Free Yet Costly - [John 12:1-11]

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Pastor Mike gave us a list last week, and I thought I might start the same way, just because it's fun.
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These are some really bad purchases by professional athletes. I think they're pretty bad.
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Here's one. Marquis Daniels, former Boston Celtic. He spent $60 ,000 on a necklace of himself.
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And I thought, OK, that's pretty bad. $60 ,000, this little rock that looked like him.
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Another NBA player, J .R. Smith, spent $450 ,000 for a military -grade
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SUV. It was all upgraded and everything, so it could withstand the blast from a hand grenade.
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Maybe he knows something that we don't. I don't know. Then there's Hall of Fame pitcher
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Raleigh Fingers. Some of you will remember the mustache from the 70s
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Oakland A's. He lost $8 million buying pistachio farms.
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That's kind of a nutty investment. Then Scottie Pippen, famous basketball player, played alongside
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Michael Jordan. He bought a Gulfstream jet for $4 .3
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million. Now, that was market rate, pretty good deal, except he didn't have it inspected, and it needed over $1 million in repairs.
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Not a good buy. My favorite, though, you can't get better than Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson, this is incredible.
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He spent $2 million on a bathtub. $2 million on a bathtub.
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I'm like, that would be a really nice new church building.
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Come on, Mike. $2 million on a bathtub. He also made this list twice.
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He paid $140 ,000 for three Bengal tigers. Now, here's the trick.
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Those Bengal tigers, the upkeep for them was $12 ,000 a month.
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So it's $140 ,000 to buy them, and then $140 ,000 a year upkeep for as long as you have them.
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That's a bad buy. I don't think the tigers lasted very long. People do foolish things with their money.
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Sometimes, though, what is wise, what is a wise investment, and what is a foolish investment depends on the perspective of the person doing the investing.
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We're going to see this morning a little bit of a controversy between two people who were following Jesus, two disciples of Jesus.
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We're going to start reading our text in John 12, verse 1.
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Six days before the Passover, Jesus, therefore, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom
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Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there.
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Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.
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The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
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But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said,
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Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?
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He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.
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And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
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Jesus said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.
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For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. When the large crowd of the
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Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him, but also to see
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Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put
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Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the
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Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. Now John, the beloved apostle, wrote this gospel around 90
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A .D. So this would be 65 years, 67 years maybe, after the incident described here.
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But when he wrote his gospel, he was familiar with the other gospels. And he wrote his gospel with a little bit of a different emphasis, a little bit of a different slant.
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Just as I've said before, we can read biographies about Napoleon, or Ulysses S.
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Grant, or Abraham Lincoln, people of history. And they keep writing these biographies.
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Well, why do they keep doing it? Because they can emphasize either different periods of their life, or different aspects of their character, and so develop an entire book out of that theme.
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And so we have Matthew's gospel, which has as its theme, Jesus as king.
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We have Mark's gospel, which has as its theme, Jesus as servant. Luke, who, being a physician, emphasized the humanity of Jesus Christ.
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And then finally, John, who emphasizes the deity of Christ, Jesus as God.
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In fact, the theme of the book is presented in John 20, 31, where he wrote,
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These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
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Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.
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That's the point of this entire book. In fact, if you gave it out as a tract, and said, well,
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I share the gospel with somebody, you would be exactly correct, because this is the emphasis of this book, that people might come to believe that Jesus is the anointed one,
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God's chosen one, the deliverer, the savior. And as we left
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John 11 last time, just a few weeks ago, Jesus had raised
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Lazarus from the dead. Now, I'd like to think, I'd like to believe, that after I saw that,
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I would trust Jesus. I would believe whatever he said. If I even heard about that, that I would then be invested in Jesus.
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But the chief priests and the Pharisees just kicked their whole anti -Jesus campaign into a higher gear.
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Their desire to kill him was stronger than ever. And knowing that, and we'll get back to chapter 11 here as we review a little bit more, but knowing that,
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Jesus went to a small town called Ephraim. And we can pretty much guess that the, well, we know from John, that the speculation among the chief priests and the
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Pharisees, and probably among the people, was that Jesus would come to Jerusalem. Well, why? Why would he do that if he knew that they wanted to take him and kill him?
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Because it was Passover. And all observant Jews, or most of the observant Jews, would go to Jerusalem for Passover.
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So he's out there in Ephraim, but we see in our text that he actually comes back into town, and we'll get to that in a moment.
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But the stage really is set for the crucifixion. Jesus has about a week left in his earthly ministry, about a week left in his human existence here.
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And this morning, as we go through this text, because I want to, I was thinking of Pastor Mike when
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I came up with this outline. It's nice to be nice. So we're going to have three nice points, three nice points, to help us track our way through the text.
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We're going to see the effects of sovereign grace, both the effects of having it and not having it.
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And we're going to see this through the lives and actions of two individuals, Judas and Mary. So first, a nice evening begins.
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A nice evening begins. Jesus goes back to Bethany in verse 1. Six days before Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom
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Jesus had raised from the dead. Now if you recall, Bethany is, I mean, how many of you have ever been to Jerusalem?
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I mean, even I could, most days, probably walk to Bethany.
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It's not that far of a walk. It's uphill and then, you know, a little downhill, but it's not that far from Jerusalem.
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Not bad at all. So when Jesus leaves out in the wilderness and comes back into Bethany, he's really close to Jerusalem.
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He's just a few miles outside of it. Maybe not even that far. I mean, it's close. Now again, if you remember, when
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Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, some of those who were present believed in him. However, others went and, you know, what we used to call in my police days, you know, they dropped a dime.
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They called the police. They went to the Pharisees and the chief priests, and they said, you know, this is what happened.
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You know, you guys need to investigate this. The chief priests and the Pharisees, they call kind of an emergency meeting.
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They start talking, and we pick it up here in chapter 11. If you just turn back to verse 48, this is their consensus here.
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Verse 48, if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the
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Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
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But one of them, one of this group, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.
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He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
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So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death. This is what they wanted to do more than anything, and they were like laying out the blueprints.
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Verse 54, Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness to a town called
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Ephraim again, way out there. And there he stayed with the disciples. Now he's come back to Bethany, close.
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In fact, we're just a couple days away from the triumphal entry, what's typically called Palm Sunday, what more biblically would be called
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Palm Monday, but I digress. We're not there yet. So that's the setting.
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He comes back to Bethany. Now we have a banquet for the
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Savior and dinner for a fugitive who, by the way, the Savior and the fugitive are the same person. He's wanted.
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Look at verse 2. So they gave a dinner for him there. That would be for Jesus. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.
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Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Again, Jesus was a wanted man.
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The religious authorities let it be known that they wanted him arrested, that they wanted him turned in.
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Now there are parallel accounts of this event in both Mark and Matthew. Some commentators also kind of bring in this situation that occurred in Luke.
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There are some similarities there, the sinful woman weeping, and it's not the same episode.
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Different location, there are a lot of differences. Too many to even consider them to be the same event.
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But Mark and Matthew talk about the same evening, and we'll look at those in a moment. Now in the
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Jewish culture, it was considered wrong, now this is going to sound odd for us, for men and women at an event like this to be seated together, to recline together, because they were all like laying back while they ate, and they would lean on each other.
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So that would not be considered appropriate for them to do that with members of the opposite sex.
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So we're told that Martha was serving. Now if Mary has any kind of a role in this evening, if she's doing anything official, we're not told about it.
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What we do know from the other accounts is that the owner of the house was a man named
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Simon, who was someone that Jesus had healed of leprosy.
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This is not Simon Peter. You know, it's like, I don't know exactly how many names were common, but there were like 10 common names for boys and 10 for girls, and it's like they used those over and over again.
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I have a feeling that they probably either used everybody's full name when they talked to them or just their last name, you know, their surname, because it would be like Simon and half the room would say, yeah, you know.
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So, very common name. He would have been the host, the homeowner.
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And the other guests would have included the 12 disciples. Could there have been others?
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There may have been, probably not too many if there were any, but they're not part of the story and they're not recorded for us.
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Here's what we do know. This is, if you just think about it for a moment, this is a terrific evening.
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You've got the Lord. That's great enough, right? And two other significant guests, one man who had been cured of leprosy and another had been brought back from the dead.
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Now there's a lot to talk about, a lot to celebrate, right? What's it like to be dead? What's it like to be shunned by everybody and then to suddenly be acceptable again?
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Well, somebody has the exact right attitude about this evening and that would be
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Mary. She has a joy -filled heart and she expressed herself, look at verse 3,
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Mary, therefore, I mean, it's causal, right? Therefore, she does it on the basis of the fact that they're there to celebrate
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Jesus and what he's done. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.
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The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Just look at some of the descriptive clues here about this ointment.
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It's called expensive. It's called pure. In fact, if you do the research on this, it actually had to be brought in by pack animals, you know, over land through the mountain passes and everything on camelback, you know, or by pack animals, all the way from India where the plant is actually grown.
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So this is very expensive. And as I was just reading this,
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I just thought, you know, it's like how many of you have been in Hawaii? That's a place I've never been. They have this
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Kona coffee, right? And I can remember, I'll just tell you what the price used to be. This is years ago when we used to even look at the price.
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The price for a pound of Kona coffee 15 years ago or whatever, $15 a pound, or I'm sorry, $15, $40 a pound.
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The store that we went to also had something called Kona Blend, which, you know, was like part
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Kona and part a lot of other things, and it was a lot cheaper. And so that's what we got. But John wants us to understand this isn't
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Nard Blend, you know. This isn't the cut rate Nard. This isn't 2 %
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Nard and 98 % garbage. This is pure. This is the real deal.
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This is super expensive stuff. Mark records it this way in Mark 14, verse 3.
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He says, And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman, not identified, came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure Nard, very costly.
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And she broke the flask and poured it over his head. Over his head?
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Anointed his feet. Is this some kind of contradiction?
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Is this a problem? No. No. Again, John said
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Mary anointed the feet of Jesus. Mark said he or she poured it over his head.
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Now, we have to consider another term that he applied there, a pound. How much is a pound?
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Well, it could be, it's not 16 ounces, sorry. This is Middle Eastern equivalence, probably about 12 ounces or so.
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But imagine having that magnitude of this ointment poured on you.
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It pretty much goes everywhere. This is like, you know, I didn't find an exact description of the consistency, but it's going to be some,
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I just compared it, I thought in my mind, I'm like, imagine just having maple syrup poured on you.
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It's just going to go everywhere. And he's also laying down. And so this is, and it's not like it's being poured on him, because this is a broken vessel that she breaks and then she just, so this is going everywhere.
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Now that I mentioned maple syrup, some of you are probably thinking, well, how do you get that out of your hair? And, you know, okay, it's not maple syrup, so forget it.
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The point is, this is a lot. Mark tells us that Mary broke the container, and so it just kind of went everywhere.
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It'd be more like dumping it on him than really a nice, controlled, kind of pouring sort of thing.
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But this really is a sign of humility. Mary uses her hair to wipe off his feet.
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Those of you familiar with Middle Eastern culture, you know that, you know, the feet are shameful.
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To touch them, they're just considered dirty and ugly. Well, of course they are dirty and ugly, because you're walking in the desert all the time and getting calloused, and you don't have nice shoes, you have sandals.
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And so for her to do this is really a mark of humility.
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But there's, of course, more than even just that. As a Middle Eastern woman, the culture says, keep your hair up.
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Keep it tied up. She loosens her hair to wipe off his feet.
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She's so filled with joy and gratitude that she's not really concerned with propriety.
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She wants to express her love for Jesus. So I thought about this.
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I just thought, is that how we view Jesus, with that sense of awe and thankfulness and gratitude that we just want to do anything we can to express that?
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Now, how strong was the nard? Well, of course, I said it was pure, but what does that mean? Well, it says here, the text tells us that it scent -filled the entire house.
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Now, I have to think that it probably smelled nice, right? It was pleasant. It wasn't like, you know, eau de skunk, you know, where it was like, oh, man, well, that sure killed the evening, right?
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Buzzkill, dinner's over, let's leave. It was nice. It was good.
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But this gesture of this expensive perfume, this expensive nard, this expensive substance being devoted to Jesus is really a sign of love and devotion.
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So this is, a nice evening begins, but our second nice point is a nice gesture is interrupted for a bad reason.
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Look at verse 4. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, one of Jesus' disciples, he who was about to betray him, and again, keep in mind, this is just a few days away now.
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You can see the wheels turning in Judas' head. Verse 5, he says,
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Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? Now, on the face of it, absent everything else, absent the little background information
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John gives us here, we think, well, you know what, there's some sense to that, right? I mean, this is a lot of money, and it's just going to waste.
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It could be used for some really good things. I mean, maybe we could redo the baptismal or something, you know, if we had this.
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We could have helped people,
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Judas says. Well, I had somebody once call me and say, you know, why is it that people give money to a church when there are kids without books?
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I mean, you could stretch that kind of logic to everything, right? How can you sit there and eat that steak when there are kids starving in whatever country?
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How can you do X, Y, or Z when there are kids suffering from cancer? How can you go to Florida, Los Angeles?
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How can you do anything, right? There are people suffering in the world. It's interesting that someone else always has a better idea of what you should be doing with the money the
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Lord has entrusted to you. They have a better idea than what your idea is, right?
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As long as it's your money, they can tell you what to do with it. But Judas wasn't the only one to complain or to have those thoughts.
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Again, from Mark 14, verse 4, there were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment wasted like that?
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So that could have been a thought, could have been under their breath. Maybe Judas was the only one to have the nerve to say that, to say it out loud.
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Maybe he was the only one that John heard. Maybe he was the only one that he wrote down what he heard just because it showed what was to come.
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And certainly John, now looking back on things with the help of the Holy Spirit, having additional insight, he knew more about the character of Judas Iscariot than anybody sitting at that table, even him sitting at that table.
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He didn't know. He was probably as surprised as anyone. And you know, a lot of times, if you've ever been the victim of a crime, you only can kind of unpack it afterwards.
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You know, it's only in the aftermath that you go, oh, that's why money was leaving.
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You know, that's why we were always short of funds. It's because Judas was pilfering, right?
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But at the time, it just kind of seemed like, wow, we're just kind of making ends meet. Back to the text.
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Judas's reason is, his secret reason is given here in verse 6. He said this not because he cared about the poor, which was the outward reason, but because he was a thief.
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And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it. Now, again, as they sat there, the other disciples had no idea that Judas was a thief, and they had no idea that he was about to betray
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Christ. Now, I don't mention nouns, or I don't go for the pronunciation of them, and I'll probably mangle this one too often, but I just thought this one was easy, or easy.
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It's not easy. I just thought it was interesting. The purse here in some translations, or the treasury, or the box, or however it's translated, the word is glossocomon.
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And that first half of that, well, what it means is basically tongue box. And you say, tongue box?
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Like, what do they used to do? Cut off the tongues of animals and put them in this box? No. The tongues, the reeds from instruments, they would store them in these boxes.
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And so that's where this name came from. And so I just found it kind of interesting.
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That first part of the word there, glosso, if we say glossolalia, that's known languages.
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That's from Acts. That's when the Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, they hear all these people from all around the kingdom speaking in these languages, their own native language.
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They know these languages. And that's the word. And so that's the idea, tongue.
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But this is physical tongue. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting. But this would be, it's not a huge box.
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It's not a safe. He's not dragging around a safe. This would be something he could carry. Probably more like a murse, a purse, a decent -sized bag.
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Judas was sitting there that night. He's watching this thing get broken. And what's he thinking? He's thinking, there goes my dating money or whatever.
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I mean, he's like, I could have used that. He's calculating his own personal loss.
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300 denarii was like, it's what an average person would make, an average man would make during a year.
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This is a year's salary that she just has wasted in his mind. I mean, even if he's only taking, you know, 5%, that's a pretty nice little cut there that he's looking at.
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I've said this phrase, you know, I'm thinking he probably said something like this, you know, foolish woman. He wasn't very happy with her.
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One writer said this. He said, the selfish person cannot understand the unselfish individual.
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I remember, you know, pre -salvation, actually having this conversation with Janet one time.
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I said, why can't you be more selfish? Why was that? Why would I say that?
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Because I knew how selfish I was, and I was like, why can't you just be a little bit more selfish so I don't have to feel so bad about myself?
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Right? He could not even grasp.
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He was so greedy, so self -centered, so self -absorbed, that he could not understand how somebody could not think the way he did.
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Now, if you think about Judas, he'd seen miracle after miracle. He'd seen a lot of things that Mary hadn't seen.
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She wasn't there when Jesus walked across the water. She wasn't there for a lot of things, a lot of the miracles that he performed.
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Judas was right there, right next to him. Had a front row seat, as it were. His response to this anointing by Mary is, that's money out of my pocket.
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His response to the ministry of Jesus was, what am I going to get out of this? And when he realized that he wasn't going to get what he wanted, which was wealth and power and prestige, he sought it another way, and that's what we're going to see in the future.
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Judas was only interested in the cash, in his own personal gain. As I thought about this passage,
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I thought about how Mary gave so enthusiastically, so extravagantly. And in her heart, she knew that she could not out -give the
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Lord. She'd seen what he could do. I don't think she was trying to put on a show, but she was trying to, in her own way, just express and demonstrate her own devotion to Jesus.
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Following Jesus was free. It was free to be one of his disciples, but it was costly because it meant having no other concerns.
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Nothing could consume you more than Jesus. And she was at that point.
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For Judas, stealing was easy. They put him in charge of the treasury. This was the fox in charge of the hen house.
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They didn't know that, but he was not the best character. Think about it.
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The money was free for him to take. In his mind, it was easy pickings, but it cost him everything, including his soul.
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Jesus retorts here his response in verse 7. Jesus said,
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Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.
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Now, it was pretty rough when that person called me and said, you know, how can you justify this or that or the other thing, you know, in light of kids not having books or whatever.
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Well, if that was hard, how do you respond to Judas, you know, and his accusation?
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Well, Jesus knows what to do. He knows what to say. But his response is a little unusual.
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We need to break it down a little bit. She poured all that perfume, ointment stuff all over Jesus.
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So how is she going to keep it for his burial? How can you use something and yet keep it?
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It's hard to understand. But we have to keep the context in mind.
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What's he doing? What's Jesus doing here? He's rebuking Judas for his own perception of the event, of what's happening.
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In fact, Matthew 26, 14 says this. Jesus responding says,
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She has done it to prepare me for burial. Mark 14, 8.
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She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
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He knows what's happening. He's not blind going into this. And she seems to have understood because he even prophesied his death before this.
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And she seems to have understood this more clearly than the other disciples did.
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Although she didn't understand the resurrection part fully. Excuse me.
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At least until the day of the resurrection. But she certainly would have heard about the desire of the
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Pharisees and the chief priests to arrest Jesus. She should have known or she would have known that there was pressure coming from that side.
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She'd also hear the word of Jesus where he would talk about his impending death. And so it's as if she understood that the net, as it were, was closing in.
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That it was getting closer and closer to the end. She had procured this ointment.
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And at some point, whether that was her original intent or not, we don't know. But she had decided that this was the purpose for which she was going to use it.
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That she was going to apply it to Jesus posthumously when he was being anointed in death.
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Now this was an expensive anointing, to be sure. But it's appropriate for her master, for her
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Lord. But as she considered his impending death, what if he was not even afforded a burial?
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What if they just left him up on the cross? What if they just kind of disappeared his body?
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What if? What if? What if? As she considered that, she just thought, this is the time.
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This is the time to use that. Now again, that perfume could be sold and provide for the disciples for a while.
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And they could even give money to some indigent people. They could operate for quite a while on that kind of money.
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But Jesus isn't debating the merits of Judas' argument. He's stating just flat out that Judas is wrong and that what
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Mary did is right. It's the right use of this expensive ointment.
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And that Mary had kept it in the sense that it had an original purpose that she'd set her heart upon.
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And she used it for that purpose. And he even talks about that. 300 denarii, as much money as that was, would not end poverty.
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But it was a fitting tribute for the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
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Now our third nice point. A nice word brings an angry response. A nice word brings an angry response.
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When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there. Actually, I should say maybe a nice act brings an angry response.
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When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but also to see
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Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. Now, we're not talking about a large crowd of Jews from Bethany, because this is a small village outside of Jerusalem.
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We're talking about people from Jerusalem. Again, we're close to Passover.
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And as I said many weeks ago when we were back in this text, people would come early, men would come early into Jerusalem for Passover to purify themselves, to go through some rites of purification.
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So, Jerusalem is already a crowded place. We're about a week away from Passover. And what do you suppose the buzz was on the streets of Jerusalem?
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Well, sure that they want to arrest him. But how about this? This is pre -internet, pre -telephone, no newspapers, no
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TV, no nothing, no mass media at all, right? So what do you suppose, how do you suppose news gets around in a city like Jerusalem?
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People talk about things, but typically it's like this, right? Did you hear about, you know,
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I'll just make up some names. Simon. What about Simon? Simon's dead. Did you hear about Mary?
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What about Mary? Mary's dead. Did you hear about, you know, it's just like people die, people die, people die. Oh, did you hear about, you know,
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Benjamin and Yehudah? What about them? Well, they got engaged. Did you hear about so -and -so and so -and -so?
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They had a baby. And, you know, it's just stuff like that. But it's like marriage, betrothals, births, deaths.
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This is like news, right? So how about this one? Did you hear about Lazarus?
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Dude, you're behind the curve. He died like four or five days ago, didn't he? Oh, yeah.
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But he's alive. And not only is he alive,
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I mean, this would be more than four or five days now. You know, he died a couple of weeks ago. Not only is he alive, but he's hosting the man who, or he's at a party where the man who raised him from the dead,
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Jesus, is also there. Oh, and by the way, Simon the leper, yeah, he's healed.
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He's hosting the party. Jesus, Simon the leper, and Lazarus are all there. Word gets around and people are like, you know what?
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We can't go to the drive -in tonight. Let's go up to Bethany. We want to see these people.
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We want to see what Jesus is all about. It's time to go see this man.
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Enough of this boring kind of Facebook existence, you know, death book, whatever it would be back in those days.
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Let's go see this man who brings people back to life. So that's the large crowd that goes to Bethany.
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And, of course, the chief priests and the Pharisees can't have that.
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They come up with a plot to really eliminate a miracle.
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Verse 10, so the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, as well as Jesus, because on account of him, on account of the fact that he's walking the earth, even though he was in a tomb, even though,
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Lord, he stinketh, he was dead for four days, he's alive walking around.
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Because of that, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.
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They can't have that. Not only did the people know that Jesus was in the area, but their leaders knew too.
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And as we'll see, they really didn't want an overt confrontation with a lot of people around.
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They didn't want to risk any kind of rebellion. They wanted a nice, quiet arrest.
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But there was still this problem of Lazarus. Even if they put Jesus to death,
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Lazarus was a living testimony to Jesus. Just his existence said that Jesus had power over death, that he was who he said he was.
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And the chief priests were Sadducees, which meant that they didn't believe in a resurrection.
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And here you had somebody who was dead, and everybody knew he was dead, and now he's alive.
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That's a real problem for them. It's not just a political problem now, it's a theological problem. They're going to end that whole theological problem, they're going to end the whole political problem, and they're going to end
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Lazarus. Well, you know, after all, it's for the good of the people.
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We don't want them to stumble and follow Jesus. That's their reasoning.
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So we've seen a nice evening begins, a nice meal is interrupted for a bad reason, and a nice word, a nice act brings an angry response.
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Now what we really see here in action is the sovereign grace of God. And the grace of God is absolutely free.
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It is the free and unmerited favor of God. It costs nothing, and yet it costs everything.
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How is that possible? Because it is transforming grace. It changes people.
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If we just think again about Mary and Judas, as I said before, I think it's safe to say that Judas spent more time in the company of Jesus.
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He went all around with him for the better part of three years.
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Mary would not have done all of that. She may have seen him on some different occasions, but she hadn't spent that much time with him.
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You know, I once had a professing believer tell me that he believed that Judas was in heaven.
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And after I regained control of the vehicle because I was driving, I said, well, why would you say that?
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This person said, because God used Judas. And I think
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I responded with something like, well, God used Satan too, and Satan's not in heaven. You know, I mean, I was just trying to be biblical and logical, and I was trying to be nice.
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It's nice to be nice, and it's good to be good. But here's the question.
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Did God ever transform Judas? Was Judas ever changed?
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Did his desires change? Did his actions change? Did we ever see any indication in Scripture of a transformed life?
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No, absolutely not. But when we look at Mary's actions, however, whatever her original design was for that nard, that precious ointment, she thought about it, and she thought, okay, this is what
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I want to do with it. I want to put it on Jesus when he's telling us he's going to die.
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When he dies, I want to use that. Then recognizing that might not ever happen, she thought, how can
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I, in light of what he has done for my family, in light of who he is, in light of everything he has said, how can
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I not give this to him? She gave it to him. She wanted to express both her thankfulness and her love for him.
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That is evidence of a changed heart. Now, what about you this morning?
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Has Christ visited you? Has the Holy Spirit convicted you? Has the sovereign grace of God transformed you?
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Has the Holy Spirit convicted you of your sin and caused you to be born again? Have you, like Mary, repented and longed to please
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Christ? If he has, then your sin has been placed upon Christ.
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His righteousness has been placed upon you. He paid the penalty for your sins on the cross.
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And then he was raised on the third day and is now mediating for you. But if that's not true, if there's been no change in your affections, in your desires, if you've just been professing faith but you don't possess faith, if there's really no desire to be with Christ and to please him only, then
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I encourage you, I beseech you, I beg you to believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ today. Let's pray. Father in heaven, what a blessing it is to walk the streets as it were, to have dinner as it were with the
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Lord Jesus Christ, to focus on his life, on his words, on his deeds, on the love that he showed people, how he treated them, how he interacted with them.
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Father, what a delight it is to see a life transformed by your power.
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And what a tragedy it is to see somebody get close as Judas was close, but to never be transformed.
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To put on a facade, to pretend, to act like a disciple of Christ, but to be far away from him in their hearts.
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Your word says that following Jesus is hard.
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And we see this morning why. Father, for anyone here this morning that does not know you,
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I pray that by your spirit you would convict, you would cause to be born again, you would grant new life, new affections, new desires.