Holy Week (Wednesday) - ‘An Anointing and An Apostate’

Welcome back to day three of our Holy Week series. Today it's Wednesday.

We'll be looking at an anointing and an apostate.

John 12, 3-5 records this scene. Mary took a pound of expensive ointment made

from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.

Mary understands that Jesus is worthy to be worshipped.

Verse 4, But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, said, why was this ointment

not sold for 300 denarii, about a year's wages, and given to the poor?

The previous three days, awash in drama, Sunday's triumphal entry,

Monday's temple cleansing, and Tuesday's simple controversies,

but out of sight, lurking in the shadows, evil is afoot.

We learn early in the Gospels that the religious elites would love nothing more than to kill Jesus.

They view him as a religious zealot, an outcast, challenging their authority

and committing blasphemy after blasphemy.

The church has long called Wednesday Spy Wednesday.

As the dark conspiracy against Jesus races forward, not just from enemies outside,

but now we learn from a traitor from within. It is this day where key pieces

come together in the plot for the greatest sin of all history,

the murder of the Son of God.

Jesus wakes up outside Jerusalem in Bethany, where he's staying at the house

of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

The Lazarus that he has raised from the dead.

His teaching again attacks a crowd in the temple, but now the Jewish leaders,

silenced by Jesus, will leave him be.

Today they will avoid public confrontation. but we learn why.

As Mary is anointing the feet of Jesus, Judas watches in disgust.

As Mary worships the Lord, Judas wonders, why would she waste something so valuable on some man?

This is the challenge to all of us. If we are to be sold out disciples of Jesus

Christ, to give our lives away

to him, to do everything in his service and honor, the world will scowl.

They will wonder, why the time? Why the money? Why the effort? Why every Sunday?

Why do you worship? Why do you follow?

This was the conundrum that faced every single person that came in contact with

Jesus, and yet we have this moment where everything is zoomed in,

and this dichotomy takes place in this one story.

Martha worshiping Jesus and Judas realizing, man, there's so much money to be made here.

You can use this example for anything. It doesn't have to be money, right?

Anytime that you sell out your life to worship the Lord, it will cost you something.

In fact, Jesus says it will cost you everything.

Every dime you make, every second of every day, every moment that you spend

thinking and toiling and working, Everything now belongs to the King of kings

and the Lord of lords as you surrender your life to him.

And as the onlooking world wonders why you would do that, you will sit at the

feet of Jesus and wash his feet and wonder, Why in the world have I been given

this place of honor to sit there and be with the Lord?

Judas turns on him, and soon Peter will deny him, and the remaining ten will scatter.

From the beginning of His public ministry, the disciples have been at His side.

They have learned from Him and traveled with Him, ministered with Him and ministered for Him.

They have been His earthly companions and comforted Him as He walked this otherwise

lonely road to Jerusalem.

But now, as Jesus' hour comes near the burden He must bear alone,

this definite work will be no team effort.

We learn from Peter in Acts 2.23 that Jesus was delivered up according to the

definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

He says, you crucified and killed Jesus by the hands of lawless men.

This was God's plan, not just that Jesus would come and live a perfect life

and die on a cross, but He would experience loneliness.

He would experience grief. He would experience betrayal.

Maybe as I say even those words out loud, you can think of moments where you

have experienced those things.

Jesus experienced them on a level we cannot imagine.

He wasn't just alone in this one place at one time. He was alone in the world.

He was the only man who existed, who had lived a perfectly sinless life,

that deserved nothing but heaven, deserved nothing but good things.

He was the only good, truly good and pure man that ever walked the earth.

And yet soon he will walk alone to the cross.

The crowds that cheered him will cry, crucify him. The disciples will abandon

him, betray him, and deny him.

The religious leaders whom claim to know God will be at the heart of all of this.

The government will try and wash their hands of these sins. But more remarkable

than this depth of forsakeness is the height of love Jesus will show.

Greater love has no one than this, than he who laid down his life for his friends,

even when they have forsaken him.

When we read a story like this, we always assume that we would be Mary,

that we would be the ones washing Jesus' feet. but if we're honest with ourselves,

we have all landed in the place of Judas or Peter or the disciples.

We have betrayed and denied and scattered when Jesus has called us.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus didn't come to save those that didn't do that.

He came to save the betrayers and the deniers and the scatterers.

Sadly, Judas' life ends without him ever repenting and coming back to the Lord.

We learn that this was Judas' lot in life.

Again, this plan that God had put in place wasn't a plan he came up with on

the fly. It was according to his definite plan and foreknowledge.

However, for us, as we hear the gospel, as we seek Christ.

Forgiveness is offered with open hands.

Blood has been spilled to wash away your sins.

A body has been broken that you were invited to come and eat of so that your

body does not have to be broken and your blood does not have to be spilled,

and God's divine wrath will no longer sit on our heads.

For us who are Christians, this is why we worship.

This is why we show up This is why we give This is why we serve.

Not because we're trying to earn God's love or His affection,

but because He has already shown it to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

May we, like Mary, sit at the feet of Jesus today and worship.

May we marvel at His love and grace for us.

May we marvel that He has come to save sinners like you and like me,

and that though we have failed Him time and time again, that does not weaken His grasp on us.

That He runs towards us as sinners. He is not abandoning us.

He is not pushing away from us.

He has come to save His sheep.

He will do anything, even death on a cross, to accomplish that.

May Easter be a reminder of that. Thank you for joining us. Looking forward

to day four as the story, again, really picks up.

I hope you've been enjoying Easter week. I hope you've been able to meditate on the Scriptures.

I pray that this is a blessing to you I'm looking forward again to being with you tomorrow.