Doing Things for Jesus

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 21, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 12:1-11.

            In our Bible reading for tonight, Jesus is starting the last week of his life on earth.  He knows that.

            We’re not sure how many other people knew it.  The disciples should have known it.  Jesus told them several times.  But did they really know?  It’s hard to say.

            And maybe you say, well, if Jesus told them, they had to know.  They surely would not have thought Jesus was lying to them.  And no, I don’t think they thought Jesus was lying.  But you know, we all have a great capacity to believe what we want to believe, and to not believe what we don’t want to believe.  I could easily see the disciples thinking, well, Jesus cannot really mean that.  It’s probably just a figure of speech.  It’s like those parables he’s always telling us.  He does not mean it literally.  He’s just exaggerating to make a point or something.

            And you can understand why they might have thought that.  After all, Jesus did use figures of speech sometimes.  He did use parables.  Everything he said could not just be taken at face value.  So you can understand why the disciples would’ve thought that Jesus was not going to literally die.  He must have meant something else.

            And it would’ve been easy for them to convince themselves of that.  After all, Jesus was their leader.  More than that, he was their friend.  They did not want Jesus to die.  They did not want to believe he would die.  So again, they chose to believe that Jesus did not really mean what he said.

            Besides, what Jesus was saying seemed like it was impossible.  Jesus was the Messiah.  He was the divine Son of God.  He was the one who was going to restore Israel and bring the kingdom of God to earth.  How could the king, the Messiah, the divine Son of God, die?  It made no sense to them.  So they simply did not believe it.

            Martha is giving a party.  It’s a celebration, a tribute to Jesus.  Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, and of course Lazarus is there, too.  And all at once Mary gets up.  Now, just to make sure you understand, this is not Mary the mother of Jesus.  This is Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus.  A good friend of Jesus. 

Mary gets up, and she gets some expensive perfume.  The way the story is presented, she does not tell anyone what she’s about to do.  She just does it.  She takes the perfume and pours it over Jesus’ feet.  And then she wipes his feet with her hair.

            I suspect that at first there’s just kind of a stunned silence.  Then Judas speaks up.  He says that’s a misuse of this expensive perfume.  It could’ve been sold and the money given to the poor.

            Now, we’re told that Judas did not really care about the poor, but I suspect there were other people there who were thinking the same thing.  They thought this was incredibly wasteful, to use this expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet.  After all, Mary could’ve washed Jesus’ feet with water.  It would’ve worked just as well.  And then, yeah, the money from the perfume could’ve been used for all kinds of good things.  It just makes sense, right?

            But Jesus approves.  And he says this, “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.”

            Now, what Jesus was referring to was the tradition at the time.  When someone died, you took various perfumes and spices to prepare the body for burial.  That’s why the women went out to Jesus’ tomb on that first Easter morning, when they found out that Jesus had risen.  They were not going out there because they were expecting to find an empty grave.  They were expecting Jesus’ body to be there, and they were going to prepare it for burial.

            I wonder what Mary thought when she heard Jesus say that she had saved the perfume for the day of his burial.  I mean, she did not want Jesus to die, any more than anyone else did.  Jesus was her friend.  Besides, he had just raised her brother Lazarus from the dead.  Jesus was probably her hero at that point.  When she poured the perfume over Jesus’ feet, was there any thought in her mind that she was preparing his body for burial?  I doubt it.  I don’t think that thought even occurred to her.

            So why did Mary do this?  Because she wanted to do something for Jesus.  For lots of reasons, probably.  Because she was his friend.  Because he had just brought her brother back from death.  Because she believed he was the Messiah.  And probably some other reasons as well.

            We don’t know whether Mary planned this out ahead of time, or if it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.  But at some point, Mary must have thought, I want to do something for Jesus.  But what can I do?  What could I possibly do for Jesus?  She could not think of anything.  And then she remembered.  She had a pint of expensive perfume.  She could take that, and she could use it in a way that would honor Jesus.  And what more of an honor could she give him that to wash his feet with that expensive perfume, and to use her own hair to dry them?  It might be a small thing, but it was the biggest, most honoring thing she could do for him.

            That’s why she did it.  She wanted to do the most loving thing she could do for Jesus.  And when she thought of it, she did it.  No hesitancy.  No discussion.  No fanfare.  She just did it.  She did it out of love for Jesus and a desire to please Him and honor Him.

            And Jesus accepted that act of love.  You know, Jesus could’ve said, oh, no, Mary, don’t do that.  You don’t need to do that for me.  After all, Jesus was a humble man, and he talked about the value of humility.  Jesus could’ve said, Mary, look, I appreciate it and all, but it’s not necessary.  I’ll be okay.  Keep this perfume.  You need the money. 

            Jesus did not do that.  He accepted the tribute Mary gave him.  He accepted the love that Mary gave him.  Jesus knew this was an act of love, and to refuse it would’ve been to refuse love.  And not only did Jesus accept it, he turned it into something that had far more meaning than Mary ever intended.

            Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday.  We moved into the season of Lent.  One of the traditions of Lent is that we give something up.  I’ve done that sometimes, and sometimes I have not.  But even when I have, it never felt like a big deal to me.  I mean, Jesus gives up his life for us, I give up Diet Coke?  I mean, there’s no comparison there.  How is that meaningful in any real way?

            But I think now that I’ve been looking at it the wrong way.  The point is not that we give up something that’s equivalent to what Jesus did for us.  We could not do that even if we wanted to.  Even if I did sacrifice my life for someone, I cannot give anyone salvation and eternal life like Jesus did.  It’s just not possible.

            What this story tells us is that we don’t have to do big things for Jesus.  We just need to do whatever we can.  If we can do big things for Jesus, we should do them.  But if we can only do small things for Jesus, we should do them, too.  What matters is not how big or small what we do for Jesus is.  What matters is that we do it out of love. 

Because, when we do what we can for Jesus, and when we do it out of love, Jesus will do what he did with what Mary did for him.  First, he’ll accept it with gratitude and love.  Then, he’ll take our small thing and make it into something bigger.  He’ll take our small thing and turn it into something that has far more meaning that we ever thought of. 

Now, when we do what we can for Jesus, even when we do it out of love, there will always be nay-sayers, right?  There will always be someone to play the role of Judas.  There will be somebody there to say, well, that was stupid.  That was wasteful.  You should not have done that.  There were all kinds of other things you could’ve done.  There were a lot better ways you could’ve spent your money, could’ve spent your time, could’ve used your abilities.  After all, the one thing that never seems to be in short supply in this world is critics.

But you and I don’t need to care what other people say.  Because we know Jesus will never say that.  When we do what we can for Jesus, and do it out of love, Jesus will never criticize us.  Jesus will never tell us we should not do it.  Jesus will never refuse our love.  Jesus will accept it gratefully, and Jesus will use it for something that will bring him glory, just as he did with what Mary did for him.

In this season of Lent, let’s think about what we can do for Jesus.  If you can do big things, do big things.  If you can do small things, do small things.  But whatever it is you do, do it out of love.  And when you do, keep your eyes open and pay attention.  Because I think we’ll be amazed at what Jesus will do with what we’ve done.