Ointment Poured Upon Jesus

Mark says, I think the book of Mark describes them trying to take him by craft and kill him. Let me just say this, I’m not gonna spend any time here but you know, it’s good in our lives if we have a like a trigger, a trigger. In other words, if we’re involved in something that’s if you have triggers in place in your life and you’re involved in something and that trigger is triggered, it gives you an opportunity to reevaluate where you’re at and what you’re doing.

And here’s a trigger. This is just a just practical practical wisdom here. If you’re doing something, if I’m doing something that requires subtlety, I’m not talking about keeping a birthday surprise from somebody either but if I’m doing something that requires subtlety and craft to do it, that’s probably a good indication that I’m involved in something I shouldn’t be involved in, right? That should be a good trigger for us. It’s like, well, maybe I need to reevaluate.

If I find myself using this kind of craft and what does it say about these guys as religious as they are, as sanctimonious, as righteous as they appear, yet they’re using craft and and subtlety to accomplish their ends. Of course, their ends are bloodthirsty. Verse number five, the Bible says, but they said not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment and poured it on his head as he sat at meat.

And when his disciples saw it, they had indignation saying, to what purpose was this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, why trouble you the woman? For she hath brought a good work on me, upon me. For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in whole world, this shall also, there shall also this that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. Would you pray with me this morning? Lord in heaven, we come to you now once again in the name of Christ, and we ask your blessing and help upon our study of your word. Lord, if you don’t help us, Lord, our our study of your word will indeed be fruitless. Lord, we ask you to speak to our hearts and to guide our our thoughts and our understandings.

We pray for your power to be manifest to to rebuke the efforts of Satan to distract us from the truth of scripture and lord, you would not allow him victory as he seeks to undermine your word and its effect in our lives and to snatch the seed out of our hearts. So, lord, help us to focus, help us not only to focus with our minds and with our eyes and ears, but also to listen with our hearts.

And I pray that you would help and bless your people. Lord, if there’d be someone among us who has not, though maybe they’ve known about the gospel. Yet, they’ve not applied the truth of the gospel to themselves and the forgiveness of sin and salvation and eternal life. Lord, prick the heart of that person whosoever they may be. We ask your help and grace now in Jesus name.

Amen. So, this lady this lady John identifies her. John chapter 12 identifies this lady as Mary, the the brother, the sister rather of Lazarus and Martha. And of course, if you go to John 12, you’ll see that Martha was of course serving and Mary was expressing devotion to Christ in this way. She brought, now now, she brought this ointment and John chapter 12 says that she anointed his feet.

This passage says that she anointed his head. She poured it on his head and there’s no reason to think that she didn’t do both and John says that she anointed his feet and then she wiped his feet with her hair. And so so John identifies this lady as as Mary and of course, this is where Mary lived. Verse six says, they were in Bethany which was what’s called a Sabbath day’s journey from Jerusalem. In other words, it was a it was close enough from Jerusalem that you could walk there and not consider to be violating the Sabbath. And so it was very nearby to Jerusalem, and they were in the house of Simon the leper. Verse number seven says this, and there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head and as he sat at meat.

Now this might sound a little bit odd to you and to me, but in this time, this would have been quite an honor. You know, when you when you think of when you think of pouring oily substance on your head, it’s usually why we wash our hair, right? We do. We wash our hair for the opposite. We lather it up to get all the oily substances out of our hair but not too many as the ladies know. You gotta have certain oil. I I don’t understand all that.

Men, we use we use the same bar of soap for for everything. For our hair, for our body, we use it for everything. We don’t care if it dries out our hair. We could not care less. I’m of that persuasion. We actually have three three in one soap, right? But in this day, that was not the case. What they would do is, as you can see in verse number seven, they it was an alabaster box of very precious ointment. This ointment would have been Mark it describes the ointment, he calls it spikenard. In modern terms, we would use the word nard, which is a flower that they would they would they would press the oil out of the flower. We we we call it essential oils. And they would take that oil and they would mix it with olive oil. And so we create an ointment.

And then of course the ointment would be fragrant with the fragrance of this flower. And of course, would be very costly just because of the the cost to produce it. And then they would put it, as you can see here in verse number seven, in an alabaster box. Now, alabaster is a stone. It’s a stone. It’s a white kind of creamy colored, almost translucent stone and it would be put in there and it would be sealed and so the only way that you could get the ointment out of the stone, there was it wasn’t like a lid, ‘d have to break the box. And that’s actually what it doesn’t say it in Matthew, but in Mark it says that she actually broke the box to get the ointment out. And this ointment was very, very expensive.

Another case, we’re not flipping back and forth, but Mark adds some information to this. But in Mark, the Bible says that they raised the objection because the ointment could have been sold for 300p, which you know, you probably already know is a full day’s wage, that is 1p, a penny. In the Roman coinage, a penny was a one day’s wage, a full twelve hour day have been paid a penny.

And and so you can imagine 300p, three hundred days labor. So in this time, you know, if we if we take three three twelve hours of labor in our day, one full day of labor, it would be something in the ballpark of 46,000 worth of ointment. If you just kinda, I know it probably doesn’t equate that way, but it’s something like that. It’s a lot of your life that has gone into buying this ointment, procuring this ointment. We don’t know where this ointment came from.

It was probably, she probably kept the ointment as kind of a commodity, kind of as a backstop, a nest egg. If you knew that you had if you had something, maybe you had a fancy car that was worth $50,000 and you maintain that thing and baby that thing and then, you came upon hard times, you knew you could probably sell that car and make $50,000 to take care of whatever business you had, that would be something you could keep as a nest egg, right? You could keep it in case of things went bad. And so maybe she kept it for that reason, but either way, she had this ointment and she probably kept it as some sort of investment as a way to save money.

And notice what she does with it. She verse seven says, she poured it on his head as he sat at meat. And again, that’s not something we do. You think about ointment, you know, dribbling down your face, down his beard, but the that was something that was commonly done. Anointing with oil, you know, is is like makeup. It was like freshening yourself up. You know, remember the you remember when the Pharisees, rather when Jesus, he he was talking about fasting and he said, when you fast, don’t be as hypocrites, but you need to anoint your head with oil. In other words, you know, freshen up and oil is one way they would do it. I’m sure the ladies would use just a dab of the ointment to, you know, as perfume.

And I want you to remember the idea of perfume here because that’s that’s gonna come back later in just a minute. You can imagine that this whole room, in fact, I think it’s Mark, I think it’s Mark, maybe John, mentions how that the house was filled with the odor of this this ointment that she poured on our lord’s head.

You think of the ointment and how expensive it is, and how it’s being used. We could very well let this ointment represent our life. And the box itself that holds this ointment to represent our body. You know, Romans chapter 12 tells us that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice. And our bodies, you know, our bodies, this is our our vehicle in which we live this life and this ointment can represent for, you know, for the way we’re looking at it now, could it could symbolize our life.

And the box represents our body. What do you have? What do you have? What physical possession do you have that you would not be willing to spend if you knew that your life hung in the balance?

Is there, I mean, however, I mean, maybe you have $500,000 in the bank, maybe a million, maybe 5, I have no idea. Maybe you have that fancy car I mentioned a minute ago. Is there anything as far as material possessions that you would not be willing to spend if you knew that by spending it, you would, it would save your life?

No. You know, that’s one thing that Job in the book of Job, that’s one thing the devil understood. You remember that? Whenever the devil was getting ready to tempt Job, of course, he tempted with tempted him with his body later, but at the the first temptation of of of the devil with Job was he says, skin for skin, yay, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

And you know, and and the devil, you know, you was using that to his advantage but it does reveal a truth which is the devil knew that the life was considered by a man to be more valuable than any material possession such that he would relinquish it all if he could if he if he knew he could live. And here’s the thing, we live in that lie. You know, that that tells you how valuable our life is.

Your life is valuable. It is precious and I don’t mean to say that in a cliche but your life to you is valuable. It’s valuable. It is the most valuable thing that you have perhaps and and the only comparison that you can make really with the value of your life. There are probably some things in your life that you would be willing to yield your life for.

Right, like what? Your children, right? I didn’t realize it until I had children that even as my children become adults, like, I I I can’t imagine a situation where if it if it was me or them that I would not be willing to yield my life for my child, even as an adult. And but what does that show us? It shows the kind of love and value that we place upon our children, right? But what does that say? It’s compared to our life, which is the most valuable thing that we have. So our life is definitely super valuable. It is the most precious thing that we have.

And that’s what this lady is bringing. From a material perspective, she’s bringing probably the most expensive and precious thing that she owns. This is why John 15 verse 13 is is such a a prominent verse in scripture. It says, greater love hath no man than this than that he lay down his life for his friends. Now, why is that? Why is the measure of greatest love put next to the the value value of the life? It’s because life is the most precious thing that we have.

Now, when you see this lady bringing the most valuable thing probably that she owns, and she takes this alabaster, the box itself is beautiful. The box itself is valuable, not as valuable as what the contents of it, but the box is valuable and she takes this box and she breaks it. And once this box is broken, is and this oil is poured out, there is no going back in the box, there’s no retrieving the ointment, it’s gone for ever.

It’s gone forever. Look if you would at second Samuel. Don’t lose your place here because we’ll come right back, but second Samuel chapter 14. Second Samuel chapter 14 Verse 14. Second Samuel 14 verse 14.

For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. See that? She This is what Now I know this is not water, but the the principle still applies. This liquid in this ointment in this this alabaster box, once that box is broken and it’s poured out, there’s no getting it back. You know what that tells us? That this lady had a This is a one time shot.

She had this extremely valuable possession and she has one opportunity to use it. Once she breaks the box, it’s broken and once she pours it out, it’s gone, and this is super valuable, extremely precious. Once it’s used, she has She doesn’t have a second. This is it. Probably the most valuable thing she has, as I said. Think about your life. Think about I think about my life.

You know how many of these that you have this most precious thing that you own? You know how many of these you have? You have just exactly one. And and however you spend your life, there’s no bringing it back and trying again. You, the, we all, everyone of us in our lives has a one time shot at the expending of our life. And make no mistake, every one of us is expending our life.

And we are making choices about how that life of ours is expended. And this is this is should this should be this should be sobering to us because we have only one life and we know how precious it is and we have only one chance to expend it. And once our life is is spent, it cannot be gathered back again. It cannot be restored to us. It can’t there’s no do overs. We have it is a one and done. We have one shot.

Once the box of our life is broken and our our ointment as it were is poured out, it cannot be restored and this is why it is of vital importance that we waste not this one life that we have on the trivia of this world. Because you are going to spend it and I’m going to spend it. That’s just, that’s the clock is running on all of our lives as much as we don’t like to think about it.

You see, what this woman did is she chose as an act of the will to take the most valuable thing that she had and to break it and to use the oil on a specific or the ointment on a specific purpose such that it could never be brought back again. It was it was no turning back.

There were no reserves So this is something else we should remember that whatever it is that we spend our lives on reveals how we value that thing. Whether it be upon the Lord’s head or whether it be some other thing. The way we spend our life, you know, we we can say all Jesus is all the world to me as the song says. We can say that, But does our life reflect that truth? Because I I promise you this, if Jesus is all the world to you and to me, if he is supreme and he is the the he is the the apex of our devotion truly, The way we expend our life will reflect that fact.

It’s it’s just a it’s it’s a mathematical principle. What you value is what you spend money on. That’s that’s the basis of like capitalism. If I if I want it bad enough, I’ll spend as much money as I have to to get it, right?

So, I wanna ask you a question. If this be true, what does what does the expenditure of your life reflect about how you value? What the things that you value? Are your values in order? Are your values as they should be? Or are they out of order? Are your is it demonstrable in your life that Jesus Christ, the lord Jesus Christ is the peak of your devotion that nothing, nothing in your estimation compares with his value.

Now, if you would, if you would look down at verse back in Matthew 26 verse number eight, but when his disciples saw it, they had indignation saying, to what purpose is this? This is such a striking five letter word.

Waste. Waste. There were those among the disciples that considered the way that she used this oil as a waste. They thought there were better things for which the the ointment could have been used In other words, it was put to no practical use. You see, to them, the other things were of greater value than Jesus himself. That’s just, it’s just a fact. They viewed that other thing that they that she they believe that she should have expended the oil on as greater value than to Jesus. Otherwise, they would not have criticized. In other words, in this case, he’s talking about the poor. The poor are worthy of this most precious this most precious possession but Jesus is not.

Which is crazy talk but man, do we not live that way? Everything, anything, and everything in our lives, whether it be pleasure, whether it be money, whether it be our time, whether whatever it is in our lives, we find, listen, we find plenty of time to spend the time of our life on those things and we find it so hard to find any any margin of time whatsoever to devote to the lord Jesus Christ.

Well, I mean, what does this say? Now, we all know everyone of us has duties we have to perform. We have jobs to do. We have requirements in our lives and and the lord has given those duties to us in many cases.

But man, when when it’s time for vacation, and I like going on vacation or when it’s time for some toy or trinket or gun, right, that we want, somehow we find the time. We find the money, we find the way to make it happen. And I’m just I’m just challenging, I’m challenging you to to examine yourself honestly. Do we find that time when it comes time for for devotion to Christ, whether it be seeking the Lord on a daily basis, or whether it be how we spend our money, or whether it be what we give our life and our time to?

I wanna tell you something. There is no service, there is no sacrifice, there is no expenditure of your life. I don’t care if it’s your time, your money, your energy, your your intellect, your gifts, whatever it is. There is no expenditure that you and I can ever have that is ever a waste if it is expended upon the lord Jesus Christ. It’s impossible. It is impossible to waste your life for Jesus. That’s that’s the whole purpose here. These disciples who are criticizing viewed that as a waste. Man, how many times? I mean, there’s a did you know that you have family and friends and and your general kinda sphere, your world that that people that think you’re just wasting your time coming to church on Sunday?

You’re wasting your time coming to Sunday school. You’re wasting your time giving your tithes and your offerings to the lord. You’re wasting your time witnessing to people. I have plenty of, there are many other things we could be doing on Saturday morning than or Saturday afternoon than giving the gospel to people. You’re wasting your, you’re just, you’re just wasting your time. People don’t wanna hear what you have to say but nothing expended upon the lord Jesus Christ is wasted.

Because he is worthy of that expenditure. He is worthy of it. Our Lord is worthy of the most precious thing that you have, which is your life. He deserves it. He’s worthy of it.

You see the reality is this. You know, you just think about the voices you hear around you, right? As you you try and every one of us is trying to serve the Lord in different ways. We’re we’re all kind of in a different place as we in our growth and that kind of thing. So And we’re all trying to do what the lord wants us to do. We do that. We do that imperfectly.

Do we not? So, we’re all trying to do what the lord wants us to do but we hear these voices around us that are telling us that there are other things that that we would be better served to spend our time doing and investing in.

Things like pursuing money or the big one is the American dream or pursuing pleasures or comforts or toys or different things, ease even. And what will work and will spend and will labor and all of those things will will literally, listen now, we make a conscious decision to take certain steps and expend our time in life so so that we can attain that. And it’s not that all of that is evil, I’m not suggesting that.

But when it all comes out in the end, At the very end and this is, the Bible says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. So, this is a this is a legitimate point of view. The lord wants his people to have which is this, when all of this comes down to the end, we just studied, went through a large study of the second coming of Christ and we know all that’s involved in that and when that day comes, all of the pleasure and ease and toys and all of the things that we’ve been told by these voices that we should spend our life pursuing, what will that amount to?

We will have taken the precious ointment, the the alabaster box of ointment of our life, broken it, irreversibly poured it out on something that has no eternal value. The reality is that every person living and breathing spends their lives on something.

It is just that they think that that thing upon which they spend their life is more valuable than Jesus. In other words, for you and for me and for every person in this world, the ointment of that of our lives is being poured out whether we like it or not and we don’t like it but it is being poured out but my question to you is, is your, the ointment of your life being poured out upon the head of the savior?

You see, a person spends their life upon Jesus, upon His head, and they pour that most valuable ointment of their life out upon Him, you know what they’re doing? They’re making a statement to the world of the worth of the Lord Jesus. When a missionary takes the gospel and leaves his family and friends and leaves the comfort of home and he takes it to another part of the world, These missionaries we support, you know what they’re, you know what they’re saying in effect? We don’t, I know we don’t view it like this but I wanna promise you, this is what they’re thinking. When things get hard, I promise you, this is what they’re thinking. They’re thinking, Jesus is worth it.

Because when when the ministry is not going right and people aren’t being saved and there’s no fruit and it’s hard and there’s opposition and they’re being ignored. I’m thinking of I’m thinking of brother Means in in right now, he’s temporarily in Albania. And he talked about how hard people are and people don’t just don’t wanna listen. But it is it worth it? It’s a waste. Is it not? It’s a waste. They won’t listen. No sacrifice, no expenditure upon the head of Christ is ever a waste. It cannot be.

Listen, the expenditure of our life cannot be just chalked up to dollars and cents in that way. We don’t look at these missionaries and think, well, well, how many did he have saved this month and then how many churches did they started and and is it worth our, you know, we need to spend at least $50 per church or that that’s ridiculous because any any expenditure of our life upon the head of Christ is worthy because he’s worthy and when a when a missionary takes the gospel overseas, you know what he’s doing? He’s saying to all of his family and friends who think he’s crazy, that he’s saying, Jesus is worth it. And when he meets those people in that in that in that country and they’re like, why are you here? We’re trying to get to America.

What are you doing here? Well, we came to tell people about Jesus. The the message he’s conveying is Jesus is worth it. Just like the message this lady gave when she poured this ointment on the head of Christ is, yeah, this is valuable but he’s worth it.

The naysayers are like, no, he’s not. There’s other things that are worth it. You know, pursuing that thing, that American dream, that boat, that car, that vacation, that ease, that comfort, whatever. Those are worth it. I’ll spend my whole life chasing those things to the neglect of everything that has eternal value. That’s worth it. In the end, it’s not.

You know, there are some people that might criticize how we give our hard earned money to these people back here that Christ’s name might be preached. They fail to see that they are also spending their money on something.

Right? That’s just the truth. It’s just that what they value is different than what we value. And what they value is temporal, and what we hope to value is eternal.

Nate Saint, you might know, you might have heard of Nate Saint. He was one of the five missionaries that were killed by the Auca Indians. They were speared, all of them, on 01/08/1956.

They flew in to nearby to a a native village and they wanted to open a door. This is an uncontacted village and they wanted to open door the door to get the gospel to them and they brought gifts and they were actually armed too, they never used the weapons that they brought.

In the book, Through the Gates of Splendor, it’s recorded on 12/18/1955 that Nate Saint sat at his typewriter to tell the world why they were going. So this is just a few weeks before, it’s three weeks before they they actually went to that village. They’re they knew there was danger. Like, they they knew it was it was dangerous. Cause they, what a lot of people don’t know is they flew over the village and you know, they observed it from the air.

And here’s what he wrote. Nate Saint wrote this, 12/18/1955. He said this, missionaries constantly face expendability. And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we would waste our lives as missionaries.

They forget that they too are expending their lives. And when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.

Now, that’s did Nate Saint know that he was gonna die in three weeks? No. And that’s very, very instructive. You know, if you know you’re gonna die, that kinda changes the way you think probably, right? But he didn’t know. He thought just like you think, you’re gonna live to, you know, to be a 100.

But three weeks later, 01/08/1956, Nate Saint and his group did die. They were spared to death by the natives. Do you know what they did not have? Converts? People listening to them? Open ears and open hearts? Results? Their life was snuffed out. Their ointment all at one moment poured, gone. And and this is, you know, you think about what he says is really prophetic because the claim is, he says, and people who do not know the lord ask why in the world we would waste our lives as missionaries.

If there ever was a missionary that could be accused of wasting his life, it was an insane because he didn’t even get the chance to give the gospel to those people. His life was wasted and yet he’s the one that says it. Think about it.

Did Nate Saint and his crew, Jim Elliot and those others, did they waste their lives? No. Why? Because you cannot calculate the expenditure of your life in dollars and cents and visible results and fruit of this this that this world would use to calculate it like like like they do. You see, their life was snuffed out and this really happened. This is true. Their life was snuffed out but it was not wasted because no life expended upon the head of the lord Jesus Christ is ever wasted.

You see Mary back in Matthew, notice what it says. Verse 10, and when Jesus understood it, he said unto them, why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor, for ye have the poor always with you, but ye but me have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

So this lady is criticized. But I wanna ask you a question, for whose approval are you living? If she was living for the approval of the disciples, the disciples of all people. If she was living for the approval of man, for her decisions and for her expenditure of this precious thing that she had, she wouldn’t have poured it out.

Whose smile are you seeking? Are you seeking the smile and approval and pat on the back of men? Or the smile and approval and the pat on the back of the Lord Jesus Christ himself?

This woman had some great faith. You remember we talked about this before, especially in Matthew 16 when Jesus started to introduce the cross to the disciples and that’s when Peter rebuked him. Remember that? And said, this shall not be so. And Jesus said, get behind me. He said, remember? That was when Jesus brought up the cross and all this time, he’s been kind of introducing it to him little by little if you remember.

Even all the way to the Garden Of Gethsemane, they don’t fully get it. They don’t, he’s trying to tell him and they’re just, they’re just thick skin, thick brain rather. They’re thick headed, they’re not getting it but there’s one lady who does get it. See, she had saved this possession. John actually makes it a little bit more clear in John 12. She had saved this and reserved it specifically to anoint him for the burial.

So, she believed even though the disciples didn’t get it, she got it. She knew the lord was going to the cross. She knew he was gonna die and she made preparation in faith for that reality and the disciples are still trying to argue about who’s greatest and and fight the guys that come to arrest you, you know, and all of those things that they’re gonna do.

Notice these disciples, they they said, what was their suggested way that this ointment should have been should have been used? It says verse nine, it might have been sold for much and given to the poor. That’s the way the world views. The highest and greatest thing that a person can do is to help his fellow man. Be very careful. This worldly philosophy and and helping people, loving loving others, and all of those, that’s good. That’s right. At the school of scripture on the last Friday night, we uh-uh brother Jim wanted to put some things together for the homeless that he witnesses to and and so we helped him do that. It’s not bad. It’s not evil. It’s not like it’s it’s unworthy or anything, but that is not the high Listen, that helping your fellow man is not the highest and greatest thing you can do with your life. Amen. If there’s any doubt of that, just read here.

The highest and greatest thing that you and I can do with our lives is take our our box of alabaster box of ointment and break that thing and pour it on the head of Jesus Christ. You know, that often that will include some of those other things, but those things absent pouring on the head of Christ is a waste. In the end, what’s the effect? Brother Jim, you can help the poor, but if if it if you do not give them the gospel If they do not if they’re not confronted with Christ, in the end, what’s a profit?

They have one day of a few more things before they die in their sin and go to the lake of fire. That’s just the truth of it. We might not like it, but that is the truth of it.

Mark 14 verse eight, you know this. In fact, I’d like you to turn there. Mark 14. Verse seven, this is of course the parallel passage, you’ll recognize it I’m sure. Verse seven, for ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good. But me, ye have not always, she hath done what she could. Isn’t that good? Just just meditate on that a while.

She had done what she could. This lady could not do what others could. But what she could. She did for the lord Jesus according to the ability that the lord had given to her. Do we not spend a lot of time looking at what everybody else is doing? And say, well, I want to be like that or do like them or whatever and we constantly compare ourselves back and forth which is part of the problem that the the disciples had but I digress.

And and we we fail to see the things that we can do. Remember the parable of the talents we studied recently? Each man, each servant was given given a different number of talents, and the guy who received two was not the did not have the same responsibility. He could not do what the man who received five talents had had the ability to do. The could was different.

So the question is, am I doing am I doing what I can? And I’ll I’ll I’ll just I’ll shoot straight with you. I know I’m not in every case. I doubt there’s anybody in this room that can say, I’m doing I’m doing everything I can for Christ.

But she did what she could, what she had the ability to do. Now if you would go back to Matthew to finish finish this out. Matthew 26. Verse 12 says this, for in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Now I don’t know how long this kind of thing would last, the odor. I know that our modern perfumes and things like that, you know, ladies put that on and it, how long does it last, ladies?

A few hours? I mean, don’t know. I’ve never understood why they put it on the inside of their wrists and behind their ears, I I don’t know if there’s a reason for that, but the amount they put on there doesn’t usually last very long, within several hours it’s gone. But this is oil, and oil tend, if it does anything, it tends to linger, does it not? It just get this film.

And so remember, it’s two days two days before the Passover. Remember, Jesus has the last supper on the Passover. The day of the, which is at night. Remember, once the clock rolls over to the new day, that’s when they have the supper, that’s the Passover day, and then Jesus is arrested that night, and then the following daytime, which is, you know, 09:00 in the morning, is when he’s crucified.

He dies before 06:00 that day, and he’s put in the grave. And he’s in a sealed tomb for three days. Everybody with me on this? Now follow me. Because this is where it touches the gospel. So she takes this ointment, I don’t know how much, it must have been a fairly large amount because it was 300p. I mean, a lot, it’s 46, how much perfume could you buy for $46,000 even the good stuff? I mean, you get a lot of it.

I don’t know, whatever the good stuff is, I don’t know, Saks Fifth Avenue, don’t know, whatever it is. Gucci. So this was probably a fairly substantial amount of ointment, we assume. She pours it on his head, it’s in his hair, Roves down his face, onto his beard, onto his shoulders, we know it’s on his feet because John twelve says that. This stuff doesn’t just go away, it doesn’t just go away.

And the smell is mixed in with the oil. So wherever the oil is, the smell is, right? So over the next two days, it’s actually more like a day and a half.

Jesus smells like this ointment. The room smells like the ointment. Jesus smells like the ointment. So, at the last supper, it smells like spikenard. Jesus, they leave the last supper and they go out to the Garden Of Gethsemane and Jesus is arrested and that they, those that grab him notice that there’s he’s has the smell.

And he he’s he’s in the he’s in the trial before the the the council and there’s this smell and then he’s he finally condemned. He goes before Pilate and there’s this smell and then he he’s taken and he’s he’s taken with the cross to Golgotha and he’s nailed to the cross and as the soldiers are nailing his hands and feet to the cross, there’s this smell.

And as he’s he’s he dies on the cross and he’s taken down from the cross and they they wrap him. Why? Okay. Why did she anoint him for his what? Burial. Which tells me that the smell would have lingered. And here, there, they wrap him up and they put him in the grave and they seal the tomb and on the third day, when they come to the tomb and the doors open and they walk in and it’s what’s it smell like?

Spikenard. Jesus says in this verse, for in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel, there’s the gospel. See, what this lady did is her act of devotion is in some way tied into the gospel. Isn’t this beautiful?

Wherever Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in all the world, in the in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her, and we’re living proof of the fulfillment of this scripture, are we not? We’re studying this. Like this proof the Bible’s true, here it is.

But this woman’s act of devotion is a reminder of the gospel. It’s a reminder of Christ dying for sinners, Christ buried, Christ risen again. This smell. I wonder if the disciples came to came to smell this and it reminded them of those events. I don’t know. I’m just just thinking, meditating here. But Jesus hints at the worldwide gospel spread of the gospel. He says, throughout the whole world, preached in the whole world. Now, the the disciples didn’t get that the gospel is gonna go in the whole world, but here Jesus tells them.

And this woman, Mary, her name has been been told in probably every language under under heaven as a result of this event. But it’s tied into the gospel. Man alive, think about this. I mentioned the missionaries, but not just the missionaries.

Missionaries and average Christians that take what they have, and they break the box of the the life of their the ointment of their life, and they pour it on the head of Christ.

That is how the gospel spreads. That’s how Jesus’ name is glorified. Don’t you see that? The reason why people in Madagascar or people in The Czech Republic or people in The Philippines or people in Micronesia hear about Jesus is because there was somebody who broke the alabaster box of their life and poured out that ointment on the head of Jesus. And the reason why people in Greenville hear about Jesus is because there is somebody that is pouring out the ointment of their life. It makes a difference.

That’s how the work of God goes forward. Because a because a bunch of Christians that have believed on Christ because they wanted to be forgiven of their sin, they wanted to be saved and that’s good and that’s right. But at some point, at some point, the lord grew them up to a point where he he was able to fix their focus and their gaze on Jesus and Jesus alone And when they saw him and they saw his glories and they saw his beauties and they saw his worth and they saw his value, the average Christian like all of you, like all of us in this room, when they got a good focus on the lord Jesus Christ, they said, He is worth it.

I am going to pour my whole life out for him. And thus, the story goes on. Thus, the gospel spreads. We might say, thus the scent emanates throughout this world. You know why the gospel is spread throughout the world? It’s because a bunch of people poured out their ointment on on the head of Jesus. That’s why. That’s why. Do you know why our church functions? It’s because people in years gone by up to this present are willing to pour out their ointment for the lord Jesus.

That’s why the work of god continues because people see Christ. It’s not about gaining rewards or having a good life or any of the other kind of motivations that we’re told about. No. No. It’s about the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, if you are going to live for God, if you’re gonna be devoted to him, if you’re gonna walk with Jesus, if you’re gonna serve Jesus, if you’re gonna do anything for him, it is it is going to be that your gaze finally falls upon the upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you come to the conclusion that has always been there which is Jesus is worth my life.

I want to give it to him. Amen. Have you given it to him? Amen. Does he have it? Is the ointment of your life and my life running down the the deer head of the savior? Let’s pray.