitment as “excess in devotion.” Is it possible to be excessive in devotion? Can a total commitment be giving too much? Is it possible to be excessive in what we give to Yahweh God and Christ Jesus? We can give things mistakenly, but can we ever give anything excessively? By “mistakenly,” I mean we may give to God and Christ what they really don’t want. For example, some people think that it is very pious to beat themselves, so they take a stick and flog themselves until they bleed. But that is not what God or Christ want. You have given them something they don’t want. When do they take any pleasure in your beating yourself? Do you think they are sadists?

Or you say, “I’m going on a fast and starve myself to death.” Now fasting is good but don’t imagine that in fasting, God particularly enjoys seeing you get thinner and thinner. It is very good for self-control. Fast by all means! But don’t think you are giving God anything. He is not taking any pleasure in seeing you starve. So sometimes our devotion may be misguided but we cannot give more than what is his due, can we? Yet, we think we can because we regard that “excess” as “waste.”

We would have applauded Mary, wouldn’t we, if she had simply taken some ointment and patted the Lord Jesus with it? But we cannot tolerate her in what we regard as excess. But can we talk about “total” and yet have “excess”? What is an excess of a total? That is a contradiction in terms. There again, we reveal our hypocrisy and our lack of sense of spiritual values.

 

3. No sense of spiritual values due to impure motives

Thirdly, our spiritual thinking becomes confused when our sense of values is confused. It is strange that Judas and those other disciples who criticized the Lord Jesus should say the things that they said because it showed them to be utterly illogical, unless their motive was impure. How can someone who has given up his own career to follow Jesus like the disciples did, who had given up for example, their fishing, their whole professional career to follow Jesus criticize another person for excess? If they themselves were so concerned about the poor, why did they not stay in fishing and donate their fish to the poor? Why did they give up their own profession and follow Jesus and then criticize her for her excess? Illogical confusion, isn’t it? Do we know what we are talking about?

Or is it that when they first gave up their fishing to follow Jesus, their motives were less than pure? Perhaps they followed Jesus for other selfish reasons after all. I think all who study the Gospels are well ready to concede that the motives of those who first followed the Lord Jesus might have been less than pure. In the case of Judas, all the way through, discipleship on his part had never been pure.

 

4. We criticize others because it shows us up

Fourthly, we lord it over others by our criticism. This woman, Mary, gave this ointment that was her private possession. She had every right to do whatever she proposed with it. Yet they thought they had a right to criticize her for what she did with her own thing. They really did not understand the limit of their own authority, did they? What right do I have to criticize you for what you do with what is yours? If you decide to take $5,000 from your savings and do something with it, you have the right to do what you want with your $5,000. It’s none of my business to tell you what to do with your money. Why did they criticize Mary?

If this doctor decides to give up medicine, do I have a right to criticize him? Is it your business to criticize him as being fanatic or excessive or wasting his life? Did you pay for his medical training? You did nothing of the sort. It is his life. It is his business.

Why do we criticize? I will tell you why. It shows us up. It makes us uncomfortable. When we see someone breaking an alabaster jar, we think, “Oh dear! That makes me feel that I have to break my alabaster jar too! I don’t want to break it, and the only way I can refuse to break it is to say that that action is not desirable of imitation.

If I see someone else fasting and I don’t want to fast, then I criticize him because his fasting makes me feel that I should be doing something that I don’t particularly want to do. So I say, “Fanaticism! Excess! Waste!”

I have heard that kind of criticism in the church too. I have heard for example, criticism of the First Team because of their determination to follow Jesus, their willingness to fast, to discipline themselves. I did not even bother to comment on the matter at the time. Why do you criticize their action as unnecessary or excessive? What gives you the right to criticize them? If they eat or don’t eat, it is their food they eat or don’t eat, not your food. It is their stomach that is fasting, not yours. You criticize because it makes you uncomfortable. It shows you up.

Take for example, someone gave up his profession to serve the Lord, and you criticize if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Maybe you should have done this too, but you don’t want to, so you defend yourself by saying, “I don’t do this because it’s nonsense! It’s unnecessary! Excessive! Wasteful!” These are the ways by which we defend ourselves.

 

5. We cover up our real reason with a spiritual-sounding one

The fifth and last reason why this passage disturbs me is because so often, we cover up our real reason with a spiritual-sounding reason. I find that the most frightening. We see that in John 12. Judas criticized Mary for breaking the alabaster jar, “What a waste!” But the Gospel goes on to tell us that was not the reason at all! He made it sound as though he was concerned about the poor. In fact, he was not interested in the poor at all. He wanted to justify himself for one, but secondly, he was a thief. His value was entirely in money as John 12 tells us. He was after money. For him, any money that was spent in this way was a waste because he loved money so much. That was the real reason. And this particular reason scares me because time and again, we say that is our reason when in fact, that is not really our reason, and we become caught in the most dangerous mesh of self-deceit.

For example, you feel challenged to serve the Lord. Whether you serve God is your business and no one has the right to criticize you. It’s your life. I have no right to criticize you. No one here has the right to criticize you. What you do with your life is your business. But please, when you decide that you are not going to serve God, don’t give a spiritual-sounding reason when the real reason is that you are not willing to do so. Simply be honest please to say, “I am unable to express this type of devotion.” That is honest. No one can say anything against you. It’s between God and you. Or you can say, “I am not ready at this time.” That is fair enough.

But don’t come up with spiritual-sounding reasons and foolish talk like, “What will happen if everybody in the church were full-time workers?” What will happen is wonderful! Does that scare you if everybody in the church became full-time workers? I have had this said to me so many times that it makes me fed up! Does that terrify you? The vision of a church of full-time workers is just too wonderful to imagine! Just how exceedingly wonderful it would be that every person in the church is available for God’s service! When we need someone in Malaysia for example, and we ask, “Are you ready to go?” And he says, “Yes, I am ready to go immediately.” There are four brothers here, so four brothers go. If there are five brothers here, then five go. Wonderful! What about their material needs? It’s not a problem at all. The others who are working will support them. God will provide in his own way. It’s strange that the thought of a church of full-time workers seems to terrify us! So don’t give this kind of reasoning. Just be honest with God so that at least you can deal with your problem. Diagnose your problem correctly, that your devotion to God is inadequate.

If you say you have no particular gifts, that is fine too. But if you have no gifts, you can ask for gifts and God can provide you with those gifts. But why not say it like it is? Don’t say, “I was going to serve God but he doesn’t want me to do this.” I have yet to come across some reference in the Bible about God rejecting a person who wants to serve him. He may send you to serve in a different place in a different way, but I haven’t heard of God saying, “I don’t want anybody to serve me.” What remarkable statement is this! However, if you say God doesn’t want you, I will take you at your word. It’s between God and you. I have no right to judge you. But I must say from the Word of God, I can’t find such a statement. I have not heard of God rejecting anyone, whether it is for salvation or for service.

Therefore, I find this fifth point to be most important. Let us try at least to say, “My spiritual direction is not here. My devotion is not adequate. I am growing towards it by God’s grace. Pray for me in this direction.” We can understand all this. It is speaking the truth and we love that. But don’t make spiritual-sounding excuses when you know deep in your heart that the reason you did not break that alabaster jar is because you didn’t want to break it, and you felt that it was a waste to break it. Don’t say, “I didn’t break it because I wanted to give it to the poor.” You would think, “When I die, I will put it in my will to give my money to the poor, because as the Lord Jesus says in Mark 14:7, “The poor we will always have,” so there is no need to give in a hurry. I will still enjoy it when I’m alive.”

Here are the five points in this passage that really searches my heart, and I hope, searches your heart. Every time you read it, let that sense of “Oh, what a waste!” come back to you. And every time you feel, “Oh, what a waste!” ask yourself again this question: What is the sense of my spiritual values? What really is my commitment? What is my spiritual direction?

Let us be quiet before God in prayer.