Jack Graham - Mary's Christmas

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TOPICS: Tell Me The Story Of Jesus, Christmas

Take your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. And today's story from God's Word is recorded in all of the Gospel accounts. The title of this message is "Mary's Christmas". Probably not the Mary you're thinking about. There are three prominent Marys in the Gospel. One is Mary the mother of Jesus and we honor her and we celebrate her obedience in delivering the Savior to the world. There's another Mary that is prominent in scripture. Her name is Mary Magdeline. Jesus delivered her from powerful demon possession. Her life was transformed. She was at the resurrection and was one of the eye-witnesses. So Mary Magdeline. But there is another Mary whose Christmas I want us to understand today. And her name is Mary of Bethany. Mary who lived in Bethany alone with her sister, Martha, and her brother Lazarus.

So Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived in a place just outside of Jerusalem known as Bethany. And it was a favorite place for Jesus to visit. They were close friends of Christ and the disciples. But in particular I want to focus in on Mary because this Mary of Bethany, we see her three times in the Gospels and every single time, all three times she is at one strategic singular place, at the feet of Jesus. We meet her at Lazarus' death. She comes to Him with a burden; she's broken by the death of her brother and she at the feet of Jesus pleads for the resurrection. We see her another time at the feet of Jesus while Martha is stirring about in the kitchen, Mary chooses the better part, the better place according to Jesus and she is listening to Him and learning from Him at the feet of Jesus.

There was quite a conflict. Martha was all stressed out like some of you this Christmas season, and maybe you just need to take some time out like Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus just a bit in the midst of all this stress of the Christmas season. But the next time we see Mary at the feet of Jesus is in our text today. She came the first time with her burden in grief and sorrow. She comes the next time at the feet of Jesus for a blessing, to hear the words of Christ, to look into His eyes, to linger there and long for His presence. But she comes in the case of this passage of Scripture with her very best she brings to Jesus. Each time at the feet of Jesus. Here she brings, broken and spilled out, a box of perfume, precious ointment and she pours it out at the feet of Jesus.

Let's read the story from Mark chapter 14, verses 3 through 9. "And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, 'Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii.'" That was a working man's wage for an entire year. Between somewhere around $35,000 and $40,000 based on inflation, I'm sure. "You could have sold this for three hundred denarii (a working man's wage for a year) and given to the poor. And they scolded her. But Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.'"

Mark that, note that. Jesus commended her and said, "'She has done a beautiful thing for me, a meaningful thing, a worshipful thing for me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you'", watch this, "'wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.'" And that prophecy of Jesus is fulfilled in your very ears today, because we are talking about the living and lasting legacy of this little lady who did what she could, who did all that she could, and she did it when she could in bringing her very best to the Lord. This is why I'm calling this "Mary's Christmas".

Christmas is a time, of course, for gift-giving and we bring family members and friends appropriate gifts out of love. And Mary in this case is an example of gift-giving at its highest form, gift-giving to the Lord God. So let's recreate the scene here just for a moment. Lazarus has been raised from the dead. The greatest miracle, perhaps, of all the miracles of Jesus. And Mary and Martha and a few friends are now celebrating this new life that Lazarus has been giving; celebrating at the home of a man named Simon, called Simon the leper. There's no doubt in my mind this was another man that Jesus had performed a miracle, had healed him of his leprosy.

So they are all together, celebrating Christ, celebrating the miracle that is Jesus. And they would have been in the home of Simon the Leper. King Jesus was there, Jesus and the disciples, and then, of course, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. And then there was Simon the Leper and maybe Mrs. Simon the Leper and the little ones from Simon the Leper. So it was a house full that day. And they're having dinner, they're having a celebration. And Jesus is reclining at the table. Now they didn't sit at tables like we do today, but as in the Middle Eastern fashion they would recline over a low table and have a dinner.

So Jesus is reclining here. And Mary is where she always is when we meet her in Scripture, at the feet of Jesus. And she's just worshiping Him and wondering, "What can I give to show the Lord just how much I love Him, just how much? What do I have? What can I bring to show Jesus my devotion and adoration and worship of the Savior"? And so she remembers a flask of expensive ointment. She must have prepared and brought it with her for this occasion, this perfume. It was in an alabaster box. That was expensive in itself. That was a marble box, if you will, or a flask out of Egypt. And then we're told there was nard or thick perfume that was in this alabaster box.

And so she goes and gets it and she breaks the box, she breaks the seal, the flask and opens it up. And she pours out on the head and the feet of Jesus, not just some of it, but all of it. She extravagantly pours it all out, anointing the Lord Jesus Christ. Anointing is not something typically we do in our culture, but in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament era, anointing was a common practice. And it was a very practical thing, by the way, to anoint with perfume in a house because, remember, there weren't a lot of showers and bathtubs in those days so perfume would elevate the household smell. Let's just put it that way.

So now she pours out this perfume on Jesus. She lavishly gives it and that's when she's criticized but Jesus commends her and says wherever the Gospel is preached, she will be a testimony because of her generosity, because of her extravagant love. What a beautiful story. The humility, just an ordinary woman. Maybe she wasn't all that super talented like her sister Martha, but she did something that she could do and I suppose only she could do, and that is to bring that alabaster box, broken, poured out, spilled out in love for the Lord. Why did Mary do this at the time that she did it? Well, she had been listening to Jesus and Jesus had been talking about His death. Christ is on the road to Calvary. He is on His way to Jerusalem to die for the sins of the world. This is why He was born; this is why He came on this mission of salvation.

And so Christ is just a few days at this point from the reason that He came to earth, to die on the cross and to rise again on the third day. Now others either weren't paying attention or didn't want to believe it, but Mary believed it. She knew that Jesus was going to die in Jerusalem. She didn't know how; she didn't know what would happen, but she was, because she had been learning and listening at His feet. She anointed His body for the burial. This was not just an extreme act, an extravagant act for nothing. But rather there was a purpose that He would be anointed and prepared for His burial. When you get to the... several days later when the women get to the empty tomb, His body is gone. Had Mary not done what she did when she did it, then the proper preparation for His burial would not have happened. But Mary knew.

The question is for all of us: do we live for temporal things or eternal things? Do we live to please man and do we live to please Jesus? Do we live for the applause of people or the approval of God? Most of the time we have to decide, don't we, because you can't have both for the most part. In fact, if you choose to follow Jesus and give your all to Jesus, you will feel and even hear the disapproval of the world. Maybe members of your own family. Our culture is no friend to Jesus and the followers of Jesus. The culture will cancel us if they can or if they could. But we remain faithful, seeking the approval of God, ignoring the criticism of others.

Paul said in Galatians 1:10: "For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man. If I'm still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ". So we choose, like Mary chose to ignore the criticism that surrounded her and to please Jesus, to please God. And it is in this act of devotion and dedication that we see how to celebrate. Mary's gift was expensive; it was extravagant; it had eternal impact. Her legacy lives on. She didn't hold back; she didn't just drop a few drops from the flask. She poured it all out. What she did was an act of pure, precious devotion to God. What she gave as I noted earlier was extremely valuable. It was a personal treasure.

Perhaps a part of her hope chest or a wedding dowery. We don't know how she would have come into possession of this precious ointment that was so valuable. But she gave it and she gave it all, and she gave it in a timely way. So then come the critics. Not everyone in that room appreciated Mary's selfless act of love. In fact, we're told, verse 4, that there were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was this ointment wasted like that? Wasted! Why the waste? Now it's interesting who led the charge of criticism that day in the room. Remember, there's 15 or 20 people. And among the disciple band there was a man by the name of Judas. And you could turn in your Bibles. John identifies who was most vociferous and indignant in criticizing and condemning Mary that day.

"But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples (he who was about to betray Him), said, 'Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?' He said this, (and John gives us the backstage look here...) he said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it". Judas is typical of so many today who harshly judge what other people do for Jesus. So many people want to do the bare minimum for the Lord. Just a little bit. Not everything, but something. After all, people are now too busy to go to church or too tired to get to worship every week. We tip God less than we pay a waitress to serve us a meal in a restaurant.

Do Christians really need to give? Do Christians really need to tithe? Of course, Christians should give the first tenth of their income to the Lord. Not the leftovers, not the last, not the least! Why wouldn't we bring the first and the best that we have to the Lord? Jesus said we were to tithe and then some. Giving is not a religious duty; it is an act of devoted obedience, an act of loving obedience to God. Today we hear some have quietly quit in the business world. Have you heard about quiet quitting? Just not working as hard, not doing as much; just quiet quitting. It's a problem apparently in the busy community. It's also a problem in the church as some have just quietly quit, stopped serving, stopped giving, stopped witnessing, stopped attending.

How can we quit on the one who never quits on us? How can we quit on the one who refused to quit on the cross and gave it all? Who laid down His life. Jesus didn't save anything. And we ought to so live that our lives are expression of that love and devotion, that's willing to extravagantly, expensively, extensively give what we have! The early church, those early believers, they turned the world upside down because they were will to be bold for Christ! Why wouldn't we be bold? Here's a Texas word: bodacious, big for the glory of God?

In Acts chapter 15 and verse 26 we heard of two men, Paul and Silas, of whom they risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They risked their lives. And interestingly enough, that word risk there in your New Testament can also be translated they gambled their lives for the Gospel. They were willing to throw it all on the table. Mary's love for Jesus was to show her love for Him, and no sacrifice was too great. She said I will do what I can, I will do all that I can, and I will do it when I can. Jesus commended this woman.

I was reading a sermon by Dr. W. A. Criswell, a spiritual hero of mine, now in heaven, pastored for 50 years the First Baptist Church of Dallas. What a wonderful, wonderful man. But I was reading a sermon by Dr. Criswell on this passage of Mary and he said something that I had never thought about. He said, "As Jesus commends this woman," he said, "I began to look in the Bible". He said, "You know, I've been preaching then" he said, "60 years and I don't know how but I missed it". He said, "Not one time in the New Testament does Jesus ever condemn a woman".

I never saw that either. In the conversations that He had with women, whether a woman taken in the act of adultery or a woman who was married multiple times at the well at Samaria, or any of the Marys or any of the women. Mary Magdelene filled with demons. Not one time, Dr. Criswell said, and it's true does Jesus ever condemn a woman! So remember this, Jesus, and ultimately the Christian faith, the followers of Jesus elevated women more than any other movement in all of human history. Jesus did that! And so that's all for free in this sermon. It just stunned me when I saw it, I said, but it's true. He got after the men pretty good sometimes. That's because He needs to.

Now's the time to serve and give and witness and express our love to our family and to our friends. She did what she could, when she could. Do it now. Say it now. Dead noses smell no roses. There's someone you love, what a wonderful time at this Christmas season to say it, to show it, to write that personal note and at the very lest shoot a text. But to show love and to send love. As someone discipled you? Has someone mentored you? Has someone shepherded you? Has someone one pastored you? Has someone taught you?

Now would be a good time to show that appreciation and that love before it's too late! Live without regrets. Mary did. Mary again was paying attention so she didn't care about the waste as others thought about it; she cared about the worth of Jesus. Talk about a waste! It was Judas who threw his life away. He kissed life goodbye literally when he betrayed the Lord. And sometimes people say, "You know, you Christians! You're just throwing your life away. You're throwing your time away. You're throwing your treasure away. You're giving your money away. Man, why are you doing that? Come on, party with us! Have a blast while you last! Don't spend your time serving Jesus or worshiping Jesus".

All these hypocrites like to say what Judas said, and complain and criticize. Do you know what I've noticed over the years? The people who complain the most give the lest and the people who give the most complain the lest. Judas was not being virtuous or discerning. He was being self-righteous and critical in his condemnation. Mary was loving and lavish and fully devoted as a follower of Jesus. Give your all. And to those who say you're wasting your life, you're wasting your money, you're wasting your time, you're wasting your energy, just say, "Okay, let's just wait and let's just add it up at the end of life. Let's just add it all up when we get to the end". And especially when we stand before God and every person is going to be standing before God one day. And let's find out what's worth it and what's not worth it then.

Jim Elliot was a martyred missionary. And the well-known quote that came from Jim Elliot's diary is appropriate. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose". People say, "You're a fool, you're a freak, you're a fanatic", but like Mary, ignore all that. I don't think Mary heard any of it. She was too focused on Jesus. She just kept leaning in and looking to the Lord and listen to Him. And I tell you, after all the toys and the trinkets and the technology that we give at Christmas... and it's good to give gifts, it really is. But after all that stuff, it's gone. What's going to last is what Mary did. Jesus said it. What she did in her act of sacrificial devotion to Me, will be spoken of wherever the Gospel is preached. The perfume that filled the room that day so long ago fills this room today.