And while He was in Bethany
at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the
table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very
costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and
poured it over His head. But some were indignantly
remarking to one another, "Why has this perfume been
wasted? "For this perfume might have been sold for
over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the
poor." And they were scolding her. But Jesus said,
"Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done
a good deed to Me. "For the poor you always have
with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good;
but you do not always have Me. "She has done what
she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the
burial. "And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel
is preached in the whole world, that also which this
woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her."
(Mark 14:3-9)
The Lord has ordained that the story of Mary
anointing Him with the costly ointment should always
accompany the preaching of the gospel. We know the story
well. Judging by the story in connection with her
brother's resurrection, we know that the family was not
an especially wealthy one. The sisters had to work in the
house themselves, and one of them, Mary, had an alabaster
box with three hundred pence worth of ointment in it, and
with a stroke she broke it and poured the whole of that
costly nard upon the head of the Lord. According to human
reasoning it was altogether too much, even for the Lord.
That is why Judas took the lead with the other disciples
in thinking that Mary was wasting something (John
12:4-5).
Now we come to the word which the Lord wants to emphasize
at this time, the word waste. What is waste? Waste simply
means giving too much. If a shilling will do and you give
a pound, it is waste. If two ounces will do and you give
a kilogram, it is a waste. A waste means that you give
something too much for something too little. A waste
means that the one who is receiving the something is not
worth so much. Yet we are dealing here with something the
Lord said was to go out with the gospel, wherever the
gospel should be preached. With the preaching of the
gospel the Lord is out to have a result that corresponds
with Mary's action here: that is, for people to come out
and "waste" themselves on Him. That is what He
is after.
Now we must look at the question from two angles, that of
Judas, and that of the other disciples. They all thought
it to be a waste. To Judas, who had never called our Lord
the Lord, everything that was poured upon Him was waste.
Even water would have been waste. To the world, the
service of the Lord, and our giving of ourselves to Him
is pure waste. "Such and such a man would have made
good in the world if he were not a Christian," is a
sentiment that is frequently expressed. For anyone with
natural talents to be a Christian, to serve the Lord, is
deemed to be pure waste.
So thought Judas, "We could manage better with the
money; we could give it to charity; we could do some
social service, we could help people in a more practical
way. Why pour it down at the feet of Jesus? As to
yourself, can you not find a better employment of your
life?" That is what Judas was thinking, and that is
what the world is thinking. It is too much to give
yourself to the Lord! But no! When once our eyes have
been opened to the worth of the Lord, nothing is too good
for Him.
But it is upon the reaction of the other disciples that I
want most to dwell; for they affect us more than does
Judas. We do not mind very much what the world is saying,
but we do mind what those other disciples are saying who
ought to have understood, yet did not. We mark that they
said the same thing as Judas; and not only so, but they
were moved to indignation, saying, "To what purpose
is this waste...?"
Now here is the whole question of waste, and of what the
Lord is after. Today, even amongst Christians, there can
be found much of that spirit that wants to give as little
as possible to the Lord, and yet to get as much as
possible from Him. The prevailing thought today is of
being used, as though that were the one thing that
mattered. That my little rubber band should be stretched
to the very limit seems all important. But this is not
the Lord's mind. The Lord wants us to be used, yes; but
what He is after is that we pour all we have, ourselves,
to Him, and if that be all, that is enough.
It is not a question of whether the poor have been helped
or not, but of whether the Lord has been satisfied. The
question is not one of working for Him, my friends, but
of service to Him, of ministering to the Lord. That is
what He is after; that I should give Him my all, even
though people should say, 'You are doing nothing!' My
service to the Lord is to please Him. There is many a
meeting we might take, many a convention at which we
might speak, many a campaign in which we might share, but
this is not the first consideration. That my usefulness
should be brought to the full is not what the Lord is
after, but His concern is rather with my position at His
feet and my anointing of His head. What I have as an
alabaster box, the most
precious thing, my whole life. I give it all up to the
Lord. It seems as if it is a waste, but that is what He
is after.
May I tell you something? One thing some of us have come
to learn is that in the divine service the principle of
"waste" is the principle of power, whereas the
principle of "usefulness" is the very principle
of scattering. The real usefulness in the hand of the
Lord is "waste." The more you think you could
do, the more you employ your gifts to the very limit--and
perhaps beyond the limit--that you will find to be the
principle of the world, and not the principle of the
Lord.
I knew a sister in the Lord, now in His presence, who was
very greatly used of Him. But my first concern about her
was that she did not seem to be being used. Every time I
said to myself; Why did she not get out and take some
meetings, get somewhere, do something? It was a waste to
live in a small village without anything happening.
Sometimes when I went to see her, I almost shouted at
her: "No one knows the Lord as you do. You know the
Book in a most living way. Do you not see the need all
around you? Why don't you do something? It is a waste of
time, a waste of energy, a waste of money, a waste of
everything, just sitting here and doing nothing!"
But she was the one who helped me most of all., The
highest thing is not just to be moving about. I do not
mean to say that we are going to do nothing, but the
first thing is the Lord Himself, not the work. That is
what He is after.
So the Lord said, "Why trouble ye her? She has
wrought a good work as to Me. The poor you will always
have, but you cannot always have Me." The whole
point is, What am I going to do to the Lord today? Did
those other women who came with their spices to the tomb
succeed in anointing the Lord's body? No! He was risen.
Only one succeeded, Mary, who anointed Him beforehand. It
seems as if man will say I am wasting my time--but Lord,
nothing is too good for Thee! He is worthy to be served.
He is worthy for me just to be His prisoner. He is worthy
for me just to live for Him. Let others say what they
will. Have our eyes been opened to see that working for
the poor, working for the benefit of the world, working
for the eternal welfare of the sinner, as things in
themselves, are not to be compared with the work we do to
the Lord, with our being just for Him. What is your
estimate of the Lord?
Then the Lord said, "She hath done what she
could." It means that Mary had given her all. That
was all she could do, no more; and she did it. The Lord
will not be satisfied with anything less. The whole point
is a life really laid down at the feet of the Lord, and
that in view of His death, His burial; that is, in view
of a future day. Then it was His burial, now it is His
crowning day that is in view. He will be acclaimed by all
in that day, but how precious, far more precious to Him
it is that we should anoint Him now; not with any
material oil, but with that which is deepest and, maybe,
hard for us to break. The Lord get anointing from us
today!
Further, the Lord said, "Wherever the gospel shall
be preached, this story shall be told." Why? Because
the gospel is meant to produce this. The gospel is not
primarily for the satisfaction of sinners. The gospel is
preached that everything may be to the satisfaction of
the Son of God. Not to sinners first of all, though,
praise God, sinners will be satisfied. But supremely it
is Christ who must find satisfaction through its
preaching.
Once more let me repeat. The whole question for us is
simply this: It seems that I am giving too much for too
little. That is waste. Others appear to far better
advantage than I, though they have given up none of the
things that I have. As for me, I seem to meet with all
the difficulties. Continual trial and suffering is what
comes my way. Now, am I not wasting my time? If I
consecrate myself enough for the blessing, but not enough
for the trouble; if I consecrate myself enough for the
Lord to use me, but not enough for the Lord to shut me
up, it will be all right! Are we not found thinking thus
at times? But the principle of waste is that which
satisfies the heart of the Lord Jesus. You can get
something for yourself out of your consecration, but
often real satisfaction can only come to the heart of
your Lord when you seem to be "wasting"
yourself on the Lord, giving too much and getting nothing
back for yourself.
O friends, what are we after? Are we after mere
usefulness, as those disciples were? They wanted to make
every penny of that three hundred pence go to its full
length. They wanted to be used themselves. If only we can
please Him, surely that should be enough.
Now the breaking of the alabaster box and
the anointing of the Lord filled the house with the odor,
with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it. Whenever
you meet someone who has really suffered; been limited,
gone through things for the Lord, willing to be
imprisoned by the Lord, just being satisfied with Him and
nothing else, immediately you scent the fragrance. There
is a savor of the Lord. Something has been crushed,
something has been broken, and there is a resulting odor
of sweetness. The odor which filled the house that day
still fills the Church; Mary's fragrance never passes
away.
Friends, we cannot produce impressions of God upon
others, impart the sense of the presence of God, without
the breaking of everything, even the most precious
things, at the feet of the Lord Jesus. The Lord would
have us here, not first of all to preach or to do work
for Him, but to create hunger in others. No true work
will begin in any life apart from a sense of need. We
cannot inject that into others, we cannot drive people to
be hungry for God. Such hunger can be created only by
those whose lives convey vital impressions of Him.
Oh, to be wasted! It is a blessed thing to be wasted for
the Lord. So many of us who have been prominent in the
Christian world know nothing of this. Many of us have
been used to the full--have been used, I would say, too
much--but we don't know what it means to be wasted on
God. We like to be always "on the go": the Lord
would sometimes prefer to have us in prison. We think in
terms of apostolic journeys: God dares to put His
greatest ambassadors in chains.
"But thanks be unto God, which
always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh
manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every
place" (2
Corinthians 2:14).
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