Jesus: Threat or Treasure - John 11:55-12:11 - August 9, 2026

Matthew Poole: Morning. My name is Matthew. I'm one of the pastors here. It is a joy to gather with you, to worship Jesus. It is a joy to serve you this morning with the Word of Christ. Let's pray for God's help to do what only He can do this morning. If you would join with me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a speaking God and that your words are life, they are goodness, they are grace and mercy for us. We thank you, God, that long ago you spoke in many ways through your prophets, through your priests. Through the fathers, but in these last days you have spoken to us through your son. That your son Jesus is the ultimate revelation of who you are. And we thank you that we have your written word this morning that testifies to the glory, the beauty, and the worth of Jesus Christ. God, we pray this morning that you would silence, silence the voice of the enemy, silence the distractions. Help us this morning to see, to gaze clearly on Jesus. God, we do not desire this to be some mere religious exercise. We're not gathering just to do something social. God, we want to meet with you, the living God, and we ask by grace, would you transform our lives? Transform our minds, transform our affections, transform our lives for your glory and our eternal joy. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Several years ago I was cleaning up the house this one morning, being a good husband, taking the trash out, putting it on the can, getting the can to the street. Soon after that, though, my wife says, What happened to that bag that was up here in the living room? I'm like, What bag are you talking about? that very important bag with very important things in it. I'm like, dear. Turns out that bag was not trash. That bag had several valuable items in there that were worth a lot to my wife. There were three items. There was a real leather diaper bag, there was a a carry, like a a portable high chair, and there was an ergo. These were three of our favorite baby items. Sentimental memories with these well, all of our children had these things. You know, it it was a value that she had, and she was giving them. To some of our closest friends that night. So there was a lot of value in this bag being able to offer this priceless thing to someone else. It was Wednesday morning when I took the trash out. Wednesday morning was when the trash truck came. So there was no use in me running out to the trash can. They were gone. I had to just take and absorb this moment of absolute failure. A blunder. A blunder. In thinking something that was valuable was trash, and I took it out. We can make the same mistake spiritually. That ultimately has no great consequence in our lives, but spiritually, when we confuse treasure and trash, there are eternal consequences at stake. It's very important. We understand what is ultimately worth treasuring and what is ultimately to be considered trash. All of this hinges on how we relate to Jesus Christ. Do we see Jesus this morning as the infinite treasure that he is, or do we disregard him? Do we consider him irrelevant? Do we consider him a threat to our own kingdom, our own glory? T. S. Lewis nods to this issue that we have. He says, This we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. And he says, We are far too easily pleased. We are far too easily pleased. And this is not an accident. We don't go through life and accidentally not worship Jesus. There's a moral quality there. There's hostility that can be there towards King Jesus. This morning, you and I have trouble here. We have trouble assessing the worth, the infinite. Beauty and worth of Jesus and aligning our lives to respond appropriately to that. We have trouble here, but praise God. God's word is here to help us this morning. God is here to help us to reorient our lives to see Christ as supremely valuable. We pick up our story in John eleven, verse fifty-five. Says this now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem. Before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all? They don't think he will come. Be a suicide mission for Jesus to come. Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know so that they might arrest him. We're picking up this story right on the backside of Jesus doing one of his greatest signs. He has just raised Lazarus from the dead. This is how the Pharisees and the religious leaders are responding. They don't like that Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead. That's a threat to their kingdom and to their glory. So they enact a plan to put Jesus to death. Very intentional. And here they're sounding the alarm, trying to get everybody in on it. If you hear anything about the whereabouts of this Jesus, let us know so that we can kill him. Jesus does good, brings life out of dead places, life from a dead person, Lazarus comes back to the grave, what a good that is. And he's hated for it. It's as Tim Keller said, when Jesus went to raise Jes w when Jesus went to raise Lazarus from the dead, he was signing his own death warrant. When Jesus does good, he's often hated for it. It's a threat to this self-glory that the Pharisees are walking in. So Jesus becomes a wanted man, and he's completely irrelevant to their practice of religion. They're all purifying themselves at the feast of Passover. They're not consumed with worship of God in this. You see where their minds are at, not on worshiping. on getting rid of Jesus, God in the flesh. Jesus is irrelevant to their worship. He's not the substance of their worship. He's getting in the way of what they want. They like their godless ceremonies. They like their self made religion. They like to do things their way for their glory. Perhaps we're in that boat this morning as well. Proximity to Christians and Christian culture does not mean the substance of Christ is there in your heart. Just because we're around the Christian thing does not mean we are worshiping and exalting Jesus Christ. We can be about the show and not about the substance. This morning is Jesus getting in the way of your path, of what you want, of your kingdom. Are we just going through the motions this morning, or are we here to worship? Are we here to worship Jesus? Are we living a life of surrender to him as the King of Kings? Following Him where He goes, doing what He says. The Pharisees are not about that. Not about Jesus in this way. So their response to the resurrection of Lazarus is to kill Jesus. Can't let him get any more following. continue in our text verse one of chapter twelve. Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary, therefore, 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 the perfume. This is a very different response to the resurrection of. The resurrection of Lazarus does not create anger and hostility. No, it engenders this intense gratitude. A posture of devotion and worship and honor to King Jesus. They are in awe of who Jesus is, and so they throw this dinner for him. And it very well may have been that this dinner, all the arrangements for this dinner, that this was the funeral arrangement for Lazarus, for his reception. And it's turned into a resurrection celebration. Jesus transforms a reception about death into a celebration of life here. What a dinner. If you can imagine putting yourself here. I mean, this guy was dead. He was just dead, and now you're eating dinner with him. And you're eating dinner with the guy who spoke a word and commanded him to come out of the grave. You're sitting down at dinner. This feast, what a dinner it is. But then the focus zooms in on Mary. Zooms in on Mary. What does she do? She gets up and she goes and she gets this flask of expensive perfume and she breaks it over the feet of Jesus, pours it out over his feet, lets down her hair, and begins wiping. his feet with her hair. This is a I think this is one of those moments where it feels like time just stands still. And everything is going in slow motion. The outside world fades away. All eyes focus in on this act of devotion. Mary. What's she doing? She's worshiping Jesus. She sees the value of Jesus and she's responding appropriately, honoring this man and expressing her gratitude. I'd imagine she's like, she's thinking, okay, he's in the house. Jesus is in the house. What can I do? I think she's imagining, she's thinking, what can I do to? to get anywhere near expressing to this man how I really feel about him. What can I do to show something real about my heart and how I see him? I want to show something real. She thinks, okay, I've got this oil. I've got this oil. Very well, maybe the most expensive thing that she owns. This is a rare oil. It would have been passed down, most likely. Passed down from generations like an heirloom. Very expensive, and a lot of it. A year's worth of wages. For Mary it could have been her financial safety net. The very thing that would give her comfort and security in life. And she takes it and she dumps it out on Jesus. And she's glad. to honor him. It's it's it's all she can think to do, to honor him. He's worth it. And so she gives this extravagant gift. As one scholar said, the gift itself is beyond description. You can't describe what she's doing here. Also to take notice of the manner at which she does this. She goes to his feet, which is the lowest place of the body, and the feet are a place reserved a lot of times for slaves, for the activity of slaves, to deal with other people's feet. So she's taking the lowest place. She's making herself nothing here so that she can make everything of Jesus. She's taking the lowest place so that Jesus can take the highest place. And she lets her hair down, and another sign of lowliness, another sign of I'm becoming undignified that my that I might give all dignity to you, King Jesus. That's what she's doing here. She's treasuring Jesus. She sees And rightly values the treasure that Jesus is and responds appropriately. How does everybody else respond? Well, at least there's one person, verse 4. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was about to betray him, said, Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, Leave her alone. so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me. Judas is upset with Mary's worship. He ridicules it. Why does he ridicule her worship? Because she's giving money or a cost a worth of something to Jesus that he could have gotten. In some sense, she thinks by Mary worshiping Jesus in this way, she's robbing him of money. Could have sold this not to give to the poor, so we could get more in the money bag that I could have then grabbed for myself. We see. Where Judas values. What's his value? Money. He could care less about the infinite treasure that was sitting next to him at this dinner table. Later we're going to see, or John even mentions this here, he will betray Jesus, and he betrays Jesus for what? Money. Judas loves money. We tend to view the world through a lens of our greatest love. Whatever your greatest love is, you will see the world that way. Everything Judas sees is calculated in order for that, for him to get money. How we often view the world. Judas has a currency centered view of the world, not a Christ-centered view of the world. It's not about how the world is oriented to Christ. It's about how the world is oriented to money that he can take advantage of. John Piper comments on this. He says, Judas knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. price of everything and the value of nothing. He looked at 300 denarii worth of ointment on the feet of Jesus and he saw a wasted asset. Mary looked at Jesus and saw a priceless Judas comes up with this very spiritual sounding excuse to give the money to the poor. And then Jesus defends. Jesus defends her worship, rebukes Judas, defends Mary. No, she's done a good thing. You're always going to have the poor with you, and you should give to the poor. Give to the poor. But you're not always going to have me. Mary has done. A glorious thing, he said. We consider our relationship with Christ this morning. Are we all in like Mary here? Are we all in? Or are we resisting? Do we have pockets, maybe literal pockets of money, or pockets of things, or time, or our calendar? We're resisting areas that we don't want to give to King Jesus, that we don't want to surrender to him. Where might we be resisting this morning, not willing to go all in and give it all for Jesus? Our time. talents, our treasures. He deserves it all. Where are we withholding? Maybe we're cautious. We're just not sure. Can we go all in? Can can we actually go all in on King Jesus? Or do we need to diversify? Is it safer to diversify or to put everything in the one account of Jesus? This is what Piper again comments. It is not a waste to pour out your life or your treasure on Jesus Christ. The only thing that is wasted in this universe is what is withheld from God. It's not a waste. When we give something to King Jesus, the word is very clear. It comes back to us tenfold, a hundredfold. Jesus is so much more glorious than anything we got to give up. It's like Paul at the end of Galatians, I've been crucified to this world and the world to me. Jesus is better than anything I gotta give up. Will you not cut off your hand or gouge out your eye so that you may gain eternal life? What good is it to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your very soul? And yet that's what we do. We cling to things that are going to bring about our death. If we give them to Jesus, life flows. Mercy flows. Eternal life flows. We don't have to fear. Our God is not short. Our God is not diminished when He gives. He's not diminished when we give. Abundant life starts flowing. This isn't prosperity, wealth. gospel that we're just gonna get rich, that's not it at all. We have a treasure that far exceeds the treasures of this world Christ. If you get Christ, who cares what you lose? Worship, we give all of ourselves to Jesus. He deserves far more than oil. He deserves our very selves and all that is represented. Let's worship him, giving him our lives on the altar. We continue, we see another group of people here responding to the resurrection of Lazarus. Verse 9. When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came. Not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well. Because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. Now often in the book of John we've seen belief doesn't always mean belief, right? And the crowds are rarely ever believing in Jesus, actually. These crowds, I believe, are those same crowds. It's a superficial belief. We like the Jesus that serves us. We like the Jesus in our image. These are the crowds that loved it when Jesus mi miraculously feeding people out in the wilderness. he's a great savior. I'll sign up for him. He keeps my belly filled. Right? This is false belief here. Same crowds that are soon we're going to see turn on Jesus when he comes into Jerusalem. Their lack of worship is expressed not in outward, obvious hatred, but in an inward hatred. Wanting Jesus to fit their box. Wanting Jesus to serve their kingship, their image. They are seeking a miracle worker. A political a political revolutionary, perhaps a show, not a savior. They're not coming to Jesus to surrender their lives. They're coming to Jesus because, wow, somebody got raised from the dead. Let's go check it out. Not because of the sign that the resurrection of Lazarus is pointing to, that Jesus is the Christ, God in the flesh, deserving of all worship. But he is getting this following, and so the religious authorities, they continue to spiral more and more. They don't like this. So they put Lazarus on the hit list. Which a lot of scholars that I read this week, everybody points out the irony. It's like if ge if if Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, you don't think he can do it again? gonna like it's not gonna go well for you. It's not going to go, but I think one of the points here is sin makes us irrational. When our kingdoms get threatened, we go crazy. We go crazy and we don't think straight. We can see ourselves fitting into this paradigm of the crowds here when we want Jesus to fit our agenda. We're okay with Jesus as long as he's nice and he doesn't demand anything. And doesn't cost us anything. He's a great savior. But the moment he tells me to pick up a cross, that's when I have trouble. That's not a savior I think I'm interested in. The moment living for him requires discomfort, well that changes things. But that's what Jesus does. He's reorienting our lives towards conformity to Him. All right, we're fine until He tells us that we must forgive one another and serve one another and serve Him and give up our lives to follow Him. Love your enemies, bear the fruit of the Spirit. Don't live for worldly pleasure. If you do, then the love of the Father is not in you. These are the things that Jesus demands of us. Are we okay with that? Or is that where we push back? Jesus, I'm good with you as long as you make all my dreams come true. Make me God, I'm not okay taking the lowest place to give you the highest place. Where do you see yourself in our story this morning? The different people responding to Jesus, who he is and what he does, and the raising raising of Lazarus. And if we're being honest, we want to identify with Mary, don't we? That's us. We are the Marys of the world, giving all that we have for King Jesus. But if we're also honest, that's not the way our lives. We don't resonate with Mary here. We resonate with the religious authorities who feel threatened. We resonate with Judas, who just wants what he can get. We resonate with these crowds that just want Jesus as long as he's nice and comfortable, as long as he serves our idols. And the word of God tells us that if that's our case, then we deserve death. If we have not worshiped the Lord God with all of our heart, mind, strength, and soul, then we deserve just payment of death. So, what can be done? What can you and I do this morning about our predicament and this situation? Absolutely nothing. If there's going to be a saving, God is going to do the saving. So our eyes are on God to fix this problem and this situation. And I was very helped by scholar Edward Klink this week and seeing this in the text. The type of pouring of oil. That Mary does on Jesus. So this is not Mary is not aware of all these things. This is the spiritual reality of the story that God has been writing in Mary. The type of pouring of this oil on Jesus' feet, it was a type of anointing. It was in a it was a type of anointing. Now, anointing is steeped in incredible Old Testament imagery. Where do we see anointing? On priests and on kings. As they're inaugurated for ministry. Think Samuel and David and all the rest. An anointing comes on an individual and says, Here, you are now set apart by the presence of God to go and act for God. God has work for you to do. That's what's happening here. Jesus is being set apart. There is a rich, sweet, filling aroma fills the whole house, signifying that this moment is anything but ordinary. The presence of God is descending on this place. The presence of God is filling this house like a temple. Jesus is royalty. He's being anointed as priest and king, or a kingly type of priest for the people of God. But anointed to do what? If that's the inauguration of his office, what is he being anointed to do? What does the king and the priests do? Well, Jesus says, this anointing is for my burial. The anointing is for the burial. The sequence of this is all out of sorts. You don't anoint living people for death. You anoint dead people. Yet Jesus is alive being anointed. John is drawing these two themes together. Because what's happening is Jesus is being anointed to die. That is his mission. That is what the king has come to do. It's Passover here. This detail is very important for the book of John. It's Passover. And John says there are six days to go until Passover. For the first time, this is how he's orienting time. Beginning of the gospel, it was his first, second day of ministry, third day of ministry. Now everything is being oriented to Passover. All of time is taking shape against Passover. The clap the countdown clock has begun. There are six days left. The mission is being referenced to this time, this type of king. This is the hour that we've been tracking throughout John's gospel. The hour of Jesus is the hour of his death. The king priest is anointed to die as the sacrificial lamb for God's people. Not to rescue them out of Egypt and Pharaoh, but to rescue them from sin and Satan. The king is anointed. That's his ministry. Edward Clink comments. He says, It is the cross that is the final coronation for this king. The cross is where he will be crowned with thorns and dressed with shame and contempt and ultimately lifted up. This king's throne is a cross, and his castle is a tomb. Jesus is the Son of Man and The suffering servant, the sovereign lord, and the slain lamb. He is both king and corpse. And he comes out of the grave. He doesn't need anyone to call into his tomb to tell him to get out. He comes out on his own authority as the risen lamb. Behold your king this morning, church. Behold him. Do you see him? Yes, exalted on that throne. As a foretaste of the glory to come, where he's ascended to the right hand of God. We should see both. John says there is glory in the cross, in his exaltation there. But we also know he did not stay there. He's now at the right hand of God. It just so happens his glory is manifested through the sacrifice of himself to sinners, through grace and mercy. Do you see him there, church? Do you see the glory of God? The light of the world shining into the darkness through this raised up king. What a king he is. From everlasting to everlasting, he could have come here and just wiped us all away. You're not holy, you're not good enough, you're not loving, you've committed cosmic treason, you're done. That's not what he did. What type of king does not account glory and equality with God, something to be grasped, but empties himself to come and take on the form of human flesh and to die criminals' death outside the city gate. Many commentators see, or at least Clink points to Philippians 2 here, what an image it is. The suffering servant is the King of glory. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is the one who suffers on our behalf. This is the king that Jesus is declaring himself to be. Do you behold him? John twelve is helping us see this king is of infinite treasure. There is no price tag for him. And here's what's beautiful we don't spend our lives to buy him. He's been given to us. He is a gift to be received. Do you behold him this morning as the infinite treasure that he is? The one who has died in your place, taking the death that you deserve. And then do you receive his new life? To now respond, to respond in worship. Not worship that is trying to earn love. Not worship that's trying to earn and gain the favor of God, but worship because you have those things. Church, this makes us absolutely, completely free of the things of this world. We can hold all things loosely for his glory. It is our joy to put it all on the altar for him. Our time. Our talents, our treasures, our very selves go on that altar. We delight to pour ourselves out. We would say, just like Mary, what can I do to express my worship and gladness to this king who has given everything for me? He didn't pour out oil for us, he poured out his blood. Creating us to be a people that respond to declare the excellencies of His grace and His mercy. Church this morning, let's not hold back. We cannot waste our lives if we put our lives on the altar. It just means more glory and it means more joy and it means more goodness to the people of God and the mission of God. Let's give up playing with the mud pies. And let's grab hold of life, the eternal joy of knowing and living for King Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for grace and mercy this morning. Thank you for such a beautiful text, God, that shows us that you are to be treasured above all things. Who is a king like you? Who is a God like you? A suffering servant, a conquering king, taking the pain and the sin and the death that we deserve. God, may we be a people that celebrate resurrection. God, may our whole life look like A dinner party for King Jesus, as those that have been brought from death to life. As we look forward to that very real day where we will be in your presence. We will sit down at your table and we will feast with you. What a day that will be. God, we long for that day to live with you forever and ever. We pray for the grace now, God, to live lives. that testify to that reality. God, where we are struggling to let go of selfish ambition and to let go of holding on to the idols of this world, would you give us the grace to repent? Give us the faith to know that if we lay these things down, we get more than enough. We get blessing, blessing untold, blessing unimaginable. Teach us, Lord, continue to strengthen us to love you and to make much of you in this world. And may many, may many come to faith, may many come to