Sunday 03/17/13 RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “How much
would you give him?”
Scripture Lesson: Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel Lesson: John 12:1-8
Good morning brothers and sisters! Welcome on this morning to this fifth
week of the Lenten Season. This season, were Jesus prepares to die for the sins
of the world. As John the Baptist said in the Gospel of John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This Lamb, this Christ, has
come to earth to teach us, to love us, and to show us the pathway of life
through him to the Father. That in Jesus Christ dying for us, he would create a
way for us to be with almighty God in heaven. Therefore, we are then justified
before the Lord, if we believe in Jesus Christ.
As
we continue to walk this pilgrim trail to the cross in this Lenten Season then,
we find Jesus in the gospels this week, heavily into his ministry on earth. At
this point Christ has been mocked, ridiculed, and condemned, yet some, some
believe. Jesus has performed unbelievable miracles, spoke truth to power, and
made his presence known. In the Gospel of John reading from this morning though,
Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ sister, pours a pound of costly perfume on the feet
of Jesus. She then proceeds to wipe his feet using her hair as the instrument
to do the wiping. This perfume was called “Nard” or Spikenard and was specially used for anointing dead bodies. Spikenard
is a plant from the Valerian family, if you have ever heard of Valerian before.
The oil extracted from this plant was costly, and it was seen as very precious.
This perfume kept dead bodies smelling fresh and decent, until the body was
laid to rest. The amount that Mary used was a lot. In fact, it would have been
worth over a year’s pay for the average worker at the time.
Perhaps
this would be the equivalency of you buying someone a new car. Or if you have a
really really good job, a really really nice new car! Given all of this, I
thought of a good question to ask around this story in the Gospel of John. This
story of Mary sacrificing so much for Jesus. This question is, “How much would you
give him?” If Jesus came to your house today, “How much would give him?” Would you
give him all that you had? Would you give him a lot? Would you give him a
little? Would you give him nothing at all?
In
the scripture reading from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians from
this morning, the Apostle Paul spoke of his high and wealth status in
Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul then said after this though, “Yet whatever gains I
had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I
regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord”. You see the Apostle Paul, was the Jewish Pharisee named Saul,
and he gave up everything to serve Jesus. When he was asked, “How much would
you give him,” he said “everything”. The Apostle Paul went on in this morning’s
scripture reading to say, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,
and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in
him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that
comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith”. You
see the Apostle Paul gave up everything for Jesus Christ, even eventually even
gave up his very life. The Apostle Paul finished this morning’s scripture reading
by saying that he was striving towards, “forgetting what lies behind and
straining forward to what lies ahead”. He then said, “I press on toward the
goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus”.
So
if Jesus Christ showed up at your house today, “How much would you give him?”
In this morning’s gospel reading, we find ourselves in the Gospel of John, just
after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus, who once again was the
brother of Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha soon after Jesus raised Lazarus
from the dead in Bethany, put on a lavish dinner for Jesus in Bethany, to honor
and show love for the Lord. They prepared the best foods, and the once dead and
risen Lazarus was in attendance. Suddenly Mary got out that expensive perfume I
told you about earlier. The scripture said, “Mary took a pound of costly
perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.
The house filled with the fragrance of the perfume”. Judas Iscariot, the one
who would betray Jesus though, said “Why was this perfume not sold for three
hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” Judas said this though, not
because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. In fact, Judas
held onto the money for the whole group, in what the gospel called the “common
purse”. Give this I am shocked that they ever had any money!
Judas
Iscariot then sounds more like a Bernie Madoff to me, or some other common bank
robber. I often think about it humorously, that if when the Apostles were on
the sea of Galilee in that violent storm, and were worried that the violent
storm was going to drown them, that if Judas yelled in that instant, “Peter
throw me the common purse in the front of the boat, just in case!”
Even
though Jesus knew all along though, that Judas Iscariot was going to betray
him, he chose him, and let him follow him. For Jesus needed someone to betray
him in order to be given over to the authorities to be crucified. Jesus then
replied to Judas’ challenge about selling the expensive perfume and said, “Leave
her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me”. This shut
Judas Iscariot’s mouth quickly, and he did not say anything after this about
the subject.
Jesus
in his comments though, knew that soon he was going to be crucified, and since
he and he alone knew this, he told Judas Iscariot, that this she was doing this
for the day of his burial. I can imagine that the apostles were confused by
this. I mean after all, if it appears that someone will live for a long time,
than why would they be preparing now for their burial? This just doesn’t make sense.
Jesus knew this hour of suffering and death was coming though, and Mary gave
likely the most expensive thing she owned, to honor and love the Lord of life.
The one who had literally saved her, her sister Martha, and brought her brother
Lazarus back to life!
Given
all this, in the Lenten Season, many of us are so focused upon what we can give
up. Sometime we give up foods, material things, and etc., but what can we truly
give up for Jesus. “How much would you give him?”
I would
like to close this message this morning with a story. This story is called “The
Gift,” and is by B. Killebrew. Here is how it goes, “Sharon was rich and lived
in a large house. Beth was from a poor family and lived in a little house that
had thin walls and bare pine floors. Sharon and Beth went to the same school,
were in the same class and one day entered the same contest for reading books
and writing reports. At the end of the contest, both girls had completed the
exact same number of reports and both girls had done reports of very high
quality. The contest was declared a tie and the two girls were asked to draw
straws—short straw to win.
An ecstatic Beth won the
prize, a music box of bright blue plastic. When the music played, a tiny screen
showed a series of different pictures as the wheel revolved. Beth placed her
prize next to the front door of her small house so if there was ever a fire she
would be able to rescue it on her way out.
Sharon was very disturbed
that she had not won the drawing. After all, she had written just as many good
book reports as Beth. She went home and complained loudly to her parents. The
next day her parents came to school and complained loudly. Before you
know it, the contest judges decided to buy another music box for Sharon.
Sharon was pleased to
have gotten her own way, but after playing the music box she was not impressed.
She shoved it on a shelf in her closet with many other forgotten toys.
While it was Beth who worried
about fire, it was Sharon who suffered that catastrophe. Early that winter, a
fire caused by a careless maid destroyed Sharon’s home. The family escaped but
all their possessions were destroyed.
When Beth heard about the
fire, she was dismayed. At school, it was said that all of Sharon’s many toys
had burned except for the pony cart that was in the barn. All her clothes had
burned. Many of the little children were not too kind about Sharon’s hardship. One
little girl even said, “It serves her right for being so hoity-toity all the
time.”
Beth, however, was sad
for Sharon. On the way home after school, she thought and thought. She was home
only a minute before she rushed back out the door carrying a small bag. She
raced to a large brick house—the home of Sharon’s grandmother where Sharon was
now staying. When the maid brought Sharon to the parlor where Beth was waiting,
Beth opened the bag and pulled out her cherished music box. “I’m sorry about
your fire,” she said. “I want you to have this in place of the one you
lost.”
“Thank you,” said Sharon.
“I’m sorry I can’t visit now. Grandma is taking me shopping to get new
clothes.” A few minutes later, the maid closed the door behind Beth as
Sharon raced upstairs to the bedroom she had been given in her grandmother’s
home the moment she was born. As she pulled out a warm coat to wear on her
shopping trip, she took a moment to shove the music box to the back of a
shelf. “It’s a stupid toy,” she thought. “No wonder Beth gave it to
me.”
Sharon went off shopping
with Grandma with no understanding of the great gift she had been given while
Beth went home to her little house, watched and guarded all the way by a
thousand angels.
You know, this week I was very much
watching television as our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church
prepared for a new head of their church. This Bishop elected took on the name
Pope Francis. I remember seeing him this week coming out to greet thousands of
people, yet he wore a simple white cassock. He gave up the expensive Mercedes,
to be driven in Volkswagen. That is, when he is not walking. After he was
elected the head of the Catholic Church, he then went and personally paid his
hotel bill, and carried his own luggage to the Volkswagen. When the Cardinals
of the Roman Catholic Church came in to greet him, instead of sitting on the
throne that the Roman Catholic Pope normally sits on, he sat amongst them. He
said, “I am just one of your brothers”.
This has inspired me this week. For
Jesus Christ gave up everything for us. What will give up for him? For if Jesus
came to your house on this very day, “How much would give him?” Or maybe the
better question is, “Could we ever give him enough?” Amen.
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