This is Sunday afternoon, November 9, 1975, in Richmond, Virginia. Ministry is being given through Brother Stephen Kong.
I would like to read this afternoon a very, very familiar passage: Mark Chapter 14, the Gospel according to Mark, Chapter 14. We will read the first nine verses.
Mark 14:1-9
Now after two days was the feast of the passover and the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him with subtlety, and kill Him.
For they said, Not during the feast, lest haply there shall be a tumult of the people.
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 pure nard very costly; and she brake the cruse, and poured it over His head.
But there were some that had indignation within themselves, saying, To what purpose hath this waste of the ointment been made?
For this ointment might have been sold for above three hundred shillings, and given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
But Jesus said, 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 beforehand for the burying.
And 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.
May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, we do thank Thee for Thy precious Word. We ask Thy Holy Spirit to breathe upon Thy Word and make it fresh and living to us this afternoon. We ask Thee, Lord, to give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and open the eyes of our heart, that we may know, that we may see Thy Word, and through Thy Word see Thyself.
Oh, we do desire to see Thee, Lord. We do desire to see Thee as Thy Father seeth Thee. We commit this time into Thy hand for Thy blessing. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
The occasion was this: our Lord Jesus was at the table, and suddenly a woman came in with an alabaster flask of a pound of pure nard. She broke the flask and poured the ointment upon the head of our Lord Jesus.
Because she did such a thing, some of the disciples began to murmur. One of them became their spokesman. We are told in the other Gospels that it was Judas Iscariot. He spoke out. He just could not hold back anymore. He was very angry at what the woman had done. He said, “Why this waste?”
You know, this is not only a question asked by Judas Iscariot two thousand years ago. This is a question that has been asked throughout the centuries. It is the kind of question that we are asking every day.
Every day we are asking this question: is this a waste, or is this of value? If we consider something a waste, we will not do it. If we consider it worthwhile, certainly we will do it.
Our actions, our lives, are governed by our sense of waste—or, positively, by our sense of worth and value. You see, brothers and sisters, we are all born economists. We have within us an inborn sense of waste and value, and we exercise that sense all the time.
Sometimes we look at people and say, “Look how they waste their money, how they waste their time, how they waste their energy,” for something which we consider worthless. Why do they do that?
The reason is that they think that, out of their spending and out of their giving of all these things, they derive some pleasure and satisfaction. If there were absolutely no pleasure and no satisfaction, they would not waste their time, their money, and their energy in that way.
Everything we do, everything we give up, is governed by this sense of waste or worth.
Of course, one day we will all be awakened to that ultimate standard of real worth. Today, each one of us has his or her own standard of waste or worth, and that is why your actions and my actions are different. That is why your giving up of something and my giving up of something are different, because we are governed by our different sense of waste or worth.
But one day, as we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will be measured by an absolute standard of worth. When that day comes, it may come as a great surprise.
You know, our Lord Jesus was going to be crucified. But before that happened, some of His friends entertained Him in the house of Simon the leper.
Of course, that house was in Bethany, that little village outside the capital city of Jerusalem. We do not know who this Simon was. Most likely he had been a leper before. Our Lord Jesus healed a number of lepers during His lifetime, and most probably Simon was one of the lepers healed by the Lord. Otherwise, nobody would dare enter into his house and eat there.
Now, Simon the leper, out of his gratitude to the Lord, was willing to open his house to entertain our Lord Jesus. This was his expression of appreciation for Christ.
That evening they made a feast for the Lord. Most likely Martha was the one who prepared the dinner. We remember that Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were orphans. It was an orphan home. They did not have much; they were poor. Yet they had such love for the Lord that Martha was willing to sacrifice and make a good dinner for Him.
Probably some other people helped, because the Lord was there, the disciples were there, and probably there were other guests. Such a feast was likely beyond Martha’s means, but she prepared the dinner as usual. That was her way of expressing her love and gratitude to the Lord.
Lazarus was present, sitting with the Lord. That was his way of expressing love to the Lord. He did not know what to do. He could not do anything, but at least he could make his presence an honor to the Lord. He wanted to honor the Lord with his presence, so he was there.
No doubt, while Martha prepared the dinner, Mary must have helped. Otherwise Martha would have complained again. But there was no complaint. So you find that the friends of our Lord Jesus—everybody—were doing his or her best simply to entertain the Lord.
Everybody was doing something for the Lord: by opening the house, by preparing the dinner, or by being present to accompany our Lord. Everybody was doing something for the Lord, and everybody seemed happy about it.
You know, if you can do something for the Lord, certainly you are happy about it. You find some way, even though it may be a very small way, to express your love, your gratitude, and your thankfulness to the Lord.
But there was one person who was not happy, and that was Mary. Mary, like the others, must have done her part to make this entertainment of the Lord a success. But after she had done all she could—helping her sister and so forth—she was not satisfied.
Her valuation of the Lord was so high that she could not be satisfied by merely doing that which was ordinary. She was troubled. She wanted to do more for the Lord. Well, what could she do? There was nothing she could do.
Then suddenly it dawned upon her that she had a pound of pure nard, very costly. How did she come to have that pound of pure nard?
That pound of pure nard was worth three hundred denarii. At that time, a man’s daily wage was a denarius, and we must remember that women were paid even less. For her to accumulate three hundred denarii, or in a modern translation, three hundred shillings, to buy a pound of pure nard—we do not know how many days she spent accumulating that money.
What sacrifices she must have made! What giving up she must have done in order to gather that amount of money just to buy a pound of pure nard. She must have treasured that pure nard very much. She was willing to give up everything just to obtain it.
After she got it, she put it in an alabaster flask and set it aside. We do not know why she did this. We do not know the real reason. Most probably, she set it aside for the day of her marriage.
Every woman looks forward to the day when she will be married. After I came to this country, I heard that young women here often prepared a hope chest, putting things into it with the hope that one day, when marriage came, those things might be used. I wonder if that was the case.
Very likely Mary kept that alabaster flask of a pound of pure nard for that day. It was something she reserved to use upon herself for that very special moment.
No doubt, as a poor family, there must have been times when they hardly had anything to eat. But it never entered Mary’s mind to sell that pound of pure nard for an emergency. No. That pound of pure nard was not to be touched. It was reserved exclusively for her day.
Because of that, it was out of her mind. You remember, and yet you do not remember, because your mind is set upon that thing. It was hidden somewhere in her mind.
She did not know what more she could do. She helped her sister. She did everything she could, like the rest of the people, and yet she was dissatisfied. She simply could not think of what more she could do for the Lord.
Then suddenly it came back to her mind: she had that pound of pure nard reserved for herself. Oh, how it thrilled her heart when the thought came: “Why not give that pound of pure nard to the Lord? Why not anoint Him with the pure nard?”
She did not have a second thought. Anybody who has a second thought will not be able to do such a thing. Why? Because, humanly speaking, it was a waste. It was a waste.
Here you find our Lord Jesus sitting at the table, and Mary goes in and pours the pure nard upon His head. What is the meaning of that?
It is true that, according to Jewish custom at that time, when guests came, they usually washed their guests’ feet. But more than that, they had a custom in which the host would anoint the guest of honor with oil.
Our Lord Jesus was the guest of honor, so it was not unreasonable to anoint Him with some oil. But they would never pour upon the guest of honor a pound of pure nard. You would never do that.
On the contrary, you might almost spoil everything, because with a pound of pure nard flowing all over His body, what a mess that must have been.
I do not know why Mary did it. If Mary merely thought, “I have a pound of pure nard. Let me share it with the Lord because I love Him so much,” she could have opened the flask and allowed a few drops to fall upon the Lord.
The flasks in which Jewish women stored ointment usually had a very narrow, long neck. When you opened and poured them, the ointment would come out drop by drop. She could have opened the bottle and put a few drops upon the Lord. That would have been enough. It would have honored the Lord, and it would have been reasonable.
But she did not do that. She went in, broke the alabaster flask, and let the whole pound pour upon the head of the Lord. What a mess!
You know, according to the Old Testament, there was one occasion when such a thing was done. When the high priest was anointed, oil was poured upon his head profusely.
They did not merely drop a few drops of oil upon the head of the high priest. No, they poured the holy oil upon his head profusely, so that it ran down upon his beard and down upon his garments. It even reached the skirts of his garments. You see how much oil must have been poured out.
That was the only occasion when such a thing was done. Then Mary did that. She broke the alabaster flask and poured the pound upon the Lord. What waste! What extravagance!
Now, why did Mary do such a thing? She did it because she was directed by her sense of worth. After she had done everything that the rest had done, she still felt that the Lord deserved much more.
Her understanding of the Lord was most unusual. Can it be that she was thinking that she would soon lose the Lord?
Yes, the Lord gave her brother back to her. The Lord called Lazarus out of the tomb and gave him back to Martha and Mary. But when the Lord did that, He sighed and He wept.
Can it be that Mary understood one thing: whatever the Lord had done for her, for her brother, or upon this earth, He was actually doing it by giving His life for us?
The Lord healed the sick. The Lord called back the dead. The Lord said, “Thy sins are forgiven.” But when the Lord did these things, He had Calvary in view.
It is on the basis of Calvary that He can forgive our sins. It is on the basis of Calvary that He can call the dead out of the grave. Put another way, whatever He has done for us, He has given His life instead.
It is not merely doing miracles. It is giving His own life for us. Mary understood that.
Of all the disciples who followed the Lord for over three years, the Lord plainly told them at least three times, as recorded in the Gospels, that He must go to Jerusalem, that He would be killed, and that on the third day He would rise from the dead.
But the disciples simply could not understand. Of all the followers of the Lord Jesus at that time, none understood but Mary.
Mary knew that the Lord was going to die, and the reason He was going to die was because of her and because of all of us. She knew that she would not have the Lord for long, and she had to do something. She had to seize the opportunity to pour something upon the Lord to show her love and gratitude. It had to be something extraordinary.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that when the thought came to her—“Why not that pound of nard?”—it thrilled her heart. She thought she could do nothing, but here was a pound of nard.
It was almost like the widow of one of the sons of the prophets who came to Elisha and said, “We are so poor. Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and the creditors are coming to take my sons away. We have nothing.” Elisha said, “What hast thou in the house?” She said, “Nothing but a pot of oil.”
Mary had nothing but that alabaster flask of a pound of pure nard. She had to pour it out upon the Lord. No second thought.
Why? Because she valued the Lord so highly. To her, it was not a waste. It was not a waste. To her, it was worth it. Even though the fragrance might last only a few hours during the feast, and then be gone, it was worth it. That was her sense of worth.
Dear brothers and sisters, who is the greatest waster in the whole world, according to human measurement? Our Lord Jesus.
He who was equal with God emptied Himself. He emptied Himself of His glory, of His honor, of His power, of His position, and of the worship He received from all the angels. He emptied Himself of everything and came to become a man—the lowest of men.
Even as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the Father, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. What a waste! What a waste!
I remember when I was young, I read a little book. I do not know whether any of you have read that book. It was out of print for a long time. It was a biography of a young doctor, entitled Why This Waste?
I did not know him, but I knew his family very well. This young doctor was born and reared in Scotland—Dr. Fishbach. He studied medicine, and just after he graduated from medical school, he had the opportunity to become a junior partner to a famous doctor in Scotland. His future was bright.
But the Lord called him to China. So he gave up everything and came to China. When he arrived in Shanghai, my native city, it was during a time of war. He was stranded in the foreign concession and could not go anywhere. He stayed there for quite a long time.
Then the board of the China Inland Mission decided that he should go to Chinese Turkestan, to Sinkiang. You know, Sinkiang is in the far northwest of China. To go to Sinkiang was to go to death.
Yet he felt it was the Lord’s will. He could not move; he was planted there. Since they decided that he should go there, he would go.
He had to cross the Gobi Desert. He crossed it in a truck which he designed himself, because it had to be specially designed. He was a very clever man. He drove that specially designed truck across the Gobi Desert until he arrived in Chinese Turkestan, now called Sinkiang.
But as soon as he arrived, there was civil war. At that time, I think I was a high-school student. I still remember that war. There was fighting, and he was the only doctor in that whole province.
His hospital was filled with wounded and sick soldiers. He was the only doctor. He worked day and night and neglected himself. Finally, he caught pneumonia or something similar, and he died within a year. To be exact, if I remember correctly, it was about six months.
He was buried in Sinkiang. When the news came back to England, people began to ask, “Why this waste?” Here was a young man, well trained, with a great future. If he felt called to China as a missionary, that was fine—but if he could work there for thirty or forty years, then it would seem worthwhile. Yet he went there only a few months and died. Why this waste?
I remember dear Brother Watchman Nee. He was a brilliant student in college. Before he was saved, he was very active and was chairman of the student body.
The Lord saved him, and after he graduated, he felt called to serve the Lord. So he served the Lord. In his early zeal, he neglected his body and worked very hard.
In China, for a person with no connection, no support, who simply trusted the Lord and worked for the Lord, it was almost unknown. He suffered much hardship, and after a few years he was physically wrecked.
He told us that one time he was on a boat coming from Shanghai back to his native city, Foochow. While on the boat, he met one of his former professors. The professor looked at him up and down, shook his head, and said, “What a waste.”
“You could be a great man. You could be successful in any field. And here you are—nothing, nobody. Look at yourself.” His professor scolded him and despised him.
Our brother was a human being, and he was deeply hurt. But then the Lord comforted him, and he came to the conclusion: it was worth it. The Lord is worthy.
Now, brothers and sisters, in our lives we are always faced with this question: is it a waste, or is it worth it? We face that every day. We face it at every turn, in every event, and in every action.
What is waste to us, and what is worth to us?
To the disciples, Mary’s act seemed a waste. If you consider the whole matter logically, it does seem to be a waste. If you want to honor the Lord in a special way, you may put a few drops upon Him. That is the customary way of doing things. It is nice and commendable. Everybody will understand.
But to do it with such extravagance—that is waste.
Well, our Lord Jesus is the greatest “waste.” God so loved the world that He “wasted” His Son upon us. The Son of God so loved us that He “wasted” everything, even His life, upon us. What a waste!
But did our Lord Jesus consider what He did a waste? If He had considered it a waste, where would we be?
So far as God is concerned, so far as our Lord Jesus is concerned, He does not consider what He has done a waste. He considers it worthwhile, because the value of a soul is worth all that He has given up and all that He has done. He poured out His life for us all.
We are told in the Word of God that He poured forth His spirit; He poured out His soul as water. Ointment is costly and precious. You do not pour out ointment profusely. A few drops here and there—that is enough.
But water is cheap. When our Lord Jesus poured out His life, He poured out His life like water. He did not hesitate at all. He poured it out as freely, as generously, and as profusely as possible, because He did not consider His life precious to Himself. Why? He considered us so precious.
Mary was simply following in the footsteps of our Lord. When she did that, she was not weighing it. She was not reasoning it. She was not trying to calculate whether she would receive a return with interest. She was not thinking of those things at all.
When she decided to do that, all she saw was the Lord. That was all she saw: the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. He was worthy. No second thought. It was the Lord.
That was her sense of value. Dear brothers and sisters, what is our sense of worth, or of waste?
The Lord said, “She hath done what she could.” But remember, Mary never said that.
Everybody thought they had done what they could. Simon the leper thought he had done what he could: he opened his house. Martha thought she had done what she could: she prepared the dinner. Lazarus thought he had done what he could: he was present with the Lord to keep Him company.
Probably the other people thought they had done what they could, for they honored the Lord with their presence. Everybody thought they had done what they could, and because of that, they were satisfied. But not Mary.
Mary never thought she had done what she could. She always felt that she had not done enough. Dear brothers and sisters, that is love.
You remember that the Word of God says, “Owe no man anything, save to love one another.” In other words, if you truly love, you always have the sense of not enough. If one day you feel it is enough, love is dead.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you ever feel that you have done enough for the Lord? Do you sometimes sit back and say, “Well, I have done this, I have done that for the Lord, and that should be enough”?
In one sense, yes, you may have done a great deal. In one sense, perhaps you have done what other people have not done. But so far as love is concerned, something is wrong.
Love never, never has the sense of having done enough. You are always asking, “Is there anything else I can do? Is there more I can do?” Because the One whom I love is so worthy, I can never do enough for Him.
Oh, if the Holy Spirit would just remind me of something that I can do, what a thrill it would be! That is love.
It is not for us to say that we have done what we could. It is for the Lord to say that. So far as we are concerned, we always feel that we have not done what we should or what we could. That is the right sense within us.
But thank God, He comforts us and says, “You have done what you could.” Is that not comforting?
To Mary, it was not a waste. It was not extravagant. She was simply doing what she felt she should do because she had the Lord before her.
But to the disciples, it was too much. Not only Judas Iscariot, but the other disciples also murmured, and they were angry at Mary. Were they jealous of her? Perhaps they simply could not understand.
“Mary, if you want to do something, fine, go ahead and do it. You may do more than we have done. But not in that way. No, that is a waste. You can sell that for three hundred denarii and give it to the poor. What value that would be! What a return that would be! You could help many poor people.”
“Why do it upon the Lord, just for a few hours, and then it is finished? What good does it do the Lord? There is no lasting effect. It is gone. Oh, what a waste!”
That was their sense of waste. Now, how about the Lord? Here comes the verdict of the Lord:
“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.”
This incident concludes with a statement: wherever these glad tidings, wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is preached throughout the world, what Mary has done will be mentioned as a memorial of her.
Wherever the Gospel is preached, what Mary has done will be mentioned as a memorial of her. In other words, the Gospel and what Mary has done are bound together. You cannot have the Gospel without hearing what Mary has done.
Why? In the first place, what is the Gospel? What are the glad tidings? The Gospel is that God so loved the world that He “wasted” His Son upon us. That is the Gospel.
The Gospel is that Christ so loved the world that He gave Himself for us. He literally “wasted” Himself—everything, even His life. He poured it all out upon us. That is the Gospel.
When the Gospel is preached, and when people have been touched by the Gospel, when people receive the Gospel, what should be the effect of such a Gospel?
The effect of such a Gospel is this: because He first loved me, I cannot help but love Him. Because He has poured out His life upon me, I have to pour out myself upon Him. That is what Mary did.
Dear brothers and sisters, if this does not happen in our lives, something is wrong. Our reception of the Gospel is faulty. There is something wrong.
If we really know what the Gospel is, if we have truly received the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what else can we do? Can we merely do something on the surface? Can we simply do what everybody else does and say, “Well, I have done it. That is all. That should be enough”?
Can we take such an attitude? Never. Never. We are constrained by the love of Christ to feel that there must be something more.
How can I pour out myself upon the Lord? The pound of pure nard really represents Mary. She broke herself, as she broke the alabaster flask, and poured out all that she was upon the Lord. Nothing was held back.
Somebody has said that the pound of pure nard was probably her dowry. In the East, in the old days, no man would marry a woman without a dowry. A woman had to have a dowry; otherwise nobody would marry her.
Probably that pound of pure nard was Mary’s dowry. By giving it to the Lord, what did it mean? It meant, on the one hand, that she took the Lord as her Bridegroom. She gave up her hope of ever getting married. She gave up her hope and gave up everything because she had taken the Lord as her all.
Dear brothers and sisters, that is the sense of it. Not that in every case it must physically be so, but the spiritual sense is there. Pour it out.
Why did the Lord say, “She hath wrought a good work”? What is a good work? A good work is anything done according to the will of God.
If you do something according to the will of God, that is a good work. Mary had done what was God’s will.
It was not something merely emotional in the moment. It was not something decided quickly or impulsively and then regretted afterward. No. She was doing the will of God. She had done a good work.
Secondly, the Lord said, “She hath done what she could.” The Lord gave her the credit.
Finally, He said, “She hath anointed My body beforehand for the burying.” Of all the followers of the Lord Jesus, Mary was the only one who understood that our Lord Jesus would die.
She wanted to anoint the Lord for His burial beforehand. You know, afterward, after the Lord died, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea—rich men—brought much spice and ointment to embalm the body of the Lord. But it was a dead body.
Then, on the day of His resurrection, a few women brought spices and ointment to anoint the Lord once again. They never had the chance. The Lord was resurrected.
Mary was the only one who was able to prepare the Lord for His death and burial.
The Lord said, “Ye have the poor always with you, but Me ye have not always.” In one sense, the Lord is always with us, no doubt. The Lord said, “I will be with you until the end of the age.” The Lord is always with us.
But in another sense, according to our inward sense and feeling, the Lord is so precious. The Lord is so rare. We must seize every opportunity to pour it out upon the Lord.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, from the human viewpoint Mary wasted that pure nard. But from the divine standpoint, she did not waste anything.
Who really wasted? Judas Iscariot. In John Chapter 17, in our Lord’s prayer, you find the Lord saying, “Father, all that Thou hast given Me I have kept, except that one, the son of perdition.” The Greek word translated “perdition” means waste.
The one who accused Mary of wasting was the very one who was the son of waste.
Now remember: all twelve disciples, when they followed the Lord, had to give up a great deal. No doubt Judas Iscariot had to give up much simply to be His disciple. You cannot be His disciple if you do not give up something.
Judas did give up something. At that time, he thought it was worthwhile. But after following the Lord for over three years, after the Lord had poured grace upon grace and love upon love upon him, even to the very end, Judas wasted it all.
Even at the Last Supper—the last Passover—the Lord dipped the bread and gave it to him, which was, at that time, a sign of honoring the guest. But it was all wasted.
What Judas had given up was wasted. What the Lord had poured upon him was wasted. He wasted his life; he wasted everything. He was the son of waste.
What a contrast! One day we will be surprised. What we think is wasted may be of worth; what we think is worthy may be a waste.
Therefore, it behooves us to see God’s standard of worth. Anything that is poured upon Christ is worthwhile. Anything that is not unto Christ, but unto ourselves, may be a waste.
Judas was willing to leave everything to follow the Lord because he thought it was worthwhile. He thought that when the Lord gained the kingdom, he would become the minister of finance, the secretary of the treasury. It would be worth it.
But when he discovered that it was not happening, he tried to get back his capital: thirty pieces of silver. He wanted to salvage something from what he had spent. He was an economist.
But even the thirty pieces of silver he could not keep. He had to throw them away. Oh, brothers and sisters, what a lesson!
That whole incident demonstrates the principle of waste or worth. May the Lord give us a right sense of it. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee for what Thou hast recorded in Thy Word of what Mary had done. Thou art encouraging us to understand the real value, that we may not in any way waste away our life and ourselves upon something that is not worth it.
O Lord, Thou art the only worthy One. O Lord, teach us how to pour out everything upon Thee, because Thou art worthy. Oh, we worship Thee, Lord. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.