Ruckus

This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Good morning. If you would take out your Bibles and turn to Mark 14, we're going to be there in just a moment. And if you don't have your Bible with you, I believe the passage and mark that we're going to be covering this morning is provided for you in the bulletin. And for those of you in the know, I'm going to be reading from the ESV translation. But before we do that, let's pray. Our most gracious Heavenly Father, you have called us to yourself. And by your Holy Spirit we have been obedient to you and come together and worshiped you. Lord, we've responded to your call. We've cried back to you in song and in prayer the reading of your word. And so, God, now we sit at your feet and we listen. And we pray that you would speak your word, the truth to us that our souls would live. You would establish our footsteps in your way and let not any sin or inequity have dominion over us. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, our risen King. Amen. Well, before we get into Mark 14, let's remember where we were last week in Mark 13. When we heard from Jesus, he had commanded all of his followers to watch, to stay awake, be vigilant, be on the alert. Because it seems one of his disciples had become quite smitten with the glory of Jerusalem's temple. And he wanted Jesus to share in that fancy. But instead, Jesus just informs the guy that it's going to be a really short romance. Because the temple in Jerusalem is at that point had become much like the tower of Babel. God had come near to see what his people were up to and he wasn't impressed. Because God had intended his temple, the house where he was to be worshiped, was supposed to be a house of prayer through which all of the nations would be interceded for and reached out to and blessed. But by this time, the chief priests, scribes, the Pharisees have essentially turned the temple into a den of robbers, brigands. It made it into a secret clubhouse where they could hold up and hoard all the loot that they had collected from their burdensome taxes that they had placed on the people and then separate themselves from the nations. And all the while plotting a rebellion against the Roman Empire. And so God, when he came near, decided that he was going to put it in to all of it. The temple complex, the whole city of Jerusalem was destined to be uprooted. It was doomed to be thrown down with no stone left unturned. And in the end, the whole affair was going to be a time of tribulation for God's people like they had never experienced before or ever would again. And only those, Jesus said, only those who would endure to the end by the skin of God's mercy would be saved. So Jesus told his disciples then, as much as he is today, that we're to live life at the ready. Be awake, be alert, be vigilant, ever watching, ever devoted to Jesus amidst the trials faithful to the job that he was about to give them. And then this funny thing happens in Bethany. And that's where we pick up this morning, Mark chapter 14 beginning with verse 1. It was now two days before the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. And the chief priests in the scribes were seeking how to arrest him, meaning Jesus, by stealth and kill him. For they said, not during the feast, less there be an uproar from the people. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly. And she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was this ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denari and given to the poor. And they scolded her. But Jesus said, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you and whenever you want you can do good for them, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, whenever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priest in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him. Beloved, this is the word of God. Thanks be to God for his word. Well, there is just something about a party that makes it easy for things to get out of hand. I don't know if you've ever come to find that to be true, but back in the 80s and the 90s, I played guitar in a three-piece band. And I don't say that by way of boasting because basically back in the 80s and 90s, everybody played guitar in a three-piece band. And our band hailed from parts unknown, this tri-city complex of Seffner, Valrico, and Brandon, Florida. We don't need this to say in an area where there's more cattle than there are registered voters. We didn't have to be the best band in the world in order to be a popular band, which we were. We weren't the best band in the world, but we were popular. And as such, we played a lot of parties that were thrown by the local teens in the 20s, some things. And all of these parties ended up in the same way. It ended up with someone shouting from somewhere, cops are here. There was just something inevitable about these parties, so inevitable in fact that we began giving out party advice whenever we would get there, we would tell the people, look, take all of the precious possessions in the house, lock it in one room. And then do this and do that because we knew it was just a matter of time. Things were going to get out of control. The cops like to call it disturbing the peace. It was a legal term. We chose to call it a ruckus. Now there's one party in particular that has gone down in Brandon history. A young guy by the name of Mitch, he was the brother of our base player. He's done a lot of work for us, so he asked a favor. He wanted to have a little get together with his friends while his parents were on vacation, of course. And the whole thing started somewhat innocently. We were crammed into a corner of the living room. And then about an hour and a half in, we heard that familiar cue for us to end the show. Somewhere, someone yells, hey Mitch, cops are here. So we pull the plug, collect our gear. And as we make our way through the house, and especially once we stumble outside, we are hit with the fact that Mitch's party has officially grown into a ruckus. Seems that Mitch's younger brother, Taylor, unbeknownst to Mitch had made up flyers, and had given them out at all of the local high schools saying that he was having a party, and that everybody was welcome. As such, when we walked outside, and as we walked through that house, there were people literally everywhere. In every corner of that house, there were people. There were people in the pool, there were people in the landscaping beds, there were people on the roof. There were people that were gathered in the yards and the driveways of the neighbors. And it was so thick that literally as we drove away, we had to inch our way along the roads because they were packed shoulder to shoulder with young people. And then when we got to the entrance of the subdivision, we discovered that the cops had stationed themselves there in order to monitor who was actually coming in to the subdivision. So obviously, things had gotten so out of control at Mitch's party that someone decided to call the cops. And guess who it was? It was Mitch. He called the cops on his own party. See, like I said, there's just something about a party that makes it easy for things to get out of hand, for a ruckus to ensue. And you know what, 2,000 years ago? It really wasn't any different. It was the season of Passover. Passover was one of the three feasts which Jews from all over the world were obligated to observe. It was a feast that celebrated and remembered God's delivering the Israelites from their slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt into a promised land to be in covenant with God. The Passover was this huge celebration of how God had given his people his law and in doing so had made them a nation. His special people, but here was the catch. They had to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem, which meant that a city approximately half the size of Orlando proper, and which normally had about 90,000 residents would annually be overrun with about 300,000 faithful pilgrims, families and livestock all coming in, crowding the city, living in tents, boarding up wherever they could. One commentator said it was probably like the state fair. I kind of think of it as if, say, the Super Bowl decided to have its game in Brandon, Florida. Just completely incapable of handling all of this. And so with the crowds came the Roman guard, you know, security precautions. The peacekeepers, the cops, which is why the chief priests in the scribes decide not to arrest Jesus during the feast, unless there be an uproar from the people, and the Greek is a thoreau boss, means a tumult, it means disorderly conduct, it means a disturbing of the peace. We know it better as a ruckus. The chief priests don't want to raise a ruckus during the Passover. And you see at this Passover there's all the ingredients for making a good ruckus, because Jerusalem is the heart of God's promised land to his people. And those promised people are all getting together in that small city for this huge feast that celebrates their liberation from oppression. And their constitution is a nation. It was kind of like their fourth of July, if you will. But that city and the city that's promised land, mind you, the city and the people are presently all under the thumb of the Roman Empire. They're not in charge. So you've got that and then introduce this guy Jesus. You know, he's really popular with the people. In fact, he's so popular that when he rode into town for the Passover, you know what they did? They welcomed him by laying down these palm branches and they cried out to him, Hosanna, which means save us. We pray. They cried out to him. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David. So even though the chief priests and the scribes want Jesus out of the way, they want to raise a ruckus doing so because if they do, if Caesar thinks that the Jews are about to get out of hand to begin becoming prone to revolt, the Roman hammer will fall on Jerusalem. And that would ruin the little place that the chief priests and the scribes had made for themselves under the Pax Romana. And that's one of the reasons why they despised Jesus so much because Jesus was threatening the life as they knew it. He was challenging the whole Caesar is Lord thing. So they resolve, Jesus has to go. And he has to go permanently, wink wink, nudge dutch. But he has to go just not during the feast. There's only one problem though. That's not what God had planned. See in this huge case of the ironies, little did these religious leaders know that Judas, one of Jesus's own disciples, would soon be joining them in their villainy and conspiring to betray Jesus. And then that in turn would set the whole wheels of God's divine providence and motion. Jesus would be crucified and die during the Passover. The very event that thousands of years before had led to the Israelites' freedom and had required that a lamb be slain in their stead in order to have that salvation. That event was now finding its fulfillment in Jesus' death, just like God had planned from eternity. So what Jesus' enemies had plotted for his ruin actually ended up being for his glory. And it's all a sobering reminder of a proverb that says, many are the plans and the mind of a man. But it's the purpose of the Lord that will stand. And God the Father has purposed that Jesus Christ, his son, is king over all creation. All the nations are his heritage and all the ends of earth are his possession. And any attempt, whether by subtlety or by stealth, to break free from Jesus' reign is only going to be result in your being broken by him. So that's our job. That's our task as the church. And that's what we do to decay as we gather together in worship and we call upon God in the name of Jesus Christ. And in doing so we are proclaiming the inescapable truth today to all kings and all rulers and all people everywhere. And maybe even in here today, to be warned and be wise. It is time to repent of your sin and from your rebellion. It is time for you to humble yourself before Jesus and receive Him for who He is. Because if you don't, if you like the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, refuse Jesus and reject Him, you will perish in the way that you are trying to make for yourself apart from Him. You are destined to be uprooted. You are doomed to be thrown down like the temple with no stone left unturned. But you are blessed if you take refuge in Jesus. I say it again. You are blessed if you take refuge in Jesus Christ. And you know what? Mark gives us a perfect picture of what that looks like. Because along comes this nameless woman. And without saying a word, she raises a ruckus all her own. Watch. While the religious leaders are plotting the death of God's son back in the holy city of Jerusalem, there's Jesus as usual. He's across the tracks on the outskirts of town. He's in this secluded village called Bethany. And he's hanging out with Simon the leper. And even though Simon's been healed from his disease or else he wouldn't be throwing this party, Simon's held onto that nickname. And that nickname reminds us that Simon has gotten used to living the majority of his life as an outsider. But typical Jesus. He's hanging out with the unclean, with the unwanted, with the outsiders. And at this party as the boys are reclined around the table, a woman makes her way into the room. She approaches Jesus. And even though it's bad form for women to mingle with men during a formal occasion like this, unless they were serving them, guys don't seem to mind her being there. And then this woman, she takes this alabaster flask and she breaks off the neck of it. And literally in the Greek it means more like she shattered it. And then she begins to pour the perfumed ointment that's inside of it all over Jesus's head. Now, it wasn't uncommon for servants to annoy the guests of people at parties, especially for hygienic reasons, body odor, if you get my drift. It wasn't the norm to bathe them in the perfumed ointment like this woman is doing for Jesus. But even still, the guys don't seem to mind that. It's not until the accountant in the group starts doing the math that they begin to rave the proverbial stink over what this woman has done. Think of it as how you feel whenever you hear that a wealthy spencer has left her entire fortune to her cats. We can kind of relate. So suddenly they begin grumbling among themselves. Was that really necessary? I mean, after all a little dabble do ya? Besides that perfume is worth a year's wages. What an extravagant waste. I mean, it could have been used more practically, more reasonably. I'm sure the poor could use 300 denari in this economy. I mean, she's practically stealing the food right out of their mouths. So then after they're done sufficiently riling each other up, they let loose on the woman and they scold her in the proper religious use of valuable possessions. And they vent their outrage over her excessive and unorthodox behavior like a snorting horse. They begin raising a ruckus over her waist until someone in the room. Calls out, leave her alone. It gets their attention and they notice Jesus is speaking and he says, why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. Jesus describes this woman's actions as beautiful. Now get this. It's the same word that he used to describe the good soil back in his parable about the soils. You know that one? The good soil are the people who hear the word and they accept it and they bear fruit by acting accordingly. Jesus is pointing to this woman saying, this is good soil. Jesus makes it clear to the guys as Mark is making it clear to us that this woman isn't a fool to be scolded. She's an example to be watched. She's an example to be followed because she gave all. Her alabaster flask of perfumed ointment was actually worth more than 300 denari. It was invaluable to her because these ointments were like fine wines. They would improve over time with age and with that its value would increase. And as such these containers of perfumed ointment would most times be saved so that they could be sold in times of financial hardship. Mothers would pass these flasks of ointment onto their daughters as an important form of social security and a patriarchal society for their daughters. Their daughters of future generations and get this so as to highlight the absolute value of this perfume. Mark does something interesting. He records that Jesus says she has done what she could. The wording of that is extremely similar to how Jesus described the widow in Mark chapter 12. For the widow who gave her two pitiful coins as an offering and Jesus told to the disciples, she's given everything she had. She has given all that she had to live on. Mark is connecting these two women to point out that this ointment was invaluable to her. And then he goes on to make a point of saying that this woman broke this flask and she poured the entire contents on Jesus's head in order to anoint him. And when she did that, Mark is saying this is no less than faith in action. This woman is a perfect picture of devoted discipleship because in this action she is denying herself. Her past, her present, her future all bound up in that little bottle which really wasn't that little. And as she pours it out, it is the losing of her life for Jesus' sake. And she does it all in order to honor Jesus and give him the honor that he was due. And just as we're told, she breaks the flask, that wasn't required. That wasn't important. They usually had some type of cloth stopper. They would pull it out. And if they used it, it would be little by little by little. No, Mark makes a point of saying she breaks the flask, meaning it's irreparable, meaning that the devotion that she's offering Jesus is without retreat. The word broke that Mark uses is the same word used elsewhere in the Bible that talks about the broken, contrite heart that has humbled before God. The kind of person that God says he will abide with and bless. This woman and what she does is a picture of discipleship. And it comes into crystal clear focus when you remember that just before this happening, Jesus was telling his disciples about the crisis to come. That Jerusalem and the temple were going to be destroyed and that they would be suffering deception from without and be trailed from within. And it would be tribulation like never before. And all the while during this crisis, they were going to need to remain faithful. They would have to endure to the end. They would have to bear witness to him before the powers that be. They would have to proclaim the gospel all over to all nations no matter what the cost. And yet the disciples were caught. And these people caught not watching, not watching. All they could see in this woman was an impractical, excessive and unordered orthodox waste that was just raising an unnecessary ruckus. What they couldn't see was that Jesus had called them to do the very same thing. For when he said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. And whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. And guess what? The word that Jesus used for lose is the same word that these people are saying this is a waste. Don't be fooled though. It'd be really easy for me to kind of turn this into a story about it's just giving all and that's what you need to do. You need to be giving all of your money to the cause of Christ. You need to give all of your time and prayer and Bible reading and evangelism. You need to give all your talents to serve in the church. And those are good things, but that's not what this story is about. Because see, after all, remember the crowd, they were willing to give up all this woman's perfume for the poor. This story is really about why someone would give it all for Jesus. Cultural etiquette required that servants annoying guests at parties. But it doesn't answer the question, why are we told that this woman obeys Jesus and Jesus only? Why? Why Jesus? And even then, the norm would have said just a little bit is all that's required. It was a very pungent perfume. So why would this woman pour it all out, this invaluable treasure? Why would she pour it all out on Jesus? That's what this story is about. And to those who couldn't get past the value of the perfume, her sacrifice was just an utter meaningless waste. Because they were blind to the identity of Jesus. They could not see who Jesus really was and what he was worth. And you know what, Mark's been warning us about this blindness, the danger of this blindness all along. You know what, the only person who ever refused to follow Jesus at his call, you know who it was? It was the rich young man who had great possessions, but who couldn't part with him. Mark tells us that to warn us. And then later on, Jesus tells a parable of the tenants. And you know what, it's the evil tenants. They're the ones who refused to honor the son and instead choose to kill him all in the hopes of maybe securing his inheritance. And Mark makes sure that we hear that parable to warn us. And you know what, Jesus says that it's the scribes who are so focused on their honor in this world that they're willing to exploit the wealth of the widows. Rather, it's an honor God by caring for them. Unless we forget, Mark labors the point that Judas' betrayal of Jesus was secured gleefully by the chief priest and scribes with the promise of money. You see, it seems like when it comes time for us to pay the price for following Jesus, there's this subtle danger lurking behind it all, a danger that threatens our faith and our faithfulness to him. And it begins this way. It begins with a tendency to quickly account for what our faith and our faithfulness to Jesus is actually costing us. I mean, think about this. After Jesus has the encounter with a rich young ruler, do you remember the conversation afterwards? Talks about how difficult it is for people to enter into the kingdom of heaven, especially the rich, easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And then, right after that, Peter pipes up and he says, hey Lord, we've left everything in order to follow you. That's how it begins, because remember, Peter's the one who's going to deny Jesus, not too long. And then that leads eventually to us beginning to reassess the benefit of our faith and our faithfulness to Jesus in real world values, which again is exemplified by Peter. There's this veiled attitude when he tells Jesus, Lord, we've left everything in order to follow you. You know what's going on inside him. He's saying, basically, Lord, what's in it for us? And that seemed to be an argument that disciples were always having. And then from there it goes on and suddenly we begin suggesting to ourselves more reasonable and practical ways that the resources of our lives and our faith could be spent, I.e. the money should have been spent for the poor, but you know what? The problem is that the poor weren't getting the money. Did you ever stop to ask yourself, why did this widow only have two coins to give as an offering? And that was everything she had. You want to know why? Because our neighbors, like the poor back then, stop getting love from us when we stop loving God with our whole being. When we begin drawing near to the Lord with our lips, honoring Him with our mouths, but leaving our hearts far behind us. And then the next thing you know before you know it, 30 pieces of silver for the head of Jesus kind of makes sense. Unless we think that's not really possible for you and I, Mark trips over himself in this passage to point out that Judas was one of the twelve. Apparently being a part of Jesus' inner circle didn't guarantee that you wouldn't eventually betray Him. It's scary because it's so real. Jesus didn't tell us to watch for no reason. So watch, but don't despair. Remember what the Jesus told us disciples when they were confronted with the reality of how difficult it was for anyone to enter the kingdom of God? Remember Jesus basically told them, look, you left your own devices. A camel has better odds of getting through the eye of an idol than you do entering the kingdom of God. But then what does he say? When the disciples throw up their hands and say, well Lord, who can be saved? Jesus says all things are possible with God. So today, in light of the real and present dangers to our faith and our faithfulness to Jesus, as a church let's never stop calling on Him, humbling ourselves before Him, crying out to Him for the mercy that we need to endure to the end. Looking to Him for the grace that we need to remember who He is and to remember what He has done and then to love Him for it with a love that is stronger than death. Let us never tire of asking that for Him. Could you see in the end, this woman just simply loved Jesus. She loved Him because of who He was. She loved Him because what Jesus was about to do, she loved Him. While the religious leaders are conspiring to destroy Jesus, this woman is loving Him. And while one of His own 12 disciples is seeking to betray Him, this woman is loving Jesus. And when this woman who loved Jesus so much by faith understood that she would not always have Him with her, wasting that perfumed ointment was the only thing that made perfect sense. She gave it all because Jesus was worth it. Because He was worth it all. And you know what? When a love like that, a love that gives all because it values Jesus as worth it all, when a love like that shows up in a world like ours, a world that gluts itself and pacifies itself on all that's practical and reasonable. And a world that has absolutely no problem with too much sex, too much wealth, too much power and influence, but does not like too much religion. When a love like that shows up in a world like ours, you can bet that it's going to disturb the peace. You can bet that that kind of love is going to raise a ruckus, which is why Jesus says that this woman is going to be remembered. He says that wherever and whenever his story will be told, her story is going to be told to because the beautiful work that she did to Jesus anticipated the beautiful work that he was about to do for us. Think about it. She took something precious and invaluable. She broke it and she poured all of it on behalf of another. And then right after this, Jesus will share a Passover meal, which we will celebrate soon as the Lord's supper. And during that Passover meal, he breaks bread and he pours out wine and then he says that they do it all as a memorial for him. And then not long after that meal, Jesus is hanging on a cross and he is broken in death. The wrath of God shatters Jesus, his son, like the woman shattered the neck of that alabaster flask all because of the crushing weight that God the Father put on him, the guilt of our sin placed on Jesus. And then Jesus' righteous life was poured out so that we could become the righteousness of God. And think about it. There was nothing that required that this woman give it all in order to honor Jesus. The only thing that required of it was her love for him. And in the same way, Jesus was not taken by the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees. They did not take his life. No, the Gospels labor the point that Jesus willingly gave his life as a sacrifice and all because of his love for God and his love for us. And even though Mark follows this woman's story with Judas betraying Jesus, he makes it clear to us that that is not how the story ends. No, Jesus declares that everything that has just happened with this woman, it's all about the gospel. And that gospel, the news about who he is and what he has done is good news. That's literally what gospel means in the Greek. Good news because like what happened to Joseph, what Judas intended for evil, God intended for good. Judas' betrayal of Jesus actually ends up serving the purpose of God feeding the world on the body and the blood of his son. And Jesus says, you know what? That gospel, that good news will be proclaimed in all the world. There is triumph in this story because I told you, remember I told you when I love like that, meets up with a world like ours. A ruckus is going to be raised. So today while the world and all its subtlety and all of its stealth conspires to break free from Jesus's reign, satisfying itself on the excesses that it deems practical and reasonable and worthy of the price, beloved our King Jesus is sitting in heaven at the right hand of God the Father and God the Father is laughing. And he's laughing because he knows that what the world is plotting apart from Jesus is a vain thing. Church of Jesus Christ, rejoice, take heart, watch and do not despair because Jesus Christ has died, Jesus Christ is risen and Jesus Christ will come again. And in his resurrection he raised a ruckus that this world will never recover from. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Beloved, this is the word of God and thanks be to God for his word. Let's pray. Lord, we pray as you have promised that what you have purposed for your word this morning would have full fruition in and through us. The Jesus Christ be lifted up and draw all men to himself and the world be saved by the ruckus of his resurrection. Lord, find us faithful and where we are not, we pray, give us the grace we need and make us faithful. In Jesus' name amen.