What is Your Reputation? | The Ministry of Jesus II | Week 77 | Tony Fernandez

Mark Chapter 14 is where we’re going to start. But again, fair warning, we’re doing some harmonization. So John 12, we will also be looking at. Let me set up the text for you. The story in Mark 14 is also the story found in John 12. It’s also the same story found in Matthew 26. What is the heading there in Mark 14? Does anybody have it? What does it say? Jesus anointed at Bethany. That’s the heading the scripture gives. It’s a pretty good heading. It’s a descriptive heading. It explains exactly what’s happening in a physical sense in the text in Mark Chapter 14. But these headings, just so you know, are completely man-made. Someone decided to put that heading there. They’re not in the original text, they’re not in the original language. You and I can take some liberty when we think about the headings. If I was going to select a new heading for this text, a heading that described not just the physical reality of what we see there, but also the spiritual reality of the text, I’d recommend we change the heading and give it something a little bit different. Here’s the heading and also the title for my sermon.

The title for today’s sermon is Love That Leads to Sacrifice. This text is about love. It’s about love first. It’s about love for Jesus, a love for Jesus that is extravagant and humbling and quite convicting. Secondly, it’s a text about love for self, a love for self that I would say is scary and leads to some condemnation. Then the text flows from love into the idea of sacrifice, a sacrifice for others and a sacrifice of others. Again, the text starts talking to us about love for Christ, and then that love for Christ and how it leads to a sacrifice for someone else. Then in a moment, the text shifts and it begins to talk about a love for self that leads to a willingness to sacrifice someone else. It’s an inspiring story. It’s also a cautionary tale. All at the same time, the Gospel Writers give us some meat to look at and some meat to chew on today. In our talk, my prayer is that you will discover how to identify and then remedy what I believe to be the greatest threat to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Here we go. Mark 14:1.

It says now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away. We are two days away from the start of the Passover Festival, which is six days away from the Passover dinner. We get some clarity on the timing of all this by looking at John 12:1. It says this is six days before the Passover, and Jesus came to Bethany. We learn in these opening verses, not just the day, but the location. We are in a place called Bethany, the town located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. It’s a little bit less than two miles away from Jerusalem. And here we hear something a little bit more about what’s happening. John 12 describes it a bit more. He says, And the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. We are in the full thrones of Jesus being arrested, tried, persecuted, and then killed. But not during the festival, they said, or the people may riot. The plan to destroy Jesus is only a couple of nights away. And so Jesus, on his way into Jerusalem for the last time, where again, he will be flogged, tried, and murdered, Jesus decides to spend a night with his friends, a night having a dinner in a small town, in a small village called Bethany, Mark 14.

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table of the home of Simon the Leper. That’s a good nickname. Imagine your nickname is your name tied to the worst parts about you. That would be discouraging. Who is Simon the Leper? It’s like, whose house are you going to? The one Simon called Peter? The one who’s called Rock? Yeah. Simon the Sorcerer, the one who has powers? No, I’m headed to Simon the Leper’s house. Why is he called Simon the leper? Because he once had leprosy. He once had leprosy. And who could have possibly healed someone with leprosy? Well, who in the ancient world healed people with leprosy? There’s only really one person. So it’s likely that Jesus healed this man. So Jesus is at the house of a man he healed with leprosy. What is he doing at Simon, the leper’s house? Why is he there? What is he doing there? Well, John 12:2 tells us that here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. So here we have Simon, the leper’s house. He’s there. Jesus is there having dinner with some friends, and people are there to honor him. They’re thanking him for the healings and for his wisdom and for his passion and for his love and for the way that he cares for our past.

Simon isn’t the only one there. The text continues to tell us that more people are at this dinner party. Who’s there? Well, Martha is there. Remember Martha? Martha, Martha. You are focused on many things, but only one thing really matters. While also, who else is there? Lazarus was among them, reclining at the table. So we’re in Bethany, which is the village where Lazarus is from. You remember, Lazarus, right? He was dead, and now he’s not dead. John 11, he’s resurrected from the grave, and so the picture becomes clear what’s happening here. This is a dinner honoring the person who has saved so many people. They’re fired up about having Jesus in their home. And so the house is full. Lazarus is there who Jesus raised from the dead. Simon, who had been healed of his diseases, is there. Martha, whose brother has been resurrected, is there. The 12 disciples are there, and Jesus is there as well. It’s a typical meal in the first century, which means it would have been in the evening time. They would have been reclining at the table in a lounge position on like a daybed. I thought about bringing a daybed up here.

Not a good idea. They would be headed forward with their face forward towards the food in the middle, and their feet would be away from the food. Why would your feet be away from the food? Because feet are disgusting. That’s why. They’re lounging, probably propped up on one arm, and in these dinners, there would be loads of people in the room that would be talking about the wonderful things that Jesus had done. It might have been like one of those encouragement dinners. When someone’s retiring or something like that, and everyone’s sharing about the great work that they have done. And Jesus is listening to all these people talk about the wonderful things that Jesus had done. He’s sitting there and he’s listening and it’s a beautiful event. Maybe there’s a live band. They’ve catered in the best kosher food in the community. It’s a great time. They’re just relaxing and enjoying the time. And then there’s an interruption. Mark Chapter 14, this is what it says, verse 3, A woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nod. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. So suddenly there’s a woman who comes in with a jar of perfume.

You can imagine the smell of the beautiful Middle Eastern food is all of a sudden intercepted by the smell of perfume. This woman comes in, breaks the neck of a bottle. It would be like the size of a water bottle. You can think of a water bottle, and she has this water bottle full of perfume. And she breaks the neck of the water bottle, and John 12 gives us a little bit more information. She pours it on his head, and then it continues and says that she took… Sorry, took about a pint of pure nord, an expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair. This woman walks into the house with this water bottle full of perfume and begins to pour it on Jesus’ head to anoint him in glory. She pours it on His head and then continues all the way down to His feet, and then she takes out her hair. She lowers her hair. She grabs her hair, and with herfeet, she begins… Oh, sorry, with her hair, she begins to watch Jesus’s feet. The text adds, it wasn’t just any perfume. It’s very expensive perfume.

How expensive? Later in the text, we hear that it’s a year’s wages. One denari is what a skilled worker would have received for a day. We read later in the text that this is 300 denarii. What’s the modern equivalent? Something like 40 or $50,000. It’s gone in an instant. She breaks the bottle, she pours all of the drops on the bottle upon this man’s head and his feet. Can you imagine spending a year’s salary on a bottle of perfume? You couldn’t, by the way. The most expensive perfume today I looked it up is Chive Christian Origin number one. Maybe someone should ask that for Christmas. Eight hundred US dollars for a bottle of it. Eight hundred US dollars. Why was this so expensive? Well, it’s pure nard from the Himalayas, which means someone has to go get it. And then they have to basically milk the plant and it’s the puree form. And so what they would do is they would use this bottle, this water bottle full of puree, and then they would cut it with oils or waters and they would make other bottles of perfume. So it’s a bottle that was made to make other bottles of perfume.

So you can think about it. She’s spending the whole bottle on something that maybe you should have just cut into a bunch of pieces where you could sell for $40 or $50,000, but instead she pours the entire bottle onto Jesus’s head and feet. John adds something that would have been obvious, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Duh. I try to figure out a modern equivalent of this, and this is what I’ve come up with. It’s not a perfect illustration, but imagine coming to a friend’s birthday party and everyone sitting at the table eating, enjoying food, and people are having a time of sharing and they’re giving out a gift. Here’s a gift card for Amazon. It’s 25 bucks. It’s a gift that I got last Christmas that I’m giving on to you. Here’s some $20 succulents that I bought at Ross yesterday. Here’s a card and here’s something else. Here it is. Everything’s nice and it’s special and the person feels honored. Then someone comes in and you know they’re not rich, but they walk in and they say, Man, you have been so good to me. They take out their keys and they throw it to the person and says, I bought you a brand new car.

Now, what would you do? You would think, Wow, that’s a little much, don’t you think? It’s a bit extravagant, don’t you think? That’s reckless. That’s over the top. I know you have bills. Why are you giving this guy a brand new car? What would you be thinking? This is what’s happening in this situation. I wonder what this guy has done for her. That might be your first question. Man, what did Jesus do for this woman that makes her want to spend so much money on this man. I wonder why she would sacrifice this way for him. Honestly, it’s hard to understand until you begin to try to make sense of her sacrifice, but it’s difficult to understand. But if you knew who it was, then maybe you would have a clear understanding of why this woman sacrificed so much. In order to do that, you have to go back to John 12, and then we get some insight. This is what it says. Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here, a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served while Nazareth was among those loung at the table with him.

And then verse 3, look what it says in verse 3, Then Mary. It’s not just any woman. The woman has a name, and actually, we know who this woman is. It’s Mary. She took about a pint of pure nard, and she did the anointing of Jesus. It’s Mary. It’s Mary. Who is Mary? Mary is the sister of Lazarus. Mary is the woman that Lazarus allowed to sit at her feet and she learned to become a disciple. Mary was there. Mary was in a situation where she needed Jesus the most, and she sent a messenger to Jesus in John 11, Come, my brother is sick, I need some help. Then Jesus came in and met her needs and saved her brother from the grave. It’s Mary who makes the sacrifice. It’s Mary who’s being extravagant. It’s Mary. And see, Mary has personal experience with the power of God. An understanding that Jesus is headed in understanding that Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, she thinks to herself, What’s the most valuable thing that I can do for this man? What’s the best possible thing that I can do for this man? What’s the highest sacrifice I can give to this man?

She looks at Christ and she looks at the bottle of $50,000 perfume and she says to herself, You know what? Jesus is worth way more than this $50,000 bottle of perfume. He’s worthy of way more. When you sacrifice, what you’re saying is, I’m willing to give this up because it has less value than the thing I’m giving it to. Well, I’m going to use it to honor this man. I like to think of it this way. When you see someone giving really well, you can think of it this way, she’s giving from experience or they’re giving from experience. When you see someone being extravagant, you think, it’s experience that makes me sacrifice. I think here’s what we’re supposed to learn from this. If God has been good to you, if you have been blessed by Him, if your soul has been saved in eternity, if He has given you peace and brought you into His family, if He’s rescued your marriage and redeemed your children, if God has been good to Him, you should want to make room for God to use you in a tangible way to bless Him and to move forward His kingdom and His agenda here on Earth.

If God has been good to you, you should want to do whatever it takes to bring Him honor. You should use what you have to make a dent in what He wants to do in this world. You should sacrifice, give up something of value to bring forth his kingdom and to bring forth the things that He cares about. When you recognize how good God has been to you, your natural response should be, what can I do for him? And in a tangible way, right? Not like, Oh, thank you, God. You were so good to me. Like, talk is cheap. You don’t sacrifice when you talk. You sacrifice when you give. When you give. Saying, I love you, and saying thank you. And sure, those are good things coming in on Sunday morning and singing a song and lifting your hands. Sure, those are good things, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about tangible sacrifices that move God’s kingdom forward. So the question is, how could you sacrifice? I thought about it a lot. How about your time? It’s the most valuable resource you have. All of us are tempted to use our time for ourselves.

We use all of our time for ourselves. But you could use your time to honor God, to honor God’s people. You could serve the poor. You could serve other people in God’s kingdoms. You can sit down and have a conversation with somebody who really needs it. You could pick up the phone when someone calls. You can decide, you know what? I know there’s a lot going on in my life, but I’m going to focus my attention on just serving for a moment. How about money? We’re all tempted. All of us are tempted to use our money for our purposes. But the Bible says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So how you spend is a good indicator of what you love. How about your talents? Do you use your talents for yourself to move your company forward to make you a little bit more money? Or are you using it to push forward the agenda of God and to grow God’s kingdom? Christ’s love, the Bible says, is supposed to compel us, compel us to live not for ourselves. And so the way it should work is like this. God has loved you so much, has been so extravagant towards you that you begin to love him in response, and then you give up the things that you used to use for your sofa Him and His kingdom.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not just telling you to just do more things. I’m actually trying to convince you that if you truly love, that love will express itself in tangible ways. So if you aren’t serving God, if you aren’t serving God’s people, that might be an indication that you don’t love as much as you think you do. Just a test for you. Now we could end here. This could be a great sermon. We can wrap it all up, but I have 15 more minutes at least. The story continues by adding another character. Oh, man. So you have this extravagant love for Jesus that expresses itself and sacrificed for Jesus. And then there’s a new character introduced. But one of his disciples, Judas Escariot, who would later betray him, objected. Our conversation will still be about love and will still be about sacrifice, but we will start talking about self-love and the willingness to sacrifice other people to get what you want. Enter Judas, always thus described as the one who would later betray him. He enters the scene and makes a horrible intrusion to such a lavous expression of love and of sacrifice.

This is what he says. Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? I’ll tell you this. Sometimes the most selfish people in the world sound so spiritual. Why wasn’t it given to the poor? You should have given it to the poor. It’s worth a year’s wages. 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 keep himself to what was put into it. In the other accounts, we learned that it’s the vileness of Judas that actually affects the rest of the disciples, and so all of them begin to object. And they object because of Judas. We’re not going to spend so much time on the other disciples. We’re just going to focus in on Judas. The scene is tortured, I would say, by the incursion of a man identified in John 6 as the devil, literally. Always one of the 12, always the one who would later betray him. He has been identified in this text as greedy, as a thief, as self-interested. It’s those things that owned his heart and drive him towards a self-love that allows him to be willing to sacrifice anything to get his way.

These are the first ever words recorded by Judas. Those are the words. Why are you wasting this sacrifice? Those are the first words ever recorded. Do you know what the last words ever recorded of Judas are? I have betrayed innocent blood. That’s Judas. That’s Judas. I have decided to give up everyone else to get forward or to move forward my agenda. That’s Judas. For 300 denariah, he would rob Jesus of Mary’s gift, and later he would sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Three hundred denariah is a year’s wages, 30 pieces of silver, four months. The perfume was worth three times as much as Jesus was to him. The poison of Judas has turned this event toxic. It’s contaminated the air. Judas is a thief, an embezzling thief, and his life, without question, is the greatest tragedy in human history. I said earlier that love would be expressed in tangible ways, and here’s the way I see it. He loves himself so much that he is willing to, in a tangible way, sell Jesus Christ to be killed. Love expressing itself in a tangible way. As I study this, though, and this terrible character, I started thinking to myself, this is crazy.

I want you to just imagine this. You’re with Jesus for three years. Everywhere he went, you have gone. You have seen him do miracle after miracle after miracle. You see him raise the dead and you are stealing money from the coffers of the church. And then I started to ask myself, Wait, is that actually weird? No, it’s not, because that story happens all the time. Every other day, there’s a news story on the media that says this non-profit executive has stolen money from the coffers of their program. Or even worse, this pastor, this executive pastor, this board member of the church, this elder has embezzled funds to live this lavish lifestyle. It’s actually not all of that unusual to have someone steal money from the church. Thank God we have a great board of directors, and honestly, thank God we have Carol Spederos. Thank God. Yes, who make sure that none of that stuff could happen. But it’s not so uncommon. It’s not so uncommon that people would be so self-interested that they would steal money from people that they think they’re working with. And what is it? What’s the lesson you’re supposed to learn then if Judas is actually repeated again and again and again and again?

What’s his deal? How would you describe him if you didn’t call him an embezzling thief, which no one wants to be called an embezzling thief here. How would you describe him in such a way that all of us can say, yes, you know what? I have a little bit of that. And here’s the word I came up with. Are you ready? All of us are this. Judas is selfish. You can relate to this, can’t you? What’s selfishness? It’s a willingness to sacrifice others to get what you believe you need. That’s what it is. Selfishness is a public declaration by word or by deed that you matter more than the people around you matter. That your desires matter more than the people around you desire matter. It’s hard for us to see ourselves as Judas, but I bet you’d agree that you are tempted with the same type of selfishness that possess him. Here is an assessment. There’s a little bit of Judas in all of us. I want you to accept this. I’m not going to make you say it out loud, just accept it in your own mind that there’s a little bit of Judas in all of us.

Okay, you may think, no, there’s not. I would say, how about this? All of us are tempted to try to get ahead by leaving other people behind, right? Fair? All of us are tempted to break traffic laws to get somewhere a little bit faster, even if it causes a little bit of harm to the general flow of traffic. That’s a little bit of Judaism. In you. That’s a little bit of selfishness. All of us are tempted to lie on our taxes to improve our refund so that we can get a little bit more money from the coffers of the government. That’s selfishness. All of us are tempted to believe that our opinions are more important than other people’s opinions when we’re picking a restaurant. All of us are tempted to believe that our thoughts are more important than other people’s thoughts in every way. All of us have a little bit of Judas in us, tempted to skip a line, jump ahead of someone. We all want to be first. We are all tempted to try to convince people to do things that would actually not be best for them, but they’re actually best for us.

Parents do that with their children. I’m just saying all of us have this compulsory demand that possesses us into doing things that we want to do, regardless of who it may hurt along the way. My parents used to say this, You want to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it. Someone’s clapping about me. I’m very uncomfortable about that. But I would say that all of us have this temptation. You want to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it. Why? Because there’s a little bit of Judas in you. You’re selfish. All of us are selfish. All of us are tempted with this. I would say it’s the biggest barrier that you face in a personal relationship with God, selfishness. And let me tell you why. Here comes amateur philosopher, Tony. I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I think selfishness is directly related to distrust. Trust in the Bible is one word, it’s faith. I think selfishness is the approach where you say this to yourself. You say, Look, who else is going to take care of me? If I don’t take care of myself, if I don’t push myself forward, if I don’t get ahead, if I don’t figure it all out, if I’m not the one dominating the situation, if I don’t pick it, who else is going to do that for me?

It’s a defense mechanism. It’s us saying, No one’s in this for me. I’m in this for myself. I’m going to make sure I clear out some space because I need to be protected and I need to be elevated and I need to be honored. If I don’t focus on me, who is going to focus on me? And who’s going to help me be whole and who’s going to help me be healthy? And all of that to me makes a bit of sense. It’s very human. Look at Judas, and I’m not trying to defend Judas just to be clear, but think about him. The guy who has been leading him for three years, protecting him, caring for him, has repeatedly said, I am going to die. So Judas might be thinking, Who then is going to protect me? Who’s going to care for me? He’s about to be killed. Look, when he dies, this whole thing is going to fall apart and all these apostles are going to spend all that money on stupid things, so I’m going to get mine. Let me get the most out of this as I possibly could, because once he’s gone, no one’s going to care for me and at least I’ll have some money.

I’m just saying it’s not so far and for many of us to be tempted to do this thing. It’s just human. But here’s what I think the story of Jesus produces and this story explains or proves, I should say, and I want you to really hone in on this. Again, I’ve gone philosophical, but stay with me because I think this story proves something that is profound and hopefully will help you if you’re struggling with selfishness even right now. Here’s what it is. It’s this, capture this thought. Selfishness does the exact opposite of what we hoped it would do. He thought to himself, first, let me be protected. His selfishness made it so that he thought that if he would steal a little bit of money, he would find comfort and pleasure. But what had led him towards is misery and pain. See, to be selfish is to be the opposite of a disciple, because to be a disciple or to be a Christian is to believe that Jesus will protect you. It’s to believe that Jesus will justify you, that you can’t justify yourself even if you try to. In fact, the harder you try to justify yourself, the more likely you are to not justify yourself.

That Jesus will give you hope in the future, that Jesus will make your name great, that Jesus will be your provider, that Jesus will be your protector. Here in this text, you see how it plays out. As Jesus, what he does is he rejects the man who is selfish and embraces the woman who was sacrificial. Mark, Chapter 14, verse 6, Leave her alone. Jesus says, Okay, I’ll be your defender. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing. We’re going to skip down to verse 9. It’s amazing. Look at this. Look at what he says about her. Truly, I say to you, whenever the gospel is preached, in the whole world going forward, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. What happened? The one who was sacrificial is elevated. The one who was sacrificial is protected. The one who loved, sorry, who sacrificed was protected and elevated, but the one who was selfish, who loved self, who would eventually find himself not only unprotected but damned to hell forever. Take a moment and think about that. Judas’s selfishness told him, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll take a little bit of money and I’ll find protection in my wealth.

I’ll take a little bit of money and I’ll find elevation in my wealth and in my own selfishness. What ended up happening is that he was unprotected and condemned. But the one who decided to give generously, to give sacrificially, was the one that Jesus elevated for all time that at any time the Gospel is preached, Mary’s name is mentioned, and then is personally protected by the Messiah, and I would say, is a waiting glory in heaven. What selfishness promised, sacrifice delivered on. What sacrifice felt like it couldn’t do and selfishness could do, sacrifice failed to do. Oh, sorry, selfishness failed to do and sacrifice delivered. Look, so if you’re sitting here today and you’re thinking, you know what? Maybe I’m a little selfish. In fact, I want to ask you to do a little thing. Here it is. Don’t do it now. But tonight, ask the person who’s closest to you. Husband, wife, child, roommate, friend, parent. Hey, do you see me as selfish? I bet you they’ll tell you. I bet you they’ll tell you. If that’s you, I want to encourage you that you can change. It starts by changing your thinking. I think through the words of Christ.

What does Jesus say? What good is it for you to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your soul? I said this already, but I’m going to say it again. What selfishness promises, sacrifice produces. Here’s what I want to encourage you to do. Start believing the words of Jesus Christ. That being self-sacrificing, that giving to others is actually the best way to be protected. Because Jesus will be with you wherever you go. That being sacrificial is the best way to live your life, because at the end, that Jesus will elevate you to the place of His glory. Look, Judas got money, but it was money that spoiled and faded, but he could have had a kingdom that endured forever. Judas got cash that’s worth almost nothing today, but he could have had a crown of splendor that lasted for eternity more. He chose temporary self-love, and Mary chose to store away treasures in heaven. And so today we talk of Mary every time we mention the Gospel and we speak of Judas as a cautionary tale. You can turn, you can change. Let’s learn to be sacrificial and learn to abandon our selfishness. It doesn’t produce what it promises.

Only sacrifice can. Let’s pray together. Father, we look at you and we’re so grateful for actually leading the process of sacrifice. In Philippians 2, your word describes to us what happened, that you became flesh, that you dwelled among us, that you poured out your deity and that you sacrificed to the highest degree. You decided to live in a way that no one else would be willing to live, that you became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And then the narrative begins to shift and it says that therefore you have been elevated to the place of glory, that you have been given the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow down. And I think about this idea, Lord, that we have to be convinced that it’s actually our sacrifice that produces glory, not our selfishness. Father, help us be convinced of that. When Satan lies to us and tells us that it would be better for us to think of ourselves. Help us to be convinced of that when we think to ourselves, man, if I just spent a little bit more time on me, things would be better.

I pray that we would rebuke Satan in our own mind and that we’ll turn to the example of Jesus Christ who decided to die for our sins and be elevated to glory forever. Father, we thank you for communion as we take the bread and the juice that represents your body broken and the blood poured out for us. We pray that as we take this communion, we’ll remember your sacrifice and we’ll also be willing to follow your footsteps and be the type of people you called us to be. We love you, Lord, and thank you Christ Jesus name, Amen.