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"Like Mary, Give Jesus Your Best" John 12:1-7

by The Rev. Clancy Nixon

March 12, 2006

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.holyspiritanglican.org

The story goes of an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman who enter a café

together. They all order soup, and at the same time, a single fly lands in each one of the

three bowls. Now the Englishman, very proper, takes his spoon, dips the fly out, and

folds it in his napkin. That solves his problem. The Irishman is not nearly as couth, and

he brings his bowl to his mouth level, and he blows across the top of the full bowl of

soup, splattering it everywhere, but the fly is now gone, so his problem is solved. Now

the Scotsman very carefully picks up the fly by one wing, and lectures it saying, "I paid

for that soup. Now spit it out, all of it!" I have both Irish blood and Scottish, so what I

have to say about money and giving gifts today does not come naturally. Thanks be to

God, when we are born again, He gives us a new nature, so we are free to think about

money and stuff from God's perspective. God owns everything we think we own, down

to the fillings in our teeth, and we are called to give him our best.

I'd like for us to look at Mary of Bethany's extravagant gift of devotion to the

Lord, her gift of a pint of pure Nard.

Mary's heart is sold out for the Lord, and this gift is just one expression of that

devotion. In John's gospel, Mary is always depicted at Jesus' feet. You'll remember that

while her sister Martha was busy serving, Mary sat at Jesus' feet, listening to him. Here

in John 12, Mary anoints Jesus' feet with Nard and wipes them with her hair. Being at

Jesus' feet signifies Mary's devotion to Jesus as her master, her devotion to listen to him,

follow him, and to be his servant. Beyond that, Mary's extravagant gift offers a great

example to us about giving a freewill offering.

In Jesus' day, nard was used for perfume, for medicine, and as a breath freshener.

They didn't have Certs or Listerine, so it was very expensive to have sweet breath in

those days! Nard is red in color, and it produces a sweet smell, very like gladiolas.

What do we learn from Mary's giving?

First, notice that Mary gave an extravagant gift. It cost 300 denarii, which

was one year's wages for a common workman. That would be like a $30,000 gift today.

The Nard at that time was worth four times today's high price for gold. It's not clear

where Mary might have got that kind of money, but we do know that it was a huge gift. It

cost her dearly. Judas complained about how it could have been given for the poor.

Jesus tells Judas to leave her alone, and Jesus says that Mary's gift was what God wanted.

Jesus is saying that no gift is too precious that shows gratitude for the great gift he is

about to give us on the cross at Calvary. Mary's gift was extravagant, and Jesus

commends her for it. Extravagant gifts, costly gifts for the Lord are good. King David

said, "I will not worship the Lord if it costs me nothing." Can you guess what Mary felt

like while giving this gift? I imagine her aflame with delight to give something so

precious to the one she loved so dearly.

Second, notice that Mary gave her best. Mary could have given a lesser quality

nard from Syria, which cost about only one hundred dollars per pound. It was only the

best nard from north India that cost three hundred denarii. Mary of Bethany bought pure

nard, not the kind that was cut with other stuff to make it cheaper and less pure. In the

law of Moses, animals given for sacrifice to God needed to be healthy and unblemished.

Giving God our best honors God. There is a difference between God's good, and God's

best. Mary's gift was the best. If she had given Syrian nard, or if she had given the money

to the poor, that would have pleased God, too; it would have been good, but it would not

have been the best that Mary could give. If we give a good gift, but do not press in, in

prayer, to understand what God wants us to give, we miss a blessing. If we are content

with receiving God's good for us, we can give him something good. But if we want

God's best for us, we need to give him our best.

Third, notice that Mary's gift was personal. This was not given to the general

fund for Judas or the apostles to decide what to do with it. It was her personal gift. I

believe that the Lord had led her to do this odd thing, this personal thing, as a sign. Signs

point somewhere else, and this one pointed to the cross. Jesus said that God the Father

intended for her to do this. In those days, nard and perfume were more often associated

with celebration than with burial. We don't know if Mary understood the meaning of her

gift; we do know that Mary adored Jesus. Pouring out a year's wages expressed the

depth of her loving relationship with Jesus.

The other gospels indicate that Mary anointed Jesus not just at his feet, but poured

this pint on his head. It probably soaked his clothes and skin, entered his pores and

scented his whole body. We all know what it is like to enter a room, and there is a

woman with too much perfume on, far, far too much! Imagine that smell, and multiply

that by about twenty. Jesus must have really stood out you could say he stunk! It was a

sweet smell, but if you got anywhere near him for days, you could not miss him the

nard marked him, not only with smell, but by the color of blood - red. In those days

people bathed very infrequently, and wore the same clothes every day. Jesus went to the

cross and died less than a week after the anointing, and I imagine that he probably still

smelled of the nard that Mary gave him, even on the cross. That was the gift Mary

wanted to give. This is the gift that Jesus said she would be remembered by for all

generations. What gratitude she must have had. Jesus had personally restored her family

by bringing her brother Lazarus back from the dead, so she gave a personal gift to her

guest of honor.

On a human level, that gift of nard did not make much sense. I've heard a

financial planner say, "Don't give too much, because when you give, you hurt your

cause." They mean it takes you longer to reach your financial goal. Bill Hybels says he

can hear Heaven saying, "Excuse me." When you give your best, something good

happens in you that cannot happen in any other way. Giving your best is an act of

defiance toward greed, toward hoarding, toward envy and covetousness. Giving your best

is saying, "Take that, greed; take that, you former life when I was so selfish. Take that."

When you bless God and others, something good happens in you.

But what if you don't know how much to give? Let's read James 1:5 together: "If

any one of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously without

finding fault, and it will be given to him." Ask God; he'll give you wisdom about what to

give.

Wisdom is not given only in a direct word from the Lord. I call that Pentecostal

discernment, or listening to God it's the gift of prophecy, the sense that God is speaking

to you directly. Some very mature believers do not have that gift, and never once in their

life have had a sense that God spoke to them in English like that. Many times, God will

impress on a person a strong desire to do something for him. Friends, that heart

movement is most often from God.

The Lord praised Mary's gift. Notice that she did not care what people thought

it was considered immodest for a woman to unfurl her hair before anyone except her

husband. Mary gave from her heart, heedless of her reputation. That's how we are to

give, no matter how it looks to others it's about your heart. You know, you don't have

to wait for God to ask you to give to him a specific thing in order to be released to give it

to him! Have you heard some people say they can't receive a particular gift because it is

too much, too generous? God is never like that God knows that he owns it all already,

and he knows that it blesses you to give your best. You might be upset to give a gift

beyond what He asked, but God is not upset to receive it. Jesus didn't say, "Aw, Mare,

you shouldn't have." I've given you advice not to give more than you think God tells

you to give to protect you from resentment, not to protect God. You might want to give a

personal gift, something that might remind that person of you. My mother used to knit me

sweaters, and do needlepoint, and I treasure those things she made with her own hands.

Today, I want to give you permission to give to On This Rock building faith

what you'd like to give to God, even though you don't know how much to give; or if you

do know how much you'd like to give, but you don't know how on earth you can

possibly give that much. Let me give an example. You may have run the numbers and

your budget, and got agreement with your spouse so that you can see clear to make a

commitment to give $5,000 each year for three years. You did your homework, and that

is what you think you can afford. Let's also assume that as you prayed, the Lord laid it on

your heart that you'd like to give $10,000 per year for the next three years. But you don't

see how you can afford that higher number. I give you and your spouse permission to

write down the higher number on your commitment card, even though you don't see how

you can afford it. If you believe that God wants you to give that higher number, you may

do that. It is not irresponsible to do that.

What if you don't have agreement with your spouse on a number? Well, if you

don't agree on this or any other thing with your mate, then you should discuss your

reasons why you think you are called to give this number and not that, and make every

effort to come to agreement. You should also both go back to prayer. My advice is to do

those two things at least twice. If you still don't agree, then I suggest that you give the

highest number that you can both give cheerfully, which will probably be closer to the

lower number than the higher number. Don't resent your gift. Let it come from your

heart.

Like Mary of Bethany, give an extravagant gift. Give your best gift. Give a

personal gift, a gift from your heart. Don't miss this great opportunity to be a part of

what God is doing to build our church and our faith. It will bless you to give your best.

We are in this together. We are with you. As we move together in faith to give our best,

we will experience God's best for us together.

As we close, I'd like to ask you to take a minute or two to pray with me that God

would show you a number to give for On This Rock Building Faith. I'm asking you to

make a written commitment in exactly one week, March 19. If you are not yet ready in

one week, there is still time before April 9, our victory announcement. We'll make our

first fruits offering, our first gift of money, in two weeks, on March 26. For those who

have already gone through this process, please pray for those who have not yet done so.

I'm going to ask you to silently ask God to show you what he would like you to give.

Then write down that number somewhere. If you're married, later tonight, ask your mate

what number he or she got, and pray through to agreement. For now, let's pray.

Come, Holy Spirit. We're trusting in your promise given in James 1:5....

Now I'm going to ask the director-level leaders of the On This Rock campaign,

and the members of the board of directors of our church, to come forward with their

families and place their written pledges in the basket. As they do that, let's sing.