Holy Week Devotional - Wednesday (Preparing To Be Buried)

Hello, welcome back to our Easter week study that we're going through.

I'm excited to dig into Wednesday and what that looked like for Jesus.

This is one of my favorite stories when it comes to talking about worship and

what worship is and mainly,

more importantly, what worship isn't and what people can reason in their minds

that worship actually is and how we can reason ourselves out of worshiping Christ

the way he's supposed to be worshiped.

So if you're following along in your bibles we're going to be in mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

And we're going to start in chapter or in verse 3 says and

while he was at bethany in the house of simon the leper as he was reclining at

a table a woman came with an alabaster flask

ointment of pure nard now we

don't really have nard but just think perfumes think

of things that you would prepare someone with

that they were getting ready to do something important very costly

and she broke the flask and poured it over his head now what's

going on here is that jesus of course is a really just a day or so away from

being delivered into the hands of the high priest and they're going to well

they think they're going to kill him but he's really going to sacrifice himself

he's going to lay down his life for his sheep, as he would say.

But listen to the response. Listen to the response that those around this lady have to her.

Verse four, there were some who said to themselves indignantly,

why was the ointment wasted like that?

For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii, right?

300 denarii is about a good day's worth of work, right? This is a whole day

of work, and this is a lady that may not have much, we don't know.

It says it could have been sold and given to the poor.

Here's where I was talking about reasoning yourself out of worshiping Jesus

the way that he's called to be worshipped, the way that he deserves to be worshipped,

not because of what he's done, but because of who he is, because he is the King

of kings and Lord of lords.

The people look at the situation and they begin to use their minds.

They begin to reason as to why this is a bad idea.

Don't you realize how much money you could have given away to the poor?

Don't you realize how much money we could have sold this for if you were just

going to waste it by perfuming this man's head?

Now, again, the people around would have thought highly of Jesus.

They would have seen a lot of the things that Jesus did.

Again, this whole story starts a couple of days ago with everyone knowing and

hearing about him raising Lazarus from the dead.

This is not a small town guy that just kind of shows up. They're trying to show honor to you.

They have a respect for Jesus, just like many of us do.

Right many of us have respect for Jesus we love

Jesus but there's this moment where

this lady pours out her offering

onto Jesus's head and they have this this thought

this logical conclusion of why would you waste that and this happens all the

time maybe you've had experienced this maybe like me you've been on the other

side where you missed the point but when people give up something that is incredibly

valuable to worship Jesus,

to follow Jesus, to honor Jesus the way that he is supposed to be honored, and the people around,

their immediate response is, why would you do that?

Why would you give that up? Don't you know what you could have used that money for?

Don't you know what you could have done if you didn't do that,

if you didn't give that up?

If you didn't give up that relationship, don't you realize what it could have

been for you? Don't you realize what kind of connections you could have had?

If you would just take part in this thing or that thing, if you would spend

your time this way, if you would spend your money this way, don't you realize

how much more opportunities you could have?

Do you realize how much free time you're giving up on Sundays or Wednesdays during Bible studies?

Don't you realize how much you're giving up? Do you really think God cares about

that? And the answer is yes.

Yes, not because Jesus cares anything about her perfume or what she's doing

for him or the product she's giving him. He cares nothing about that.

But what he does realize is this is a heart that realizes what's happening here.

Now, does she understand that she's preparing him for burial?

I don't think so. I don't think she has a full understanding of what's about to go down.

But listen to Jesus' response to her. Verse 6, it says, leave her alone.

Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.

But you will not always have me. See what Jesus does here is he turns it around

and he says, listen, the poor will always be with you.

And you can always do good to them.

Because the truth is, if these people wanted to do something good for the poor,

it wouldn't be, well, I either need to serve Jesus or serve the poor.

It would be, well, we can do both.

It may cost us more. It may cost us more to do both.

It may cost us more in the long run to serve Jesus and to serve the poor as

if they're in opposition to each other.

But Jesus wants them to know she's done a beautiful thing.

She's done a beautiful thing.

And if you want to go serve the poor, go serve the poor. That's a wonderful thing to do.

We're reminded in the Gospels and in the Epistles over and over again,

take care of the poor and the widow.

Jesus has no issue with taking care of the poor. What he takes issue with is

their hearts not being devoted, not really and truly seeing who Jesus is.

And again, I wonder often in my own life, and maybe you do in yours,

where do I miss this where am I where am I using my own thinking in my own logic in my own,

we'll call it order of importance to say well this is what's important and this

is what I'm going to commit to without ever consulting Christ whatever thinking

what would Christ have me do,

what do I need to be doing to make sure that I'm honoring him above all other

things What do I need to sacrifice to make sure that Christ stays at the forefront of my life?

This reminds me of the story of the rich young ruler.

Jesus is walking around and this rich young ruler comes up to him.

And remember, he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit the kingdom?

And Jesus says, why do you call me good? Only God is good. And Jesus is setting

up this moment to say, if you're calling me good, you're calling me God.

It means I'm worthy of everything.

I'm worthy of everything in your life.

Jesus says, you know the commandments. Do not lie. Do not cheat.

Do not steal. to not commit adultery.

And the rich young ruler completely, again, misses the point,

just like the people in the story in Mark 13, he says, I've done all of these things.

And therein lies the problem. It's not what you've done. It's not what you've accomplished.

It's what Christ has accomplished on your behalf.

And when we see that clearly, when we see what Christ has accomplished for us,

When we see that he has brought us from death to life.

When we see that he has made us no longer orphans, but adopted into God's family.

When we see that God has literally given us a new heart of flesh to believe,

new eyes to see him, new ears to hear him.

When we see that clearly, we stop saying, look what I've done.

We stop saying, we need to give all our money away to the poor because that's

what's going to earn us right favor before God.

We start saying, I just want to honor the Lord.

I just want to love the Lord.

Not for what he can give me, but

for what he's done for me, what he has offered on my behalf, who he is.

He goes on in Mark 13, 9, And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed

in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.

You see, Jesus makes this connection between the gospel and her response.

When you hear and believe the gospel, your response will always be, I will honor the Lord.

I will love him and serve him. Just like the greatest commandment says,

more than anybody or anything that the Lord takes first place in my life,

What he has asked me to do matters more than what any single person on the planet could ask me to do.

No matter how much money they offer me, no matter how much fame they offer me,

no matter how much stuff they offer me, no matter how much comfort it might

offer me, the Lord takes first place when we believe the gospel.

To believe the gospel is to be changed by the gospel. And that's what we see in this woman's life.

She believes Jesus. She believes Jesus.

She trusts him. She may not understand everything that's about to take place. Nobody really does.

She may not completely grasp what's going on, but she trusts him.

And so she pours out this offering onto his head. And look at the response.

Look at what immediately follows this. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the

12, went to the chief priest in order to betray him.

And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money.

And he sought an opportunity to betray him. Again, here's the dichotomy.

You've got this poor woman living in a house, giving everything she has to honor Jesus.

And you have Judas who looks at that and says, what a waste of money.

And he goes off to betray Jesus, as Jesus would say, like he was destined to do.

Because he wanted what the world offered him more than he wanted Jesus.

He valued what the world could give him more than he valued Jesus.

This is why 1 John tells us, do not love the world or anything in the world.

No matter how many times you've read that, you need to hear it again. Do not love the world.

What the world offers you will always look and make sense and seem to be the

greatest thing that you could possibly have.

All along leading you exactly where it led to Judas. To denying Christ. To betraying him.

And ultimately leading to his eternal death.

Whereas Christ has asked nothing of you, and yet has given you everything,

the truth is, what will your response be to that?

What will your response be to who Christ is, to what Christ has done,

to the gospel of Jesus Christ?

And we can get lost in all kinds of things. We can get caught up in controversies,

We can get caught up in genealogies. And like we said yesterday, end times.

And there's so many things that we can get caught up in. And those are worthy

studies, worthy conversations.

But to miss who Jesus is, to not love him and adore him and value him the way

this woman does in Mark 13 is to miss everything.

You can give all your money away to the poor. You can give your money to the

church. You can be at church every Sunday.

You can do every Bible study. You can pray before every meal.

You can raise your kids in church.

You can take them. You can learn, you can read your Bible, you can do devotionals,

you can pray, you can do everything that you could possibly do.

But if you do not put your trust fully and wholly in the person and work of

Jesus Christ, you have missed the gospel.

Because like the rich young ruler, you are still trying to figure out,

teacher, what must I do to be saved?

And the answer to that question is, you can't do anything. Only God is good.

You're not good. I'm not good. In and of ourselves, there's not enough good

things we can do to make ourselves good.

We need Christ to forgive us.

We need Christ's righteousness imputed, given to us, so that when we stand before

God, we do not stand before God on the basis of our works or what we've done

or our track record, but we stand on the basis of Jesus.

Those are the two paths laid before us on this Wednesday.

Judas and this lady will we honor Christ,

thank you again for listening looking so forward to Thursday and all the things

that transpire and then I pray that this Easter week has been a time of reflection

on you fixing your eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith we'll see you guys tomorrow.