A Holy Waste and a Traitorous Friend

This sermon is the fourth in our Journey to the Cross Series for Lent. The sermon is based on the scripture passage Mark 14:1-11. Click here to read the scripture.

A Holy Waste and A Traitorous Friend

Today is the fourth week in our Lenten sermon series “Journey to the Cross.” In this series we have been taking time each Sunday to look at one day in the last week of Jesus’ life. It’s a week we now refer to as Holy week and a lot happens during this time.

We started this series by talking about Palm Sunday. We remembered and celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We talk about the symbols he used from Israel’s history and how he was hailed as king. But we also talked about how Jesus was a different kind of king than the crowds had expected. They wanted him to overthrow the Romans by force but he had a different plan in mind.

Then we talked about Holy Monday and Jesus’ visit to the temple. We spent some time exploring why Jesus would have been so upset with the moneychangers and dove sellers. We talk about the corruption that was prevalent in the temple, not only by the merchants but the priests as well. By the end of Monday, Mark tells us that the scribes and chief priests were angry enough with Jesus that they were looking for a way to kill him.

But they were afraid of Jesus because he was so popular among the people. So the religious authorities spend all day Tuesday testing Jesus, trying to trap him in the controversial issues of the day. They test him with questions about his authority, whether or not to pay taxes, the resurrection, and which commandment is the greatest. But it’s not the issues that the religious authorities care about. They are just trying to trap Jesus by asking him about the most controversial topics of the time.

By the end of Tuesday, Jesus has answered all of their questions so well that we’re told no one else dared to ask him any more questions. Jesus spends the rest of the day teaching the crowds in the temple, and then privately instructing the disciples.

So far this week, Jesus’ activity has been in Jerusalem and primarily in the temple. Each morning he and the disciples walk into Jerusalem and then in the evening they head back to Bethany where they stay the night.

Today, we pick up on Wednesday. We’re not told much about Jesus’ activity on Wednesday but we do know that he shares a meal with several other people in Bethany and that the religious authorities are still trying to find a stealthy way of killing Jesus. This passage is an example of what many scholars call a “Markan Sandwich.” It’s something that happens frequently in the gospel of Mark. Mark will begin to tell a story, then part way through the story he pauses to tell another story. Once the second story is finished he goes back and finishes the first story. It’s like the two half of the first story is the bread in the sandwich, and the second story, inserted in the middle, is the meat or the filling of the sandwich. Often when this happens in the gospel of Mark, the two stories act to illuminate one another.

In this case, Mark begins to tell us about how the religious authorities are looking for a sneaky way to arrest and kill Jesus. Mark specifically tells us that they are afraid of the crowds. This “fear of the crowds” that the religious authorities had wasn’t just about their public approval ratings. It’s not just that they wanted to be liked by the crowds to maintain their power. In this case, they are afraid of the rioting that might ensue.

You see, Passover is one of the mandatory pilgrimage festivals. All Jewish males who lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Additionally, every Jewish male was supposed to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem at least once in his life. So during the Passover, people from all over the world were converging on Jerusalem. Josephus, a history from around the time of Christ, reports that on one Passover, 256,500 lambs were sacrificed. The law required that there by at least 10 people to one lamb. Which means the population of Jerusalem during Passover would be upwards of 2.5 million people.

So Jerusalem was way over-crowded and more than any other time, there was a strong nationalism sentiment among the people. Passover is the time set aside every year to remember God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and many people long at this time, more than any other, for God to deliver them from the Romans. Everyone was proud to be Jewish and full of a sense of expectancy about what God might do.

The crowd was so large and so energetic, that during Passover, there were always extra Roman troops deployed to Jerusalem to maintain order. It’s a situation that would have been ripe for someone to rally the people together to over throw the Romans. When Jesus doesn’t do that, the religious leaders also know that there’s a strong possibility the crowds will riot if Jesus is arrested. So it’s with good reason that the religious authorities are looking for a way to kill Jesus without setting the crowds off.

Then Mark interrupts the story of the religious authorities looking for a way to kill Jesus by telling us about a woman who anointed Jesus during a meal. We are given very few details about this woman. But we are told that the ointment she anointed Jesus with was costly. In fact, many scholars believe that the nard contained in the alabaster jar would have been worth almost an entire year’s wages for the average worker.

I want you to think about how much you earn in a year. That’s before taxes, before paying your mortgage or rent or any other bills. Just think about how much total you earn in a year. That’s roughly the equivalent of what this ointment the woman poured out on Jesus was worth. That’s a lot of money to spend on ointment! No wonder, those who were watching this were upset. It seemed like a huge waste to them.

But it didn’t seem like a waste to the woman or she wouldn’t have done it. It was a truly extravagant gift. She could have used just a little of the ointment to anoint Jesus. It was customary to pour a few drops of perfume on guests when they arrived at the house or before they began eating. But she didn’t just dab a few drops on Jesus, she poured out the entire bottle. She uses the whole thing. An entire year’s wages is poured out on Jesus. And we have no idea why she did it.

Some scholars suggest it’s a symbolic anointing of Jesus as King. Luke’s version of the account suggests that the woman’s anointing of Jesus is a sign of her overwhelming gratitude at having her sins forgiven. But none of the other gospel writers give any hint of the woman’s motives. Some scholars, based on Jesus’ words of explanation, suggest that the woman knew Jesus was going to die. They suggest that unlike the disciples who were unable to understand or accept Jesus’ predictions of his death, this woman had understood what Jesus was trying to say and so anointed Jesus in preparation for his burial. The text is unclear as to whether or not she actually understood Jesus was going to die. But Jesus certainly interprets her acts as preparation for his burial.

The truth is, we simply don’t know her motivations for anointing Jesus. We don’t know what prompted her to make this gesture. But we do know that it was an extravagant act of selflessness. It’s an act of generosity, love, and faithfulness that is made even more poignant by its setting.

After telling us about this anointing of Jesus, Mark goes back to the original story by telling us that Judas has decided to betray Jesus to the authorities. We’re told that Judas went to the chief priests. The text says nothing about the chief priests soliciting this role from Judas so we can assume that Judas willing went to the chief priests on his own accord with no previous prompting from them.

It’s a striking contrast to the story of the woman anointing Jesus. On the one hand we have this woman, who’s unnamed and whose story we don’t know, who literally pours out her love for Jesus. And does so in such a lavish way that others call it a waste. On the other hand we have a disciple, one of the original twelve who is supposed to be one of Jesus’ closest friends, who becomes a traitor and betrays him to the religious authorities. On the one hand we have a woman who is willing to give up an entire year’s income to show her love for Jesus. On the other hand we have a disciple who is willing to give up Jesus for a relatively small sum of money.

It makes me wonder, what are we willing to waste, what are we willing to pour out? Which one would we be in this story? Are we willing to give up our prized possessions for the sake of Christ? Are we willing to give up our status and reputations because we love Christ more? Are we willing to give up our priorities, our dreams for the future so we can follow where Christ calls us?

Or are we willing to trade in our values so we can get ahead and climb higher and higher up the corporate ladder? Do we try to take back control of our lives when we don’t like the direction God’s leading us? Are we willing to let our love of comfort overcome our love of Christ?

My guess is, there’s a little of each of these characters in each of us. Sometimes in life we’re more like the woman who anointed Jesus. We’re willing to make the sacrifices and to pour ourselves out because of our love for Christ. And other times our comfort is more compelling than our relationship with Christ. My guess is, we all have a little of both in us. The question is, which are you going to intentionally nurture?

I don’t know what your answer will be. But I do know, that by the end of this week in Jesus’ life, ointment isn’t the only thing that will have been wasted in the eyes of some. By the end of this week, Jesus will have poured out his life for you. In the eyes of some, he will have wasted himself, allowing himself to be beaten and killed. And he will have done it all, for you.

The truth is, it won’t have been a waste. The ointment wasn’t a waste, and Jesus didn’t waste his life. Both were freely and lovingly given for the sake of another. The truth is, love always involves a certain amount of extravagance. It doesn’t ask how little it can decently give. As William Barclay says, “There is a recklessness in love which refuses to count the cost.” This woman gave all that she had to Jesus. Judas gave up Jesus, for money. And before this week is out, Jesus will have given all of himself for you.

What will your response be? Which will you chose to love more?

Amen.

Journey to the Cross: Clean Sweep

This is the sermon I preached yesterday. It's based on the scripture passage Mark 11:12-19. Click here to read the scripture passage first. Please note that this is part of a sermon series. We are doing a sermon series for the season of Lent. Each Sunday in Lent we will preach on one of the days in Holy Week. We hope this series will help you to have a more meaningful Easter celebration.

Journey to the Cross: Clean Sweep

Last week we began a sermon series on the last week of Jesus’ life. This week is traditionally called Holy week by the church. Last week Dennis talked about the events of Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This week we are going to talk about what happened on the following day. A day we now refer to as Holy Monday.

When we left off in the gospel of Mark, Jesus had used powerful symbols from Israel’s history as he enters the city and the people hailed him as king. Dennis explained last week that the people probably expected him to be a very different kind of King than Jesus is. It’s likely, based on Israel’s history that the people expected Jesus to raise an army and overthrow the Romans by force. But that’s not the kind of king Jesus is and he doesn’t act that way at all. In fact, his triumphal entry into the city, has a very anti-climatic end to it. Mark tells us that he visits the temple, looks around, and then leaves.

If the people were expecting him to raise an army and overthrow the Romans, it’s likely they were expecting that once he reached the temple, the center of communal life, he would give a rousing speech about conquering the Romans or rally the people together for a revolt. Instead he walks into the temple, looks around, and then heads right back out of the city.

Today we read the passage from the gospel of Mark that picks up the next morning. When Jesus comes back into the city the next day he heads straight for the temple. When he gets there he doesn’t teach as he has in the past, or engage in theological debates, or heal anyone, nor does he make any attempts to raise a revolt against the Romans. Instead he overthrows the moneychangers’ tables and the seats of those selling doves. It’s a disruptive and symbolic act that was sure to draw a lot of attention.

I think it’s worth noting that this is a pre-planned, thought out action. It’s not something he does spur of the moment in a bout of unchecked anger or rage. This is not Jesus’ emotions getting the best of him. He surveyed the temple the day before, and when he comes back, his actions are intentional and pre-planned. And not at all what the people would have expected. They would have expected him to express anger and discontent with the way things were. But they would have expected that anger to be directed towards the Romans. With this one act Jesus makes it really clear he is not going to be the kind of the King they wanted. And it would seem his anger is against Israel, not the Romans.

But why? Why does Jesus do this? To truly understand what Jesus was upset about, we need to understand a little of the history and culture. If you look at the sermon notes page in your bulletin, you will see that we included a diagram of the temple layout.(The image below was found at http://www.bible-architecture.info/Jerusalem.htm)

This is what the temple would have looked like at the time of Jesus. You’ll notice around outer edge of three sides of the temple is what’s marked as the Court of the Gentiles. Anyone, Jews and gentiles alike, were allowed to enter the court of the gentiles. But it you were a gentile you were not allowed to go any further into the temple.

There was a wall separating the court of gentiles from the Court of the women. On this wall hung signs warning gentiles that the penalty for passing this point was death. If you were a Jewish woman you were only allowed to go as far as the court of women unless you were giving a sacrifice to the priest to offer on your behalf. If you were bringing a sacrifice then you were allowed to go to the Court of the Israelites. It was here that worshipers handed over their offerings to the priest to be sacrificed. Men were allowed to gather in the Court of the Israelites at any time. Only priests were allowed into the Court of the priests where the altar was.

This whole area, called the temple mount was considered sacred. It wasn’t supposed to be treated like any other space. It was supposed to be treated with the utmost of respect and honor because it was believed that the physical presence of God resided in the Holy of Holies. That presence of God, meant this whole area was to be approached with the greatest level of respect and reverence.

In Jesus’ time there was an annual temple tax. All Jewish males over the age of 20 had to pay ½ a shekel each year to the temple. This tax is in addition to the normal tithes and offerings and was typically paid each year when they came to the temple for Passover. The tax was equivalent to about 2 days wages for the average laborer. Jesus didn’t really seem to have an issue with the temple tax and he even paid the temple tax himself.

The difficulty is the temple tax couldn’t be paid in any old currency. It had to be paid in the currency of the temple. It couldn’t be paid in roman currency or foreign currency because they had graven images on it and that couldn’t be presented as an offering to God. It couldn’t be paid in regular gold or silver either. It had to be the currency of the temple. If you didn’t have the right kind of currency, which most people didn’t, then you would have to exchange your currency for the right currency.

This is where the moneychangers come in. They were the ones you would go to if you didn’t have the right kind of currency to pay the temple tax. Just like modern day money exchangers, there was a fee for this currency exchange. This fee was the equivalent of about 3 hours wages. If you didn’t have exact change and wanted to receive change back then you had to pay another fee of about 3 hours wages.

These moneychangers weren’t set up outside the temple. They were setup inside the temple in the court of the gentiles. It would be like if we required you to pay your offerings in Calvary money and we set up tables all around the inside of the sanctuary. And then we charged you heavy fees for the exchange. The dove sellers were also setup in the court of the gentiles.

The dove sellers were selling doves that could be used as sacrifices in the temple. A dove or pigeon was the offering of a poor person, someone who couldn’t afford to offer a larger animal. This is what Mary offers as a sacrifice after Jesus’ birth. All animals, regardless of what type, that were offered as sacrifices had to be pure, without any defect or blemish.

The price for a dove on a street was about one days wages. But if you bought one off of the street it was likely that the priests would find something wrong with it and declare it unfit for sacrifice. Your other option was to buy one in the temple courts that had already been certified as pure and without blemish. But those for sale inside the temple sold for more than 20 times the price of a dove on the street. It would take almost a month’s wages to make the offering of a poor person. Most people couldn’t afford this exorbitant price. Those selling these sacrificial animals were essentially robbing the poor.

What makes matters worse is that a portion of the profits made by the moneychangers and dove sellers was given to the priests. The very people who are supposed to be looking out for the sanctity of worship and helping to nurture the relationship between God and the community are instead making a profit off the poor. The issue isn’t that the priests are getting paid. God makes provisions for the priests. The issue is that they feel like they need more and more. And that they are getting that money by cheating the poor. There is no way the moneychangers and dove sellers could have remained setup in the court of the gentiles without the permission of the priests. Not only are the priest permitting the fleecing of the poor, the priests actually received a portion of the money.

These are the priests! These people started off on the right path. They started out serving God and ministering to the needs of the people. But somehow money had become more important to the priests than serving God. They turned from that path and are now doing things that oppose the will of God.

I know there have been areas of my life that get off track. It happens little by little, almost imperceptibly at first. Then before I know it, I’m off the path. I’m not living how God expects me to live. What areas of your life have gotten off track? Maybe it’s money, or being a workaholic, maybe it’s ignoring your health or cheating on a test. Whatever it is, lent is a time for all of us to reflect on the areas. It’s a time for us to turn and to get back on track.

Not only does Jesus overturn the tables of the moneychangers and dove sellers, he also insists that no one carry vessels through the temple. The entire temple mount was considered a sacred area. But people were using it as a short cut. To cut through the court of gentiles drastically reduced the distance between the eastern part of the city and the Mount of Olives. It was much more convenient to cut through the temple than to walk the long way around. But that’s not what that space was intended to be used for. And it was a sign of disrespect for the presence of God.

But we all do that in some ways, don’t we? We all have areas in our lives that God intended to be sacred, and yet we misuse them. We treat them with disrespect, and do whatever is easiest or most convenient. What parts of your life have you treated as common and ordinary or as a means to an end rather than as something sacred? Lent is a time to reflect on that and to begin the process of making those areas sacred again.

After Jesus over turns the tables and prevents people from using the temple as a short cut, he quotes Isaiah (56:7) saying the temple should be a house of prayer for all nations. All nations. All this money exchange, buying and selling, haggling, and cutting through was happening within the court of gentiles. The only place the gentiles were allowed to be in the temple had now become a crowded and noisy place where the poor were cheated and the moneychangers and dove sellers were trying to make as big a profit as possible. Not exactly a prayerful environment.

In exodus (19.6), God tells Moses and the Israelites that they are to be a priestly nation. In other words, they are to bring other nations to know God. They are to live in such a way that their lives and conduct will bring others to know the God of Israel. But it’s clear Israel isn’t living into the purpose God intends for them. The priests are corrupt and the moneychangers and dove sellers are stealing from the poor. Not exactly the kind of example God wanted them to be to the other nations. They had strayed not only individually but as a community from the path God intended for them.

What kind of example does your life set? Does the way you live your life lead others to know God?

Lent is a time for self-reflection and self-examination. It’s a time to take a serious look at our lives and ask ourselves, what are the tables in my life that Jesus would overturn? What are the thoughts and deeds that need to be cleaned from your heart? God wants to help us set those things right. Lent is an opportunity for us to cry Hosanna, Save us, with the crowds. Only we get to cry Hosanna knowing the kind of King Jesus really is. I invite you to use this Lenten season to cry out to the Prince of Peace, the one who came to bring forgiveness and reconciliation.

Amen.