Wonder Week: Wednesday - Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a woman approached with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume.

She poured it on his head as he was reclining at the table.

It was Wednesday of Wonder Week, the week that changed the world forever.

And this day broke the pattern that Jesus had been in.

Sunday through Tuesday, Jesus and the disciples traveled from the town of Bethany, the two miles into Jerusalem, where the city was overflowing with travelers coming to celebrate Passover.

Sunday, Jesus had rode in like a king.

People paved a path with palm branches and coats.

They shouted praises to this mysterious rabbi they'd heard so much about.

However, the goodwill did not last long.

Monday, Jesus flipped the tables in the temple.

He accosted the public for their lack of faith.

And he even challenged the entire Jewish law.

On Tuesday, he created even more enemies by shutting down the religious leaders.

They tried to debate, but they were no match for the rabbi with perfect wisdom.

And now it's Wednesday.

Jesus is relaxing in the home of some friends.

Bethany is two miles outside of the city, a suburb of Jerusalem.

Jesus is reclining.

It's Wednesday of Wonder Week, the day that Jesus becomes a victim.

A woman approached Jesus with an alabaster jar, a very expensive perfume.

She poured it on his head as he was reclining at the table.

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant.

Why this waste?

They asked.

This might have been sold for a great deal and given to the poor.

It wasn't too long before this moment that a rich man had come to Jesus.

Jesus told this young rich ruler, sell all that you have, give it all to the poor.

This was too high of a price.

And the rich young ruler walked away.

You kind of have to feel for the disciples in this moment.

They tried to apply the same lesson from the rich ruler to this woman's huge waste of perfume.

What they couldn't see is that the issue was never actually about money.

The real issue was how great our desire is to bring worship to our Savior.

Aware of this, Jesus said to the disciples, Why are you bothering this woman?

She's done a noble thing for me.

You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.

By pouring this perfume on my body, she has prepared me for burial.

Jesus was painfully aware that in just a few days he would die a criminal's death on a cross.

And what this meant for his disciples and for the whole world was something there was no way they could grasp.

This act of extravagant worship had another deeper significance.

You see, the only burials who were not allowed to be anointed with oils were the burials of criminals.

You see, this was the preparation that Jesus would not receive.

Although he would die, the only truly innocent human, he would have the sins of the world, past, present, and future, your sin, my sin, all of it placed upon him.

He would die, and he would take the punishment that we all deserved.

The disciples are so busy trying to be righteous that they're missing the miraculous.

It was Wednesday, and the perfect Lamb of God was being prepared for sacrifice.

Jesus understood the significance of what was happening.

Truly I tell you, he said, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told.

And there's no way that she could have known.

I mean, where I sit on planet Earth right now might as well have been in outer space for the woman in Bethany.

There was no internet, no vehicles.

They were 1,500 years away from even the first printing press.

And yet Jesus makes an audacious claim that the whole world will know about what this woman has done.

And here we are, 2,000 years later, 7,000 miles across the ocean, still telling her story.

And the deeper truth still remains.

The truth that our worship changes things.

Our willingness opens spiritual doors in the lives of people around us.

Every day we wake up to the opportunity to live a life that brings glory to the one who took the cross for us.

And every act of worship is living in the legacy of Wonder Week, the week that changed the world.

It was then that one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests.

He said, What are you willing to give me if I hand Jesus over to you?

And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver.

Thirty pieces of silver.

That was all it took for Judas to betray the Son of God.

And you may be wondering how much money that actually was back then.

I mean, surely it was a fortune.

Like Judas would need to be set for life in order to give up his leader, teacher, his rabbi, his friend.

Two months' working wages.

Far from a life-changing amount of money.

Judas was one of the twelve, one of the most fortunate people in all of history who got to walk and talk with Jesus for three years, and all it took was 30 pieces of silver, two months' wages.

This was the break that the enemies of Jesus had been looking for.

The public still largely adored the Nazarene carpenter, turned religious leader.

An arrest of Jesus in the open would have started a riot.

Not only that, but Jerusalem had a million plus visitors for the Passover festival.

Jesus would have been a difficult guy to track down.

But now they had someone on the inside.

Judas is the villain of all villains.

And scholars have tried for centuries to figure out exactly why he did it.

Was it really the wasted money from the perfume that caused him to lose his confidence in Jesus?

Did he expect Jesus to act more like a king than a prophet?

Maybe Judas was tired of being left out of the inner circle of disciples.

The truth is, we'll never know.

Odds are it wasn't a single event.

To give Jesus up for such a meager amount of money tells you that Judas had this in his heart for a while.

He was now the betrayer, and he would always be known as such.

On this Wednesday, Jesus became the victim.

One of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, said, What are you willing to give me if I hand Jesus over to you?

And they weighed out 30 pieces of silver.

And from that time, he started looking for a good opportunity to betray him.

I wonder in your own life, if it's ever seemed like there were people out to get you?

Maybe a boss that took advantage of you at every turn, an ex who lives to make your life miserable?

Maybe it's friends that you have fallen out with who are now spreading your deepest secrets.

It is all too easy to feel like the victim.

The hard truth is that life is not fair.

And so what do we do when we're taken advantage of?

What is the right move when life brings us suffering that we do not deserve?

The Apostle Paul would reflect on the glory of Wonder Week a few decades after that first Easter.

In a letter to a young pastor named Timothy, he wrote that there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, and that man is Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

One word stands out significantly: the word ransom.

Ransom means a sum of money or some other kind of payment demanded for the release of a prisoner.

And this is one way we can view the cross.

See, we are all held prisoner to our sins.

And on the cross, Jesus paid the price of our freedom.

He paid our ransom.

If someone is being held hostage, the criminal often wants ransom money to release them.

However, what Jesus offered was more precious than any amount of money.

Jesus bought our ransom at the cost of his own life.

30 pieces of silver set Jesus up as the victim.

However, and we can't miss this, it was not the cost of the betrayal that put Jesus on the cross.

It was the cost of our sin.

You see, crucifixion was not a detour in God's plan.

Crucifixion was always the destination.

And so what does all of this mean?

Well, first, and I know this is hard to swallow, it means that I am Judas.

And you are too.

Each of us has our price.

For some of us, 30 pieces of silver looks like lust, and for others it looks like pride.

But every day we choose things over Jesus, that's called sin, and every sin must be paid for.

There's one God, one mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom.

A ransom for us.

Wednesday of Wonder Week paints a new picture for us.

You see, if we stop at Wednesday, Jesus is a victim.

But the week is far from over.

We know Judas pulls it off.

He betrays Jesus.

Jesus is arrested the next day, tried that night, and killed on Friday.

And if Wonder Week stopped at Friday, Jesus would be the most heinous victim of all of humanity.

But Wonder Week wasn't over.

It teaches us the difference between living as a victim and living in victory is often a matter of perspective.

And so what do we do when we are taken advantage of?

What is the right move when life brings us suffering that we don't deserve?

First, we hold on to our faith.

Jesus showed us that suffering is often the pathway to salvation.

Whatever your best life is, the life that is significant and powerful and impactful, it lies on the other side of fear and pain and conflict.

On Wednesday, Jesus may have seemed like a victim.

But every moment of Wonder Week, Jesus was walking in victory.

We are all Judas.

But the cross offers us something brand new.

Scripture says that we were buried with Christ.

We were buried in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead that first Easter, we are also raised to walk a new life.

The high price of your sin, your betrayal of your Maker and Savior.

It was covered on the cross.

The ransom has been paid, and now you can live a new life.

And what does that look like?

What does it look like to walk in a new life?

It looks like a movement of people waking up each day to extravagantly show our love for Jesus.

It looks like a single mother who instills the love of God into her children, a recovering addict helping others find faith through the power of their testimony.

It looks like a business owner loving her employees and casting vision for their future.

It looks like a husband giving up selfish ambition to be the spouse and the father that his family desperately needs.

It looks like a woman who would spend her last dime to make sure she has the best of the best oils to anoint Jesus in Bethany.

And Jesus said that wherever this gospel is proclaimed, her story would be told.

Our worship changes things.

And on Wednesday of Wonder Week, Jesus prepared to show us how to move from being a victim to living in victory.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.