February 2, 2014 - Having A Heart Like Jesus: A Love of Diversity

Matthew 10:1-4; Galatians 3:26-29

1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith

27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Occasionally I repeat myself in my messages, and I’m aware that I do.  I believe that repetition is an effective way to learn, so I emphasize certain themes and will sometimes repeat particular points.  I don’t, though, repeat stories very often.  Stories are one of the most effective ways of teaching, and Jesus was a master storyteller in his use of the parables.  I try to use stories that will reinforce an clarify a point.  This morning I want to repeat a story I told not long after arriving here.  I’m repeating it because not all of you have heard it and it illustrates my point very well.

Six or seven years ago Tyler and I traveled down to Wilmore for the Ichthus music festival.  We went to one of the smaller stages to listen to a band called The Psalters. 

 

It’s hard to describe that band as they were so different in music and even how they dressed.  It was like Braveheart the Musical.  While we were listening to this band a guy wanders by and stands next to us – a very unique looking person.  He was very tall and had a mohawk haircut that was dyed blue.  The rest of his head, as well as his arms, were covered with tattoos.  He had piercings in his ears, nose, lip – this guy could never get through a metal detector.  He stands there watching this band for a bit and then finally mutters out loud this is way too weird for me.  What a moment!  Even those who are different and unique can find it hard to embrace those who are different and unique!

As we continue our series of messages Having A Heart Like Jesus, this morning we come to A Love of Diversity.  Our text comes from a list of the twelve disciples in Matthew’s gospel and a great affirmation made by Paul in the book of Galatians.

 

They seem like rather innocuous verses.  Verses we generally pass over quickly as they seem to lack any content that seems to hold any importance.

In the few brief verses from the 10^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel we find what seems to be little more than a list of names – twelve men who were commonly known as the disciples (the word disciple comes from the Greek word mathetes, which means one who is a student or a follower of another).  What could we possibly learn from a list of names?

Quite a bit, actually, if we read between the lines just a little.

The list of the twelve disciples reveals an amazing amount of diversity.  If we were putting together a group with which to work, it’s probably not the kind of group we would choose.  When we take a closer look at the list we find the differences between these men were so great that the potential for conflict was enormous.

There was, first of all, the fact that a few of the disciples seemed to be favored by Jesus.  Peter, James, and John are mentioned far more than the other nine. 

The story of the transfiguration of Jesus tells us that after six days Jesus took with him, Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  There he was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light (Matthew 17:1-2).  Where were the other disciples? Again, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus takes these same three – Peter, James, and John, further into the garden after leaving the other nine – Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him (Matthew 26:36-37).

  Some of the twelve are mentioned so rarely that it would be difficult for us to call their names.  A few of them, beyond the listing of the twelve, are never again mentioned in the gospels.  What did Bartholomew or Thaddaeus think about the favored status of Peter, Andrew, James, and John?

James and John, we know from Mark 10:35-45, were interested in power, to the point that they asked Jesus for special status in his kingdom.  Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him.  “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”  “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.  They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory” (verses 35-37).  The other disciples, verse 41, were quite offended at this request.  On another occasion, the mother of James and John approached Jesus with the same request (Matthew 20:20-28).  But it wasn’t just James and John who were obsessed with power and status; at times there were disputes among all of the disciples about who among them was the greatest (Mark 9:33-37 and Luke 22:24-30 among them.  The passage in Luke is particularly sad, as it took place at the Last Supper, as Jesus was trying to teach them about the real meaning of power, love, and sacrifice).

Judas was known to steal from the collection box – money that was intended for the needs of others became his own personal treasury (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 – John 12:6).  Nothing will create problems quicker than someone who is stealing money from a cause.

Matthew was a tax collector.  A tax collector, in the day of Jesus, made his money by taking advantage of others.  No one really knew how much tax they owed to the Roman authorities.  The tax collector for a given area was charged with collecting a certain amount of money from the populace; anything over that amount was his to keep as profit.  Everyone knew they were being overcharged, but they couldn’t prove how much they were overcharged.  Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen – small businessmen.  As businessmen they were particularly susceptible to the abuses of the Roman taxation methods.  Matthew may have been the tax collector charged with collecting their taxes.  I can’t imagine how well that went over with those four men.  They must have questioned the wisdom of calling such a person as Matthew to be a part of their fellowship.

Matthew, as a tax collector, was also one who worked in league with the Romans, which would have been extremely offensive to the other eleven.  Matthew worked hand-in-hand with their oppressors.  This would have been especially offensive to Simon, who was a Zealot.  The Zealots were a political group dedicated to the overthrow of the Romans – by any means necessary, even by the use of violence.  Was it a good idea to put these two men together?  On the surface it certainly would not seem to be such a good idea.

What was Jesus thinking, putting together such a diverse group?  Obviously, he was thinking of the beauty of diversity, and if he loved diversity to such a point, so should we.

What’s especially amazing is that, aside from a few passing references, we don’t read much about conflict among the disciples.  We know there was some there, but there should have been much more.  As a group, they should have fallen apart, but they didn’t, and what a lesson that is to today’s world, where we find diversity – and an appreciation of diversity shrinking at an alarming rate.

I was in a meeting recently and someone started saying we don’t all have to be the same in a church.  I was thinking amen!  They continued.  We don’t all have to look the same.  I was thinking again – amen!  They went on.  We don’t all have to think the same.  Amen!  I thought once again.  Then they said, we don’t all have to agree with the minister.  And then I thought wait a minute!  Let’s not get carried away!

Early on in the history of the church, before we get very far into the book of Acts, we find the church was beginning to struggle with the question of diversity.  A lot of people were very uneasy about the Gentiles coming into the church.  They were different.  They didn’t think the same.  They didn’t act the same.  They didn’t talk the same.  And people like their sameness. 

Paul was the one who really carried the heart of Jesus on this matter – you are all sons of God, he says in Galatians.  All.  No matter who you are.  No matter how you look.  No matter how you talk.  No matter where you live.  No matter how you think.

One of the great temptations for churches is creating a culture of sameness, where people think the same, look the same, and believe the same.

 

I’ve told you before that while I grew up on a farm, I was a terrible farmer.  A friend of mine has told me in recent years about the danger of monocultures in agriculture, that is, the danger of having only one type of plant in a field.

1. A monoculture is very vulnerable. It can be wiped out completely by one virus, fungus, destructive insect, or other disease. A farmer could lose his or her entire crop – and income – to one microbe.

2. Monocultures encourage more diseases, weeds, and destructive insects. These pests build resistance to the changeless nature of a monoculture, and their life cycles are never interrupted.

3. Because the natural resistance is so low in a monoculture, farmers must use greater and greater amounts of synthetic pesticides and fungicides to keep their crops alive and yielding. The environmental and health impacts of this kind of copious use of agrichemicals are significant.

4. Nutrients become depleted in soil that is used to grow only one type of crop year after year. Thus, farmers must step up the chemical fertilizers to keep getting crop yields.

(http://greenhealthreport.com/2010/07/the-dangers-of-monocult)

The same is true when it comes to people, and especially true when it comes to the body of Christ.  We cannot be a monoculture, searching for and appealing for only one type of person.  That’s not the world we live in.  We live in a polyculture – many types of people.  It’s a complicated matter to live amongst diversity, and some people simply cannot embrace diversity, seeking instead to enforce a uniformity that is stifling and tragic.

On Friday evening I spoke at the worship service of the Luther Luckett Christian Church, at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange.  I’d been scheduled for a number of weeks, but I was surprised to learn early last week that Friday would be the final worship service for the Luther Luckett church.  I’ve mentioned on several occasions in recent months that the administration of the prison was making it very difficult for the church to function.  Outside guests have not been permitted for some time and the men have been forbidden from any further worship leadership.  It was becoming increasingly obvious that the administration did not want the church to continue, and because the situation was becoming so difficult, the board decided that Friday’s service would be the final one for the church.

Dean Bucalos, the minister of the church, has done a really outstanding job of leading the congregation in the face of great resistance.  I greatly appreciate the work he has done.  At the end of the service I felt sad for Dean as he made the announcement that the church would not continue, and I felt very sad for the men, many of whom wept at the news.

These men have suffered a great loss because a few people could not accept a different way of doing church.  What was a spiritual lifeline for them has not come to an end because diversity could not be accepted or embraced.  What a sad reality.

Jesus took twelve very diverse men who did not think the same, believe the same, or act the same.  Their diversity could have torn them apart, but it did not.  The love of Jesus provided a larger vision they could embrace and it allowed them to accept one another as brothers.

Diversity is a beautiful thing.  God made us brothers and sisters, but neither asks or expects us to be the same.  Celebrate this great diversity!

January 26, 2014 - Having A Heart Like Jesus: A Heart for the Hurting

John 11:17-37

One of my favorite memories comes, surprisingly, from a funeral I attended seven or eight years ago.  I was sitting in the sanctuary of a church listening to the pre-service music.  Among the hymns that were played came a surprise – Let It Be, by the Beatles, which happens to be my favorite song of all time.  There were two ladies sitting in front of me, friends of the deceased, and one turned to the other and said I like that song.  I wonder what number it is in the hymnal?  That would be a great hymnal, wouldn’t it?  Tanya and I are having a bit of a disagreement over the music for my funeral.  I told her I would like the pre-service music to be The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, but she’s not going for that idea.

If I asked you to name the hardest part of your work, you would probably be able to answer immediately.  I can tell you without hesitation the hardest part of ministry, to me – funerals.

My most difficult task as a minister is to officiate at a funeral.  One of my first funerals was one of my most difficult.  I was a young Student Minister and it was one of the youth in our church, just a high school student.  He was a fine young man – a good student, very polite, hard working – just a fine person.  He began experiencing headaches and was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which took his life less than a year after his diagnosis.  At the time of his funeral, I wasn’t many years older than him, and I was so nervous.  I was so afraid of saying the wrong thing.

I’ve officiated at a lot of funerals over the years, and while I have adjusted to that part of ministry, it remains a difficult task.  One of the reasons I find it difficult is because I assume that, on a typical Sunday morning, people may or not be listening all that close to what I have to say.  And if I have something helpful to say that’s good, and if I don’t, there’s always next week.  But officiating a funeral is very different, because you can sense the stillness among the congregation as people are hoping you can bring some words that will help them to find comfort and peace.  To be honest, I find that to be rather unnerving and I never feel up to the task.

We continue our series Having A Heart Like Jesus, and this morning come to a passage that contains one of the most famous verses in the Bible.  It’s a verse you learned if you ever had to memorize a passage of Scripture.  You probably chose this verse to memorize because it is the shortest in the entire Bible – do you know which one it is?  Jesus wept (verse 35).  It comes from the story of the raising of Lazarus, a story that shows us that Jesus has A Heart for the Hurting.

¹⁷ On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was less than two miles^[a] from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
²¹ “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
²⁴ Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶ and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
²⁸ After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” ²⁹ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
³² When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
³⁵ Jesus wept.
³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

The entire story is longer than the passage we read this morning, and I would encourage you to take a few minutes today, or sometime this week, to read the entire passage from John’s gospel.

This is the story of a family grieving after a very difficult loss.  John’s gospel tells us that Jesus arrives at the home of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, four days after the death of Lazarus.  Their grief is still very tender, and their home is full of people who are mourning his loss.  This is a story that demonstrates that the heart of Jesus is especially with those who experience the great pain of the loss of a loved one.

It’s impossible, I think, to avoid feeling sorry for Jesus in this passage.  He is scolded by both Mary and Martha.  In verse 32 Mary repeats the same statement made by her sister Martha in verse 21 – Lord, if you have been here, my brother would not have died.  Once would be tough enough, but twice! 

Do you ever wonder how Jesus felt about the things people said to him, and about him?  We all learn that at some point in life we have to have thick skin, but it still hurts, doesn’t it, to be questioned and criticized?  I wonder how Jesus felt when confronted in such a way by two of his close friends.  It had to hurt.  For Jesus, he often experienced such moments, that could be described as What have you done for me lately Jesus? moments. It seems that some were fine with Jesus as long as he was doing something for them.  That’s why I think the passage we studied last week is such a powerful passage (Mark 14:1-9, when Mary anoints Jesus), because we see somebody doing something for Jesus.

But Jesus does not respond by reproving them.  He doesn’t defend himself.  Our first reaction, when we are criticized, is to get into that self-defense mode.  But Jesus did something that is a great lesson to us, especially when we come alongside those who are grieving – he allowed them to grieve, and to grieve in the way that suited them.  Jesus didn’t say now, now, you shouldn’t be talking like that; let me tell you what you need to do and say and how you ought to grieve.

You’ve got to let people have their say, especially when they have suffered the loss of a loved one.  They may be angry and they may be frustrated, but you have to let them have their say.  We can’t tell people how they should grieve and we shouldn’t tell them how they should feel, and we shouldn’t put a timetable on their grief, telling them after several months that it’s time to move on or it’s time to get over it.  You don’t ever get over a loss.  You adjust to the difference in life, but you don’t get over it.

Some years ago I was talking with a father who had recently lost his son.  His son passed away at 41 years old after a long, difficult battle with cancer, and I officiated at his funeral.  It was a tough loss, as you can imagine.  The father made a comment that took me back.  He referenced the passage in Matthew 7:9 – Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  He looked me right in the eye and said, all God has given me is a bag of rocks.

That’s a tough statement, isn’t it?  But this was a father who was hurting deeply from the loss of his son.  His words weren’t all that different from those of Mary and Martha; as they questioned Jesus about what they perceived was his inaction toward Lazarus, this father questioned God through his perception that God did not do enough.

Loss often makes people question.  Loss often makes people angry.  Those are emotions that have to come out.  If they are pushed inside they will only cause further heartbreak.  But we often find ourselves uncomfortable with the questions and the anger and the frustration, don’t we?  We don’t know what to say, and we don’t know what to do, so sometimes do or say the wrong things.  We will say, now, now, don’t feel that way.  Don’t say those things.  I don’t think it’s very helpful to tell people how they should feel.  People simply feel the way they feel.  You can’t put a timetable on grief and you can’t put parameters on how people should feel.

It hurts to see those you love hurting.  Jesus was certainly not immune to the hurts of others; in fact, he was extremely sensitized to the suffering and pain of others, which is why he wept.  He knew what he was going to do about Lazarus, but his love for Mary and Martha and his empathy for them touched his heart in a great way.  We see over and over again in the gospels the emotions of Jesus.  He was often moved by the plight and the suffering of others.  One of the phrases often used about Jesus is he had compassion on them (such as in Matthew 9:36 – when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd).

 

In spite of the reaction of Mary and Martha to Jesus, what’s interesting is that Mary and Martha simply sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick – Lord, the one you love is sick (verse 3).  Notice they do not ask him to come; they knew he would come.  Have you ever heard the words I knew you would come?  Those are very powerful words.  Mary and Martha knew Jesus would come.

Jesus did not come on their schedule, but he did come.  I don’t understand God’s timing.  None of us do, but God has some kind of timing in mind.  I think patience can trump understanding.  I don’t understand the way God works, or the timing involved in how he works, but as I age I am more willing to be patient when it comes to his timing. 

The heart of this passage is certainly the raising of Lazarus.  In that great miracle Jesus is demonstrating that he is the resurrection and the life.

I vividly remember the first funeral I officiated for a young child.  It was a bitterly cold winter day, such as we’ve experienced this week.  It was early in the year and the ground was covered with ice and snow and a cold wind was blowing.  The cold, hard winter landscape seemed to reflect the cold, hard reality of loss for the young couple who had suffered such a terrible loss.  Their baby, only a few months old, had passed away.  What can possibly be said to bring any comfort or meaning in the midst of such tragic circumstances?  There is no way to take away the pain of such a loss, but it is possible to speak a word of hope.  Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life we can affirm that life does not end with our last breath, it only transitions.  It transitions from life in this world into life in the next world.  When we take our final breath in this temporal world, we take our next breath in eternity.  When the sun sets on this life, we are raised to the dawn of a new life.  Those truths, while they do not remove grief and loss from our lives, give us hope, and hope is what we so desperately need in life, especially when we have experienced grief.

Jesus wept.  He wept for the grief and the pain felt by Mary and Martha.  He is not absent from our loss, just as he was not absent from the loss experienced by Mary and Martha.  He is with us always, and may we rejoice in that great promise!

January 19, 2014 - Having A Heart Like Jesus: If All I Had Was A Hammer...

Mark 14:1-9

I am going to mention the first phrase of a saying in a moment, but before I do I’ll add that I am offering prizes to those who accurately guess the remainder of the saying.  First prize is an autographed copy of the sermon.  Second prize is two autographed copies.  Third prize is a sermon written specifically for you that I will preach to you at your home.

If all you have is a hammer…

Does anyone know how to complete that old saying?

If all you have is a hammer…everything would look like a nail.  Have you heard that saying before?

As we continue our series of messages titled Having A Heart Like Jesus, we come to a passage of Scripture that takes place in the final days of the life of Jesus.  It takes place sometime between the Triumphal Entry and the Last Supper.

Keep that saying about a hammer in mind as we read the Scripture passage for this morning.  We’ll read the telling of the story from Mark’s gospel, but all four gospels tell the story.  Not many stories are recorded in all four gospels, and I believe that because this story is in all four, its message must be very important.

1 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume?

5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.

8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.

9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.

Did you notice the reaction of those present when the woman anoints Jesus with this ointment?  There was an immediate rush to judgment against her.  Does it ever seem to you that religion makes some people mean?  Or is it that their meanness is made more intense and tragic because they believe they have received a divine mandate that enforces their attitudes and actions?

Mark, like Matthew, does not identify the woman who anoints Jesus.  Luke identifies her as a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town (Luke 7:37).  John tells us it is Mary (John 12:3).  Isn’t it a shame that the first instinct of some of those gathered that day was to rush to judge her?  Have you ever noticed that’s the default position for some religious people?  The first response is not one of grace but to pull out that finger of judgment and start pointing it.  And no words of grace were offered to her.  No one said, you are doing a good thing.  Jesus has done so much for us and given us so much it’s time someone did something for him.

If all you have is the hammer of judgment then everyone gets nailed with that hammer.  And there were a lot of people in the day of Jesus carrying around that hammer of judgment.  The heart of Jesus, however, was always expressed through grace.

Perhaps because of her past, alluded to by Luke – a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town – everyone believed they had her all figured out.  Sometimes we can’t see beyond someone’s past.

I grew up in West Virginia, went to school in Tennessee, moved to Alabama, and then came to Kentucky.  You know what was helpful about moving around?  Every time you move you have the opportunity for a new beginning.  Whatever people thought of me, when I moved I had a chance to reinvent myself and begin anew without the drag of my mistakes defining me in the eyes of other people.

Not so for Mary.  People remembered her past, and were probably quick to point it out to her and to everyone else.  They assumed she was the same old Mary.  They couldn’t believe anything different about her.

Isn’t it amazing how we make judgments other people?  I have, unfortunately, made judgments about people and found that I was totally wrong.  I’ve too often kept my same interpretation of someone else when they had changed and become a far different person.

By offering the reminder that it was at the time of Passover, Mark is pointing out that, at a time of heightened spirituality, there were those who were not very in tune with the Spirit.  When Mary anoints Jesus, she was strongly criticized.  Those critics failed to see that she was responding to the grace of Jesus.

There is no shortage of Scripture passages that demonstrate how resistance many were to the theme of grace.  For Jesus, grace was at the center of everything he said and did.  Having a heart like Jesus means we are called to be people of grace, reflecting in our own lives one of the central themes of his life and ministry.

The woman who anoints Jesus with the ointment demonstrates that she “gets it.”  Almost all of the stories we read in the gospels are ones that tell us about the grace, love, and kindness that Jesus demonstrates.  In this story, we see someone who has understood his emphasis on these qualities and then demonstrates grace, love, and kindness back to Jesus.  Jesus is most often the demonstrator of these gifts, but in this passage, he is also a recipient of them.  In contrast, others fail to learn the lesson.  Immediately after anointing Jesus, the woman is criticized for what she has done.  Focusing on the value of the ointment, these critics immediately point out their perception that the woman wasted a valuable commodity.  It would have been better, they claimed, if it had been sold and the proceeds of the sale given to the poor. 

And don’t we recognize how people can be when we read the line some of those present were saying to one another, “Why this waste of perfume?  It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor (verse 5).  I wonder if their concern for the poor extended to their own wallets?  It’s very easy to be generous with someone else’s money, isn’t it?  If they were so concerned about the poor, what were those people doing to alleviate their misery?  If those critics were so interested in helping the poor, they simply could have done so.  What were they willing to sell, or to give, in order to help the poor for whom they suddenly had such conviction?  The reality is, they were more interested in judgment and criticism than they were love and grace.  They were perfectly content to sit back and judge this woman who reflected the compassion and grace of Jesus.  They allowed their righteous indignation to provide a mask for their indifference to the sufferings of others.

People often think someone else should be doing something, but don’t always stop to realize what they could be doing.  From this group of people down to the skeptics who think God isn’t doing enough about the suffering in the world, it is part of the human condition to point a finger of blame or judgment while not raising a hand to offer any help.  But it’s hard to offer a hand of compassion when that hand is so busy pointing a finger.

Jesus is not indifferent to poverty and is not shrugging off the importance of ministering to the physical needs of others.  Not at all.  He is reminding those in his presence they need to be concerned about the condition of humanity that would create poverty, a condition they seemed immune to while at the same time deciding how to spend someone else’s money.

So they rebuked her harshly, Mark says.

I wonder what that scene must have been like.  What does it mean to rebuke someone harshly?  Whatever they were saying, it got Jesus’ attention.  Leave her alone, he commands.  I’ve often wondered about the tone of his voice in that sentence.  Was it one of sadness for their harsh judgmentalism or one of anger and frustration?

Mary pours out this perfume upon Jesus, and it is rather breathtaking to think of its value – equal to a year’s wages for most people.  That’s a lot of money.  I’ve often wondered what special ingredients are in perfume to make it so expensive.  I’ve gone to get perfume for Tanya a few times over the years.  I’m really out of my element in that section of a store, and I think it’s obvious to the people working in that area.  I’ve choked a bit at the cost of a few ounces of perfume, but a bottle that would cost a year’s salary?  That would buy a lot of guitars!

There is an element of love that does not count the cost.  Love does not calculate expense.  It does not hold back.  Love offers everything, just as this woman gave all of the ointment, though not all would be necessary.

Interestingly, as Mark notes the words of Jesus that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her (verse 9) the same is true of those who sat in judgment of the woman.  While we are told of her grace and generosity, so are we told of the hardness of heart of those who sat in judgment.  The lesson from this is that our actions, and our attitudes, are noted and remembered by others.  Just as this act of grace and generosity is remembered, so is the lack of grace and generosity exhibited by the others who were present that day.

There is also another important point made by Jesus.  When he says, in verse 7, you will not always have me, it is an important reminder to act while we can.  There are opportunities to express love and grace that may not come again, so we must act while the moment is at hand.  Have you known the sadness of allowing an opportunity to pass by, an opportunity that did not come again?  Perhaps it was an opportunity to express your love to someone or an opportunity to exhibit grace.  All of us, I would presume, are familiar with the regret of missing such a chance, and of living with the sadness of not acting while we had the chance.

Don’t live with that sadness, and don’t live without grace.  Offer grace, and receive grace.