A Beautiful Thing

I thought, well, it's six weeks before Easter. Did you know that? Six weeks? So I thought, I'll get in and have a pre-Easter sermon. So that's what it's all about.

It's beginning to focus your mind and heart on what Jesus did six weeks hence at Passover. So in John's gospel, chapter 12, and you'll just have to listen to me now: six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here, a dinner was given in Jesus' honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume.

She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected. Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages. He did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.

As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. Leave her alone, Jesus replied. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. So far, the reading.

Have you ever experienced a loved one dying? Many have. What would you say to somebody if you knew that they were going to be dead in six days' time? How do you say your final farewell? Let's go back to Jesus now, his last days on earth.

He had taught his twelve disciples for three years, over three years actually, how well had they listened to his teaching? If they had, they would have naturally known and wanted to make their farewell, because he was about to die. He had informed them often that he was, quote, going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written in the prophets about the son of man will be fulfilled. He will be turned over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him.

On the third day, he will rise again. That's what he taught to his disciples. Now it was only six days before Passover and the day of his death. Now would be a good time to start saying your last farewell words to Jesus. They had a wonderful opportunity at this meal at Simon's house in Jesus' honour.

But it was Mary who honoured his death, not his disciples, and who did a beautiful thing to Jesus, not his chosen disciples. But before you think that this sermon is going to be about Mary, I must remind you and myself that this sermon must be focused on Jesus, the son of God, Messiah. Within six days, He will fulfil His Father's plan for our redemption. And we would do well to remember that all the events of this last week of His life, and there are many chapters in the scriptures, highlight the suffering that Jesus endured as our substitute. The focus is never to be on the others around Jesus.

They are always secondary, while the centre is Jesus. Jesus is the suffering servant of Isaiah. He is Moses' Paschal lamb. Now it was the Saturday night before Good Friday. Jesus and his disciples had arrived in Bethany, a small town just three kilometres east of Jerusalem.

Today, it's part of the West Bank. A strategic base from which Jesus would minister in Jerusalem in those last days before his crucifixion. The evening meal was spent at the home of Simon the leper. Obviously, Simon had been cured of his leprosy because he had re-entered society. Can you guess who might have healed him?

In attendance was Simon the host, with Jesus and his disciples as guests. But also present was Lazarus, recently raised from the dead, a topic of conversation, and his sisters, Mary and Martha. They too lived in Bethany and had been invited to this celebratory meal of thanksgiving and honour to Jesus for what He had done in the lives of Simon and Lazarus. And note that Martha was again in the position of serving. That was the way she expressed her thankfulness to Jesus.

Mary, on the other hand, was used to sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His teaching. And for Jesus, well, this was probably the last event where He had any spark of joy before His high priestly offering of Himself as the Lamb of God, where He would endure the wrath of His Father for our sins. And suddenly, at some stage in the evening, Mary approaches Jesus as He reclines at the table, and poured nard, an expensive perfume obtained from India, Tibet, China, the mountains of the Himalayas. No wonder it was expensive, having to come all the way to the Middle East. About five hundred millilitres from an alabaster jar, beautiful white jar, gypsum, it's made of.

And she poured this over His body from His head, which would in six days be crowned with a crown of thorns, to His feet, which would receive the nails of crucifixion. And she begins to wipe His feet with her hair. The whole room is filled with the fragrance of the nard, and Jesus smells good. It is a beautiful thing that she has done from a heart of loving devotion to Jesus. But it is not so acknowledged. The moment of silence and awe at what has just been done is soon broken.

The disciple who responds first to Mary's act is Judas Iscariot, and he and the others are indignant at her deed. They are furious. What a stupid thing you have done. This could have been given to the poor. They really rip into her.

Poor Mary. Judas, he was thinking more of the money side, not so much the poor. And they completely failed to see the loving gratitude of Mary at this significant time in Jesus' last days. Their minds are focused on the value of the nard, a year's wages. Wow.

Ninety thousand dollars worth. Ladies, would you be prepared to offer your ninety thousand dollar bottle of perfume to Jesus? The guys, they wouldn't worry about the value, they'd be more interested in spending the money on their Toyota HiLux. Their minds are focused on the wrong things. The motivation of the eleven, well, they may have been focused on the poor, and John discloses that Judas' motivation was on that money.

Now there was good in their desire to help the poor, but it surely must have added to the Lord's suffering as they showed their thoughts were focused on money and the poor, and not on what He was about to do. There was none to comfort Him in His sorrows. He was alone, abandoned. He had regularly informed them that He must go to Jerusalem, another quote, and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, teachers of the law, and that He must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life. Had they listened?

No. The message had filled them with grief, and they were in denial. No, that's not going to happen to you, Jesus. Jesus, on one occasion, had to say to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. That word is not from God, it is from the devil.

They could still consider that Jesus was going to establish His kingdom in Jerusalem with each of them in high places of authority, and then they would defeat and expel the hated Romans, an earthly kingdom. And yet there was an inevitability that Jesus' words would be fulfilled. And as the group left Galilee to attend to the dying Lazarus, it was Thomas who was aware that this was the time when Jesus was going to be crucified in Jerusalem. He commented bluntly, resigned to the inevitable, but let us also go that we may go and die with Him. Earlier, Jesus had taught that He was the good shepherd who would lay down His life for the sheep, but that He would take it again.

In only six days, their Lord would be crucified, yet it did not register in their minds. There was none of these disciples to comfort Him as He approached the most dreadful, horrific day of His life. These men had sat under His teaching for over three years, yet they had missed the essence, the heart of His teaching, His death. I wonder, is it still possible for people to sit under the preaching of the gospel for years and not respond to it with repentance and faith? And how grieved Jesus must have been to hear of this response from His chosen disciples.

It added to His suffering, His loneliness. All their eyes could see was the money and the poor. Jesus' atoning death was ignored. Poor Mary. But Jesus' pain was even far deeper.

Yet it is not surprising that Jesus rushes to Mary's defence and commends her for her singular acts and greater insight. Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. What a remarkable word of praise.

These are strong words of rebuke to His disciples and a great compliment to Mary. Jesus completely rejects the actions and the rationale of His disciples. They thought they were on the right track. They were sincere. Sincerely wrong.

This was just the right moment to express love and devotion and thankfulness to Jesus, as His impending death is only in six days. This was just the right moment to focus attention on Jesus, to indicate that they were aware of His immediate future, death by crucifixion. And Jesus compliments Mary's insight and correct thinking. She did it to prepare me for burial. By her deed, Mary reveals that she had been listening very closely to Jesus' teaching.

She was His best listener. In seven days' time, the women would anoint Jesus' body again with perfumes for His real burial, but Mary wants to acknowledge His coming death and burial now while He is still alive, while He is still with her, as an expression of her gratitude and love for what Jesus had done for her and her brother, and for what He was going to do for them, and for us in the future by His suffering and death. Jesus further has to rebuke His disciples' thinking about the poor. He is not denying that the poor must receive love in action from God and His disciples, you and me, but this was not the time. Jesus' ministry of over three years had focused on whom?

The poor, the rejected, the lonely, the abandoned, the diseased, the dead. But now was not that moment. The weeks and centuries to come would provide infinite opportunities for the church to manifest the love of Jesus to the poor of the world. And that is just what this congregation should be doing today, as their love and action is expressed for Jesus, ministering to the poor, the widows, the single mums, the oppressed, the refugees, the migrants, the aged, inside and outside the church, Gold Coast and the world. But then was the time to honour Jesus, to express love and gratitude to Him, and that's what Mary did.

It was unique in its thoughtfulness. You can see her pondering for days. Can I? What can I do to show my love for Jesus before He dies? It was regal and fit for a king.

It is lavishness, a year's wages. Would you give that for Jesus? A small fortune. And it was perfect in its timeliness. She had truly listened to His teaching.

Truly, she had done a beautiful thing for Jesus. So do you and I love Jesus like Mary? Do we love Jesus like Mary in time, in money, and thoughtfulness? That's a question we have to think about in our minds now. Well, if so, then what kind of beautiful thing can we do for Jesus?

He is not with us physically anymore. We can't anoint Him with perfume. But, like Mary, we can listen to His words. And where are His words? In scripture.

The will of God is in the scriptures. We read of Jesus there, nowhere else. That's to be our daily food, is it not? It was because Mary had listened to Jesus' words that the thought had arisen in her mind and heart to anoint Him before His burial. It was her focus.

Her focus was on the death, and burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and that's what Jesus praised her for. This is still the beautiful thing that you and I can do for Him today, to focus on Jesus in our lives twenty four seven, remembering that death, that burial, that resurrection, that ascension, that sitting at the right hand of God, and His coming again, focused on Jesus. That is the beautiful thing that we can do for Him, because He did a beautiful thing for us. We find Jesus in the Bible. We need to read it, study it, listen to it every day.

What happens to the physical body when one neglects daily food? Weakness, starvation, death. So also in the spiritual life, we starve and grow weak in our faith, and we become prone to all kinds of sins and temptations. We need to study it. All churches have Bible study groups.

Don't they, Tony? Yep. I hope so. And if you haven't, which one do you attend? Why would you not attend a Bible study group where you can listen to the words of Jesus with your brothers and sisters?

The beautiful thing that Jesus did for me exudes from me a deep and ever deeper desire to love Him. I want to live the Christian life of love and forgiveness. I want to perform deeds of grace to those in need, for Jesus. You can foster friendship and loyal loyalty in your church family for Jesus.

You can be supportive to the church and its activities for Jesus. You can wisely testify to Jesus without shame in your community and amongst your friends for Jesus, and you can freely offer your gifts and abilities to serve for Jesus. You know, those disciples thought they knew how to serve Jesus. No equals money, give to the poor, but they had it all so wrong, so very wrong. Dare we think that we know all about the Christian life, about Jesus?

Dare we ever be satisfied with where we are in our faith and witness? Where is the growth in my Christian life? How has my Christian faith and thinking grown in the past year? Will Jesus give me a tick of approval at the progress I have made, saying, you have done some beautiful things for me?

Those disciples had it all wrong when they were expected to have it all right. Their failing added to His suffering while He looked for a deed of understanding as to what He was soon going to endure on the cross. Only Mary got it right, and it comforted the Saviour. And Jesus' commendation of Mary continues to be told wherever the gospel goes, to remind all Christians and us this morning to love Jesus like Mary, to listen to His word like Mary, and to remember His suffering, burial, and resurrection like Mary. So you need to be thinking, praying, what beautiful thing can you do for Jesus, your Lord and your Saviour?

Question one of the Heidelberg Catechism gets it right. After detailing what Christ has done for us, it finishes with those challenging words. What He did for me on Calvary makes me, quote, wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Jesus. Amen. So be it.

Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you for the scriptures. We thank you for the stories that you have had recorded in it. And we simply pray, Lord, help us in our faith and life to do beautiful things for Jesus because He has done the most beautiful thing for us. We pray it for His glory.

Stir us up by Your spirit, we pray, for His sake. Amen.