Life Spark: (John 12:1-11) – Jesus cares about you and your life.
Six days before He was executed, Jesus came to Bethany to see His friends, Mary, Martha, and their resurrected brother, Lazarus. In their home, Mary poured out $50,000 worth of precious perfume on the Lord’s feet.
Judas went berserk. “This perfume could have been sold and given to Habitat for Humanity or Goodwill.” Sounds reasonable, but if we were to dig down in his heart to the root of his objection we would find greed and thievery. He said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them. (John 12:6, MSG)
“He was a thief.” He didn’t just take money, he took aliveness. The Bible says that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” The root of Judas’s greed had grown into his heart. Love of money had crowded out the love of God inside of him.
What a contrast. As Mary embalmed the Lord, Judas embezzled from him. As the aroma of her worship filled the room, Judas’s attitude stank it up. For every Little Red Riding Hood of life, there is a Big Bad Wolf of death. For every life-giver there is a life-robber.
Jesus said “If a person gains the whole world and loses his or her soul (life), it is a net loss.” Did Judas believe that? I don’t think so.
I remember counseling a husband and wife whose marriage was on the rocks. He claimed that his wife was overspending. After looking at the data, it appeared to me that he was very selfish and she was very thrifty and financially conservative. I’ll never forget him yelling “When she spends my money, she’s spending my life.” Little wonder the marriage was dying. One of them was a life-thief.
Lord, let me be more like Mary and less like Judas.
Life-challenge: Can you picture yourself spending $50,000 to say “I love you” to Jesus?