Day 13: An Intimate Meal with Friends

Welcome to day 13 of our study of the Gospel of Mark. And this is one of my favorite moments in Holy Week. It's Wednesday. It's a very special day, unlike last time where we covered lots of, I mean, information, right? Part of 11, chapter 12, 13.

Things are really different. For Jesus, it's a day, actually, the only day, left to personally prepare for the awful event of Friday.

After three years of miracles, teaching, feeding the poor, raising an occasional person from the dead. After three years of eating and sleeping and talking and sharing His deepest thoughts, His greatest dreams, His private world, Jesus’, one of the closest friends, he's one of the twelve, decides that for thirty pieces of silver, he's going to betray Him. The, outward fight is over. The public teaching, ended. Thursday He'll prepare His disciples for the final hour when they take the Passover together. But this is Wednesday. It's a time of personal preparation, emotionally, physically, spiritually.

Jesus has tonight and a portion of tomorrow to prepare to die for the sins of the world. The die is cast. The clock has begun its irreversible countdown to Friday at 9 a.m.

Now here's the question. How does Jesus prepare to die. What does He do and why? Well, first I notice it's a day of rest. Little or nothing is recorded in the scriptures on this day. He stays out of Jerusalem, away from the crowds. All that we really know about this day is that two major decisions were made and that Jesus chose four close friends to share an informal supper with.

Prior to a day of silence, likely of rest, and of prayer, and remembering He's fully human with every human emotion, and He's fully God, and He knows what's going to come, and He gets away. We have no record. By Himself, and I'm sure with the Father, to prepare His heart, His mind, His will.

Isaiah gives us a hint in Isaiah 54, speaking of Messiah, it says, He set his face like a flint toward the cross. This would not be easy. This would require all of His willpower and all the Father's grace. And even in the moment of testing, He'll ask the Father, is there any other way? Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours.

It raises a question I'd like you to maybe ask yourself. If you knew you had less than 48 hours to live, what four people would you invite over for dinner to have a meal, to have conversation, to share the time, you know, along with your family of course, but what four people outside of your family would you invite and maybe they don't even know it's your last 48 hours. Who would you invite in and why?

Jesus had four close friends. They're kind of an unusual group. Before we, read the passage, let me introduce you. First, there's Simon the leper, which got his name for obvious reasons, right? Second, there's Lazarus, who He raised from the dead. Third, there's Martha, who at one point was a little too busy and, and then later she hears directly from Jesus. I mean, everything was shrouded in mystery, but Martha, Jesus told her straight up, I am the Messiah. I am the One. I am the resurrection and the life. Then we have Mary, who, has a tender heart, is filled with devotion, loves to sit at, Jesus’ feet.

And did you ever consider, why would He invite them? And then also think about why He would have these four people and what they meant to Him. And maybe it gives you a glimpse of the kind of sacrifice and the struggle. And sort of a window, not just of Him hanging on the cross and yes, being beaten and flogged and all that physical pain, but that part of relationships that are, you want people to share things with that can understand, right? That can get you, that can provide support.

And so, Simon the Leper, to me, he brings a level of identification and gratitude. I mean, here's someone that for most of his life, before Jesus healed him, was a reject. was someone that people didn't want to be around, that he was rejected by family, rejected by the culture, rejected by everyone. His identity was mocked. You know, leper, leper, ring that bell, get away from us, you're terrible.

And I have to believe that on this Wednesday, Jesus has to, in His mind, be going through all the miracles and all the teaching and all the fulfilled prophecy and I am the King. I came for My people and He was rejected by them.

And at this point, as far as we know, He's still rejected by His family. John gives us a hint in John chapter one. It says He came unto His own and those who were His own did not receive Him. And then there's a great line for all the rest of us. But to as many as receive Him, to them He gave the right - literally, the word is the authority or the power - to become children of God to anyone - or, literally, to everyone - who believes. Keeps getting back to faith, doesn't it?

So, I gotta, think that Jesus thought, you know, I could eat dinner with a lot of people, but I think Simon knows what I'm going through. He knows what it's like to be pushed away, to be rejected, I don't know anyone who said, I'd like to sign up for leprosy. You know, how do you get leprosy? Who knows? But he didn't do anything wrong. He didn't do anything wrong, and he's ostracized his whole life until he's healed. I think Simon would be someone that could understand as he and Jesus and the others talked that night, along with the disciples.

And then Lazarus, to me, is kind of like camaraderie. Like Jesus came from heaven, He's going to go back to Heaven. How many people do you know that like had a short visit to heaven and came back and you could sort of talk about, You know that joy set before you? I mean, I bet this is really private conversation, who knows, no one knows, like, Hey Lazarus, I know it was four days, I know it was great, I know you saw the Father, you got a glimpse of some really good stuff. Sorry you had to come back to serve a bigger purpose, you can't share a lot of that stuff, but I just wonder if that night, Lazarus was a great comrade, someone who like no one else knew, you know, this is going to be tough, this is going to be a challenge, but it's worth it.

The writer of Hebrews kind of tells us that. Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. But He saw us, He saw the glory, He saw what it would accomplish. He was going to obey the Father. And, in my mind, I think it would be good to have Lazarus there at dinner.

The third one is Martha. I think she gets a bit of a bad rap. Someone needs to do logistics, right? Someone needs to set up the chairs, put the chairs away, you know, operate the sound, turn on the lights, you know, clean things up when everybody leaves, prepare the meal.

And by the way, preparing a meal, now let's see, you got twelve disciples, and you've got four friends and Jesus. Let me do my math here. Seventeen people? She didn't go to Whole Foods, you know, she didn't go down to Costco and say, you know, can I get this, this, this, and this, and this, and, you know, I'll stick it in the oven for a few hours, and, I mean, that's a big job today in a modern world. This is a huge undertaking, and she expresses her love by service.

She's gonna put on a meal, and I'm sure there are servants and help, but she's going to put on a meal for 17 people, and I'm going to tell you, she made that to say, I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. And you know, that's how God wants some of us to say, I love You, by serving, by serving Him. And notice, when we serve Him, you serve all those other people.

And then, we've got, Mary. Mary's just Mary. You know, she just loves God's Word. She's just devoted. She's part of who we all want to be. That wholehearted, I'm in, I love you, I don't care what people think.

And, she will take an alabaster, and I've done a little background research, and, according to some scholars, the jar described here is about 12 ounces, and it probably came from the mountains in India, in the Himalayas, and was worth about 300 days of, work. 300 denarii. Man, that's a bunch of money. In a world where if you have enough food for today and for the next day or so, you're considered rich and a lot of people are going out every day. All those parables are people don't have work, they need to work, today. And why it was commanded that you have to pay them at the end of the day is because if you didn't pay workers at the end of the day, they didn't eat and they didn't have food.

And so, what she's doing, I mean. Some of those disciples, you know, when we read the story, and most of you are familiar with the story, right? She's going to break it. I mean, she's not going to pour some and say, you know, I think Jesus is worth about 33 percent of this. She breaks it and she pours it over His head and down His beard. And then it even goes down on his feet and she undoes her hair. Completely inappropriate. breaks every possible cultural rule. I mean, there's the disciples. And as the perfume gets on His feet, she takes her hair and she bows down. She wipes His feet. And, ‘course, the disciples are indignant, you know. We could have fed the poor, and most of you know the story how Jesus responds.

I think Jesus wanted Mary there because at the end of the day, it's really what He's looking for. It's why He came. People that would, worship Him for Him. Not Jesus, what can You give me? Not, Jesus plus a good house. Not Jesus with the right person. Not Jesus if my kids turn out. Not Jesus plus money. Not Jesus plus success. Not Jesus plus fulfillment. Not Jesus… just Jesus. Just Jesus. I love you, Jesus, and I'm going to break every rule, I'm going to take extravagant, costly, reckless amount of money, and I'm going to do something that I'll never ever get to do again, and I don't know how much she understood. Certainly, the disciples, you know, at least they've heard, I'm coming to Jerusalem to die. And, we don't need to know how much, but Jesus response was, you leave her alone. You leave her alone. There's going to be poor people forever. This is a one-time deal. I won't be around. She's preparing Me for My burial.

And I couldn't help but think, I mean, this is a very, very strong perfume the way they describe it, thick and coming down and it's on His clothes and it's in His hair and it's in His beard and, when you're interrogating Him later, when you're putting thorns on His head, you can smell it. When they strip off His clothes to beat Him and the guards go, you can smell it. there was an aroma about Jesus. I wonder what that smell reminded Him of as He was carrying His cross and then fell down, and the devotion of a Mary.

And so, He's got those four people at dinner, and the disciples, and after this dinner, it's their Wednesday, it's our Tuesday night after dark. And He is going through the process of setting His face like a flint. I don't know, there's something, there's just, there's something about picturing that and writing that out that is super helpful for me.

Follow along as I read the text. Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We're only two days away and the chief priest and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill Him. But not during the feast, they said, or the people may riot.

While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money be given to the poor. And they rebuked her harshly.

Leave her alone, said Jesus. And you know what? I think that was His tone of voice. Maybe not. Why are you bothering her? - I love this - She has done a beautiful thing for Me.

I think to myself, when's the last time I did a beautiful thing for Jesus? Not a good thing, not a righteous thing, not a, I know I'm supposed to be a good person, I know I'm supposed to have the right attitude, I know I'm supposed to be generous, I get all that. Is all that important? Yes. But this is described as a beautiful thing. This comes from a, woman with this heart so full of love.

The poor you will always have with you. And you can help them at any time you want. But you will not always have Me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went out to the chief priest to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this, and they promised to give him money, so he watched for an opportunity to hand Him over.

One of the things that the, writers of scripture do to bring about points is contrast. They show these things in just such contrast to jar our attention. Mary's devotion, Judas’ betrayal, contrast. Mary's perception, the disciples’ blindness.

Mary, Mary gets it. He's gonna die. He's been talking about this. Mary believes. What can I do? I'll worship Him with all I've got. The disciples, still on the external agenda.

Reckless use of money for love. An interesting behavior to get money out of greed, betraying the Savior.

She did a beautiful thing, Judas did a despicable thing.

And finally, Jesus is preparing in solitary time with friends to go to the cross. While, at the same time, a group of Jewish religious leaders, knowing so much of the Bible, are slyly planning to figure out, how do we kill Him? Pretty drastic.

Final thought I have, kind of from a devotional point, with Mary and worship, is because the question I ask myself, and I'll ask you is, when is the last time you did something reckless for Jesus?

I mean, reckless in terms of good. Reckless that was like, man this is illogical, this costs a lot, and I thought about it, and I did a little analyzing of Mary, and I realized some characteristics of her worship that's a little different than mine. And I want mine to be a lot more like hers.

One, she violated culture. That means she didn't care what everybody thought. And to my shame, I care way too much about what people think. I mean, she let her hair down. She's got her nose on His feet. She's wiping His feet with her hair. This perfume is in the air everywhere, the disciples are gawking, she's been told, what are you doing? She's harshly rebuked. I don't care, I don't care, I don't care what you think of me. This is Jesus, this is my shot, I don't care what you think.

Second thing that struck me, that it was planned. This wasn't like just a spontaneous, Oh, I have a liver quiver. I'll see how much money I have in my wallet and I'll put it in the plate or in the box or whatever. The dinner's at Simon's house. She had to plan to bring the perfume from her house to Simon's house. She planned to be extravagant.

The next thing I see is it, it's from her heart. She gave something that was precious to her. I mean, a woman in that day, you know, might be like, what, a diamond necklace today, or I mean, it's not like a bunch of disciples are going, boy, what's really precious to me is a bunch of perfume.

This would be a rare, super-expensive, extravagant thing that would be a personal possession of normally just the wealthiest of women. She gave what was most precious.

And what I like, it was impractical and extravagant. When's the last time you did something like really impractical and extravagant in your service or your love for Jesus?

And I love the last part, it was pure, undefiled, no pretense, just love. And I know that that is the kind of heart and the kind of life that Jesus is calling us to.

I mean, some of this is really hard, right? I mean, if we were going to look back through the whole book, you know, we would see that this is the beginning of the gospel and Jesus calls us and He says, who am I? And we learn He's God and He's the Savior.

And, and then He goes through all this opposition because He wants us to know that's part of the deal. And, and then He withdraws privately, and He teaches us and we see miracles and, and then He - three different times - tells them, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. And they never quite get it. But it's because I love you, and this is God's plan and.

And the whole point is, will you follow Me? Will you follow Me? Will you deny yourself? Take up your cross, follow Me, live out this life in the power of the Holy Spirit, like I'm living it out in the power of the Holy Spirit, to please My Father, so that, yes, the cross is painful and difficult, but the reward, the crown, is both now and forever and ever and ever.

And when you live the way I live, and when you do what I do, the same things that happen out of My life that change people's life, and healed people, and brought love, and brought unity, and brought transformation, that's what He wants to do in and through your life. And my life.

And we'll always do it very imperfectly, but I would just ask you on this Wednesday to think about what an extravagant, impractical, reckless moment of service, or love, or generosity you might express to Jesus, because it seems that what Mary did meant a lot to Him. And He's looking for Mary's. And I, for one, want to be one.