3/21/21 John 12:1-8 “Preparing for a Crowd!”

19 Mar 3/21/21 John 12:1-8 “Preparing for a Crowd!”

3/21/21    John 12:1-8       “Preparing for a Crowd!”

You know, it seems like Christmas was just a couple of weeks ago and now it is already 2 weeks before Easter.  We have had a lot of things happen since last Easter.  We weren’t supposed to celebrate Easter in our churches last year because the government closed them.  So, I think that this year, the churches should be open and celebrating this holiday.   But we are not quite to Easter yet.  We suddenly have to make sure that the palm branches have been ordered.  We should start thinking about a feast that we will have to celebrate Easter.  We start to think about wearing our finest as we get ready for the greatest of all Christian celebrations.  It may be hard to believe but Jesus was in a similar quandary 2000 years ago as he headed to the cross.  He had all sorts of distractions as he was trying to get to Jerusalem for Passover.  He had to stop and raise Lazarus, keep his disciples moving and keep out of the way of the Jews who were trying to kill Him all the while trying to heal people along the way.  Jesus was also getting ready to be the originator of our greatest holiday.  In our reading today, we find that Jesus has almost made it to Jerusalem and He is resting with His friends at Bethany.  Let’s see if we can find out from these few verses if we have the right motivation for our giving and worship.

I don’t know if you men have ever noticed, and if you haven’t, I would advise that you pay attention, that we are a little different from women in how we approach things and do things.  One of the things that Sharon loves to do is put on a nice dinner for people.  I like to do this also but I don’t always see why we have to put on such a fuss.  However, I just let it go because she enjoys doing it so much.  She will plan the menu weeks ahead of time.  She will make things ahead of time and put them in the freezer or refrigerator if the event is only a few days away.  She will buy the perfect food and we will always use the nice dishes, sometimes the ones that are 80 years old that my mother used.

Everything gets cooked and done just perfect and we have a wonderful meal with some friends or family.  Now there are some people who think that this is too much fussing and busywork.  But I don’t think it is because Sharon gets a lot of satisfaction from it and so do I.

As we begin today, we find that a dinner is being given in honor of Jesus.  The main people putting this on are Martha, Mary and Lazarus.  Let me refresh your memory a bit.  It wasn’t too long ago that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  He was the brother of Mary and Martha.  This is the same Mary and Martha who served Jesus once before and Martha got all caught up in the hospitality and serving food while her sister Mary listened to what Jesus was saying.

If we go back and read Mark, he tells us that this dinner was given in the home of Simon the Leper.  I want you to also think about how the Jews were hunting for Jesus so that they could find a way to kill Him.  However, they would never even think about entering the home of a leper.  So, it seems that Jesus was hiding in plain sight from the Jews for He knows that they would be safe in this house.  Corrie Ten Boom tells a similar story when she was in a concentration camp during WWII.  The barracks where they lived were totally infested with lice.  They had a terrible time just living because of these bugs.  But they also knew that they were safe from the guards here as they wouldn’t enter because they didn’t want to catch the lice.  Therefore, Corrie Ten Boom could have a Bible study in the barracks and they didn’t have to hide or fear the guards would catch them.  They were hiding in plain sight.

So, they are having this huge dinner to honor Jesus.  I would guess that this would be quite an event because they would be showing Jesus their gratitude for giving life back to Lazarus.  These people were very, very grateful.  Once again, we have Martha leading the way with service.  And we have Mary entering into the presence of Jesus.  One thing that we don’t often think of in this account is the role of women.  Women in those days would have assumed the role of Martha and they definitely would not have been in the presence of men unless they were serving them.  And it was definitely taboo for a woman to touch a man in public under any circumstance.  Therefore, Mary was being quite bold in touching Jesus.

The first thing that happens is that Mary pours pure nard on the feet of Jesus and wipes it with her hair.  This was a very expensive perfume that would have cost about a year’s wages.  Mary is giving all she had to Jesus as a gift for saving Lazarus.  She is giving in gratitude.  There is a story of a missionary doctor who once saved a very poor woman’s life.  The woman’s poor family only owned a rabbit and 2 chickens.  The woman would comb the rabbit and save the hair to make yarn and they would use the eggs for something to eat.  After the woman recovered from the surgery, the doctor missionary was invited for a meal.  Sometime during the preparation, the missionary looked into the pot that was cooking.  He found 2 chickens and a rabbit in the stew.  These people had given all they had in gratitude for saving the woman’s life.  The missionary wept.

Not too long ago I gave a pretty strong message on tithing and giving.  We could go back and revisit this topic through this Scripture also.  But I’m not going to do that.  I only want to point out something here that fits with all kinds of giving.  Mary gave the equivalent of a year’s wages.  She gave sacrificially.  This is what we are supposed to be doing.

Do you remember the sacrifices that were given at the Temple in the Old Testament?  They were to give the best of their livestock.  They were to give the best of their crops.  When they didn’t give the best was when they got into trouble.  They were to give their best so that it would indeed be a sacrifice.  When you give away the best of something, then you feel it.  It is a sacrifice.  Notice that God has never asked for more than 10% or a tithe.  The Bible tells us that if you are able to give more, then this is ok.  But when we give 10%, then we feel it a little.  It isn’t enough to break us but it is a sacrifice and we do feel it a little.  If you think about it, 100% of what we have is God’s anyway.  We get to keep 90%.  I would say that this is a pretty good deal.  We have been doing this for years and it works wonderfully.

Anyway, Mary is giving a huge sacrifice to God.  Now the next thing I want you to notice is what happens when she does this.  Judas gets all over her case for doing this.  This is a waste of money.  This nard could be sold and the proceeds spent on helping the poor.  So, we go from Mary doing this wonderful act of generosity to Judas’ terrible act of greed.  Some may say that I am wrong here because he is only using common sense.  After all, this is worth a lot of money.  A year’s wages today is a lot of money.  But John goes on to tell us here that Judas doesn’t really care for the poor at all.  Judas is a thief and all he wants is the money value for the nard.  He wants this because he is the treasurer of the group and he has been stealing money from them all along.  So, don’t start to feel sorry for Judas here.  He has been digging himself a deep hole for a long, long time and it will get a lot worse because he is unable to confess and give himself to Jesus as Mary has done.  We can see this in many other places in the Bible where someone or some people keep digging deeper into the world of sin.  Remember, God won’t let this continue forever.

If this isn’t a page out of our modern society, I don’t know what is.  The one event that sticks out in my mind today is this last stimulus bill.  This bill has very little to do with coronavirus care and everything to do with money.  There is a massive amount of money involved, for us a year’s wages and everyone wants to control it.  The Republicans want this control just as much as the Democrats only in a different way.   As far as I can see, no one really cares much about this virus.  No one really cares about the people of this country.  The whole thing is all about money and who controls it.

During the last year or so we have been in a recession.  People have lost all their savings.  People have lost their homes.  People have lost their jobs.  Times are tough but they could be a lot tougher.  Everyone is upset.  Some people are even mad.  So, if you are angry or upset, my question to you is this.  Are you finally upset enough or mad enough to turn to Jesus for help?  The majority of the people of this country are not ready for this yet.  They say they can do it themselves or better yet, they know that the government is god and they will take care of it.  They don’t need God if God even exists.  What a sad condition we find ourselves!!

Greed!  Our country, our lives are all about greed.  We are not any different than Judas.  We might even be a little worse.  We are in the continuous mode of stealing from God.  Let’s see if we can break out of this a little during this season of Easter.  One of the things the Bible talks a lot about is means of grace.  Please join us as we try to find ways where we will be open to receive the message from God.  This will help you to turn away from greed.

Now all is not lost.  Mary takes this nard and applies it to the feet of Jesus.  She even uses her hair to help.  And what happens?  Immediately the fragrance, the sweet fragrance fills the room.  As a matter of fact, John tells us that the whole house was filled with fragrance.  This is the sweet smell of Jesus in our lives.

Have you ever noticed what happens when Jesus is in a room?  I tell you what happens, grace happens.  So even though we have greed in the form of Judas, we have the smell of grace that over powers all other odors including the stench of greed.  I think that one of the reasons people love to come to some churches is that there is the smell of grace in the air.  One of the reasons why people don’t come to church is because of the smell of grace in the air.  These people are being convicted and don’t know what to do.  They refuse to confront their sins.

I have noticed in my time as being a pastor that people are often convicted just by my presence.  It is not because of me but because I’m a pastor, a man of God.  When I talk of certain things in my sermons, people are convicted by the Holy Spirit.  I think that most Christians are used to it and they know that they need it.  I remember a parishioner told me once after an unusually hard, convicting sermon that a sermon isn’t any good unless the pews squeak a little because people are uncomfortable; and they were squeaking that Sunday.  Anyway, we Christians know this and are ok with it because we know that this is Jesus talking to us.  This is the smell of grace.  However, people who don’t know Jesus just get uncomfortable and don’t know what to do.  They are convicted and don’t know how to free themselves.  They blame everything and everyone around them when they are the guilty ones.  They don’t know that all they have to do is confess their sins to Jesus and invite Him to live in their hearts.  If they would do this then they too could enjoy the sweet smell of Jesus and His grace.

What people don’t understand is that Christians are convicted just like non-Christians.  We all fall short of the glory of God.  You need this continual correction in your life.  You know that if you are feeling convicted, chances are pretty good that you are doing some really wrong things and you should start to correct them.

All of this reminds me of a quick story Marcus Naugler tells of the two cows standing along the highway when a tanker truck of milk passed by them.  On the side of the truck it said, “Pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, Vitamin A added.”  Well, one of the cows turns to the other and says, “Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn’t it?”

No one has to go through life feeling inadequate.  You never have to feel down and out.  This is why Jesus came to live with us.  He came and died so that we may live on to eternity.  His love for us is so vast that we cannot begin to imagine how big it really is.

Then Jesus says to Judas, “Leave her alone.  It was intended that she save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you but you will not always have me.”  This is the part where Jesus is telling us to worship Him.  He is telling us to leave the poor for a day.  They will always be there, and He has been right about that.  We have always had poor people throughout history.  He is also telling us to leave the crooked people behind for a day.  There are people like Judas everywhere we look.  We are to leave those people behind for a day and come and worship the King of all Kings.

Once again, we find that Mary had it right.  She gave more than she could probably afford.  She gave because of this deep love and appreciation of Jesus.  She allowed this sweet aroma of Jesus to permeate the house so that all could smell this and partake.  This is what I would like us to do for this Easter.  I want you to go and invite someone to church(this broadcast).  Invite someone like Judas, who doesn’t yet know the Lord.  Invite someone who is poor.  Invite someone who is down and needs a friend.  Let’s see if we can have the sweet fragrance of Jesus permeate your community.

This love that we have for Jesus is always going to be a problem for non-believers.  They just don’t understand anything that we do.  God tells us this in the Bible.  They cannot understand until they come to Him.  So, I would like you to invite someone to watch this broadcast.  If it is possible, invite 3 or 4 or 10 to watch.  Invite everyone you see.  Jesus will be here if you invite others.  Jesus is always here and He always loves you.  Let’s love Him back as we invite his lost sheep to His house for worship. Thank you, Jesus, for all this love that we surely don’t deserve.  Thank you for first loving us.  Let’s pray.