Christ-Centered Contribution

Christ-Centered Contribution

Well, a few weeks ago, I started preaching on giving, and I only intended to do one message, but ended up doing several, and today we're going to continue with that. So, several weeks ago, we started with Galatians 6 .6, looking at how giving is a form of shared suffering, and then we looked at the parable of the shrewd steward, and how our temporary stewardship over the resources we have in this light, in light of eternity, should inform our giving.

And we looked at the ten minas, and we saw that God's God's reward of those who are faithful should encourage us toward bold investment, bold investment in his kingdom. And today, I want to look at the woman who anointed Jesus' feet.

I want to look at that, and I want to answer the question, well, what is a good investment? Okay, so we've got all these things that motivate, you know, investing in the kingdom of God. What does that mean?

What kind of things should have priority, as opposed to other things, as we're investing in the kingdom of God? Because it may not be obvious, or even worse, maybe you think it's obvious, but all based on assumption, what kind of things are worthy of priority as we invest in the kingdom of God?

Luke 7 and the Woman Who Anointed Jesus’ Feet

So let's go ahead and look at Luke 7. If you go ahead and turn there, and then stand for the reading of God's Word. Luke 7, beginning in verse 36. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and of what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.

And she, as answering, said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, Say it, teacher. A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.

Now which of them will he love more? Simon answered, The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, You have judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman?

I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.

And he said to her, Your sins are forgiven. Then those who are at the table with him began to say among themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this beautiful picture of what it looks like to be forgiven, and the love between us and the one who has forgiven.

I pray that you would encourage our hearts that we might invest our lives as we ought, that we might have our eyes fixed on your Son, and that we might love him wholly and truly, because he is a good and righteous King.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so here you have this passage about investing, right? So you have to ask yourself that question that I asked a minute ago. What does it look like to invest well in the kingdom of God?

Does it look like giving to the poor? Does it look like investing into your family? Does it look like investing into the church building? Does it look like investing into missions? What does it look like?

Now, you may think to yourself, well, you know, those are hard questions, but I can just always give to the church and let the church figure it out. Well, there's two problems with that. One, if you are part of the church, and every Christian is called to be part of a church, then these are not decisions for just the pastors to make or the deacons, but for the whole church to make as a group.

You know, we vote on our budget. Individual items are something up to the pastors and deacons' disposal, but as a whole, you know, we are moving forward as a single ship, and we have to hold each other responsible that we have the right gospel priorities.

And so we vote on our budget. And even if we didn't, you would still, as a member, have a responsibility to ensure that your church is going in the right direction in whatever capacity you have. So it's not enough to just say, oh, well, someone else will figure this out for me.

And secondly, you have a lot of opportunities to give. Even outside of church, you have a lot of individual opportunities as people come to you and ask for help. And then on top of that, money is not the only resource you have.

You have many other resources—talents. You have time, and time is not something that someone else can manage for you. Only you can manage your own time. And so you have to know where is the priority to be.

And this passage very clearly shows that the priority needs to be on Jesus, that he is the great King. He is the one who has forgiven debts. And so our love should be directed to him, and anything else that we invest in should be framed by this one priority, by this one objective— Jesus Christ, the one who has given us eternal life, the one who has forgiven sins.

So let's go ahead and look at the passage, knowing up front that this is the goal, to see how is it that we are to give of our resources. Verse 36 reads, So here you have a dinner at a Pharisee's house and a woman who is a sinner wiping Jesus's feet with her hair.

Now a few more details about this as it's revealed in other other gospel books, right? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Some other details about this. This woman's identity is not revealed until the Gospel of John.

It is most likely that the Gospel of John was written after the other books, and so he fills in details that the other gospel writers did not. And so he lets us know that this is actually Mary of the brother, or excuse me, the sister of Lazarus.

So right after you see Lazarus raised from the dead and John 11, then you see him tell this story of Mary and Martha, and Mary comes and does this for Jesus at this Pharisee who, we see his name here, his name is Simon.

So she does this. And another detail here that John reveals is that this perfume was worth 300 denarii, and a denarii, as we looked at a couple weeks ago, is worth about a day's wage. So I don't know exactly how many workdays there are in a year, but you can imagine it's probably about 300.

So this ointment is very expensive. It's about 300. Yeah, 300 days wages or a year's salary. So this is a very, very large sacrifice. And as we look at this, we see this woman has chosen to invest into Jesus.

You might think to yourself, well, you know, shouldn't we invest in the poor? Shouldn't we invest in missions? Shouldn't we invest in the church building? Shouldn't we invest in— once again, all these questions.

What should we be investing in? What should our time and our money— what should these things go to? And this woman takes one large lump and puts it all on Jesus. And that is where the priority should be.

It should be on Jesus Christ. We see the other gospel authors tell us more about the reaction that people had to what she did. In Mark 14, I'll just go ahead and read some of this. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was this ointment wasted like that?

For the ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they scolded her. So here people are saying, you know, this could have been given to the poor. In Matthew 26, we see in verse 8,.

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant. Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. So even the disciples— this is not just random onlookers—but even the disciples thought this was wasteful.

And John, John tells us in Matthew 12, the house was filled with fragrance of the perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii?

And given to the poor. He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it. So see, people have these different motives.

You know, maybe they're confused. Maybe they have evil motives, but they have different motives. So today when people think about what they're going to do with their money, they have conflicting motives.

You know, maybe they look pious. Maybe they look like, oh, I don't want to give to that thing because I have this other better thing than I'm going to give to. But really, in their heart, what's going on is they want to keep their money for themselves.

Right? Or maybe, maybe they are making the assumption that they should be giving to the poor. And so some of these disciples, I assume, do not have a heart as wicked as Judas's, and they think that they ought to have been giving to the poor.

There are a lot of churches who have this mindset, right? And they have supercharges, have all kinds of things, but the focus has gone away from Christ. And then there are churches that are of another bent who end up trying to put the focus on Christ, but in other misguided ways.

You know, maybe making the building as decorative possible or ornate. You know, large churches of eastern varieties often do this, just make it very ornate. But that takes the focus away from Jesus to the building and to everything else.

The focus is taken away from Christ. But our giving, our focus, should be wholly on Jesus Christ. He is the great king. If you had a king and you were serving him, and you were thinking, well, how should I serve him?

What kind of things should I do? You might think, well, he probably likes the same things I like, and so I'll go do the things that I like and, you know, hope that those are the same things he likes. That would be very foolish of you.

Instead, you would either want to go in and serve the king directly, as directly as you can, or you would go to the king and ask— you would ask him what he would like you to do. And so you would learn information that would then decide your actions.

Don't just make assumptions. If you have things that are unchallenged by scripture, don't just think, well, I know what's good and God is good, therefore God likes the same thing I like. That is the source of all kinds of false theology today.

There's some very more blatant things. Like, for example, homosexuality, right? People say, oh yes, this is good and right, and God is good and right, therefore he likes this thing. I'll make God in my image, and because I am like this and think that this is good, God will think this is good.

But it affects us in more subtle ways as well. For example, you read these passages. I think I might have been like one of those disciples. I probably would have been. I probably would have said, boy, that seems like a real waste to throw all that ointment on Jesus' feet.

We should be, you know, giving to the poor. Something a little more useful than this wastefulness. But that is not the right attitude. We have to go to Jesus and we have to ask him what he would like or invest in him directly.

This woman has invested in Jesus Christ directly. In verse four— excuse me, I'm in John. That is why I'm confused. All right. Now, why should we invest in Jesus? More is told here that lets us know the woman's motivations, and I think this would motivate us as well, rightly.

Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered, saying to him, Simon, I have something to say to you.

And he answered, say it, teacher. A certain moneylender who had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will he love more?

And I think the answer is obvious here. Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. The one who has been forgiven more loves more.

If you are one who has been forgiven by Jesus, you will love him greatly. You will not see all these other things as being things that call to your attention as much as you see Jesus one who calls for your attention, and then everything else reframed by that priority to him.

Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for your feet, but she has wet my feet with your tears and wiped them with her hair.

You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven.

Forgiveness has motivated this woman to a great sacrifice for Jesus. Forgiveness ought to motivate us to a great sacrifice for Jesus. If we are one that does not feel in our hearts an inclination to give, then we should ask ourselves whether or not we are forgiven.

And if we are forgiven, if we are one who does love Jesus, but lacks more love and would like more love, then we must ask ourselves whether or not we have— we fully understand the degree to which we are forgiven.

Now I explained to you earlier that this woman is Mary, right? John reveals that she's Mary, and this happens in the Gospel of John right after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. You might be inclined to say, well, you know, wasn't this woman—didn't she receive much from Jesus in healing Lazarus from the dead?

Why could he expect the same thing from Simon, this Pharisee? Well, John also reveals something else. He says that Jesus was eating in the house of Simon, the leper. Now we see later on that Jesus talks about the possibility of him having kissed Jesus, etc.

And so things like that seem to suggest to me that Simon is one who has been healed of leprosy. Now who would have healed him from leprosy except for Jesus? Jesus has given this man his life back. I think we have enough indication, and hence in scripture, to see that Jesus gave this man much as well.

He gave Mary, her brother, back from the dead, and by all likelihood, he has given Simon his social standing back as a Pharisee, you know, someone high in society who was otherwise a leper. Yet Simon does not see this need because he does not recognize the much, much greater thing that Jesus provides.

It's not health. It's not receiving your brother back from the dead. It is eternal life, not just life for one more lifetime, but eternal life. Jesus is one who provides eternal life. And as we recognize this and as we experience that eternal life, we will be motivated to a great love and a great desire to serve Jesus.

And to frame all our giving and all our resources in that light. You know, if you think about a couple, what are the sweetest moments between a married couple? A lot of times it's when they make up. It's when they forgive each other.

That's when they feel the greatest sense of love is when they've been forgiven for something horrible that they've done. And I know that as I have wronged others and they've forgiven me, that's when I feel the greatest sense of appreciation and love for them.

And the times when I have been the most in love with Jesus are not just times where I'm thinking about how good he is outside of the context of my own life, but when I am thinking of what his goodness means for my own life, how I have wronged him, and he has graciously forgiven me, and I want to give myself holy to him, that experience of forgiveness drives us to a wholesale investment in Jesus and whatever he would have us invest in.

We ought to, we ought to consider whether or not we fully appreciate Christ's forgiveness. If you lack that love that you have for, that you should have for Jesus, if you don't find it in your heart a great desire to make large sacrifices for him with your life, with any of your resources, whether it be time, money, or anything else, or your condition, or your reputation, if you're not willing to put these things on the line, why is it?

It is likely because you do not have a full experience, or as full of an experience as you could, of that forgiveness, because you have not contemplated how great your sin is in God's eyes and how much Jesus has done to forgive.

I don't know whether or not Simon was a forgiven man, but I do know that this applies even to forgiven people. If you consider the way Jesus pronounces forgiveness on this woman, though she is one who has already been forgiven, there is something special about experiencing forgiveness even after you have been forgiven.

If there are two people who both love Christ—one loves Christ some, one loves him much, you know, putting aside the one who does not love him at all— has Jesus really forgiven one greater than the other?

Our debts are infinite. Our debts are so great. It is not so much that one has been forgiven more than the other than the one recognizes how much he has been forgiven more than the other. If you say, well, you know, I just haven't had a lot of sin, so of course someone who has been, who had a lot of sin and was forgiven, of course they're going to, of course they're going to appreciate Jesus more.

That's just not something I have the capacity to do since I haven't sinned that much. No, you have sinned infinitely against an infinite God. All you need to do is recognize the greatness of your sin, and then you will recognize the greatness of the forgiveness you receive in Christ, and then you can be compelled to the same kind of love that someone who's picked up out of the worst depths can feel, because you have been picked up out of the same if you have cast your trust on Jesus Christ.

So don't tell yourself that this is something that's out of reach for you. It is only out of reach as much as you ignore the greatness of his forgiveness and the depth of your own sin. There are many, there are many blessings and benefits I would have you consider as we look at this—the blessings and benefits of investing into Jesus.

The Providential Value of Sacrificial Giving

So, first of all, God can providentially use such investments. Jesus says elsewhere, I believe it was in Mark, Jesus said, "'She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.'".

And in Matthew, I think it said something similar. "'And pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.'". He says also in Matthew, "'She has done a beautiful thing to me.'".

Now, did she understand that Jesus was going to go die on the cross and be resurrected? Even Jesus's closest disciples didn't understand this, though they were supposed to. She probably didn't understand this.

And, you know, given what I told you about her brother Lazarus having died, consider the possibility that maybe she had bought this ointment for Lazarus and then unknowingly that Jesus was going to die used it on Jesus.

And yet he, in this gospel, says that providentially this is going to prepare him for his burial, that there is more significance in this than she even realized. If you are giving your life wholly to Jesus Christ, you can— your investments will have more significance than even you can understand.

You know, you can try to guide them as you will, but only God will bring real results for them. Only he can determine how valuable they will really be in the end, and he will bring even more than you can anticipate.

Secondly, consider the honor that it is. You know, this woman is doing something just socially awkward, you know, rubbing her feet on—or rubbing her hair on Jesus's feet, you know, touching him and kissing his feet, and in ways that where everybody else is kind of looking around like, oh, this is really awkward and embarrassing.

She is doing all that at a great cost to, you know, her own—if she has some kind of self-consciousness about this. But she's willing to do all this because she loves him. And think of the great reward.

There's something that Jesus says in several of the gospels. He says, let's see, yeah, in Marks 14, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in memory of her. There are few narratives in the gospels that appear in all four gospels.

This is one of them. There are very few. You know, the cross, obviously. But if you think of some of the some of the greatest acts of faith, you know, you pick one that you see where Jesus says, you know, you have a lot of faith.

You've done this. You know, they only appear in maybe three, right? Maybe all the synoptics, but not all four. This is one that Jesus considered so significant that when he sent his apostles out and sent them the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit inspired them to record this in all four gospels.

Everywhere this gospel goes forward, what she has done will be told in memory of her. It's done being written. But if you, if you direct your energies towards Jesus Christ, you will receive such honor too.

It may not be in this life. But in heaven, as we recount what God did in and through people, you know, he says that not one thing will go unaccounted for. You know, whether, and that doesn't just refer to evil deeds, you know, it refers to good deeds as well.

We will be remembered and we will remember each other and what God has done through us in this lifetime. There is much honor that is to be had in in sacrificially, in even sacrificing your own status and reputation to serve Jesus Christ wholly.

Friendship with Jesus and the Experience of Forgiveness

Consider also this, this friendship she has with Jesus. Jesus, despite the social awkwardness of what's occurring, Jesus is willing to identify with this woman who is a sinner. You know, people speculate about what that means.

Was she a prostitute? Something else? I don't know, but either way, she was not a woman of status, and Jesus was willing to associate with her. The Bible makes it clear that our default position would be that God would be ashamed of us, but there are these characteristics where God says he is not ashamed to identify with us.

Right? Hebrews 11 16 says, Right? So this desire for something better in Hebrews 11 16, this desire for something better makes it so that God is not ashamed to be called their God. Jesus is not ashamed to be this woman's Lord because she's given herself wholly to him.

As we do the same, Jesus is not ashamed of us. If we are weak and lowly, he is not ashamed of us. If we are giving ourselves wholly to him, there's a great friendship with Jesus to be had in giving ourselves to him wholly.

And then consider, lastly, this point that I've already made, is that experience of forgiveness. You know, as one, as one invests in Jesus as a, as an act of gratitude, as a response to this eternal life that they have, that expression of gratitude leads to a greater experience of forgiveness.

Look at what Jesus says. He's saying that, that he's, the whole point of that parable, you know, of two workers, or two debtors, was to show that this woman has already been forgiven. Right? She's already been forgiven.

And then he says,. And she said to her,. So she is already forgiven. That's already motivating her actions. And then she pronounces your sins are forgiven. And so she's able to go away. And he said to her, Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace. So the one who, who expresses thanks, who expresses gratitude, will have opportunities for greater experience of that forgiveness. You know, it's, it's not just like for you, you receive forgiveness, and then, you know, you, you have this expression of gratitude to whatever degree, and then that's it.

That gratitude, that expression of gratitude leads to, you know, a conscious contemplating of what Christ has done, and how much you love him. And as you're, as you're giving to him, you recognize how worthy he is.

And he, in turn, responds, strengthening your heart so that you might know his forgiveness more. For this woman, he uttered it out loud to her. When I was 13, my mom had died when I was 11. My dad remarried when I was 13.

One thing that was very hard for me was that my dad had me call this new mother, Mom. You know, she had legally adopted me. And so, you know, there's some legal status of her being my mom, but I was at that age where I'm sure it was even hard for my dad to decide whether or not he should have me call her Mom.

And so that was, that was difficult, not having lost my mother only two years earlier. But as I did, and now looking back, I'm very thankful because I do think of her, even though she's not biologically as my mom, as my mom because I've engaged in those expressions of calling her my mom.

Because, yeah, she is, she is legally my mom. There is that reality to it. But do I have a full experience of it without, without saying it out loud, without doing it? And so there's, there's a building of that relationship through that expression.

And so one who has received forgiveness, greater experiences that forgiveness as they give expression to the gratitude they have for that forgiveness. And this is not something that just happens naturally, like that analogy I just gave you of me and my mother.

It happens supernaturally too, as Christ confirms this in our hearts. And so I realized that, you know, as I've gone through this, you might not have the question answered of, well, where exactly do you give?

But frame everything in light of Christ. If it was right for this woman to pour all this ointment on Jesus, when, you know, that could have been given to the poor, where should our funds go? They should go wherever best honors Christ, you know, as we think about, um, you know, and we will have lots of opportunities in the, in the next years as, you know, we have a new pastor coming on, as we contemplate what kind of things we want to do all together pursuing the gospel, we're going to have a lot of opportunities to think about what to where should our investments go?

And so we need to think, what is going to best honor Christ? You know, what, where is the, where is the greatest need? And let us not be those who would say, oh, well, let's just give it all to the poor because the poor are most needy, not realizing, not realizing that, um, that they are not the focus Jesus is.

Now, yes, we should give to the poor if it's going to, if it's going to honor Christ, if it's going to bring glory to him. We invest in this food pantry to the degree that we do so that, you know, people will come and, and learn about Christ.

There are all sorts of, uh, there are all sorts of missions and ministries that are not designed to honor him. I know a lot of Christians who are very passionate about different, um, ministries that are designed to save women out of sex slavery, and that's a good noble cause.

But some of these organizations that do that, when you ask them about whether or not they tell the women about the gospel, you know, they're very hesitant to, to actually do that because of various reasons, whether it be the relationship they have with their donors or other things.

And you find out that their, their focus is not really on Jesus. Their focus is on the poor. Their focus is on the needy. Yes, these are good things, but, but they would likely tell this woman that she has wasted her money by, by laying it at Jesus' feet.

So let us not be distracted by these, by these good causes. Let us reframe everything in light of Christ. And as we give to those good causes, you know, as we invest in the food pantry, as we invest in any kind of ministry that, that helps the poor and lowly, let us do it in a way that is going to give glory to Christ and not worry about, um, about the shame that we may bear as people say, oh, that's, that's foolish.

Why would you do that? Why wouldn't you do this other thing that's so much more worthy? People do not know what worthy is. Jesus is worthy. He said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that as we contemplate this passage and this, uh, this beautiful thing that this woman did that will be everywhere remembered, wherever the gospel is stated, I pray that you would, uh, that you would drive us to the same sort of love of you, the same sort of abandon of our own self-consciousness, that we would give our all to you, knowing that you have saved us from, from the deepest pits.

God, we do not deserve the great forgiveness that Jesus Christ has purchased on the cross, but you have given it to us, and we do not, we do not appreciate it as we ought. We do not recognize how, how much he has done and how little we deserve it and how how needful we were of it.

Even those of us who recognize it much do not recognize it as much as we ought, and I pray that you would help us too, that we would be motivated to gratitude, and that gratitude, that you would reward that with a greater experience of this eternal life that we have.

In Jesus' name, amen.