A noble deed

  Scripture Reading: Mark 14:1-9

  Mark 14:9 says, "And truly I say to you, Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial of her." According to the Lord's word here, wherever the gospel is preached, this story should be told immediately afterwards. If the gospel is preached, but this story is not told, there is a great lack. Therefore, we have to speak of this story today. This is what the Lord told me as I was praying yesterday.

  When did this story take place? Let us read verse 1: "Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to seize Him by craftiness and kill Him." The cross was in sight! The shadow of the cross was in sight!

  What is the most significant point of this story? We can express it with the words of 1 Peter 3:15. It is to "sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts." The word sanctify is a verb. This story shows a practical way for the carrying out of this verse.

  This story only invokes men to do one thing — to sanctify Christ as Lord. The Lord's word, "Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial of her," is an instruction to us that, after the preaching of the gospel, there must be this kind of fruit. This story unfolds to us the meaning of this kind of fruit.

  "A woman came [Mary — John 12:3], having an alabaster flask of ointment, of very costly pure nard." Pure nard is precious enough, whereas a very costly, pure nard is unmatched in excellence. This very costly, pure nard was inside an alabaster flask. The alabaster flask was also very precious. Not only was Mary offering to the Lord a costly ointment, but the flask that contained the ointment was also very precious. We can offer to the Lord only what is most precious.

  "She broke the alabaster flask." Why did she do this? This kind of pure nard came from Persia, and there was no way for the ointment to come out except by breaking the flask. In this way, there could be no counterfeit.

  "And poured it over His head." When she did this, the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment (John 12:3). Not only was the house filled with the fragrance then; even now as we read this passage, we can sense the fragrance! Even the house we are meeting in right now seems to be filled with fragrance! This love to the Lord and this consecration to Him indeed is a fragrance that has lasted until now and will last until eternity.

  John 12:3 said that she "anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair." She placed her glory at the feet of the Lord! For a woman, her hair is her glory (1 Cor. 11:15).

  At first she was only seen; now she could be smelled. She drew not only men's criticism, but men's indignation. However, she ignored all of them and did not care for them. It did not cross her mind that this was the house of a leper. She did not consider her present family condition nor her future hardships. She did not care for the criticism and the indignation of others. She simply did what she did.

  She offered to the Lord in the way of "risking all"! We should be just as bold and willing as she was. "And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment." This is absolute consecration. There are two meanings to consecration. One is to offer something to the Lord, and the other is to be separated solely unto the Lord in a dedicated way.

  The ointment is for sanctification. The tabernacle with all its utensils was anointed. The word Christ means the "Messiah," which is the Anointed One. We should sanctify this anointed Christ as Lord. We should anoint Him and own Him as Lord, even as our Lord. We should offer up everything to Him and should heap everything upon Christ. We should not be afraid of following Him too foolishly or loving Him too fervently. When a young Christian bade farewell to an older man, the latter said, "I have only one wish, that you be a fervent lover of Christ!" There cannot be a limit to our loving the Lord, our serving Him, obeying Him, and our allegiance to Him; we can never overdo these things. The Lord loves to see us loving Him in a reckless way. He loves to see us loving Him beyond reason and against human affection. To Him, the gospel should result in men's being constrained by His death to love Him, consecrate to Him, and fully obey Him to the point that others would consider them extreme.

  The degree that we offer ourselves to Him is dependent on the worth of the Lord to us. To those who believe, the Lord is precious (1 Pet. 2:7). Peter knew what this word meant. This is why in his Epistles, he mentioned the word precious many times. He added the word precious to the blood, the faith, the stone, the virtues, and so forth.

  What did the disciples do when Mary acted this way? "But there were some who were indignantly commenting among themselves: Why has this waste of the ointment been made?" (Mark 14:4). They thought that this was a waste. But on whom was the ointment poured? Was the One being anointed not worthy of the ointment? This ointment was poured on the Lord. If this was a waste, it would mean that the Lord was not worthy of it. Was the Lord indeed not worthy of this ointment? Can anything be called a waste when it is applied to the Lord? Those who have never loved the Lord with a single heart think that too much consecration and obedience is a waste. In man's eyes, obeying the Lord, loving Him, and giving up everything for Him may sometimes be too much and may be a waste, but such criticism only shows the degree of love that the criticizing ones have.

  "For this ointment could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and given to the poor" (v. 5). They had a better way of using the money, which was to give to the poor. They considered it too much to serve the Lord but not too much to serve men. If a man does not have a love for Christ, he will surely replace the love that he ought to offer to the Lord with works that he does for the Lord. If a man thinks that offering the best to the Lord is a waste, he will surely spend his best on men. If a man is not a Christian, he saves everything for himself. Since he is a Christian, he knows that it is wrong to be selfish. The question is, on whom should the three hundred denarii be spent? Either it is spent on Christ, or it is spent on men. What a pity that many believers today are like the disciples of that day. They do not have a heart single for Christ; they do not have the chastity and the fervent love for Christ. Instead, they try to fill this lack with hard works.

  "And they were infuriated with her" (v. 5). At the beginning they were only criticizing. Later they began to be infuriated with the woman, but Mary could not keep back the ointment just because they were infuriated. The flask was broken and the ointment had flowed out. No sacrifice can be retrieved from the altar. Mary dared to do this out of love to the Lord. She did not care about the others' criticism and fury.

  What did our Lord say? He said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her?" (v. 6). What the Lord meant was that it was all right for her to love Him and obey Him too much. There was no need to criticize her. Criticizing her this way was to trouble her. Oh, even if we love the Lord too much or offer to Him too much, He will still forgive us!

  The Lord thought that it would be wonderful if they would love Him as much as Mary did. But if they could not do it themselves, they should not stop others from loving Him this way. Our hands should not touch all those who love the Lord, and we should not bother them.

  Such an act of Mary was indeed a waste and was too much in the eyes of man. To the ordinary mind, it was enough to use some ointment; there was no need to use the pure nard. And even if pure nard was used, there was no need to have it in an alabaster flask. Even if one used an alabaster flask, there was no need to spend three hundred denarii on it. They could not keep themselves from criticizing and even becoming infuriated. But to the Lord, this act should not be criticized. The Lord said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her?" To the Lord, their criticism and fury were a kind of trouble to her. The Lord thought that such an act was permissible. This was why He said, "She has done a noble deed on Me"! Mary's act was a noble deed and should not be criticized.

  At that time, three hundred denarii was enough money to buy a slave. It was enough to hire a few laborers for a few months. When the Lord went to Bethany and stayed at the house of Mary, Martha was busy serving; she did not have any slave to help her. This shows that they were not rich. But Mary did not care for her own ease and comfort; she spent her all on the Lord. We cannot be too much in loving the Lord and in serving Him. It is not a waste to spend everything on the Lord.

  "She has done a noble deed on Me" (v. 6). The Lord was opposed to the disciples' concept, who thought that such an anointing and consecration to Him was a waste. The Lord said that it was a noble deed and not a waste. It is a noble deed to love Him too much, to obey Him too much, and to be spent on Him too much; it is not a waste. It is a noble deed to love Him to the extent that we forget about the criticism of those who are older in the Lord. It is a noble deed to love Him to the extent that we forget about the need of the poor outside. It is not a waste. It is a noble deed to love Him to the extent that we waste everything on Him. This is not a waste. The Lord thinks that we can never be too much in the way we treat Him. Our love to Him can never be too much. Our obedience to Him can never be too much. No matter how man sees it, and no matter how those who serve together criticize, the Lord says that this is a noble deed. The result of the preaching of the gospel is not only to send sinners to heaven but to make every saved person a lover of Christ. This is why the Scripture says, "If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed!" (1 Cor. 16:22).

  All the Marys should be satisfied with this word from the Lord. If we expect approval from our fellow disciples, we have to live according to the worldly wisdom, and we cannot consecrate out of a care for what is on the Lord's heart. We should be satisfied with the Lord's approval, and we should not be concerned about men's criticism.

  The Lord was not opposed to the idea of giving to the poor. He was only opposed to their remark that this was too much and that it was a waste to do it on the Lord. He told them, "For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you do not always have Me" (Mark 14:7). The Lord meant that there would be many more opportunities for them to give to the poor, but the time was short for them to serve Him.

  "She has done what she could" (v. 8). The question here is not how much was done but how much was left. For a rich man to give a little to the Lord is not difficult, but it is difficult for a poor person to offer up all he has to the Lord. "She has done what she could." She did not save anything for herself. Praise comes from the word all. Without giving "all," there is no love. If we love God, we have to love with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. Many times our attitude toward the Lord is no better than our attitude toward a taxi driver. Sometimes we give a few coins to the taxi driver, but we think it is a waste to give even a few coins to the Lord. What a pity this is!

  Why did Mary do this? Let us see what the Lord said.

  "She has anointed My body beforehand for the burial" (v. 8). In another two days the Lord would die. In the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord mentioned four times to the disciples that He was going to die, but they did not understand it. Only Mary understood. She understood that the Lord was going to die for her and that He would die to deliver her from the punishment of hell. She loved the Lord, and she had to anoint Him. The real power of love to the Lord comes from the death of the Lord. Those who do not understand the Lord's death cannot really love Him.

  One has to be on time to anoint the Lord. After the Lord resurrected, it was too late to anoint Him! Mary Magdalene bought some ointment and went early on the first day of the week to anoint the Lord's body, but she could not anoint Him. The Lord had resurrected, and it was too late.

  "Anointed My body beforehand." This is Christ. Today is the time for us to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. If we wait, it may be too late! After the Lord resurrected, it was too late to anoint Him. After we have resurrected, it will be too late to consecrate ourselves to Him and love Him single-heartedly. At the time of the resurrection, even if there were a thousand worlds, we would gladly give them all up to love the Lord Jesus. But now we need to have the fullness of love that we will have for Him after the resurrection. Now is the time for us to love the Lord.

  Romans 6 speaks of presenting our members to God. Romans 12:1 speaks of the presenting of our bodies in particular. This is total consecration. It is easier to present the members, but it is hard to present the body. However, such a presenting is holy. True holiness comes from an absolute consecration. This presenting is also reasonable. It is not a waste. May we offer ourselves absolutely to the Lord, and may we love Him, serve Him, and obey Him while today is still today.