For our final chapter we will
take as our starting-point an incident in the Gospels that occurs
under the very shadow of the Cross -- an incident that, in its
details, is at once historic and prophetic.
"And while he was in Bethany
in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a
woman having an alabaster cruse of ointment of spikenard very
costly; and she brake the cruse, and poured it over his head ...
Jesus said ... Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever the gospel
shall be preached throughout the whole world, that also which
this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of
her" (Mark 14:3,6,9).
Thus the Lord ordained that the
story of Mary anointing Him with that costly ointment should
always accompany the story of the Gospel; that what Mary has done
should always be coupled with what the Lord has done. That is His
own statement. What does He intend that we should understand by
it?
I think we all know the story of
Mary's action well. From the details given in John chapter 12,
where the incident follows not long after her brother's
restoration to life, we may gather that the family was not a
specially wealthy one. The sisters had to work in the house
themselves, for we are told that at this feast "Martha also
served" (John 12:2 and compare Luke 10:40).[18] No doubt every penny mattered
to them. Yet one of those sisters, Mary, having among her
treasures an alabaster cruse containing three hundred pence'
worth of ointment, expended the whole thing on the Lord. Human
reasoning said this was really too much; it was giving the Lord
more than His due. That is why Judas took the lead, and the other
disciples supported him, in voicing a general complaint that
Mary's action was a wasteful one.
"But there were some that
had indignation among themselves, saying, To what purpose hath
this waste of the ointment been made? For this ointment might
have been sold for above three hundred pence and given to the
poor. And they murmured against her" (Mark 14:4,5). These
words bring us to what I believe the Lord would have us consider
finally together, namely, that which is signified by the little
word "waste".
What is waste? Waste means, among
other things, giving more than is necessary. If a shilling will
do and you give a point, it is a waste. If two ounces will do and
you give a kilogram, it is a waste. If three days will suffice to
finish a task well enough and you lavish five days or a week on
it, it is a waste. Waste means that you give something too much
for something too little. If someone is receiving more than he is
considered to be worth, then that is waste.
But remember, we are dealing here
with something which the Lord said had to go out with the Gospel,
wherever that Gospel should be carried. Why? Because He intends
that the preaching of the Gospel should issue in something along
the very lines of the action of Mary here, namely, that people
should come to Him and waste themselves on Him. This is the
result that He is seeking.
We must look at this question of
wasting on the Lord from two angles: that of Judas (John 12:4-6)
and that of the other disciples (Matt. 26:8,9); and for our
present purpose we will run together the parallel accounts.
All the twelve thought is a waste.
To Judas of course, who had never called Jesus 'Lord",
everything that was poured out upon Him was waste. Not only was
ointment waste; even water would have been waste. Here Judas
stands for the world. In the world's estimation the service of
the Lord, and our giving ourselves to Him for such service, is
sheer waste. He has never been loved, never had a place in the
hearts of the world, so any giving to Him is a waste. Many say:
'Such -and-such a man could make good in the world if only he
were not a Christian!' Because a man has some natural talent or
other asset in the world's eyes, they count such people are
really too good for the Lord. 'What waste of a useful life!' they
say.
Let me give a personal instance. In
1929 I returned from Shanghai to my home town of Foochow. One day
I was walking along the street with a stick, very weak and in
broken health, and I met one of my old college professors. He
took me into a teashop where we sat down. He looked at me from
head to foot and from foot to head, and then he said: 'Now look
here; during your college days we thought a good deal of you and
we had hopes that you would achieve something great. Do you
mean to tell me that this is what you are?' Looking at me
with penetrating eyes, he asked that very pointed question. I
must confess that, on hearing it, my first desire was to break
down and weep. My career, my health, everything had gone, and
here was my old professor who taught me law in the school, asking
me: 'Are you still in this condition, with no success, no
progress, nothing to show?'
But the very next moment -- and I
have to admit that in all my life it was the first time -- I
really knew what it meant to have the "spirit of glory"
resting upon me. The thought of being able to pour our my life
for my Lord flooded my soul with glory. Nothing short of the
Spirit of glory was on me then. I could look up and without a
reservation say: 'Lord, I praise Thee! This is the best thing
possible; it is the right course that I have chosen!' To my
professor it seemed a total waste to serve the Lord; but that is
what the Gospel is for -- to bring us to a true estimate of His
worth.
Judas felt it a waste. 'We could
manage better with the money by using it in some other way. There
are plenty of poor people. Why not rather give it for charity, do
some social service for their uplift, help the poor in some
practical way? Why pour it out at the feet of Jesus?' (See John
12:4-6.) That is always the way the world reasons. 'Can you not
do something better with yourself than this? It is going a bit
too far to give yourself altogether to the Lord!'
But if the Lord is worthy, then how
can it be a waste? He is worthy to be so served. He is worthy for
me to be His prisoner. He is worthy for me just to live for Him. He
is worthy! What the world says about this does not matter.
The Lord says: 'Do not trouble her'. So let us not be troubled.
Men may say what they like, but we can stand on this ground, that
the Lord said: 'It is a good work. Every true work is not done on
the poor; every true work is done to Me'. When once our eyes have
been opened to the real worth of our Lord Jesus, nothing
is too good for Him.
But I do not want to dwell too much
on Judas. Let us go on to see what was the attitude of the other
disciples, because their reaction affects us even more than does
his. We do not greatly mind what the world is saying; we can
stand that, but we do very much mind what other Christians are
saying who ought to understand. And yet we find that they said
the same thing as Judas; and they not only said it but they were
very upset, very indignant about it. "When the disciples saw
it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the
poor" (Matt. 26:8,9).
Of course we know that the attitude
of mind is all too common among Christians which says, 'Get all
you can for as little as possible'. That however is not what is
in view here, but something deeper. Let me illustrate. Has
someone been telling you that you are wasting your life be
sitting still and not doing much? They say, 'Here are people who
ought to get out into this or that kind of work. They could be
used to help this or that group of people. Why are they not more
active?' -- and in saying so, their whole idea is use.
Everything ought to be used to the full in ways they understand.
There are those who have been very
concerned with some dear servants of the Lord on this very
ground, that they are apparently not doing enough. They
could do so much more, they think, if they could secure an entry
somewhere and enjoy a greater acceptance and prominence in
certain circles. They could then be used in a far greater way. I
have spoken already of a sister whom I knew for a long time and
who, I think, is the one by whom I have been helped most. She was
used of the Lord in a very real way during those years when I was
associated with her, though to some of us at the time this was
not so apparent. The one concern in my heart was this: 'She is
not used!' Constantly I said to myself, 'Why does she not get out
and take some meetings, go somewhere, do something? It is a waste
for her to be living in that small village with nothing
happening!' Sometimes, when I went to see her, I almost shouted
at her. I said, 'No one knows the Lord as you do. You know the
Book in a most living way. Do you not see the need around? 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 no, brethren, that is not the
first thing with the Lord. He wants you and me to be used,
certainly. God forbid that I should preach inactivity or seek to
justify a complacent attitude to the world's need. As Jesus
Himself says here, "the gospel shall be preached throughout
the whole world". But the question is one of emphasis.
Looking back today, I realize how greatly the Lord was in fact
using that dear sister to speak to a number of us who, as young
men, were at that time in His training school for this very work
of the Gospel. I cannot thank God enough for her.
What, then, is the secret? Clearly
it is this, that in approving Mary's action at Bethany, the Lord
Jesus was laying down one thing as a basis of all service: that
you pour out all you have, your very self, unto Him; and
if that should be all He allows you to do, that is enough. It is
not first of all a question of whether 'the poor' have been
helped or not. The first question is: Has the Lord been
satisfied?
There is many a meeting we might
address, many a convention at which we might minister, many a
Gospel campaign in which we might have a share. It is not that we
are unable to do it. We could labor and be used to the full; but
the Lord is not so concerned about our ceaseless occupation in
work for Him. That is not His first object. The service of the
Lord is not to be measured by tangible results. No, my friends,
the Lord's first concern is with our position at His feet and our
anointing of His head. Whatever we have as an 'alabaster box':
the most precious thing, the thing dearest in the world to us --
yes, let me say it, the outflow from us of a life that is
produced by the very Cross itself -- we give that all up to
the Lord. To some, even of those who should understand, it
seems a waste; but that is what He seeks above all. Often enough
the giving to Him will be in tireless service, but He reserves to
Himself the right to suspend the service for a time in order to
discover to us whether it is that or Himself that holds us.
"Wheresoever the gospel
shall be preached ... that also which this woman hath done shall
be spoken of" (Mark 14:9).
Why did the Lord say this? Because
the Gospel is meant to produce this. It is what the Gospel is
for. The Gospel is not just to satisfy sinners. Praise the Lord,
sinners will be satisfied! but their satisfaction is, we may say,
a blessed by-product of the Gospel and not its primary aim. The
Gospel is preached in the first place so that the Lord may
be satisfied.
I am afraid we lay too much
emphasis on the good of sinners and we have not sufficiently
appreciated what the Lord has in view as His goal. We have been
thinking how the sinner will fare if there is no Gospel, but that
is not the main consideration. Yes, Praise God! the sinner has
his part. God meets his need and showers him with blessings; but
that is not the most important thing. The first thing is this,
that everything should be to the satisfaction of the Son of God.
It is only when He is satisfied that we shall be satisfied and
the sinner will be satisfied. I have never met a soul who has set
out to satisfy the Lord and has not been satisfied himself. It is
impossible. Our satisfaction comes unfailingly when we satisfy
Him first.
But we have to remember this, that
He will never be satisfied without our 'wasting' ourselves upon
Him. Have you ever given too much to the Lord? May I tell you
something? One lesson some of us have come to learn is this, that
in Divine service the principle of waste is the principle of
power. The principle which determines usefulness is the very
principle of scattering. Real usefulness in the hand of God is
measured in terms of 'waste'. The more you think you can do, and
the more you employ your gifts up to the very limit (and some
even go over the limit!) in order to do it, the more you find
that you are applying the principle of the world and not of the
Lord. God's ways with us are all designed to establish in us this
other principle, namely, that our work for Him springs out
of our ministering to Him. I do not mean that we are going
to do nothing; but the first thing for us must be the Lord
Himself, not His work.
But we must come down to very
practical issues. You say: 'I have given up a position; I have
given up a ministry; I have foregone certain attractive
possibilities of a bright future, in order to go on with the Lord
in this way. Now I try to serve Him. Sometimes it seems that the
Lord hears me, and sometimes He keeps me waiting for a definite
answer. Sometimes He uses me, but sometimes it seems that He
passes my by. Then, when this is so, I compare myself with that
other fellow who is in a certain big system. He too had a bright
future, but he has never given it up. He continues on and he
serves the Lord. He sees souls saved and the Lord blesses his
ministry. He is successful -- I do not mean materially, but
spiritually -- and I sometimes think he looks more like a
Christian than I do, so happy, so satisfied. After all, what do I
get out of this? He has a good time; I have all the bad time. He
has never gone this way, and yet he has much that Christians
today regard as spiritual prosperity, while I have all sorts of
complications coming to me. What is the meaning of it all? Am I
wasting my life? Have I really given too much?'
So there is your problem. You feel
that were you to follow in that other brother's steps -- were
you, shall we say, to consecrate yourself enough for the blessing
but not enough for the trouble, enough for the Lord to use you
but not enough for Him to shut you up -- all would be perfectly
all right. But would it? You know perfectly well that it would
not.
Takes your eyes off that other man!
Look at your Lord, and ask yourself again what it is that He
values most highly. The principle of waste is the principle that
He would have govern us. 'She is doing this for Me.' Real
satisfaction is brought to the heart of the Son of God only when
we are really, as people would think, 'wasting' ourselves upon
Him. It seems as though we are giving too much and getting
nothing -- and that is the secret of pleasing God.
Oh, friends, what are we after? Are
we after 'use' as those disciples were? They wanted to make every
penny of those three hundred pence go to its full length. The
whole question was one of obvious 'usefulness' to God in terms
that could be measured and put on record. The Lord waits to hear
us say: 'Lord, I do not mind about that. If I can only please
Thee, it is enough.'
"Let her alone; why trouble
ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor
always with you, and whensoever ye will ye can do them good: but
me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she hath
anointed my body aforehand for the burying" (Mark 14:6-8).
In these verses the Lord Jesus
introduces a time-factor with the word 'beforehand', and this is
something of which we can have a new application today, for it is
as important to us now as it was to her then. We all know that in
the age to come we shall be called to a greater work -- not to
inactivity. "Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast
been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many
things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matthew 25:21;
and compare Matthew 24:47 and Luke 19:17). Yes, there will be a
greater work; for the work of God's house will go on, just as in
the story the care of the poor went on. The poor would always be
with them, but they could not always have Him. There was
something, represented by this pouring out of the ointment, which
Mary had to do beforehand or she would have no later
opportunity. I believe that in that day we shall all love Him as
we have never done now, but yet that it will be most blessed for
those who have poured out their all upon the Lord today. When we
see Him face to face I trust that we shall all break and pour out
everything for Him. But today -- what are we doing today?
Several days after Mary broke the
alabaster box and poured the ointment on Jesus' head, there were
some women who went early in the morning to anoint the body of
the Lord. Did they do it? Did they succeed in their purpose on
that first day of the week? No, there was only one soul who
succeeded in anointing the Lord, and it was Mary, who anointed
Him before hand. The others never did it, for He had risen. Now I
suggest that in just such a way the matter of time may be
important to us also, and that the whole question for us is : What
am I doing to the Lord today?
Have our eyes been opened to see
the preciousness of the One whom we are serving? Have we come to
see that nothing less than the dearest, the costliest, the most
precious, is fit for Him? Have we come to see that working for
the poor, working for the benefit of the world, working for the
souls of men and for the eternal good of the sinner -- all these
so necessary and valuable things -- are right only if they are in
their place? In themselves, as things apart, they are as nothing
compared with work that is done to the Lord.
The Lord has to open our eyes to
His worth. If there is in the world some precious art treasure,
and I pay the high price asked for it, be it one thousand, ten
thousand, or even a million pounds, dare anyone say it is a
waste? The idea of waste only comes into our Christianity when we
underestimate the worth of our Lord. The whole question is: How
precious is He to us now? If we do not think much of Him, then of
course to give Him anything at all, however small, will seem to
us a wicked waste. But when He is really precious to our soul,
nothing will be too good, nothing too costly for Him; everything
we have, our dearest, our most priceless treasure, we shall pour
out upon Him, and we shall not count it a shame to have done so.
Of Mary the Lord said: "She
hath done what she could". What does that mean? It means
that she had given up her all. She had kept nothing in reserve
for a future day. She had lavished on Him all she had; and yet on
the resurrection morning she had no reason to regret her
extravagance. And the Lord will not be satisfied with anything
less from us than that we too should have done 'what we could'.
By this, remember, I do not mean the expenditure of our effort
and energy in trying to do something for Him, for that is not the
point here. What the Lord Jesus looks for in us is a life laid at
His feet -- and that in view of His death and burial and of a
future day. His burial was already in view that day in the home
in Bethany. Today it is His crowning that is in view -- when He
shall be acclaimed in glory as the Anointed One, the Christ of
God. Yes, then we shall pour out our all upon Him! But it is a
precious thing -- indeed it is a far more precious thing to Him
-- that we should anoint Him now, not with any material oil but
with something costly, something from our hearts.
That which is merely external and
superficial has no place here. It has already been dealt with by
the Cross, and we have given our consent to God's judgment upon
it and learnt to know in experience its cutting off. What God is
demanding of us now is represented by that flask of alabaster:
something mined from the depths, something turned and chased and
wrought upon, something that, because it is so truly of the Lord,
we cherish as Mary cherished that flask -- and we would not, we
dare not break it. It comes now from the heart, from the very
depth of our being; and we come to the Lord with that, and we
break it and pour it out and say: 'Lord, here it is. It is all
Yours, because You are worthy!' -- and the Lord has got what He
desired. May He receive such an anointing from us today.
"And the house was filled
with the odor of the ointment" (John 12:3). By the breaking
of that flask and the anointing of the Lord Jesus, the house was
pervaded with the sweetest fragrance. Everyone could smell it and
none could be unaware of it. What is the significance of this?
Whenever you meet someone who has
really suffered -- someone who has gone through experiences with
the Lord that have brought limitation, and who, instead of trying
to break free in order to be 'used', has been willing to be
imprisoned by Him and has thus learned to find satisfaction in
the Lord and nowhere else -- then immediately you become aware of
something. Immediately your spiritual senses detect a sweet
savour of Christ. Something has been crushed, something has been
broken in that life, and so you smell the odor. The odor that
filled the house that day in Bethany still fills the Church
today; Mary's fragrance never passes. It needed but one stroke to
break the flask for the Lord, but that breaking and the fragrance
of that anointing abides.
We are speaking here of what we
are; not of what we do or what we preach. Perhaps you may have
been asking the Lord for a long time that He will be pleased to
use you in such a way as to impart impressions of Himself to
others. That prayer is not exactly for the gift of preaching or
teaching. It is rather that you might be able, in your touch with
others, to impart God, the presence of God, the sense of God.
Dear friends, you cannot produce such impressions of God upon
others without the breaking of everything, even your most
precious possessions, at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
But if once that point is reached,
you may or may not seem to be much used in an outward way, but
God will begin to use you to create a hunger in others. People
will scent Christ in you. The least saint in the Body will detect
that. He will sense that here is one who has gone with the Lord,
one who has suffered, one who has not moved freely,
independently, but who has known what it is to let go everything
to Him. That kind of life creates impressions, and impressions
create hunger, and hunger provokes men to go on seeking until
they are brought by Divine revelation into fullness of life in
Christ.
God does not set us here first of
all to preach or to do work for Him. The first thing for which He
sets us here is to create in others a hunger for Himself. That
is, after all, what prepares the soil for the preaching.
If you set a delicious cake in
front of two men who have just had a heavy meal, what will be
their reaction? They will talk about it, admire its appearance,
discuss the recipe, argue about the cost -- do everything n fact
but eat it! But if they are truly hungry it will not be very long
before that cake is gone. And so it is with the things of the
Spirit. No true work will ever begin in a life without first of
all a sense of need being created. But how can this be done? We
cannot inject spiritual appetite by force into others; we cannot
compel people to be hungry. Hunger has to be created, and it can
be created in others only by those who carry with them the
impressions of God.
I always like to think of the words
of that "great woman" of Shunem. Speaking of the
prophet, whom she had observed but whom she did not know well,
she said: "Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man
of God, which passeth by us continually" (2 Kings 4:9). It
was not what Elisha said or did that conveyed that impression,
but what he was. By his merely passing by she could detect
something; she could see. What are people sensing about
us? We may leave many kinds of impressions: we may leave the
impression that we are clever, that we are gifted, that we
are this or that or the other. But no: the impression left by
Elisha was an impression of God Himself.
This matter of our impact upon
others turns upon one thing, and that is the working of the Cross
in us with regard to the pleasure of the heart of God. It demands
that I seek His pleasure, that I seek to satisfy Him only, and
that I do not mind how much it costs me to do so. The sister of
whom I have spoken came once into a situation that was very
difficult for her: I mean, it was costing her everything. I was
with her at the time, and together we knelt down and prayed with
wet eyes. Looking up she said: Lord, I am willing to break my
heart in order that I may satisfy Thy heart!' To talk thus of
heart-break might with many of us be merely romantic sentiment,
but in the particular situation in which she was, it meant to her
just that.
There must be something -- a
willingness to yield, a breaking and a pouring out of everything
to Him -- which gives release to that fragrance of Christ and
produces in other lives an awareness of need, drawing them out
and on to know the Lord. This is what I feel to be the heart of
everything. The Gospel has as its one object the producing in us
sinners of a condition that will satisfy the heart of our God. In
order that He may have that, we come to Him with all we have, all
we are -- yes, even the most cherished things in our spiritual
experience -- and we make known to Him: 'Lord, I am willing to
let go all of this for You: not just for Your work, not for Your
children, not for anything else, but for Yourself!'
Oh, to be wasted! It is a blessed
thing to be wasted for the Lord. So many 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 do not 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 savour of his knowledge in every place" (2
Cor. 2:14).
"And the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment (John 12:3).
The Lord grant us grace that we may
learn how to please Him. When, like Paul, we make this our
supreme aim (2 Cor. 5:9), the Gospel will have achieved its end.
The Normal Christain Life - Endnotes
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