And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.
Mark 14:3 (ESV)
What exactly does it mean to make a sacrifice to the Lord in the context of my life living in this modern world some 2,000 years after this passage in the Gospel of Mark was written? It has always been an interesting question for me to think about and ponder over the years. There are a lot of examples like this passage throughout the Bible, but there seems to be a single thread woven through all of them. That thread is the heart’s motivation and purpose behind the sacrifice being presented to Jesus. The focus seems to be less on what is given and the value of this sacrifice with an emphasis placed on bringing pure worship to our God. This is true in this passage as well. The people in the room wanted to make this about the costliness of the perfume and how many people could have been helped by selling it and distributing the funds. Jesus understands her motivation and confirms that this sacrifice of hers was to honor Him. It was such a beautiful sacrifice that her story is still being told and will continue to be told.
This is the nature of a true and right sacrifice to the Lord. It doesn’t always have to be costly in a financial sense but it should be of such great value to me that it does cost me. There are a lot of examples that come to mind that all revolve around money or objects that relate to money in some sense, but my thought this morning is focused on the sacrifice of my time. At this moment in my life, time is of great value to me. I have such a limited amount of time and there is no shortage of things that need to be done in my personal, family, work, and church life. There is an overabundance of good things that are important and that I want and need to honor with my time and effort.
How do I take this highly valued time that is in short supply and humbly sacrifice this to Jesus? There are a myriad of ways that this can be managed but I will focus on two. First, there is a need for me to sacrifice sleep. Over the years, this has always been a struggle for me. I find it difficult most days to find the motivation to actually roll out of bed and spend meaningful purposeful time in God’s Word meditating on the rich truths that engage my heart and draw me closer to him. I wonder if part of my problem is that I often wrongly see this as a duty instead of an opportunity to fellowship with my friend. I find that left to its own desires, my heart will naturally choose to sleep. To sleep away the anxious thoughts and light suffering in my life. The sacrifice of sleep is one of great value that costs me dearly. It is a valuable sacrifice to the Lord to sit at his feet just as this woman did in this passage. To pour out the fragrant offering of my heart as I seek to be with Jesus and adore him.
A second thought is the giving of my time to others with the purpose of bringing the gospel of Christ to them. What I mean by this is that I want to give freely of my personal time to engage with people on a gospel-heart level. This is simply to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. While he was with us, Jesus gave freely of his time and went out of his way to engage people at a heart level. He definitely cared for his own needs and sought solitude and refreshment in prayer to the Father, but he also engaged with people as the need and opportunity presented itself. I find that when an opportunity like this presents itself to me, my first thought is one of selfishness. I already have a plan, even if that plan is to do nothing, and I don’t want to be bothered with changing it. The sacrifice to God is that I need to be open and willing to jump on these opportunities and engage with others in their time of need.
These are the sacrifices that Jesus wants to see grow in my heart. I want to see the gospel swell up in my heart and lead me to live a life of sacrifice. A life where my every moment is a sacrifice to the Lord Jesus. What I want is a life of humility. A life of pure trust and dependence upon Jesus. A life poured out like the perfume in this passage from Mark 14. A life that fills the room with the pleasing aroma of the finished work of Christ upon the cross.