Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Morning, everybody. I'm Ben Fleming, one of the senior pastors here, and welcome to another edition of our Mark series. Today we're talking through Mark, chapter 14, verses 1 through 11, where Jesus is almost returned to Jerusalem, and they make a stop in a place called Bethany, where we begin to learn through this short passage about love and sacrifice and worship. And really more than that, we learn about discipleship. And what does discipleship look like after spending time with Jesus? And we see in this story a couple people that have clearly been around Jesus to some degree. And both have been transformed in a couple different ways. One with the real depth of love, and then one actually with the real betrayal. I've noticed in my own life that when I spend enough time with some people that I've decided to really invest in, right? And this naturally happens with family often our interests begin to converge. So my parents moved here about a year and a half ago, and my mom loves trees. And so I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about trees that we could plant that could be fun kind of around their area of the property and the house. But I really think about my daughter who loves this show called Bluey. Some of you have heard of Bluey.
[00:01:22] Bluey is a masterpiece of writing and editing and animation. And when this show first came around, I noticed that it was in sections. It's about seven minute episodes. Seven minutes. It's these short little stories. And I noticed that my daughter was interested in this. And I was like, well, shoot, we'll push play. It's nice because if it's about bedtime, I can say, okay, one more episode. And it's not 30 minutes, it's only about seven. And wouldn't you know it, over the course of just a couple months, Jolie's turning on Bluey. And I'm going, huh? I think I will sit and watch some of this partake in the Bluey. And it is so fantastic. And I am invested, I am deeply invested in these characters. And when did I really know how invested I was? Well, any parent of kids among a certain age will know that about a year ago, a series of episodes came out in which we were assaulted by this show. There's the end of one of these seven minute episodes where out of nowhere, Bandit, the dad of the family, puts in a for sale sign out in front of their house.
[00:02:31] And Jovi goes, hey, cool. There's an extra special, like 25 minute long episode after this one, I'm going, no, I am not watching this house get sold and going through the heartbreak of being uprooted and the change. And like, literally I am emotional before we even hit play on the next one, Jovi's like, no, this is amazing. This is a long episode. Like, it can't be good. Then I spend almost this entire time. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but watch out for these last couple episodes if you haven't seen it. I'm invested in this stinking cartoon. And really it was because Jovi and I like to spend time together and all of a sudden we have these shared interests. Well, it's same is true when it comes to discipleship, that if we are truly invested in this Jesus thing, that we're being discipled, that we're humble and open hearted and willing to make adjustments and change our lives and really sacrifice ourself for this thing, our interests will become aligned with Jesus, and that expresses itself in certain ways. And we'll talk about that today. So we'll get into the narrative. Mark, chapter 14, verse 1. It says it was now two days before Passover in the festival of unleavened bread. And the leading priests and the teachers of religious law were still looking for an opportunity to capture Jesus secretly and kill him.
[00:03:46] But not during the Passover celebration. They agreed, or the people may riot. Okay, so that's the first. The first two verses are kind of the beginning of a story that we'll finish later. Now we enter into a little bit of a different story. It says, meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. And while he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from the essence of nard. And she broke open the jar, poured the perfume over his head, and some of those at the table were indignant. Why waste such expensive perfume? They asked. Could have been sold for a year's wages and the money given to the poor. And so they scolded her harshly, but Jesus replied, leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to, but you will not always have me. She's done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, when wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed. And Judas Iscariot, One of the 12 disciples went to the leading priest to arrange to betray Jesus to them. Now the continuation of the previous story. They were delighted when they heard why he had come and they promised to give him money. And so he began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.
[00:05:07] Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your presence here among us today.
[00:05:12] What a beautiful thing to gather together, all of us from different parts of the city, different backgrounds, different stories to tell. And we gather here in the unity around trying to experience and learn from and worship you. What a wonderful thing. I pray that we wouldn't lose sight of that gift and that we would get every give everything that we are to you today. In Jesus name we pray.
[00:05:35] Amen.
[00:05:37] Amen. So we have a story of two different main characters, so to speak, in this 11 verse section of and that is the woman who anoints Jesus. And it is Judas, a disciple of Jesus.
[00:05:53] Now both of these two make what you could call a cost benefit analysis. In their relationship with Jesus, they begin to weigh what is the value of Jesus in my life and then what will I do as a result of understanding that value?
[00:06:12] Of course, one betrays Jesus and one gives everything that she has to him.
[00:06:21] Thus their cost benefit analysis turn out in different ways.
[00:06:26] Judas betrays Jesus. We learn from the account in Matthew for 30 pieces of silver.
[00:06:33] Now, 30 pieces of silver was the going rate for the lowest of the low slaves at auction at that time. 30 pieces of silver.
[00:06:43] The woman who anoints Jesus brings nard in an alabaster jar. Enough that is worth a full year's worth of wages for the average person.
[00:06:56] One finds their expectations fulfilled in Jesus and the other simply wonders what he can take away from his relationship.
[00:07:06] It reminds me a little bit of burnout in the workplace. Have you guys heard these studies that are coming out, especially over the last 10 years, that we've essentially come to worship work in a lot of ways. And if we worship work and it becomes its own form of faith, then burnout is really like a crisis of faith. And all of, especially the United States, but many Western countries is experiencing this. And there's this idea of experience now not living up to reality. And I saw this little formula that one author made that discusses happiness equals reality divided by our expectations.
[00:07:46] Happiness equals reality divided by our expectations. And so when you hear a lot of discussion around people that are burning out in work, you think of kind of these high powered, high energy. You think of bankers and stockholders and these things, at least in our perception and at least in the movies, look like, they require a serious amount of stress. The job is in jeopardy at any point in time. But also, you got to take into account the caring professions, teachers, counselors, therapists, social workers. Actually, you see a similar rate of burnout across these different jobs. And it's not around how much they're getting paid or necessarily who's yelling at them or who's not yelling at them at all the time. Instead, you see burnout in people who don't actually have an equal amount of reality and expectations.
[00:08:34] It's when the expectations become way greater. And usually this is around this idea of believing that our work will actually fulfill every part of our soul.
[00:08:45] We place this amount of importance on work and career and money and success, and eventually we all discover at some point that it won't do the trick in and of itself.
[00:08:57] We need something greater.
[00:09:01] And our discipleship and how we respond to Jesus lets us know if we're getting out of this simple cost benefit analysis. If everything and how we function in our world simply comes down to what can I take away from this? What's the ROI in this situation? How will my life be improved on on the other end? We will soon discover that we will burn out in our own faith, in our own workplace, we'll burn out in our families.
[00:09:27] Because we were never meant to live in a way that is constantly trying to get the best return on investment.
[00:09:36] We were never meant to exist in such a way.
[00:09:41] The woman brings pure nard, an incredible gift. Now, this comes from a rare route that could only be found in Nepal. And I'm no historian, but as far as I know, there were no inexpensive flights from Jerusalem to Nepal at the time.
[00:09:56] So there were considerable travel restrictions. You couldn't just go get the root that was required to make this perfume, and then once it was put into an alabaster jar after it was made, it wasn't like people in this time could go ahead and just do a quick spray and spritz on the before a night out because it was in an alabaster jar. Once it was broken, you had to use all of it.
[00:10:18] So this isn't just something that this woman owns that she uses from time to time. It's probably a family heirloom. It's probably a treasure, something of which her whole family identity is wrapped up in. It's been passed down from person to person and child to child.
[00:10:34] So why would she do such a thing? Why would she worship with such an extreme way? Because again, if we're doing a cost benefit analysis, the money isn't working out. And the people around the table, of course, are making that really, really clear.
[00:10:47] All the bros hanging out with Jesus are going, this is a poor investment, young lady. What are you thinking?
[00:10:55] This is irresponsible.
[00:10:58] Now, you see, in the Christian faith, even today, you would see and you still see, the charlatan version of Christianity will say, if you come and you worship and you give everything that you've got and you pray a certain amount and you give a certain amount, you'll find happiness, you'll find success, a championship trophy, jewels in your crown, you get to kiss the girl, you get an A plus on the exam. All of these things, if you pray, the right way will come to pass.
[00:11:25] This is a result of what I would like to call bumper sticker theology.
[00:11:31] It's where we take little phrases from. From scripture or little ideas of theology that maybe don't even come from scripture and begin to paint them over our lives in our incredible ignorance. My favorite one is the scripture from Jeremiah that says, I know the plans I have for you. Says, the Lord plans to prosper you, not to harm you. And it's like putting that up on my Pinterest board right there. Heck, yeah, he knows the plans he has for me prospering.
[00:11:59] And then if you spend a little time in scripture, you go, oh, he's talking to a group of people that are really about to be captured by those that they hate the most.
[00:12:07] This is more complex and more difficult than I could have possibly imagined.
[00:12:14] If somebody comes to you and says, well, yeah, so you're gonna prosper. I know, but here you're about to be captured, and actually you're gonna die before you're released.
[00:12:22] But yes, Jesus knows. He sees and he knows, and this is true, and it's 100% true. The scripture is something to stand on. But again, when we engage in the Christian experience, we don't do so in order to just get what we believe to be happiness, success, the championship trophy, jewels and the crown, the A on the final exam. We're hopefully engaging in something more, finding our faith in all kinds of places. So then the cynic, which I almost was just now when I stood over here, I was very close.
[00:12:50] The cynic will say, you get nothing out of this faith experience. You get nothing.
[00:12:57] Good day, sir.
[00:13:00] This is all just this weird little community that you guys have developed and created together, and sometimes it gives you warm, fuzzy feelings. There is nothing for you when it comes to sacrificing for the sake of Jesus in this difficult existence. As a human being at least, you had in your possession something of monetary value, and now it's gone. It's spilled out on the floor, worth nothing.
[00:13:23] But Jesus would bring clarity to what this really is. In a true moment, Jesus would say, it's a beautiful act.
[00:13:35] Which leads me to believe that our acts of worship, while they don't always return on investment in a way that maybe you had hoped or anticipated, maybe it's not monetary value, and it's certainly not casting something into the wind. But Jesus, through this expression of this worship of this woman, is saying, it is worth your time to simply bring beauty and fragrance into the world around you, that this act of worship is enough.
[00:14:01] The world will look at you and mock you and wonder and question. But the fact of the matter is, is that the Christian community, those who God is calling, I believe in this room and out into our city, we are called to do more than just have great services and programs and music. Instead, we're called to bring beauty into a world that is constantly trying to rob those of that beauty.
[00:14:24] We make beautiful things as followers of Jesus.
[00:14:29] And that in and of itself is worth our time. It's worth our worship. It is our worship. So I want to encourage you, those of you who are creatives, graphic designers, artists.
[00:14:41] The greatest art will come from. From you. Not when you're trying to create something that will fetch the greatest price. Instead, it will be what? Something that comes from deep within your soul, that is expressive of your experience, the human experience and the greatness of Jesus.
[00:14:57] That's when great art will happen.
[00:15:00] Those of you who work in the trades, when you understand that your work is an act of worship through the service and the care for humanity, you will do your job well. And that is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord.
[00:15:14] You give your life and your heart to such a thing, not simply for what you can take out of it, but instead what you can pour into it. And then all of a sudden, our expectations and our reality meet and we find Jesus in that space of worship.
[00:15:29] So let's talk about worship for a second. I want to talk about it in a liturgical sense, like here in the room. What we do, we participate in worship every Sunday through music and singing, which is weird.
[00:15:45] I'm going to bet that nowhere else in your life do you do such a thing.
[00:15:50] There are little glimpses of it in some places. But even how we do it, if we found some of those expressions in these other places, we would be a little creeped out and weirded out. For instance, I Went to a baseball game this week. Shocking, I know, it's crazy. Again, my son dragged me there.
[00:16:07] And what happens in the seventh inning between the bottom and the top half of the inning? You seen Take Me out to the Ball Game? I think even those of you who don't like baseball probably know the words, right?
[00:16:17] But imagine for a moment as the announcer at the seventh inning stretch goes, let's stand and sing Take Me out to the Ball Game. If the person in front of you is like, take me out to the ball, you'd be like, this is weird.
[00:16:32] I'm not sure what we're doing.
[00:16:35] Music is good. This is bad.
[00:16:39] Even if you had something like that, and maybe you've been to, like, next to some people like that at a concert before, down at the amphitheater, where it's like hands raised, passion, soft, gentle tears down the face. Wow. I like Brad Paisley too, but this is a lot.
[00:16:58] My wife went to the Brad Paisley concert. I could not tell you a single song.
[00:17:04] It's a little bit strange, right? And then even consider some of the lyrics that we sing. You know, there was a song that we sang a lot growing up that I understand, and I think it's beautiful. I think it's wonderful. If you're brand new here, you would walk immediately out of the doors, right? There's power in the blood.
[00:17:20] Power in the blood. It's. Is the blood here with us now?
[00:17:25] What will it cover me now? Immediately.
[00:17:31] So why do we do what we do? Well, I think there's a few things. I think there is that. That natural human tendency that when we gather in groups and we do so with regularity, you can look out all throughout the history of human beings that where people gather together with regularity, music happens.
[00:17:48] It's like, we can't help happens at ball games and it happens at pubs. And it happens in every single culture all across the face of this earth, different expressions and lyrics and instruments and things. But music happens.
[00:18:04] It's like we need it when we come together.
[00:18:07] And that's a beautiful and wonderful thing. And so we express ourselves in this way, but even far beyond that natural, I believe, human need that you find in other places. What sex, Christianity apart, is. It's this practice of vulnerability. It's a practice in short form of 20, 25 minutes of singing and the lifting of hands that reminds us that we are called to give everything that we are to the way and the Savior.
[00:18:40] We're called to hold nothing back.
[00:18:43] And this is a musical unified opportunity to express that together. In this room, it's a vulnerable thing to give your life to Jesus, as evidenced by this woman who anoints him with nard.
[00:18:57] It's a vulnerable thing to sing in a group of people, next to people that, you know. Some of you are terrible singers, and it's actually welcomed and invited here. We're not gonna give you a microphone ever, but it's vulnerable. It's a good practice. I would encourage you if you've never sung in this space before, nobody's gonna make you, nobody's gonna force it, But I would encourage you as just a practice to remind your soul that you are giving everything to the Savior.
[00:19:29] Sing some music, this place. Sing some lyrics. If you've never raised your hands before, walk into the vulnerability of that moment to lift up your hands and surrender, reminding again that your soul that you are giving everything that you are to this way, to this Jesus.
[00:19:51] Just like all the other practices that we have of listening to the reading of the Word together, to communion, these things inform not just this moment, but later on in this week, as we walk out into the world, we are reminded, and we tell our souls again, of who really is our God. It's not ourselves and our own insecurity.
[00:20:09] Instead, it's the Savior that has given everything for us. And now, at this moment of a cost benefit analysis, we can see what we can simply pull away from it, or instead we can see what we can pour out onto it.
[00:20:23] This is real worship.
[00:20:26] Now, beyond our liturgy here in this room, which again, is beautiful and wonderful and valuable, and we should practice in this space. Of course, worship is how we live our lives and how we pour ourselves out for Jesus on a daily basis.
[00:20:39] It's how we talk to people. It's how we think about people.
[00:20:43] It's how we consider the least of these.
[00:20:47] It's how we consider how we can help everyone hear the gospel and know the purpose and the truth and the beauty that is behind it.
[00:20:55] It's about our own sacrifice and generosity. It's about giving mercy where people don't deserve it. It's about receiving mercy when we don't feel vulnerable enough to receive it.
[00:21:07] It's about grace and forgiveness and constantly giving ourselves over to this. So I want to ask you today, how have you been formed in your discipleship as one that simply wants to grab and take away, or one that wants to pour out everything that you have?
[00:21:27] Well, I'll finish with these final four points to kind of sum up everything that's been said.
[00:21:35] Okay, Number one, remember that worship Is costly. As we leave here today, the perfume that was used is incredibly valuable.
[00:21:43] It's worth a year's wages.
[00:21:47] But this woman didn't seem to hesitate to pour it on Jesus.
[00:21:52] Our worship comes at a cost. It could come at the cost of your reputation or your resources. It could come at the cost of a little bit of embarrassment in the middle of a worship service by raising your hands.
[00:22:05] But are we willing to give Jesus our best? Are we willing to really do it? Are we willing to sacrifice our identity and our family heirlooms and the things that we consider to be treasure to give Jesus our best? Even though others may not understand?
[00:22:22] Number two is this worship is often misunderstood. Onlookers, including the disciples, were indignant.
[00:22:30] I want to shine some light for just a moment on how familiarity can sometimes lead us astray from the direction that Jesus is really trying to go. It was just a couple chapters ago that a bunch of children walked into the room and excitedly spent time with Jesus. And the disciples were like, hey, get out of here. No children.
[00:22:48] Terrible, irresponsible. Here comes a woman worshiping Jesus with this perfume. And they again go, no, ridiculous. Get out. Jesus so many times over the course of scripture is just like, you guys have to relax.
[00:23:04] This is too much.
[00:23:08] Just sit back and let me do it.
[00:23:10] Actually, even more than that, he says, be like these children.
[00:23:15] Be like this woman that you deem irresponsible that has given everything that she has for me.
[00:23:24] Sometimes we get so familiar, we get so grown up, we get so professional, we get so strategic that we are beginning to miss the place point that Jesus came to give us in the first place. And that is to care for all of these and to love him and worship in this beautiful and profound way. Third thing is, this worship prepares us for greater things. Jesus connects her act to his impending death and burial.
[00:23:49] Her worship was prophetic. She was preparing him for the sacrifice he was about to make. We pour out our hearts in worship. We align ourselves with God's greater purpose, even when we don't fully grasp it. She equips Jesus as. And of course, in the process, equips herself in this humble and gentle and vulnerable way to move into greater things.
[00:24:16] I.
[00:24:17] I did crossfit for a long time and. And should get back involved.
[00:24:26] But I always found it really funny to go through a workout, a really difficult workout, and be laying on the ground in a form that I like to call the sweat angel.
[00:24:38] That's disgusting.
[00:24:41] And a coach without a doubt would always come over and be like, hey, great job.
[00:24:50] And then this one particular one that I had when I lived in Klamath Falls would go. Doesn't that feel good? No, it's the worst, actually.
[00:24:57] My body and my brain are sending every signal to say, never do this again.
[00:25:07] But of course, and you follow along with the metaphor, it's a simple one. These things that cost us so much in a moment always prepare us for something greater on the other end.
[00:25:21] There's a shape that we can get into, not even just physically, but in our souls that is generous and merciful. And we pour out our worship in this place upon Jesus, and then in our work in our families. It prepares us every moment that we do such a thing and we sacrifice in such a way. It prepares us for greater things.
[00:25:42] And then finally, worship leaves a lasting impact. Jesus declares that her act of love would be told wherever the Gospel is preached.
[00:25:54] This moment of worship is not just personal. It became a testimony for generations, even to the fact that a couple thousand years later, we're talking about her right now. In this moment when we truly worship, our devotion can inspire and impact others beyond just what we see and beyond this room. And in this moment, it goes farther and deeper than we could ever possibly imagine.
[00:26:23] So I want to encourage you today.
[00:26:26] What can we offer Jesus?
[00:26:29] Your time, your talent, your resources.
[00:26:34] Let us not count the cost, but pour out our hearts in love and gratitude for our Savior.
[00:26:42] I believe that Isaac Watts, the. The hymn writer, puts it the best in this last phrase of his hymn, when I survey the wondrous cross. And he says this, we're the whole realm of nature. Mine that were a present far too small. Love so amazing and so divine. It demands my soul and my life, my all.
[00:27:07] This thing that we have been given in Jesus is such an incredible gift. It is so beautiful that we pour out our lives not to see what we can get back in this faith economy. But we pour it out because beauty deserves beauty upon beauty.
[00:27:28] Let us be the people to bring it into our world today. Amen.
