What do we do with texts that seem to be saying one thing in the Bible and then in another place seem to be going elsewhere? Careful reading is always in great demand. Lean into this text with me and ask some different questions.
So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]
What do we do with texts that seem to be saying one thing in the Bible and then in another place seem to be going elsewhere? Careful reading is always in great demand. Lean into this text with me and ask some different questions.
So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]
Good morning church. Have you ever heard of the church of the cross at the crossroads in Effingham, Illinois, over 200 feet tall or st. Mark's Basilica in Venice, 200 years to build, let me give you some stats on these things. So this is from, uh, America's largest largest CROs in Effingham, Illinois. It says that it's 190 feet tall and 113 feet wide forge out of over 180 tons of steel anchored in untold fathoms of cement. The cross can withstand the winds hurled by the evilest of forces up to 145 miles an hour. It's also said that about 20 million people drive past it as it's at the intersection of two major interstates st. Mark's Basilica in Venice st. Mark's Basilica, didn't just take 200 years to build it. It also has enough mosaics, by the way, I've seen these mosaics up close. When I was there as a kid, they had a catwalks up there and it was all under renovation and restoration. Um, anyway, enough mosaic to cover one and a half football fields, more than 500 columns and the pallet, the Oro, or the, the plate of gold, the screen of gold between the altar. And that is massive. Um, 1300 pounds of gold. Anyway, as I do this, as I go through these details to this morning, why comes to mind? Why do some Christians spare no expense and others miss no opportunity to criticize them by saying that money could have done X or Y just recently. Um, I had was in the presence of a couple pastors doing that about the cross of the crossroads. I've heard people talk about churches and why do they need the fancy buildings? And all that today's text is on that. Let me read from John 12, six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany. The home of Lazarus, the man he had raised from the dead, a dinner was prepared in Jesus's honor. Martha served and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. Then Mary took a 12 ounce jar of expensive perfume or a Nard made from essence. And she anointed jesus' feet with a wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance, but Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said that perfume was worth a year's wages. It should have been sold. And the money given to the poor sold and the money given to the poor, not that he cared for the poor, he was a thief. And since he was in charge of the disciples, money often stole some for himself, leave her alone. Jesus said she did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you'll not always have me. When the people heard of jesus' arrival, they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus. The man Jesus had raised from the dead and then the leading priest decided to kill Lazarus to for, it was because of him that so many people had deserted them and believed in Jesus. The next, the next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors took Palm branches and went down to the, meet him at the road, shouting praise God, blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, hail to the King of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said, don't be afraid. People of Jerusalem. Look, your Tom King is coming on the cult of a donkey. His disciples didn't understand a time that this was a fulfillment that after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had been realized. And these things that had been written about him, many in the crowd had seen Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead. And they were telling others about it. That was the reason so many went out to meet him because they had heard about the miraculous sign. Then the Pharisee said to each other, there's nothing we can do. Look, the world has gone after him. There is some parallel supporting street scriptures that I want to draw on today. Um, from Matthew 25, how Jesus speaking about how you treat the least of these, right? The poor that money could have been used to feed the poor, how you treat the least of these is how you treat Jesus. That's one of those texts, those texts in here that there are over 45 verses on feeding the poor and taking care of the poor in the Bible. There's also about the same number of texts about not judging there's there's also right, real detailed texts like Luke 13, when the disciples come to Jesus, a tower had collapsed and killed a number of people and they came to and they said, what's sand. See there's there's what's sended. They do to cause the tower to fall on them. It's a very pertinent sort of question to today's life. And in Christ that we have, what did they do to cause that disease to come upon them? And Jesus responds to them sort of saying, no, you need to ask yourselves a different question. Not what sin did they do that because of my sin. Why didn't that tower fall on me? And so in Luke 18, there's two people praying, right? There's a tax collector that beats his chest and he's a sinner and he's seeking any stays in the back. And then there's a Pharisee that comes up and gives a very proud sort of prayer. It's quite famous that there was a prayer that some of the Pharisees and, and Jewish leaders of the time would say, thank God I wasn't born a woman or a, or a Samaritan or anything like that. Anyway, thank God for that. I was born in American or, and not a Bangla dashi or whatever that is. And then in acts four and five and NIS, and Safira come and they make an offering, but they make a duplicitous offering. Or in other words, they say, they're giving everything, but they're not. This is what I know about God and how he interacts with us in this sort of situation. One is that God honors, every single move and individual makes towards him always. And the flip side of that is he knows the difference between what's been done for show and what's been done for love. He knows the difference. Do we always even know the difference in her own lives? I don't think so. So he knows the difference between them. What do I know about humans in this very same situation? I know that humans like to spend other people's money, but don't often put their money where their mouth is. And they like to judge other's actions and to honor themselves. Oh. And to judge other people's actions. So what is there in this text today that we could learn? I need us to know church, the Judas and the farracies sort of line up in this spot where people aren't doing it their way. Now I'm not to say saying that Mary and the crowds cutting branches down, or we're pouring the Nard. I don't know anything about their motivations. I know that they were trying to honor God. Maybe some of them were trying to get seen honoring God. I don't know. What should we do in each situation? How should we act as God's spoken to us on that? Yes, I believe he has. That's why I call this keeping the main thing, the main thing, or walk your own walk with Christ. We begin by asking the right questions when I'm doing something, when I'm judging somebody or when I'm acting myself or I'm deciding to do something for God, what is my heart after in the thing, am I trying to be famous? Or am I trying to be helpful? I try to be loving or I'm trying to be, I'm the one that knows how to do things. Right. Okay. The second question, am I honoring Jesus in my actions? And in the way I'm doing it. So even if I'm trying to be loving of the poor in our area, sometimes, sometimes it feels like we give to them, but we don't really honor them in the process. So we're, we're sort of giving stuff at them, but not with them. We're not, we're not doing it with them and loving them and all this other stuff. So the third question I am is, is this, am I okay? Is someone else has a different way of honoring Jesus? My okay with that? So let's get back into this text for a second. He's at a meal he's raised Judas from the dad and Mary Martha is serving notice that Martha isn't telling Mary to serve anymore. She's not doing that. That's from an earlier text. Mary comes out and pours the Nard Judas complaints. Then, then there's some stuff in the text in there about him being the fif. Anyway, look, it doesn't matter. The thing here that we need to know is we need to be asking the right question, church, checking our own hearts and not spending a lot of time judging others. We need, instead of saying why didn't, why didn't they spend all those 200 years fixing the lives of the poor in Venice instead of making 500 columns on the front of the thing or, or all spending all that gold in that way, what we don't know is what they were doing. Were they doing it for the honor and glory of the Lord, or they're doing it for the honor and glory of the name of the architect or the doge, which is the leader's name and Venice look, we don't know the people that spend over a million dollars for the cross at the crossroads. And in Illinois, 200 feet tall can withstand the most evilest forces of wind up to 145 miles an hour. But, you know, I don't know what happens when it gets over that. I know my parents were in Guam and the wind detection devices that were set up to take 200 plus mile an hour. Winds got blown down one time. So I know winds can go over that. I don't know what I do know that as soon as I apply what I know to their process, I'm not paying any intention to my process with the Lord anymore church. We need to spend the time paying attention to the cross that we're called to carry the service that we're called to do the worship that we're called to bring the love relationship with our Lord. That we're called into and spend a lot last time. Wondering if somebody else couldn't just be doing it better, or if they were doing it our way, they would be better. So church that's walk our own walk with Christ. Let's do that here. The text, do that. Will you pray with me, Lord Jesus. I ask you to convict my heart. Help me not to ask the questions about what's wrong with them. But instead of ask the question, what's wrong with me, correct? In me, create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me. Lord Jesus. We call on you to guide us and strengthen us. Lead us. Guide us, keep us from judging others. When we don't know what's going on in your precious name, Lord, help us honor you. Amen.