People of our generation seem to have no reluctance about challenging God’s authority over their lives. Almost every group in our nation would dare suggest doing away with certain of the principles that are taught in the Book of Books. Most of the rest of  us have felt free to challenge any (or all) of them that get in the way of our own self-willed lifestyles.

Murder, rape, theft, and perjury are in the news so often that we are not even shocked by them anymore. Corrupt politicians, dishonest businessmen, and philandering neighbors hardly raise an eyebrow. Pornography is sold at the comer market, drugs are dispensed in school hallways, and TV brings the coarsest of language right into our family rooms.

America is turning away from God, closing its ears, refusing to hear. We have created a world that has no significant place for God in its educational programs, scientific pursuits, movies, music, homes, or hearts. What fools we are to separate ourselves from the only hope we have for making life meaningful!

Everyone is talking about the problems facing our generation. Educators, sociologists, and politicians are acknowledging that we have lost all sense of moral direction as a society. Only one source of dependable direction is available. And we must turn back to that divine source quickly. We must remember God, seek God, hear God, obey God. We must begin living by the rules heaven has given in Scripture.

Frightening statistics point to the breakdown of law, moral responsibility, and even conscience in our world. Figures released by the federal government indicate that there is one serious crime committed every two seconds in the United States of America.

There is a murder every twenty-three minutes and a rape every six minutes. There is a robbery every fifty-eight seconds, an aggravated assault every forty-eight seconds, and a theft every four seconds.

We are a nation under siege. We are a people living in fear. Worse still, perhaps, is the involvement of so many young people in crime and immoral behavior. Teen-aged Americans account for almost a third of all violent crime arrests in the country.

What Has Gone Wrong? What has happened in this “enlightened” world of ours? Our society has rejected the notion of fixed norms for conduct, and we lack the internal control that comes to people who have a strong sense of right and wrong.

We’ve not only broken the old rules, we’ve gone beyond that to say that nobody has the right to make rules for our generation. Without rules, norms, or standards, we are moving toward chaos. We really do need a fixed standard for our lives. We need both goals and limits. We need a strong sense of what is desirable and what is forbidden. We need the security which comes or having some dependable rules for right living.

A U. S. Army official has said: “The army would like to see every American parent, teacher, and clergyman work to give our children . . . a firm regard for right and an abiding distaste for wrong.”

A sociologist, discussing the crime problem among teenagers, observed: “They grow up lacking the internal controls needed to stay on course.”

Right for me is what I want!” “Right is what makes me happy!” “Right for me is what gets me something of personal benefit; I’m sorry if somebody else gets hurt in the process, but it’s right for me if I want it and am able to get it!”

An impossible situation is created when this creed of self-interest governs our notions of what is right and wrong.

We must get back to the Word of God. We need to know the rules for right living. We simply must have a fixed standard by which to measure our deeds. The Bible provides exactly what we need for the moral direction of a human life.

Our self-chosen ways usually lead to our destruction. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Prov. 14:12).

God has not left it to us to decide what is right but only whether we will choose to walk the path of holiness he has marked for us. God alone is in position to know what is right and wrong. God is the only one who is holy enough, wise enough, and good enough to be able to tell us what is right and wrong.

My moral obligations to you do not arise from some sort of social contract we have established with one another. Those obligations grow out of the fact that you are in the image of God, and I owe you respect for that reason alone.

Since God is infinitely holy, wise, and just, we can put full confidence in the things he commands. His holiness is at the root of our obligation to moral purity. He asks nothing of us that is not already in evidence in his own character and nature.

I don’t resent the rules that I find God giving me in the Bible, because I know something about God and his workings. If I were to stumble across the Bible and read some of its rules for the living of a human life, I might not be too impressed. But because I know of the holiness, wisdom, and love of the one who wrote the book and gave the rules, I am going to take the moral commandments of Scripture seriously. I am going to commit myself to them in the confidence that doing so will help make life what it ought to be.

A World in Need of Rules. The Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago has said: “Our society and this ‘openness’ have created adjustment problems for the individual. There are fewer of these problems when a society has widely accepted standards for morals and manners. Today, we don’t have such a situation.”

People are happier, more secure, and their lives more manageable when they have some fixed norms and standards to appeal to for direction. The person who lacks a fixed point of integration for his or her behavior is going to be frustrated constantly.

I’m reminded of something Terry and I learned as young parents. When our back yard was enclosed by a fence, our children went to the areas of the yard away from our house…when we lived where there was not a fence, they were not as secure and stayed closer to the house. Rules…norms…restrictions serve the same purpose for us.

Many people refrain from stealing, adultery, murder, or other similar acts not because they fear punishment but because they believe such things are wrong. Internal restraints on behavior are far more powerful than external ones.

Reading through this text makes us recognize some important facts to understanding what the Ten Commandments are really all about …

God spoke all of this. They are words that God spoke. They are a vision of the kind of people God wants us to be They are God’s hope for us. These ten words describe how a people relate to God and how they relate to one another.

In this Decalogue, something is revealed about God and something is revealed about ourselves … God is a saving God. He rescues. He is the God who brought his people out of Egypt. He is the God who saves us from sin. He is the God that creates and sustains. He is the righteous judge who responds to sinfulness.

We see how holy God is and we see how we fall short. If we are self-righteous, these Ten Words show us that we are not nearly as righteous as we think. People often look over these Ten Words and ask, “Which of the commandments have I broken?” But that’s the question we ask if we view these ten words as a set of rules carved in stone, when we understand that “God spoke all of this” then we realize that WE ARE broken.

But the gospel of these Ten Words is that God is not going to leave us broken. God spoke all of this in order to draw a broken humanity closer to Him. God really intends for us to live differently. He knows that we can do better and mature. It seems impossible, but with God all things are possible.

 A man and his ne’er-do-well son went deep-sea fishing. When they started back toward the shore after dark, the older man was exhausted from the day. So he turned the boat over to his son and lay down to catch a nap on the boat. Before going to sleep, he showed the boy the North Star and told him how to keep the boat on course by navigating with it. No sooner had the father gone to sleep than the son decided to catch forty winks himself. When he woke up, however, he was frightened to discover that the boat had turned out to sea. They were lost, and the boy had no idea of how to reorient himself and get back to land safely.

He rushed over to where his father was sleeping, shook him by the shoulders, and said, “Dad, wake up! You’ve got to show me another star. We’ve run clean past that first one you showed me!”

You don’t run past the North Star in this hemisphere, although you can lose sight of it and get lost. In the same way, you don’t run past the Ten Commandments in charting a course for your moral and spiritual life. You may take your eyes off them and get terribly lost on an uncharted ocean of sin!

In this series of studies, no “new star” for our guidance is going to be identified. There will be an effort made to redirect our attention to the place where it should have been all along. We have been asleep! We have gotten our eyes off the North Star for right living! It is high time that we refocus our attention on the words of the Almighty and chart a life course by them.

I want us to begin by thinking of the word “chaos”?
· Theory that explained what went wrong in “Jurassic Park”?
· Your teenager’s bedroom?
 
I want to draw a working definition of chaos from Genesis 1:2:
(Gen 1:2) “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
 
Chaos: “a vacuum, a void, an emptiness … not filled and transformed by the voice or Word of God.”.
 
We often spend time talking about the culture in which we live and admitting that our culture is in a MESS.
 
But this is only symptomatic of a much deeper problem: void/vacuum/ emptiness that exists at center of American soul:
· A void marked by an absence or a poverty– of self-restraint, moral absolutes, compassion, civility.
· Void that cannot be filled, only exacerbated by drugs and alcohol, violence and immoral sex (real or vicarious), money, power or material goods.
 
Jim McGuiggan, in his book Caution: Men at Work…if the sign says “GOD at Work,” there is hope: for that’s what undid the chaos in beginning.
 
Talking about what we “DON’T” won’t do; to merely adopt a “prophetic” tone by cursing the darkness encourages among us the spirit of self-righteousness or superiority.
 
Our goal is to allow Peter to issue a call to Christian excellence and holy accountability.
 
The first action of God when it was time to create the universe? Deal with the chaos. That’s what God does!
· Where there is void, he wishes to fill it by His creative power
· Where there is emptiness and loneliness and chaos, He goes to work to bring into being something orderly and meaningful and beautiful.
 
(Isa 45:18-19)  “For this is what the LORD says– he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited– he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. {19} I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.”

Our God is a God of revelation…not of chaos but truth … did not cloaked His being in nature, but has spoken to us, once through his prophets, now  “by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the universe.” (Heb 1:1-2)

Jesus told a chilling parable about that:

(Mat 12:43-45) “”When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. {44} Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. {45} Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”” (some have called this the Parable of the Haunted House.).
 
What makes this especially chilling: He was talking about not about houses but people …empty people: empty of joy, empty of authority; empty of Lordship, empty of God.
 
If ‘nature abhors vacuum’… then Satan loves one…he loves to “repossess” empty hearts.

The problem with chaos?: something WILL fill an emptiness, rush in to fill the void: that’s why people watch 40 hrs TV/wk … take drugs … hire prostitutes … shop till they drop … join cults — to fill the emptiness! (by no way am I listing items here in the order of harm done).
 
But any fullness but God’s…only deepens the hunger, only intensifies the emptiness, until the “final condition worse than first.”
 
What has PETER to say to us about the CHAOS? 1 Peter is written to a church in the midst of culture at best indifferent, at worst hostile, to it.
 
Roman culture was willing to tolerate Christians so long as they kept their religious notions to themselves … so long as they exhibited a broadminded spirit.
 
But this, Church of Jesus Christ could not do that… so they were persecuted.. (1 Pet 2:9-10): “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. {10} Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
 
Peter’s wonderful strategy is to address this head on, immediately, from the first sentence in his letter: “Dear scattered strangers … spiritual exiles.”
 
Conventional wisdom today: always go “inclusive” … but Peter knows he must appeal to their set-apartness (holiness) if he is to keep Church from conforming to the Chaos of the secular world.
 
‘Yes, as “strangers in this world” they were made to feel strange … as “resident aliens” they experienced alienation … “peculiar people” will be looked upon as peculiar.
Peter’s words are sympathetic and supportive, but blunt and foreboding:  ‘I know these are tough times for believers … and they could get tougher.”
 
So he speaks to them of “TRIALS”:

(1 Pet 1:6-7) “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. {7} These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

(1 Pet 4:12-13) “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. {13} But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”

What is the purpose of trials? To force or encourage us to get at the TRUTH.
 
Interesting: the kinds of “trials” Peter speaks of, which would serve to reveal truth and the genuineness of their faith, were largely VERBAL: several different words are used in the verses: insults, slander, malicious talk: verbal violence. (2; 12, 3:9, 3:16, 4:14)
 
“Persecution” in 1 Peter: initially it was not in the form of Polycarp in the arena … but verbal rejection: slings and arrows of outrageous co-workers, or neighbors, who (4:4) “think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation”
 
Today it would be the person who is ridiculed because he won’t laugh at their sexist joke, who won’t stand quietly by and tolerate racist language, who won’t keep the gossip alive, who won’t trade insult for insult.
 
Along the way, Peter indirectly speaks of different “trials” — internal ones: evil desires (1:14), malice, deceit, slander, hypocrisy” (2: 1), even feelings of resentment, that they were undergoing trials (4:12)!
 
Peter’s challenge: Silence your critics, persecutors, peer-pressurers … with your LIVES.

(1 Pet 2:11-12) “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. {12} Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
 
Show them how Christians love … care … serve … speak … “do good” (Peter’s signature phrase in this epistle) … and if need be, die.
 
Story of a minister who found out he was going to die in next year of cancer…wondered what he would do with his time” “Thought of resigning my duties at church, so I could travel, or rest; then I thought, no, for years now I’ve been telling my church how to live … I figure now I have a chance to show them how to die. (I preached at a congregation in Mansfield, Ohio, that had a youth minister who had cancer and knew he would die in a few months…he stayed on the job and even made a video that was played at his funeral).
 
Four Items Which Bring About Chaos
A. Absence of Biblical authority.
(1 Pet 1:13) “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
 
(1 Pet 3:15-16) “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, {16} keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
 
Chaos will always result when there is no authoritative source of truth. What fills that void? The WORD OF GOD, the revelation of God who has always spoken the truth, who always declared what is right.
 
Truth is not merely some abstract body of orthodox religious laws – truth is that which makes life work…grow…to be rich and full … in contrast, lies are what make our lives small, shrink and die.
 
Every society needs voices that keep asking the right questions of its values: Are they true? Not, fashionable, sophisticated, profitable, my right … but is it RIGHT?

(1) Is materialism true?

(2) Is individualism true?

(3) Sex okay between consenting adults?. Not if your body was created by God, and purchased with a price.  

But — I fear we are becoming more and more ill-equipped to answer the Chaos. While we were known as “People of the Book” in years past —for some, that has become more an honorary designation than an earned one.

1:13: “Prepare your minds for action.”

Gird up loins, roll up sleeves. We’re going to have to THINK!
 
3;15: “Be prepared to give an answer”

Apologian/defense/a reasoned response. Some Bible paraphrases offer to define that answer (Phillips: “quiet and reverent answer”) That is, not mean-spirited, not argumentative, not condescending.
 
A Biblically illiterate church will surely fall victim to “AIDS”: Acquired Immune-Deficient Spirituality.
 
When our faith is on trial, we will be found immune and deficient: no answer/ reason to offer for our hope … and hope without a reason is ultimately hopeless. People who know their theology … will not be such easy prey to modern secularism, or theological liberalism, or New Age pantheism. 

Absence of moral identity. 

1. (1 Pet 1:15-16) “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; {16} for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.””
   
   Peter makes sure his church knows who they are:
   · God’s elect/chosen (1:1-2) obedient children (1:14)
   · blood-bought redeemed (1:18-19) living stones in spiritual house (2:5)
   · holy priesthood (2:5) holy nation (2:9)
   · people of God (2: 10) free servants of God (2: 16)
   · brothers … saints … CHRISTIANS (4:16; only 2 other times, Acts).
    
   Morality grows out of, radiates from, identity.
    
   In Peter’s day, Christians could take a trip to Pompeii and gaze at erotica that decorated walls of public/private buildings; today, log onto internet and type in “SEX”: far and away the most popular search word on internet (did a search for this lesson and came back with “about 1,84 trillion results (0.35 seconds).
    
   Such confusion: tv/movies/professional sports has sought to give a legitimacy to the new paganism … not by argumentation and thoughtful reason … but by presenting images of attractive people doing shameful things.
    
   C. Absence of the experience of transcendence.
   (1 Pet 1:8-9) “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, {9} for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

When Timothy Leary died a few years ago, he reminded us of the amazing decade of 60’s … psychedelic excursions into transcendental meditation and drug-induced mystical experiences (Leary, a hippie to end, was still exploring the wonders of reefer madness).
 
What drove that misguided quest, still drives much drug use today: HUNGER … for experience of transcendence (cheap substitute): something thrilling, be it faster roller coaster, stunningly-violent movie (“Pulp Fiction”), or a hit of crack cocaine.
What we have to offer is not some religious adrenalin experience (“getting high on Jesus”) .….but the possibility of a living relationship with transcendent God, creator of the deepest joys the human heart can know.
 
I am not talking about some contrived emotionalism or cheap sentimentalism (where we turn down the lights and sing “Kum Ba Ya”) … but centering our worship upon Almighty God, singing hearty praises to our risen Lord.
 
(1 Pet 1:3-6) “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, {4} and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you, {5} who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. {6} In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” 

Does that capture the spirit of your worship service? It should. 

 
D. Absence of a Sure Foundation.
(1 Pet 2:4-6) “As you come to him, the living Stone–rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him– {5} you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. {6} For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.””
 
Terry and I were in the Northeast for a weekend seminar/meeting when we realized we were a few hours from Washington, D.C. We went to see Mr. Lincoln, arriving around 10 pm on a very cold February evening. We saw what has been called “a craggy face captured in Georgia marble” by Daniel Chester French:

• All worldly standards: Lincoln was an ugly man.
• A Charleston paper: “horrid looking wretch”
• Houston paper: “leanest, lankest most ungainly mass of legs and arms and hatchet face ever strung on a single frame.”
• Another paper simply referred to Lincoln as “the gorilla.”
• But our affection for Lincoln transcends physical features. We see beyond the ‘obvious’ and look at the heart and character of the man’s life.

Peter: They looked at the Master, rejected him (as Isa. 53 said) … perhaps because He was so ordinary, perhaps because He asked for so much.  

But we look at the alternatives … there is no other foundation. Nothing else fills the Void. For as his Father did at that first dawn, He has dealt with the Chaos (of our sin), and thus we are re-created in Him.
 
Conclusions
Our Age looks into the Chaos and says: “Let me indulge your every desire … Let me substitute illusion for Truth … Let me distract you, thrill you, entertain you … Surely this will fill your emptiness.
 
Our God looked into the Chaos and said: “Be strong, be faithful, be true.
 
1 Pet 1:18-21: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, {19} but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. {20} He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. {21} Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

Matthew 26:1-16 (ESV)
¹  When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples,
²  “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
³  Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,
⁴  and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.
⁵  But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Matthew does not claim to give us a chronological account of the events of the last week. At this point he inserted a flashback to describe the feast in Bethany and the beautiful act that Mary performed.

The religious leaders were meeting to plot against Jesus, but His friends were meeting to show their love and devotion to Him. Also, by joining these two accounts, Matthew showed the connection between Mary’s worship and Judas’ betrayal.

It was after the feast in Bethany that Judas went to the priests and offered his help Mark 14:10-11 (ESV)
¹⁰  Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.
¹¹  And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

The feast at Bethany took place “six days before the Passover” (John 12:1) in the house of Simon the leper. Apparently he had been healed by the Lord Jesus. There were at least seventeen people at this dinner: Simon, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Jesus, and the 12 Apostles. True to her character as the “doer” in the family, Martha did the serving

Luke 10:38-42 (ESV)
³⁸  Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
³⁹  And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.
⁴⁰  But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”
⁴¹  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
⁴²  but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Mary (v. 7).

⁶  Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
⁷  a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.

The three key persons in this event are Mary, Judas, and Jesus. Only John identifies this woman as Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus. She is found only three times in the Gospels, and in each instance she is at the feet of Jesus.

She sat at His feet and listened to the Word: Luke 10:38-42 (ESV)
³⁸  Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
³⁹  And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.
⁴⁰  But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”
⁴¹  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
⁴²  but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

She came to His feet in sorrow after the death of Lazarus John 11:28-32 (ESV)
²⁸  When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹  And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
³⁰  Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
³¹  When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
³²  Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

She worshiped at His feet when she anointed Him with the ointment (our study today). Mary was a deeply spiritual woman. She found at His feet her blessing, she brought to His feet her burdens, and she gave at His feet her best.

When we combine the Gospel records, we learn that she anointed both His head and His feet, and wiped His feet with her hair. A woman’s hair is her glory (1 Cor. 11:15). She surrendered her glory to the Lord and worshiped Him with the precious gift that she brought. It was an act of love and devotion that brought fragrance to the whole house.

Because she had listened to His word, Mary knew that soon Jesus would die and be buried. She also knew that His body would not need the traditional care given to the dead because His body would not see corruption. Instead of anointing His body after His death, she did so before His death. It was an act of faith and love.

Judas (vv. 8-9). ⁸  And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? ⁹  For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”

The disciples did not know the true character of Judas. His criticism of Mary sounded so “spiritual” that they joined him in attacking her. We know the real reason Judas wanted the ointment sold: The money would go into the treasury and he would be able to use it: John 12:6 (ESV) ⁶  He said this, not because he cared about 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.).

Notice that every time Mary sought to do something for Jesus, she was misunderstood:

• Her sister Martha misunderstood her when Mary sat at Jesus’ feet to hear Him teach the Word.
• Judas and the other disciples misunderstood her when she anointed Jesus.
• Her friends and neighbors misunderstood her when she came out of the house to meet Jesus after Lazarus had been buried John 11:28-31 (ESV) ²⁸ When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
  ²⁹  And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
  ³⁰  Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
  ³¹  When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

When we give Jesus Christ first place in our lives, we can expect to be misunderstood and criticized by those who claim to follow Him.

Jesus (vv. 10-16). ¹⁰  But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.
¹¹  For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
¹²  In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.
¹³  Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

He immediately came to the defense of Mary, for He always protects His own. He rebuked Judas and the other disciples and praised Mary for her loving act of devotion. Nothing given to Jesus in love is ever wasted.

Her act of worship not only brought joy to the heart of Jesus and fragrance to the house, but also blessing to the whole world. Her devotion encourages us to love and serve Christ with our very best. Such service brings blessings to others that perhaps we will know nothing about until we see Him.

Jesus did not criticize the disciples because they were concerned about the poor. He was concerned about the poor, and we should be too. He was cautioning them against missing their opportunity to worship Him. They would always have opportunities to help the poor. But they would not always have the opportunity to worship at His feet and prepare Him for burial.

Whatever the answer to the question of identification, the story is indeed what Jesus called it—the story of a lovely thing; and in it are enshrined certain very precious truths.

It shows us love’s extravagance. The woman took the most precious thing she had and poured it out on Jesus. Jewish women were very fond of perfume; and often they carried a little alabaster phial of it round their necks. Such perfume was very valuable.

Both Mark and John make the disciples say that this perfume could have been sold for three hundred denarii (Mk 14:5; Jn 12:5); which means that this phial of perfume represented very nearly a whole year’s wages for a working man. Or we may think of it this way. When Jesus and his disciples were discussing how the multitude were to be fed, Philip’s answer was that two hundred denarii would scarcely be enough to feed them. This phial of perfume, therefore, cost as much as it would take to feed a crowd of five thousand people.

It was something as precious as that which this woman gave to Jesus, and she gave it because it was the most precious thing she had. Love never calculates; love never thinks how little it can decently give; love’s one desire is to give to the uttermost limits; and, when it has given all it has to give, it still thinks the gift too little.

It shows us that there are times when the commonsense view of things fails. On this occasion the voice of common sense said, “What waste!” and no doubt it was right. But there is a world of difference between the economics of common sense and the economics of love.

Common sense obeys the dictates of prudence; but love obeys the dictates of the heart. There is in life a large place for common sense; but there are times when only love’s extravagance can meet love’s demands. A gift is never really a gift when we can easily afford it; a gift truly becomes a gift only when there is sacrifice behind it, and when we give far more than we can afford.

It shows us that certain things must be done when the opportunity arises, or they can never be done at all. The disciples were anxious to help the poor; but the Rabbis themselves said, “God allows the poor to be with us always, that the opportunities for doing good may never fail.”

There are some things which we can do at any time; there are some things which can be done only once; and to miss the opportunity to do them then is to miss the opportunity for ever. Often we are moved by some generous impulse, and do not act upon it; and all the chances are that the circumstances, the person, the time, and the impulse, will never return. For so many of us the tragedy is that life is the history of the lost opportunities to do the lovely thing.

It tells us that the fragrance of a lovely deed lasts forever. There are so few lovely things that one shines like a light in a dark world. At the end of Jesus’ life there was so much bitterness, so much treachery, so much intrigue, so much tragedy that this story shines like an oasis of light in a darkening world. In this world there are few greater things that a man may do than leave the memory of a lovely deed.

Matthew 26:14-16 (ESV)
¹⁴  Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
¹⁵  and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.
¹⁶  And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him