Take It! Don’t Waste It! John 12:1-8 NIV

Take It! Don’t Waste It!

John 12:1-8 NIV

Purpose:         To become like Jesus, who was a life giving Friend

12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

² Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

³ Then Mary took about a pint^[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴ But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,

 ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.^[b]”

⁶ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

⁷ “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

⁸ You will always have the poor among you,^[c] but you will not always have me.”

Footnotes:

a. John 12:3 Or about 0.5 liter

b. John 12:5 Greek three hundred denarii

c. John 12:8 See Deut. 15:11.

This is the word of God,

For the people of God.

Praise be to God,

Amen.

          Recently, I have been thinking about my childhood, because now that I am taking care of my granddaughter, I don’t want her to have the same misunderstandings or misinterpretations about life that I had. For example, I used to believe that I had a good friend, a very good friend, until my friend didn’t want to do what I suggested. Yes, I grew up thinking that my genuine and honest friends were going to agree with me on everything I thought, I said, and I did. I was not aware of people having minds of their own. I was ignorant of the great opportunity that we humans have to own our independent minds. That means that we are able to think for ourselves. It took me years to understand that each one of us has a mind of his/her own. Have you been this way??? Believing that honest and authentic friends are the friends that are going to agree with everything we think, say, or do? A real friend has his or her own mind also. Actually, an authentic friend is bold enough to challenge us. An authentic friend always, always wants the best for us. That is why they challenge us.

      Here is when easily becomes tricky, because the best for us is not necessarily what

we want; it is what we need and vice versa. What we need is a friend who gives us life and not death. For example, when we have a problem

with our husband or another friend, or another person, is this friend one who feeds the fire of our anger or is helping us to calm down and think rationally? Or when we are sad, for whatever reason, is this friend the one who helps us to have a pity party or the friend who help us to see our blessings and never give up? Or when we are on a diet and our friend sabotages our diet bringing us nice pastries, or is the kind of friend to help us to be accountable and be focus and positive in the hard work of dieting?

          I don’t want to sound mean but some of our friends are so negative and needy that they just push us down or drain us with them. Have you heard the saying Misery loves company? Well, it seems like the tendency of these friends is that. They want us to join their misery. They are in inner trouble and they want us to be in the same emotional boat with them. Perhaps we are these kinds of friends, needy and negative. For some of them or some of us, they are always in trouble. This can be classified as a friendship which gives death and not life. Real friends give life. I am not saying that we don’t have our down moments but our joyful moments should be much more often than our down moments because it is a way of living. To be joyful, positive, and with passion for life, should be a way of living.

          So, the question is: where do we find a genuine and loyal life giving friend? Or How can we become a loyal life giving friend? For us Christians, the answer is obvious. We find what is a real and genuine life giving friend in Jesus Christ. Well, the next step is what is hard to accomplish, how we apply the example of Jesus Christ in our lives in order to become a life giving friend for others.

          Jesus was an excellent friend who gave life to every person whom He encountered. His loyalty and truthfulness to God made Him reflect the same in His life. Have you known people who are themselves in all the situations? They don’t try to be another person or please people in order to get acceptance. What we see in them is what we get. This is the kind of person that we know, if we ask for advice, we are going to get the truth from them. Remember that the truth is going to set us free (John 8:32). This is the kind of person who gives live to others instead of death.

Here is Jesus eating with his very good friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead just eight days before. His death is very close. He knows it and He doesn’t care. Then, one of the disciple who has been with Him all these tree years of ministry, has become a thief, Judas Iscariot, starts complaining about the perfume that Mary has opened in order to wash/ to anoint Jesus’ feet. Focus on Jesus as a human. Think for a moment, how we reflect our inner selves, our souls, whatever is our priority in our mind, it is going to be in our hearts, and for obvious reasons it is reflected in our behavior. So Judas Iscariot was reflecting his intentions of continuing to steal money from the money bag. How many of our friends or how many of us have taken joy from other people when we are negative? How any of us have we stolen peace from others when we are at inner war? How many of us have stolen assurance from others when we are in inner doubt?

  When someone is not honest, we can perceive the cheating attitude. When someone is not genuine, we can perceive the fakeness. Then, if someone is trying to make us to believe something that is not real, what would be our reaction? I am pretty sure that each one of us would be cautious, we would doubt, we would not trust. And, if we don’t trust in a simple conversation, how we can trust in more important and serious issues?

          Well, this is when being a committed and honest Christian can be complicated. Jesus decided to trust in Judas Iscariot up until the last minute. Jesus gave Judas the opportunity to change and do good with his life and help others. Up until the last minute, Jesus gave Judas life instead of death. For when we doubt someone, this someone is not giving us life, honesty, and loyalty. This person becomes stumbling block. What does God do with the stumbling blocks? He removes them. When we don’t give life. God deals with us until we understand and experience a change in our mind and heart. Consequently, our actions change and instead of giving death, we start giving life. God let us know when we are reflecting Jesus and giving life.

So, Jesus was paying attention in how to help His disciples, friends, and people around Him on how to freely give life. Jesus knew His disciples very well since the beginning. He was not naïve. He respected them in such a way that He knew the tendencies of each one of them such as Judas Iscariot. Then, how, we apply such example of helping the needy or negative or pessimistic or the suspicious friend without let him/her asphyxiate us. Or how can we become a friend who gives life instead of death?

Pay attention on how Jesus replied to Judas negative comment, “Leave her alone.” Jesus is not mean or rude to him. He just applied His life giving attitude to His friend, Mary.  

I think, we can apply what I have called the principle of discernment. Through this principle, we honor the great gift that God has given us: our mind. What does Paul has told us about the mind? In Romans 12:2, Paul says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. In other words, God is telling us, “Think for yourself.” Apply your own mind to every situation. That means that we are going to judge in the sense of mental review, to ponder, and to analyze the situations.

My dear ones, when we seriously think, we will be able to listen to God’s directions on how to give life through a good advice, on how to give life through a good example, or even how to give life through stopping or putting a boundary to the friend or to ourselves when we are not positive and keep dragging down other friends/people.

Let us pray,
Dear Jesus, thank You so much for the example that You have given us. Help us to become like You, a life giving friend for every person that we encounter. In Your name we pray. Amen.