Worship or Waste
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
September 21, 2014
The context of our passage is a Wednesday night dinner party—a celebration in Jesus’ honor.1 But it’s a serious and sober party because tomorrow night, Thursday night, Jesus knows he will be arrested, and that early the next morning, he will be crucified.If you have a Bible, you can follow along with me as I read Mark 14:1-11, or you can follow along on the screen.
It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, 2 for they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people."
3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,1 as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii1 and given to the poor." And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 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. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 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."
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Introduction
This clock sits on my mantel above my fireplace. I like it. It’s a neat clock. It goes well with the room.A few weeks ago, we had some friends over and as we sat in the living room, one of the men got up and looked at the clock. And he asked about it. “Where did you get it? How old is it? Can I pick it up?” He read the sticker on the back: “Navy Clock.”Then we told him to look closer and he saw it for himself, 3 little words printed on the back: “Made in China.”I think it disappointed him when he learned that it wasn’t real, I mean, it wasn’t a real antique.But this is why people watch shows like the Antique Road Show, American Pickers or Pawn Stars, isn’t? We watch to find out whether what people have sacrificed for, what people fold dear, is actually valuable. We watch to see the beauty of when the worth of something corresponds to the sacrifice that someone made for it. And we watch to see the waste when the worth of something does NOT corresponded to the sacrifice that was made for it.We watch shows like this to see if those that gave a life savings to buy something either did something beautiful and wise and fitting and worshipful, or whether they, in the end, they wasted it.We want to know if that lamp, or that ceramic figurine, or that button from a civil war uniform, that cost thousands to dollars to buy, was actually worth it, or whether it was a waste.And I think Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, has intentional structured this passage about Jesus so that we would see this contrast, a contrast between beauty and waste.Why would he do that? Why does he want us to see this? Well, soon the disciples will be launched into a life of devotion to Jesus, and at the time that Mark wrote his account, the early Christians were already there—they had been launched into a life poured out intense, expensive devotion to Jesus. And it was not easy.Church history and church tradition tells us that all of the 11 disciples gave their life for their faith. They died as martyrs, as well as many others. And so Mark is aware of the difficulties involved in following Jesus. Mark knows how hard it can be to follow Jesus. He knows how expensive it can be.And I believe that Mark deliberately structured this passage to give his readers assurance that when they are tempted to doubt that expensive, lavish, reckless, worship of Jesus it is really worth it, they will remember that Jesus is worth it.In other words, when Jesus occupies the center of your universe, he’s not in the wrong place because he is the center of the universe. That’s the point of this passage. And when life got hard for those disciples, and when it gets hard for us, we’re supposed to see this passage as a reminder that Jesus is worth expensive worship. And if you’re like me, we need reminders.I want to look at this passage in 3 parts. First, I want to ask the question, “Who does something beautiful and wastes something beautiful?” Second, “Why is one ‘wasting’ and the other not?” Then finally, I will make a few summary observations and applications.
1. Who does something beautiful and wastes something beautiful?
Let’s take the first question: Who does something beautiful and who is wasting something beautiful?The passage starts and ends with those who oppose Jesus. And right in the middle is the story of this unnamed woman and what she does. That order is intentional. Mark wants us to see the indifference and opposition juxtaposed to a beauty. And there is a great bit of irony going on because the ones that talk about others wasting are the real wasters.Let’s look at some verses. Verses 1-2, and 10-11 read,
It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, 2 for they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people."
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
These are fairly straight forward. The religious leaders don’t like Jesus and they want to kill him, but there are too many distractions during this festival, but when they get an insider to betray him, they move ahead. So they promise to give Judas money. Mark doesn’t name the amount, but Matthew does: 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).And when Judas agrees, it says that they are “glad.” They rejoiced. There were high fives, cold drinks, and sinister laughs. “Finally! Now, we just have to figure out the details.” And that’s what they do.These are the outside verses in the passage, but let’s look at the middle verses.
3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,1 as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 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. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 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."
So a woman comes to the meal; she breaks an expensive jar of perfume (300 denarii is perhaps $40,000, give or take). We don’t know where she got it, maybe she saved for it, maybe she took up a collection, maybe it was a family heirloom, maybe she was wealthy—we don’t know. But we do know what she does with it: she pours it over Jesus in a demonstration of lavish love, smashing the expensive container so that it can never be used again. And the bystanders complain. And Jesus rebukes them saying that what she did was “beautiful” because he is about to die and no one does anything special for him except this unnamed woman.If this story sounds both familiar and at the same time a little different to you, it’s probably for this reason: all 4 of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) record a story about a woman anointing Jesus.That leaves us with a question. If they all record a story like this, then is it 4 different stories, or is it 1 story told with slight differences. Or—another option---is it not 1 story or 4 stories but something in between—like 2 or 3 stories.When you look at the stories closely, it seems pretty clear to me that there are 2 different stories being described. One occurs in Luke 7 near the beginning of Jesus ministry and the details and the main point of the story are very different from the others (e.g., a “sinful women” and the story centers around forgiveness). And then there is another story where the details and the main point of the story are mostly the same (e.g., near the end of Jesus life, and the focus is on the beauty of the sacrifice because Jesus is about to die). This story occurs in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and John 12.If you read John’s account of this story, you get two extra insights.Frist, the woman is named. Her name is Mary and her sister is Martha and her brother is Lazarus. That’s significant. In John 11, just the chapter before, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. And this dinner is a celebration in Jesus’ honor. So I think the whole evening (the dinner, the disciples, the crowd, the anointing) was planned.The second, there is some extra commentary on Judas. What does John say? “He said this [about the poor], not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it” (v. 6). This whole thing about the poor was charade. Judas didn’t care. He loved money. He’s was going to betray for 30 pieces of it.Imagine what this scene must have been like: the juxtaposition of beauty and rudeness. To have a moment of holy, lavish worship—a moment of such intensity and intimacy that honestly it was probably so special it was awkward and uncomfortable—to have that moment interrupted by two-faced insiders that did not give a rip about Jesus or the poor.Perhaps this summer you went to a wedding or a memorial service. Think back to that moment. Put yourself in the audience. Up near the front on the stage something special is happening at that wedding or memorial. Something with meaning and worth, and you are riveted. You can’t take your eyes off it. It’s consuming.And then, you hear a sound behind you: a rude snicker. So you look. And you see some guy back there, eating and drinking with noise. He takes out candy and crinkles the wrapper; he eats an apple and throws the core in the aisle. Opens up a soda can and belches. Then you hear him lean over to the guy next to him and (not all that quietly) say, “Theses flowers, they’re a waste of money.” Then you see him glance at his watch, his gold watch, and he asks the person on the other side of him, “When this will get over because I have somewhere I have to be.”You’d want to shout, “Why don’t you just shut up! This moment was holy and worshipful, and special and sacred, and you’re talking over it. And not only are you talking over it, but you dare criticize the ones who participate in such beautiful and expensive worship.If you can picture that, then you have a sense of what is going on in Mark 14 and the passion that would have been in Jesus’ voice. Jesus says, “Leave her alone… She has done a beautiful thing to me” (v. 7). Before Jesus said this the woman would have felt “this” small; and Jesus comes to her rescue. Mark wants you to feel that tension, that rudeness smashed up next to such expensive worship.So the first question I was asking was this: “Who does something beautiful and wastes something beautiful?” I suppose the answer depends on who you ask. But it’s clear that according to Jesus, it is this woman that is doing something beautiful and Judas and the others who are doing something wasteful. The irony is that the ones talking a big game, don’t have it. And the ones serving and loving, do.The next question is, “Why is one ‘wasting’ and the other not?” In other words, I want to ask the question what caused one to be a waste and the other something beautiful. I’m not so much looking at the motive—why Mary did what she did and Judas did what he did—but when I say, “Why is one ‘wasting’ and the other not?” what I mean is what causes one to be a waste and the other to be something beautiful.
2. Why is one ‘wasting’ and the other not?
It’s a short answer to this question, really. What makes something a waste and what makes something beautiful is the correspondence between the worth of something and the worship of something. Again, what makes something a waste and what makes something beautiful is the correspondence—that is, the fitted-ness—between the worth of something and the worship of something.There should be an integrity between the two worth and worship something, like the integrity of a bridge: what you place upon it, should be able to be held by the bridge. When that happens, we say that a bridge has integrity. It can hold. There is a fitted-ness between the value that is placed upon the bridge and the ability of that bridge to carry that weight. And when the worth of something and the worship of something correspond—the match, they fit, they go together—something beautify happens.But when we place the value of something upon a bridge that the bridge was not designed to hold, then we have a problem. We have waste. A small pedestrian footbridge over Paxtang Creek is a good thing, but it’s not designed for a tractor trailer. If a tractor trailer puts its weight on a footbridge, you have a problem. You have waste. And so it is when the worship of something is not worthy of the worship that it receives.This is what is going on in this passage. Mark has deliberately structured the passage because he wants us to know that when the woman pours out expensive worships upon Jesus, that this is not a waste and it is beautifully because the worth of Jesus and the display of worship correspond.And the opposite is happening also. Judas does not see the value of Jesus. He does not see the worth of Jesus. He sees the value of money. And so he takes his worship, his devotion, and he gives his allegiance to money. He puts a tractor trailer on a footbridge, and in the end, money is not worthy of the worship that he gives it. So he wastes, not a year’s wages, but his life. This passage is about playing for keeps. The stakes are high.Now, in this passage, we don’t really learn too much about why Jesus is worthy of worship; we infer that from what she does that she esteems Jesus as very valuable.I would love to go through the whole Gospel of Mark and point out some of the things that have happened and are about to happen which make this worth of Jesus explicit: he heals the sick and casts out demons; he says to a storm “Stop” and it does; he cares for the poor; said in the last chapter we looked at he said that at the end of time he will come again in great power and glory as the king of the universe.The picture painted by the gospels is that Jesus is infinitely valuable and that when Jesus occupies the center of your universe, he’s not in the wrong place because he is the center of the universe. There is correspondence between worship and worth.We have seen who does something beautiful and who does the wasting, and we saw why which one was which. Now I want to close with a few observations and applications.
3. Some Observations & Applications
I’ll move quickly through them.
1. Betrayal. If you have ever been betrayed, Jesus knows the intensity of that suffering. Jesus knows the pain of betrayal. All of his followers deserted him in his final hours. And this relationship with Judas is never mended. I’ve talked to a man—I’ve looked in eyes—as he told me about how his children were molested by a close family friend. And I have friends that know the pain of adultery. Lot’s can be said to them and to you to encourage you and help you work through the pain of betrayal, but know that Jesus, your savior, knew this pain too.
2. Affection and worship and love overflow into the public eye. Worship is never meant to be a private thing. And lavish affections never remain private. The will, in fact, they must, eventually manifest themselves. Our worship is never a private thing. Worship overflows. Mary’s overflowed. And so did Judas’. And so does yours. What do others around you see you worshiping?
3. Expect to be misunderstood. We should not be surprised when we pour out our lives for Jesus that it is not understood by others that don’t see Jesus in the same way. In fact, our worship and devotion to Jesus may be frowned upon. If that happens, keep loving them anyway. Jesus washed the feet of Judas on the following night (John 13).
4. Don’t waste your life. Don’t waste your life. Don’t be lukewarm. Or, to say it positively: make your life count.You don’t have to be a “somebody” to make your life count (cf., Bethany, “leper,” “woman,” not insiders). So you don’t have to be a ‘somebody’ as the world see things. But you do need to figure out who Jesus is and serve him in ways that correspond to his worth.2And that does not mean that all of you should go into fulltime Christian ministry. Don’t do that. Go be doctors, and stay-at-home mothers, and realtors, and volunteers, and bankers, and IT consultants, and teachers for the glory of God. Love and serve others (including the poor) in the name of Jesus,, and you will not waste your life.
5. If you are not a Christian, what then? Ask yourself what you live for? What do you burn for? You do worship something. What is it? I want you to think about if that ‘bridge’ is able to hold the weight of your life. And if not, I would commend to you Jesus, as an abundantly study bridge who is able to hold the weight of your life and your sin.
6. Pointers to the death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus. There are strong pointers to the death of Jesus (e.g., burial; poured out) and resurrection (e.g., the gospel proclaimed to all the nations; i.e., this story does not die with Jesus’ death, but does through a victorious resurrection and a gospel going to the nations and a returning Messiah).
Those are a few observations and applications.
Conclusion
Church history and church tradition tells us that all of the 11 disciples gave their life for their faith. They died as martyrs. Mark is aware of that. He knows how hard it can be to follow Jesus. He knows how expensive it can be. And I believe that Mark deliberately structured this passage so that when we are tempted to doubt that expensive worship of Jesus it is really worth it, we will remember that Jesus is worth it. Mark wants us to know that the value and worth and beauty of Jesus Christ cannot be overshot. You can’t waste your life if you live it for Jesus. When Jesus occupies the center of your universe, he’s not in the wrong place because he is the center of the universe. That’s the point of this passage. And when life gets hard for us, we’re supposed to see this passage as a reminder. And if you’re like me, you need reminders.
1I have borrowed some of the wording for this sermon from Pastor John Piper’s sermon “Leave Her Alone, Judas, This Is for My Burial,” November 5, 2011.
2This paragraph is an intentional allusion to John Piper’s sermon at Passion titled “Boasting Only in the Cross,” May 20, 2000.
