Give or Take a Life
Mark 14:1-13
After hearing that song, several questions stab at my heart and I want
you
to wrestle with them, too
-have I ever done anything like that?
-have I ever done anything that radical,
that extravagant for God?
-have I ever done anything that radical, that extravagant for God
not because it was necessary, not because I felt obligated, not
because of who would sit up and take notice, not because I
thought there'd be anything in it for me?
-have I ever done anything that radical, that extravagant for God
simply and purely
because I love Him?
--think about
that for a moment
Words don't come easy for me this morning
You see, sometimes we preachers talk about comfort zones—because
it sounds like (and makes us feel like) we’re really preaching
-we can even raise our voices a little and develop a rhythm
‘Gotta get out of your comfort zone and make our church open
to all
‘Gotta get out of your comfort zone and share your faith
‘Gotta get out of your comfort zone and give more money
‘Gotta get out of your comfort zone and serve on a mission trip...and
love
the unlovable...and reach the unreachable
I’m telling you—that will preach!
But this morning we're confronted with a different kind of comfort
zone...one that’s quite private, almost secret...
-it’s a comfort zone that is much more difficult to leave than any of
those listed above
--it makes a
mission trip to a leper colony in
at Worlds of Fun
It’s the comfort zone of our personal, individual
relationship with God
-frankly, some have been so comfortable for so
long you will reject
what
I'm about to say—but I'm going to preach it anyway
-some have been so comfortable for so long you
may get angry with
me for what I'm about to say—but I need to
preach it anyway
-some of you will hear the Holy Spirit speak deep inside...and God
will mercifully
break your heart
--sure, you’ll no longer be comfortable, but you will know the joy
that comes from being broken and spilled
out before holy God
-if that happens we won't need to wait 4 months 'til Andy gets here
to have real revival
If we’re honest, most of us view the world and our lives like they are
an interstate
highway—that’s our life philosophy
-I-70 runs east and west with 4+ lanes and a median in between
--median normally is about 20 yards across
-every person lives somewhere within confines of that highway
--we, and everyone else, are either heading toward God, away
from Him,
or we are somewhere comfortably in the middle
I'm convinced that's how most of us see life
-most people in
--I’m not some Jesus fanatic or some religious kook, but not I’m
bad person,
either
-and if we stay with our interstate philosophy, those of us in the
median aren't really running away from God, so we must be safe
--but the hard truth is, in God's eyes, they are not OK
Here’s the problem: that philosophy of life is totally wrong—because
when we’re dealing with faith, there is no median...no fence to sit on
-there’s no in between—we’re all running to God or away from Him
--that’s not a pleasant
thing to hear
-and this morning’s text tends to back us into the corner of either/or
— and frankly,
we don't like to think in those terms
The problem is that the Bible is quite bold and perfectly clear (which,
of course, is why so
many reject it)
-Acts 4:12 à Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other
other
name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
--do
you hear any middle ground in that? what
about John 14:6?
Jesus never allows anyone to go halfway...people would come up
and say, "Hey, Jesus, You seem like a cool guy to hang out with...so
what's it take to be
a member of Your gang?"
-now remember, Jesus knows His time on earth is short—He
needs to lay a broad foundation on which to build the church
--attracting the greatest number of people would seem to be
pretty critical to His mission
-yet time after time after time He had a radical response à “You
wanna' be in
My gang? It's My way all the way or no way at all.”
Take, for instance, Mark
8:34 à Then He
called the crowd to Him
along with His disciples and said, "If
anyone would come after Me,
He must deny Himself and take up His cross
and follow Me."
-these words were not given to the super-spiritual...they were for
the crowd to consider
--not exactly a way to win friends and build a big church
Or listen to Luke
14:25-33 [Read]
-let’s face it: that's not the Christianity many of us know...but it’s the
only kind there is
--I
challenge you to find any middle ground in Jesus’ words
Our Jesus story is quickly coming to an end as we read Mark
14
-it's now Tuesday evening...Jesus will be arrested in 48 hours
--Mark tells this part of the story by framing
it
---remember how he likes to do that so often?
---Mark starts a story then interrupts it with another...then he
finally goes back to finish the first one
--first of all,
he sets the stage for Jesus to be betrayed
Read Mark 14:1-2
Then, almost from nowhere, a woman comes onto the scene--Mark
gives no details
about her
-she is nameless, faceless
--perhaps young/innocent, perhaps
old/saintly, maybe a prostitute
-evidently none of that matters now—not to us,
Mark, even to Jesus
--what
matters is what she does
Read Mark 14:3
The custom of the day was for a host to pour a few drops of perfumed
oil on an important
guest
-Greeks/Romans believed pure nard was a gift reserved
for a king
--this woman breaks custom by doing what the host should have
already done
--more than custom is broken that day...instead of a couple of
drops (which would have been pretty significant and costly)...
this woman does the unthinkable...she breaks the entire jar
---this is more than generous...more than a little over the top
--this is radical...it’s sacrificial...it’s extravagant—and it is love
Read Mark 14:4-5
And precisely because
of that, it really perturbs some of the disciples
-in v. 5, literally "kept on murmuring" (word refers to horses snorting)
But then look at how Jesus responds à Read Mark 14:6-9
-a literal, word-for-word
translation of v.8 à what
she had she did
--reminds me of the widow who gave her last
two coins
---neither of them holds anything back for
herself
Which is exactly what God desires and requires of us
-to give Him whatever
we have...but it’s not for the reason you think
--Jesus doesn’t need this woman's perfumed
oil
--God didn't need the widow's two coins
--God doesn't need anything of yours—not
your money or talents
-but the point is for us to realize we don't need anything we have
(including life
itself)...and our only need is to surrender all to Him
It also reminds me of a conversation in the middle of Mark chapter
10
-"What do I
have to do to inherit eternal life?"
--"You know
the commandments..."
-"Yeah, but
I've kept all of those."
--"OK, there's still one more thing. Sell everything you own and
give it to
the poor...then come, follow Me."
Jesus isn't asking the guy to buy his way into heaven
-Jesus is asking him to give up the one thing standing between him
and God
-and Jesus is asking
you and me to do the same thing
--money
--career
--secret little sin that's actually tearing
your life apart
--relationship
--pride
--comfort
--safety
---may God have mercy on us when we refuse to surrender
---and God have mercy on us preachers who often try to soften
Jesus’ words...and when we lie by saying things like:
----“If you follow Jesus, He’s not going to call you to be a
missionary in
----“If you follow Jesus, you don’t have to give up anything.”
----“If you follow Jesus, not too much has to change, really.
You can pretty much keep living just the way you are.”
---and those things are ALL lies!
----who am I to presume what God is going to call you to do?
----you may be led into a situation where you will be asked to
lay down your life for your faith
-----and none of us realizes what Jesus is asking of us if
we convince ourselves that following Him is no big
deal, really...
---only way to soften Jesus’ words is to lie—there’s no other way
Remember v. 5?
-when the snorting
horses complain about extravagant love?
-John 12:4-6 gives us a little insight
into what was really happening
--v.
4 à
it was Judas Iscariot who was doing the murmuring
--more importantly, John 12:6 reveals the real motive behind his
protest à 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.
Woman à What can I do for Jesus? What can I give Jesus?
Judas à What
can Jesus do for me? What can Jesus give
me?
If that weren't enough, the hard part about this story is that it doesn't
end there à Read Mark 14:10-11
Judas betrays Jesus...he sells out...he double-crosses Him
And the question that begs answering is "yeah, but
why?"
-from what we read
in John 12, it could have simply been money
-Luke and John also tell
us Satan was behind it all (no doubt true)
--still, many smart people have tried to find a deeper reason why
I suppose we should just let Luke/John's explanation stand
alone
-except that both say "Satan entered" Judas, which means Judas
could never have
been a true follower of Jesus...never a "Christian"
-which means it is
possible for someone to be in the inner circle and
know all the right religious buzzwords and dress the right way and
read
the right books and still not be committed to Christ
I'm not trying to get you to doubt the security of your
salvation
-but I am saying that if you’re relying on looking like a good Christian
and doing good Christian things to bluff your way through, then you
have missed the
point...missed the cross...and you’ll
miss heaven
-in Matthew 7, Jesus warns à Many
will say to Me on that day,
"Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
Your name, and in Your name
drive out demons and perform many
miracles?" Then I will tell
them plainly, "I never knew you."
That means you can sing a beautiful gospel song, and still not be
known by Jesus
That means you can give a boatload of money to the church, and still
not be known by
Jesus
That means you can preach a pulpit-pounding sermon, and still not
be known by Jesus
In his book, Disappointment with God, Philip Yancey describes the
turning point in his
life
-he had been brought
up in a conservative church in the South
--went through
all the motions, jumped through the religious hoops
-he attended a hard-core,
fundamental Bible college
-doing "student
missions" and writing reports on his "witnessing"
--except there wasn't any evangelism going
on
--Yancey watched TV and then wrote bogus stories describing all
the people
who had been saved by his incredible witness
-he was perfectly fine with his double life until one of the weekly
prayer groups with the other student missionaries
--Yancey had
never volunteered to pray...'til one night in February
In this prayer, he starts rambling, talking about the Good
Samaritan
-he admits he's supposed to feel same concern for the lost as the
Good Samaritan showed to the man lying on the side of the road...
but he honestly doesn’t (and never has)...and he is tired of living a
lie, pretending to be a great Christian when he wasn’t even sure
he believed in Jesus at all
-here’s what happened...in Yancey’s own words à
In
the middle of my prayer, just as I was describing how little I cared for our
assigned targets of compassion, I saw that story in a new light...in the
internal screen of my brain, those two figures [in the parable] changed. The kindly Samaritan took on the face of
Jesus. The Jew, the pitiable victim of a
highway robbery, took on another face too—...my own
In a flash I saw Jesus reaching down
with a moistened rag to clean my wounds and [slow] the flow of blood. And as he bent over, I saw myself, the
wounded robbery victim, open my eyes...Then, as if watching in slow motion, I
saw myself spit at him, full in the face.
It stunned me.
I had always found security in my [disbelief]. No longer.
I had caught a new glimpse of myself.
Perhaps in all my self-assured and mocking skepticism I was the neediest
one of all.
Phillip Yancey isn't the only one who has spit in the face
of Jesus
-there’s Judas...and the rich, young man who heard what Jesus
asked of him, but who, in the end, turned around and walked away
-then there’s also everyone of us who believe we're sitting safely
and comfortably in the middle...and that just because we don't see
ourselves spitting in Jesus’ face then we convince ourselves we
must be OK
--but the truth is that our indifference and smug self-confidence
are even worse than spitting in the face of God's Son
So which one will you be?
-Judas? taking your life and the life of the
One who died for you
-the woman? giving your life to the One who gave His life
for you
There is, remember, no middle ground...