Main Idea: The most beautiful thing we can do at the cross is pour ourselves out in gratitude.

This morning we begin a series of messages called "Christians at the Cross." It is never easy for Christians to confront the cross of Jesus. The cross is something that we see so often that we easily pass over both its shock and its significance. We come to the season of Easter and know that there is the promise of life that will never end but we often fail to absorb the meaning of the cross. Perhaps it is because we see it so dark and despairing or hopeless and hurtful that we choose not to allow our minds to linger there at that pitiful scene. Yet it is there at the cross that we find hope. Chris Tomlin writes:

"What can take a dying man and raise him up to life again? What can heal a wounded soul? What can make us white as snow? What can fill the emptiness? What can mend our brokenness? What restores our faith in God? What reveals the Father’s love? What can lead the wayward home? What can melt a heart of stone? What can free the guilty ones? What can save and overcome?

Mighty, awesome, wonderful Is the holy cross Where the Lamb laid down His life To lift us from the fall Mighty is the power of the cross." (Mighty is the Power of the Cross)

So for the next four Sundays we will gather at the cross and at last at the empty tomb and remind ourselves that there is nothing in the world like the hope found in the cross of Jesus.

The event in Mark 14:1-11 occurs on Tuesday during the last week of Jesus’ life. He has entered the city of Jerusalem on Sunday but rather than staying in the city he goes back and forth from a village outside of Jerusalem called Bethany. It was necessary for him to do this because the Jewish religious leaders were looking for any excuse to silence him once and for all. They were afraid, though, to do it during the Passover feast due to the attention it might get from the people who claimed Jesus was the true deliverer of Israel.

That day Jesus was having a meal in the home of a man Simon. At some point in the past Simon had been healed by Jesus of leprosy. This is obvious because to have leprosy was to live continually with the sentence of death. The only way he could have been healed is through Jesus’ power. While Jesus was eating a woman appears in the house. It was common for people to come and go at these occasions yet for a woman to appear without a man was unusual. We don’t know who she was and don’t know anything more about her except that Jesus was the object of her attention and focus.

As she approaches Jesus she carries an alabaster jar or bottle of very expensive perfume that was made from nard. The jar or bottle was shaped like a bulb with a long, narrow neck and a wide base. Alabaster was a stone that was white or pearl in color and was virtually translucent. The perfume called "nard" came from a plant that grew in northern India. The bottle of perfume very likely was a family heirloom that was to be used to anoint a loved one’s body for burial. The key was that once the container was broken the contents had to be used completely because it could not be resealed. So she takes the container of perfume and breaks it open and recklessly pours it all on Jesus’ head.

As the fragrance of the perfume fills the room some of those who were eating with Jesus, most likely his disciples and certainly Judas, were outraged at her action. Their outrage was not completely unjustified from their perspective. During the Passover Feast it was common for Jews to give special gifts to the poor. In other words, while you celebrated God’s act of deliverance from Egypt, you also remembered to take care of those who were in need. Somewhat in the way we celebrate Christmas. They start criticizing her and scolding her (actually the word means "snorting" like horses) for her extravagance and waste. They calculate that the worth of the perfume could have helped poor people for an entire year. In their mind it made absolutely no practical sense to spend a year’s salary on Jesus. They were his followers and knew his significance but to use something that could have helped so many on just one person was insane!

Jesus’ response to them was swift and clear. He tells them to leave her alone and stop criticizing her because she had done "a good thing" to him. The word "good" really is the word for beautiful or lovely. It is not so much a morally good thing but it was an attractive thing, something that created awe and wonder. He continues by addressing their concern about the poor by telling them that there would be continual opportunities to help the poor but there were only so many opportunities to honor him. He wasn’t saying for them not to help the poor, just that there are times when exclusive, extravagant devotion to him is far more important.

He tells them the true purpose of what she has done. He said, "She has done what she could." The best way to say that is "what she had she did." He was saying that the pouring out of the perfume was evidence of her total unrestricted devotion to him. She knew that all she had of worth or value was this one bottle of perfume and the only valid use for it was to anoint Jesus for one purpose: prepare his body for burial. It was common for a family to pour perfume or spices on a loved one’s body before it was buried. The purpose was both emotional and practical. It was emotional in that it was a sign of love and affection for the one who had died. It was also practical in that it reduced the odor of the body after death.

What Jesus saw was that God had uniquely revealed to this woman what was going to happen to him—he was going to die. Jesus had told the disciples numerous times that this would happen but they ignored it. Yet this woman was persuaded that Jesus was destined not for a position of power but for execution. He is telling them, "She gets it! She alone understands what I have been telling you this whole time." That is why he said that later when the Good News is preached throughout the whole world there will be a connection between what she did and the story of why he came to die. He didn’t mean that every time they would tell the story of salvation that they would add this story. It meant that there would be something of timeless beauty, "a good thing," evident in those who told the story. Her one act of overwhelming extravagant, beautiful gratitude for Jesus’ death was to be relived by everyone who would ever tell the story of his salvation for all people.

There is much about this story that is moving and powerful but there is one thing I want us to understand and it is this: The most beautiful thing we can do at the cross is pour ourselves out in gratitude. Let me unpack that sentence for us. I realize when I say those words that we want to think of them very literally. In other words, that there is something spiritually attractive or appealing for a person to come to the cross in our sanctuary, kneel down and begin to somehow express our gratitude for Jesus’ death on the cross. Now, if you did that it would be "a good thing." Yet doing that once or several times physically limits what I believe this story teaches us.

Something else that needs to be said about this sentence, "The most beautiful thing we can do at the cross is pour ourselves out in gratitude," is that before we can be grateful for the cross we must fully grasp the reason for the cross. Two days from this moment Jesus would share his last meal with his disciples. We call it the "Lord’s Supper". He took bread and wine and said that each one was a symbol of what was about to happen to him. When he poured the wine into the cup he said, "This is my blood…it is poured out as a sacrifice for many" (v. 24). Just as the woman poured out the perfume on his head so his blood would be poured out as a sacrifice on behalf of everyone in the world. Paul would later write, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation." (Romans 5:8-9) and then later in Colossians, "…and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross." (Colossians 1:20)

What Jesus’ death on the cross did for you and me is that it resolved the issue of our being the recipient of God’s justice. What does that mean? It means that because of our individual and personal resistance to God’s best in our lives—our personal sin—we are separated from God and cannot have the relationship with God that he desires. By ourselves we are utterly and completely hopeless and helpless to avoid coming face to face with God’s eternal punishment for our sins. Yet when Jesus died, pouring out his very life’s blood on the cross, God used that action as the bridge that connected our lives to God’s life, creating peace between us and making us "friends of God." (Rom 5:11) That is why Paul would say, "So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God" (Rom. 5:11). It is because of his death on the cross and only his death on the cross that we have the assurance of the hope of life that will never end! His cross is our hope, our only hope!

Let me ask you, "When you look at the cross do you see any reason for gratitude? Do you see there in his horrible death the depth of God’s resistance to our sin and as well the love he has for us? Do you see what your life would be like without the cross and do you see what your life is like because of the cross?" If you see those things when you think of the cross or look at the cross then there will come out of your heart and your life the beauty of pouring yourself out in gratitude just as this woman did with the perfume. The most beautiful thing we can do at the cross is pour ourselves out in gratitude.

How do you do this though? How do you pour yourself out in gratitude? I believe it is something we do as we continually offer our lives to him. Daily we come pushing aside the successes or failures and laying our lives down before him for his use and his purpose. Doing so without prior demands or limits, we yield our lives to him knowing that what he has done for me I could not do for myself so I give what I have, fully and wholly, without restraint.

When we do this we discover that gratitude like this is beautiful because it is reckless (Mark 14:3). What the woman did with the perfume was reckless, uncalculated and unrestrained. Normally when someone does something reckless we think of something foolish or careless. She knew exactly what she was doing—pouring out all she had on Jesus. Jesus said it was "a good thing" a "beautiful thing." Choosing to openly pour out our lives in gratitude for Christ’s use and purpose is not careless but reckless. It is reckless because we are refusing to say what he can or cannot do with us. In God’s eyes there is nothing more beautiful than a life emptied out in gratitude at the thought and understanding of the cross of Jesus. Gratitude at the cross is beautiful when it is reckless.

Not everyone is going to feel this way, though. Some will criticize such gratitude as pointless (Mark 14:4-5). Those who watched this woman pour out a year’s worth of money on Jesus saw her action as pointless. There was something more that this could have been used for. It was wasteful, useless and pointless. You do understand, don’t you, that people, Christians and non-Christians, can see a life that is overwhelmed with gratitude for Christ as pointless? They will acclaim you as useful and worthy of value and praise if you do something sacrificial for the poor. You will be revered and recognized as someone truly of significance. Yet if you say that the reason you serve those who cannot serve themselves is because of a man named Jesus who died for your sins, then suddenly you are suspect and seen as a fool. Gratitude at the cross will be criticized as pointless.

Pouring out our lives with such gratitude may feel reckless and criticized as pointless yet Jesus sees such gratitude as timeless (Mark 14:6-9). Jesus said she had done "a good thing" because "what she had she did" by showing such love, devotion and gratitude. He added that what she did had a timeless, enduring quality about it. He knew that some day the story of his death and its purpose would be told and it would be this kind of gratitude that would compel it.

Here’s the thing: this type of gratitude doesn’t come to us by intuition. Knowledge of the cross and its meaning isn’t gained by speculation but by the revelation of God’s truth through Scripture. That’s why Jesus said that gratitude like hers would be found "wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world." (V. 9) Gratitude like hers is the result of our being exposed to the awesome truth of scripture that "when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners" (Romans 5:6). Understanding that is not just something we do once but it is continual, timeless, for we never stop being amazed, awed, humbled and grateful for the cross. It never grows old or tired. Gratitude at the cross is remembered as timeless.

You may say, "Where is the hope for today? Where is the encouragement for my problems? What solutions are here for my life now?" That is why we come to the cross. It is not that those questions are wrong but that God has something else to say to us about hope that endures when everything else we hoped for collapses. In the cross of Christ we have a hope anchored in eternity that can carry us through when all other hopes have failed. That is a gift that no human gratitude can ever exhaust. Yet we try by pouring out our gratitude at the cross.

I struggled to end this message with the words of hymn writer, Isaac Watts written nearly 300 years ago. The phrasing is dated and unfamiliar yet the emotion found here is timeless. He wrote, "Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sov'reign die? Would He devote that sacred head for sinners such as I? Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!"

Listen to these last verses, "Thus might I hide my blushing face while his dear cross appears, dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt mine eyes to tears. But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe; Here, Lord, I give myself away, 'tis all that I can do." The most beautiful thing we can do at the cross is pour ourselves out in gratitude. And that, my friends, is "a good thing."

Sunday, March 2, 2008 a.m.

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org