So we are in Mark's gospel chapter 14, and I'm going to read for today from verse 1 down to verse 11. And there's As I read it, you'll see there's sort of two bookends. And within those two bookends is this episode or a story of something that took place at the house of Simon the leper. Before I get to the Simon the leper, which I do want to get to, and what happened at the house, I want to take us on a little bit of a study to remind ourselves about the feasts that Israel was prescribed by our Lord, because they're mentioned here. So let me pray for the Word, then I'll read those verses. Our Father and our God, we pause before the reading of your Word, Lord, to remind ourselves that we're handling reverently the very Word of God. And Lord, your word is true. Your word is divine. Lord, your word is instructive. And Lord, we need to be aligned with your word. So Lord, I know it's something that only you can do to open our ears that we can hear it, and our hearts that we can receive it, and our minds that we can understand it. So Father, I'm asking that you do that very thing for all of us. In Jesus' name, amen. After two days, it was the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and put him to death. But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant oil wasted? for it may have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always. And whenever you wish, you may do them good. But me, you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, What this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went to the chief priests to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray him. Do you see the two bookends there, that the story's sandwiched into? The feasts of Israel are very instructive for us. They're just weighty with... just types and shadows, where you see God having his purpose for Israel, for national Israel, with these feasts that they were commanded to have. And there was three in particular that the men of Israel had to return back to Jerusalem, back to the temple. And we'll talk about those a little bit. But the ultimate fulfillment of these feasts is found in Christ. And that's true for the feasts that we have here. It says in verse one, it's, after two days, it was the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. I want to look at a few New Testament passages where you'll see the New Testament writers and the New Testament itself is so replete with references to the feasts and how their ultimate fulfillment really is in Jesus Christ. It's quite striking if you ever do a study of that. Let me just read you 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 15. where Peter writes, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written, be holy for I am holy. And if you call on the Father who, without partiality, judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. I'm going to come back and reread that last verse again as we take a look at this. But Peter is referencing the people of God who are to walk in holiness in their conduct, which really is reflective of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as we look at that, and that we are made right with God because of the sacrifice of Jesus, who there is referenced as what? The Lamb. But not just any lamb, the Lamb without any blemish, without any spot. The perfect Lamb, the Lamb of God. So let me go back and just, I know we all know this, but it's good to remind ourselves when we read these things, the story of the Passover in Exodus chapter 11, where it says, Then Moses said, Thus says the Lord, About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant, who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there should be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And you know the prescription that God gave. Now God was going to do this through his own mighty right arm, his own strength and his own ability. But he was going to do it in such a way that it was going to be through the sacrifice of the Lamb. And on the 10th of Nisan, the month that would be like our April, they were to select a lamb. And it couldn't be just any lamb. It had to be an unblemished, spotless lamb that would then be sacrificed on the 14th of Nisan. So they had that lamb for a few days in their homes. And then they were to sacrifice that lamb. And then, as you know, they were to take the blood and put it on the door posts and the lintel going across the doorway of their households. And they were to remain in there, and that would protect them. They were covered under the covering of the blood. So there's a lot going on in that story. As a matter of fact, Exodus 12, 13 says, now the blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt." So the Lord says, I'm going to see the blood, and when I see the blood, I'm going to pass over you. Obviously, where we get the term Passover, right? God's going to pass over because of the shed blood and the blood being on the doors. We've probably read that in church all our lives, you know, and I've read that story so many times I've had her preach to me. But I do take time when I read this stuff to just try to put myself in that day, and I'm just an observer on the street, maybe I'm an Egyptian, and I just happen to be watching what's going on in Goshen, and I'm watching these Jews sacrificing lambs, and then they don't just sacrifice the lamb, they take this blood and they slop it on their door posts and on the lentils. What a bloody mess this was. I mean, we read it like it's nothing, but that was a strange thing to observe, to see every house. Can you imagine coming through Great Cacapen and seeing every house in here is splattered with blood? You'd think something weird is happening here. But that's what the Egyptians saw, and I'm sure if they did see it, they thought it was awful strange. But it was an act of obedience. And within that Passover, if I could say, prescription that God prescribed, that this is what you will do, There's the sacrifice of the perfect lamb. It's an atonement. It's vicarious. It's a substitute. In other words, instead of the death angel taking the firstborn in your household, God would accept the death of this lamb as a substitute. But the blood has to be there where God can see the blood. So it's through the blood, it's through the death of the sacrifice. It's all a picture of what our Lord Jesus Christ would do when he came and went to Calvary. Later in Exodus 12, 14, God says of this event that they were to memorialize it. They were to always remember, and it says in verse 14 of chapter 12 of Exodus, says, so this day shall be to you a memorial. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. And Lord willing, we'll look at the upper room and Jesus bringing to the disciples the Lord's Supper. And you'll see in the Passover cedar meal that Jesus is really saying, I know that we do this in remembrance of God delivering us from the Egyptian tyranny and the slavery that we might be God's people. But he says, but this cup is my blood. This bread is my body. And there's congruity between the Old Testament Passover and what Jesus did for us as the ultimate and perfect substitute for our sin on the cross. And that's going on in the upper room. So that's a little preview of what hopefully we can get to next week. So Jesus's death is prefigured in the Passover that we just looked at. And I want to read you, I said I want to read a few passages in the New Testament where you can see that the gospel writers and the writers of the New Testament, they understood this. And so you'll get passages like when Jesus comes on the scene in John chapter 1 where the Baptist sees Jesus coming and says what? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And again in verse 36, again Jesus is walking and he says, Behold the Lamb of God. 1 Peter 1.19 that we just looked at, the precious blood of Christ is what atoned for our sin, and he is one who's the lamb without blemish, without spot. In Acts chapter 8, it says that the Ethiopian eunuch, if you remember, Philip had to overtake the carriage and all that, and the spirit tells Philip to go, and the eunuch is reading Isaiah. And so it says, he's reading this passage and it's right here in Acts 8, it says, he was reading, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter as a lamb before its shearer is silent. So he opened not his mouth and in his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will declare of his generation for his life was taken from the earth? And I always love that story in the Bible. The eunuch goes to Philip and says, I ask you, of whom does this prophet say this? Is it of himself, or is he talking about some other man? And Philip opened his mouth, beginning at that scripture, preached Jesus to him. And you can imagine, we don't get to see the sermon that he preached or talked to him about, but he obviously said, the lamb that Isaiah references is Christ Jesus, our Lord. and then explain that he wasn't sacrificed like the other lambs were. He was handed over by the Jewish leadership, the Pilate, and the Romans hung him on a cross. And then the significance of that, that he is the atonement, he is the vicarious substitute for our wickedness and our sin. And then, I don't have time to read all the references, but if you want to spend some of your own time, the book of Revelation is filled with references to Jesus being the Lamb. But I'll read you one, and this is Revelation 5, 6. where he says, the revelator says, I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And here you get a reference in Revelation of the revelator seeing a lamb that had been slain, but is standing. It's a reference to the resurrection of our Lord, the slain lamb, alive and standing. And not only just standing, but in the midst of the throne, the throne of God. So Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment to all that's there in the Old Testament Passover. And then it also says, if you look back at Mark 1, it says, after two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, you could almost look at it as sort of a combined double feast. Because it's always the Passover and then the week following the Passover would be the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Leaven in the Bible is always a picture of sin. So unleavened bread would be a picture of the purging out of sin. And that was what was instructed by the rabbis, that that festival particularly was talking about, you know, be ye holy even as God is holy, and the purging out of sin, which ultimately was done by the work of Christ on the cross. In Exodus 23 verse 14, it says, three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year. You should keep the feast of unleavened bread. You shall eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded you. So they were to eat this unleavened bread as a symbol and a type of the purging out of leaven, the removal of leaven, which would be the removal of sin. The three times that the men of Israel had to go up would be the Passover slash Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, or sometimes it's called the Feast of Firstfruits, or the Feast of Pentecost. That would be one and the same there. where you get a passage like 1 Corinthians 15 that says, but now Christ has risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who've fallen asleep. Paul knew what he was referencing when he said that. Jesus himself is the first fruits of us who will die, but then be raised, right? Following our own Lord there. So the significance of the unleavened bread. And with all that said, listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul writes in verse 6, He says, he's kind of, for lack of a better word that's coming to my mind, he's kind of spanking the church on this in Corinth. But he says, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Now he's talking about sin that's entering into the church, and he likens it to the leaven, just like this unleavened bread feast that Israel was to do. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened." Now, what's he saying there? He said, you just told us that we're supposed to purge out the leaven and now you're telling us we're unleavened. He's talking about the difference between our justification because of what Christ has done, His imputation of His righteousness to us, our sin imputed to Him on the cross. We truly are seen as holy because of what Christ has done. But even though that has occurred, in the process of sanctification, we know that we still sin. And so he's saying, well, even though you're truly unleavened, there's this sin in the church, there's a sin in you, and you need to be actively purging that out of you. So I hope that helps. So he says, therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. Why is that? He says, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Now, do you see how he's looking right back to the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and he's seeing how that kind of typified what Christ brought in absolute clarity in his atoning work, and that he even sees the fact that we're unleavened because we're holy in God's sight because of Christ, yet we're not in glory yet. And there's a work to do that the Holy Spirit is working in us, and we're also working to purge out the remaining sin that's really still clinging to us, is what he's talking about. But I just find it very fascinating that the Apostle Paul just basically expects even the church in Corinth to understand about the feast and how it's been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So that's a little bit of a side trail we took just to help us understand. Because from here on out, as we study the Gospel of Mark, remember that until we get to the cross and the resurrection in the Gospel, This is what Israel's living through. It's that week. They're coming for Passover, and then it's going to be the Feast of Unleavened Bread when all these activities happen. As a matter of fact, the leadership didn't want it to happen during this feast time. Did you read that, Mark? They said, well, we don't want it, but it's God's timing. God's timing was going to bring it to pass. Jesus was going to force their hand on this. And it's going to happen during the feast, during the Passover, because it's such a picture of Jesus being the Lamb of God, who now goes to the cross to take away the sin of the world. So let's look at the house of Simon the leper. Now, it appears here in Mark that he contextualizes this story of what happens at the house of Simon the leper. In reality, this happened a week earlier. And Mark inserts it here purposefully with these bookends. He's not trying to give us a chronological story of this is what happened, and then the very next thing that happened, the next day this happened. He's contextualizing what happens at this house with the fact that the Jews were plotting against Jesus to put him to death on one end, and that Judas volunteered himself and said, I'll betray him for money on the other end. Within those two evil passages, you get this beautiful story of a house full of people that love each other. And this great act of love takes place. And I believe that the Holy Spirit had Mark do it that way for that very reason. Like, if you look at John's Gospel, John 12, 1, speaking the same story at the house of Simon the leper, it puts the time stamp on it. In John 12, 1, it says, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany. That's when this happened. So, who's at the supper at Simon's house? Mark doesn't tell us. Matthew doesn't go into great detail. Luke really doesn't say anything. John gives us a lot of detail about this supper. Who's there? Well, Mark even tells us it's Simon the leper. And I think everybody's in agreement that Simon the leper was not a leper anymore. This man Simon, whoever he was, I believe had an encounter with the Savior and Jesus had cleansed him, had healed him. And I think in gratitude and out of love, he's hosting this dinner for Jesus just a week before he goes to the cross. Maybe the last time he's just in a safe place with people that love him, people that are grateful for what Jesus had done for them, but that's him. Simon the leper is there. Who else is there? Lazarus is there. John 12, I'm sorry, yeah, 12.2 says, there they made him a supper I'm sorry, 12.1. It says, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, who had been dead. whom he had raised from the dead." So here you are at the supper. There's Simon the leper, who's not a leper anymore. He's been miraculously healed by Jesus. And John tells us pointedly, oh, and Lazarus, who was dead, was there. But he's not dead anymore. Jesus had raised him from the dead. Who else was at this house? Martha was there. Martha. It says in John 12, there they made him a supper and Martha, what do you think Martha's doing? Martha served. That's what Martha did. Remember the other episode? Martha and Mary are going at it with each other. Mary's at the feet of Jesus, being taught. Martha's upset. She's clanging pots and pans in the kitchen. Lord, make her come out here and help me with this. That's Martha. And Martha, of course, is doing what she does. That's her gift. I love women that have the gift of hospitality. I don't know if I have that gift, but I love people that have the gift of hospitality. But Martha did. She's there and she's serving, it says. But it says Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him. So there's Martha serving. And who else is there? Well, if Martha's there, her sister's going to be there, so Mary's there. And it's Mary, not identified by Mark, but identified by John, that it's Mary, it says in John 12, 3, who took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard and anointed our Lord. It was Mary that did that. Who else is there? It's quite a party. Jesus' disciples are there. John 12, might as well go on and read in John, right? Verse 4 says, then one of his disciples... Now Mark doesn't tell us who was the naysayer, who said, hey, look, this is a waste. What are you doing, Mary? But it tells us in John's gospel, one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him, said, why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? And then John, if you know John's gospel pretty well, he inserts a lot of clarification statements. where John says, let me tell you what's going on here. He does that a lot. I love that because I need clarification. So John inserts by the Holy Spirit here. He says, this he said, not that he cared about the poor. He didn't care for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the money box and he used to take what was put in it. So John, through the Spirit, lets us know that Judas didn't have a problem with Mary because of what Mary did, and it was such a waste. And he really had a heart for the poor, and he wanted to cash that in. And 300 denarii is a lot of money. And let's get that to the poor. John says, no, he wanted to get it into the money box so he could take some of that money for himself, because he was a thief, is what it says. So the act of love. It says, going back to Mark now, it says Mark chapter 14 verse 3, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask. and poured it on his head. John tells us, then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. So I like John. I'm smelling the fragrance. I'm seeing who's there. I'm seeing Judas Iscariot and the snarl on his face because he's upset that Mary had done this. I see the gratitude in the eyes of Simon the leper who's been healed, and Lazarus who's come back from the dead, and Martha and Mary. They're there with their brother. Remember, they were weeping in John's gospel because their brother had died. Lord, if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. They both said that. And there he is, brought back to life. Jesus showing himself to truly be the resurrection and the life. And now you smell this beautiful, beautiful fragrance. It says in these Gospels that this is a very costly oil of spikenard. It says that it's an alabaster, in my translation, flask here. That would have been, and I did a little research on that, they quarried these out of limestone caves. So it would be a singular piece that was quarried out. It would either be white or translucent. And it was very expensive. Just the container was expensive. The spikenard, being a rare perfume, that actually comes from, believe it or not, India. from the northern parts of India and the Himalayas is the only place you really find that spike nard. And it's a root that they would somehow or another extract into oils and whatnot and make a perfume out of it. Extremely costly. Believe it or not, you can actually still buy this. I went looking. I was like, oh, I want to buy that just so I can actually smell what that smelled like. Help me the next time I preach this. But in those days, could you imagine all that went into her having this? But the people that had to mine out the flask or the jar that this was contained in, whoever it was that made this product all the way off from the Himalayans and grew the plant and harvested it and created this perfume. And then who traveled all the way, merchants on back of camels or whatever they had back in those days, coming all the way to where this finally got somehow into the hands of Mary. And we assume Mary bought it. Shows that the family had some wealth, more than likely. And she has this and she pours it all out. All out on our Lord. On his head, maybe dripping down to his feet, wiping his feet with her hair. Just an absolute act of adoration and love for who Jesus was to her. Probably for all that he had done for everybody in that room. And she just pours it all out. And you get the reaction of the disciples. Of course, Judas Iscariot voiced the complaint. You know, he's upset about it. But he's a thief and he's greedy. But Judas wasn't alone. Don't think that Judas was the only one with a snarl on his lip. Because it says in Matthew's Gospel 26.8, It says, "...but when his disciples..." That's in the plural. "...when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste?" That's quite a striking accusation. Why this waste? What a waste. Why this waste? In Mark's Gospel 14.5 it says, "...and they..." Plural. "...criticized her sharply." I'm going to read you a couple quotes by Alexander McLaren, and the first is this. It says, the disciples chimed in with the objection, not because they were superior to Mary in wisdom, but because they were inferior in consecration. They weren't as wholly devoted in adoration to Jesus as Mary was. And I think McLaren's on to something there. I don't know if she put a lot of pre-thought into this. I don't know if she had planned this out when she knew she was going to Simon the leper's house for this supper. I thought, you know what, I'm going to bring this and maybe dab a little bit on Jesus. I think he'll like that. But then was caught up at the moment in so much worship and love and adoration that she thought, you know what, I'm pouring this whole thing out on him. And Jesus' reaction is so different than the reaction of his disciples. And there's a couple phrases in Mark's Gospel that are helpful that I want to kind of park on for a moment. First thing Jesus says when he sees his disciples, of course he tells them to leave her alone, which is wonderful that he stood up for Mary. But he says, she's done a good work. That's what he says. Let her alone, why you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. And I thought to myself, when I see people, and they're doing whatever they're doing to help their neighbors, to help their families, to help their workplace, in the name of Christ and for the cause of Christ, and we all kind of do it. We have our scales, and we kind of tend to judge each other and weigh things in the balance. The disciples did that very thing. They saw what she did. They recognized the cost involved and what she had given over to the Lord in her adoration and love. They put it in the scales and said, Okay, the outcome of that, we decided this is a waste. This is an absolute waste, what she's done. Jesus, God has different skills than we've got. And we really need to get aligned with the way he judges things. Because Jesus looks at that same event, puts it into his scales, and comes out the other side and doesn't say it's a waste. He says, she's done what's a good work. This is a good work that she's done for me. Again, Alexander McLaren says, anything directed towards him under the impulse of simple love to him is a good work. I want to remember that and fix my scales. So when I see somebody just in love and adoration for their Savior doing something for His cause and His name, that I'd look at that and not say, what a waste of time that was. and think to myself, God judges that very differently than sometimes we do. The world does at times tell us that our gift is too costly. The money that we give for the furtherance of the gospel is too much. There's lives that have been given in service and sacrifice to the king, and the world looks at that and thinks, that's too much, that's foolish, what a waste. I remember years ago I heard Elizabeth Elliot on the radio. And if anybody doesn't know who Elizabeth Elliot is, she was a missionary. And her husband, Jim Elliot, went to Ecuador with several other men to reach a people group that had never heard the gospel, never really had contact with the, quote, civilized world before. And they did a lot of things to try to prepare them. They dropped gifts down and whatnot. But then the day came for them to go in. And they did. And they went in, and if you know the story, they were all speared to death. They all gave their lives just trying to carry the gospel to this people group that had not heard the gospel. And I remember Elizabeth Elliott telling that story. I'm sure she told it many times over. And she said, oh, the newspapers had a time with that. They thought, what foolishness. What foolishness. What do these guys think, it's 1612 or something? What foolishness for them to go into some unreached people group and get speared to death. You know what they were saying? What a waste. What a waste. You know, that same tribe came to the Lord. Elizabeth Elliot and others went in after that had taken place. And there was converts that came from that. The people were reached for Jesus Christ. God looks at that and scales very different than the way we look at things. And says, no, this is a good work. It wasn't that long ago, actually. In 2018, there was a gentleman who went to the North Sentinel Island in India. You might have saw that story. And they told him not to go. It was illegal to go to that island. The people had never been reached. They were living like primitive savages on the island. And he decided God was calling him to go there and preach the gospel. This was just a couple years ago. And if you know the story, he went there, he got there, I don't know what he said or what he had with him that he left with him, and they speared him to death. You can look that up now and watch people on social media. You know what they basically say? What a fool. What a waste. What a waste. And it's interesting, that's exactly what these disciples say about Mary and her gift. Alexander McLaren, once again, he says, one sometimes would like to see more things done for him that the world would call utter folly and prodigal waste, absolute useless. Jesus Christ has a great many strange things, a great many strange things in his treasure house. He has widow's mites, he has cups of water, he has Mary's broken vase. And then McLaren asks, has he got anything of yours? She's done good. The next thing that he said that I want to look at in verse eight, he said, she has done what she could. Underline that in your mind. She's done what she could. She's not Simon. She doesn't have Simon's house. I don't even know if she had a house. She's not Martha. Maybe she doesn't have the gift of hospitality like Martha did, and Martha's servant, and that's her gift to the Lord, a gift in love. Mary had an alabaster flask of expensive perfume. And when Jesus chides his own disciples in Judas Iscariot and says, she's done a good work to me. He says, she's done what she could. This is what she had, and she poured it out for me. She did what she could. And I think that's a good word for you and me. Sometimes we're too hard on ourselves in what we do for the Lord in our living, and pouring out our lives for the cause of Christ and the kingdom. God only expects us to do what we can. Not everybody has the same gift. You don't have the gifts I have. I don't have the gifts you have. We all have different spheres of influence and places we're called to go. He just expects us to do what we can. To get before the Lord one day and have Him say, well, He did what He could. He couldn't do everything, but He did what He could. And I accept it as service unto Me. That's what we want to hear, isn't it? I think that's beautiful. There's many hymns that were written with that in mind, of just pouring out what we could to the Lord. But it says in the hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be, Consecrated Lord to Thee, Take my moments, my days, let them flow in endless praise. Take my love, my Lord, I pour. Do you think that's maybe coming from the story we're studying? Take my love, my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store. Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee. And that's the devotion. We can't do everything, but what we could do, we try to do it as the best of the power that he gave us with the Holy Spirit unto him and for his cause. When I survey the wondrous cross, it says, were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. My love so amazing and so divine demands my soul and my life and my all. God wouldn't want me to give Him all of creation and nature. He expects me to give myself to Him in devotion to His cause, to Him. And then the third thing I want you to notice is that Jesus said of this in verse eight, she has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. That must have struck everybody strange in that room. I don't think Mary thought of that. I don't think Mary thought, you know what? He's going to die. He's going to be buried. Nobody's going to have time to get him. There's going to be a cross. I'm going to go ahead and anoint him for his burial now. I don't think that's what Mary did. I think Mary had that flask. I even think that maybe she didn't originally intend on just dumping it out. And then she was so filled with love and adoration that that's what she did. But Jesus says this act that you said was a waste, not only was it a good work, not only was it done unto me, not only was it what she could do, and she did, but it's also something so much deeper than what anybody in this room even understands. Jesus received that gift of love and adoration as her anointing him in preparation for his burial. And I think that's why it's sandwiched between the plotting on one end and the betrayal on the other. Because here, unbeknownst to them all, Jesus receives this as preparatory for him going to the cross and the grave. the greatness of seemingly insignificant acts of love. I don't think any of us will know fully in this life. what we send into this universe when we send forth acts of love, acts of adoration for the cause of Christ, because we love Jesus Christ, and we pour out our lives in adoration and love to our neighbors, to our church, we have no idea of the deep significance. And I don't think we will know. Maybe when we get to glory, the Lord will say, do you see that little thing? Remember Jesus observed the woman with the two mites? Do you see that woman? Do you see what she did? Let me tell you what she just did. And who knows the significance of what you've done in love and adoration to our Lord Jesus Christ. We sum it up. I mean, look, you get on one side, the whole room, at least the disciples are saying, what a waste. What a waste that was. Jesus sees us so differently. And basically saying, you have no idea what she's really doing here. And maybe Mary doesn't even fully understand what she's doing here. But in obedient love, she's done this. And I receive it, Jesus would say, as a great gift to me. My last quote from Alexander McLaren. He says, Christ makes the work perpetual as well as significant by declaring that, quote, in the whole world, this shall be preached for a memorial of her. Have not the poor got more? He says, have not the poor got more good out of Mary's box of ointment than the 300 pence that a few of them lost by it? Has it not been an inspiration to the church ever since? The house was filled with the odor of the ointment. The fragrance was soon dissipated into the scentless air. but the deed smells sweet and blossoms forever. It is perpetual in its result to the doer and in its results to the world, though these may be indistinguishable, just as the brook is lost in the river and the river into the sea." I don't want to explain Alexander McLaren because he could explain himself, but I'll do it anyway. I think what he's saying there is that, one, they thought this 300 denarii, this year's wages that you just squandered on the Savior, you could have used to go patch houses and maybe give some people some food for a couple weeks. But it says she poured it out on the Savior, and it has been a treasure passage of preaching and studying ever since. I've preached through the Gospels numerous times, and I always preach about this story of Mary. Our Lord ordained us so, that we're to do this, because there's something here for us to learn. But as we send forth into this universe, into this world, these works of adoration and love towards our Savior, and we do it by helping our neighbor and pouring it out into our families and our churches, It might seem insignificant. It might look like it's indistinguishable, is what Alexander McLaren says, like a brook. It's just a drop into the brook that then ends up in the river and that river ends up in the sea. You really don't see the grandness of what's really taking place here and how much the Lord's gonna use that for his own glory and for the good of his people. So in conclusion, The spiritually dull response of the disciples, why this waste? Evaluating the use of our talents and treasures very differently than the way they did. We need to see the way the Lord sees what we do. Judas and the disciples weighed this in their scale, their own fleshly ideas of what was wise and what was wasteful. But Jesus' evaluation is very different. Leave her alone. She's done a good work for me. She has done what she could. She's come beforehand to anoint me for my burial." And then he says, this act of love will be forever memorialized. Let's end with that. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. And Lord, I pray that you would realign us. And I'm using the illustration of scales. Lord, give us good scales that we can properly evaluate things, Lord. We're so much like these disciples at times. And Lord, we just need to be aligned with your truth. And we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Steve, the blessing of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord made his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace.