Doing What We Can

Well, today we're going to be looking at a well-known New Testament account that is the account of the woman who anointed Jesus with a costly perfume. And it is well-known because it is recorded in three of the four Gospels, in Matthew, in Mark, and in John. And each of the three accounts supplies details that are not found in the others, and so it helps us to put them all together. But we're going to be concentrating on Mark chapter 14 today, though we will draw some information from the other accounts as well. But though it is clearly a well-known incident in the life of our Lord, it probably is not as well-known as it ought to be. I think there are many Christians who have only a vague concept of what this is all about. But Christ thought it was important to know and remember this event.

In fact, He declared that it would be widely proclaimed throughout the entire world. And so it is therefore surely a worthwhile event for our investigation today, and a timely account with which to begin the New Year. I had made preparation on the Sunday before Christmas to preach my final Christmas season message from Matthew chapter 1. After having COVID and not being here on that Sunday, I thought, well, my sermon's all ready.

I won't have to work on one during vacation, and I'll just bring that one on the first Sunday in January. But as I thought about it, I thought, no, I think it's time to put the wonderful truth of the incarnation aside and look at something that is more particularly, I think, appropriate to the first Sunday of the New Year. So this is what we'll be looking at today. We learn that Christ is pleased when we do what we are able to do.

And that's what this woman and her activities show us. And Christ's reporting on those activities makes very, very clear. In the account, we will find three different responses to Jesus Christ. These are not all the possible responses that you could find throughout the Bible, but they are three very important ones. And they are, first of all, the folly of unbelief. Second, the sacrifice of devotion. And third, the criticism of callousness. The account begins by revealing to us the folly of unbelief.

And I read again verses one and two. After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and put him to death, but they said, not during the feast lest there be an uproar of the people. This account takes place at a very strategic time in the calendar of Israel and this was a very strategic time in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the earth. It was Passover season. The Passover festival was the most important one in the Jewish calendar. It was that festival, that feast that had been designed by God to remember the redemption of his people from Egypt during the days of Moses.

How plague after plague after plague brought pressure upon Pharaoh and he seemed to cave in and to give them permission to go and then changed his mind again and again and again until finally the last plague was announced. People that lived in the land of Egypt were told that all of those who slew a lamb and applied the blood to their door post and lintel, roughly the shape of a cross, would be spared the plague that would come, but those who refused to do so would find on one night their firstborn in every family would die. And the Feast of Passover is therefore a reminder of that annually. When God's judgment passed over those who were trusting in the lamb that was slain. When Christ's judgment passed over those for whom the slain lamb was a divinely appointed substitute in the place of the firstborn who otherwise was designated to die. Those who embraced the substitute were given life.

Those who refused to embrace the substitute suffered the penalty of death. And the Passover was a reminder of that every year. And along with that there was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and putting the two together, the seven days of unleavened bread and the one day of Passover, you have a typical eight-day annual feast for the children of Israel. And the unleavened bread was what they were required to carry with them out of Egypt so that they could go quickly, not waiting for the bread to rise, but just taking the flour and the bread unleavened and away they went. But they had been told beforehand to purge all of the leaven out of their house. Leaven indicating sin. All sin must be purged out. All sin must be swept away. Now on one hand that's a very helpful reminder that we need to deal with the sin in our own lives. And on the other hand it's a very instructive reminder because who could possibly identify and successfully remove every bit of leaven, that little microscopic leaven that would filter throughout the house of any place where bread was daily baked? Who could identify, who could locate, who could successfully remove all of the leaven from their lives, from their house? And likewise, who can successfully remove the sin from our own lives?

And of course the answer is no one. And it's a reminder that we cannot make ourselves righteous before God. We cannot merit salvation. We cannot earn the favor of God.

We must, with Martin Luther the hymn writer this morning, acknowledge that we are sinners, that we are in the depths of woe, that there is no hope for us except to cast ourselves upon the mercy of a merciful God and to allow His remedy to remove the sin from our lives and to replace it with His righteousness. All of this was pictured in the Passover festivity that took place in the month of Nisan. In these days, of course, the primary celebration took place in the city of Jerusalem.

Jews from all over the world would gather in Jerusalem for this time. The Passover itself, the slaying of the lamb, actually took place on two dates in the calendar year. On Nisan the 14th, the lamb was slain, and on the 15th it was consumed.

If this occurred in the year A.D. 30, then the lamb was slain on Thursday the 14th and eaten on Friday the 15th and fits very comfortably into the chronology that we find in the Gospels. But it was, I say, the biggest event in the Jewish calendar. There were three major feast days. There were other times of remembrance.

But the most important one in the minds of the Jews was this one. As we look over our calendar year, we see lots of different holidays. The next one that's coming up, I suppose, is Valentine's.

That'll be upon us before we know it. And on throughout the year we have a number of holidays that we remember. Thanksgiving is an important one, but there's no question in anybody's mind that Christmas, above all the others, Christmas is the most major, is the most important holiday on the American calendar. And likewise, Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was the most important feast day on the Jewish calendar. And that's when this took place. It was Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But it was not only a strategic time, but there is mention of a long-delayed plan.

And that's in the last part of verse 1. We're told the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Jesus by trickery and put him to death. They decided, they had determined, that they were going to take Jesus by trickery, that is, by deceit, because that's the only way they could possibly take him. They certainly were not sure how they were going to do it. They didn't have a well-devised plan. This is the plan that we'll use.

This is the trickery that we will put into place. But they knew that if they were going to succeed, it had to be some kind of subterfuge and trickery that would take place in order to capture him. For they had tried for how long to capture him and to put him to death.

And they had been unsuccessful in every attempt. In fact, this long-standing intention to put Christ to death goes really all the way back to almost the very beginning of his earthly ministry. In this same book of Mark, in chapter 3, we read, And he entered the synagogue again, and the man was there who had a withered hand, so they watched him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, step forward. Then he said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they kept silent. And when he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, Stretch out your hand.

And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him, Mark chapter 3. And if you look at it, you realize this is even before Christ called the 12 apostles unto himself.

Early, early, early in Christ's ministry, the religious leaders determined that they were going to put this man to death. Three years later, they're still trying to figure out how to carry out their intentions. They are finding it exceedingly difficult, but they are still working at it. Their long-delayed plan has not gone away.

They haven't forgotten it. They are still determined to carry it out, but there is a surprising deterrent mentioned in verse 2. But they said, Not during the feast. We won't do this during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. Their determination was to kill him, but not during Passover, not during unleavened bread, because, as Mark tells us, Jesus was too popular with the crowds.

Now, that strikes me as very surprising. These religious leaders do not seem, on the surface, to be the kind of people who would be particularly persuaded one way or another by the opinion of others. They had their minds made up. They knew what they intended to do. But there was something within them, and I suppose it was a fear that God allowed them to have, probably an irrational fear, but there was a fear in their hearts that if they did this at this particular time with the crowds gathered together for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that it would not go well. And so they said, We'll do it, but we'll wait until after the feast day.

But guess what? God had determined that it would take place during this Feast of Unleavened Bread, that Christ, who is the Passover Lamb, the one that all of those thousands of lambs that have been slain down through history pointed to, the ones that they symbolized, and now, finally, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world, has come, and we have the Paschal Lamb, the substitute for sinners, the one who can take the place of those who deserve to die, and God has appointed that He is going to lay down His life as the Paschal Lamb on the day when the Passover Lamb is consumed, and the religious leaders have no control over that. You would think, having tried to put Him to death for nearly three years and not succeeding, that they would have come to the conclusion that they are powerless, that they don't control these events, that they're not able to decide when to take this man and put Him to death.

You would think they would have come to that conclusion. You would think that they would realize that the plans they make, up until now, the fruitless plans, and now this time, to take Him after the feast day, the feast week is over, are not what God has in mind, and they end up being the instruments to cooperate to bring about the timing that God has ordained. And it turns out to happen according to God's plan and design and not theirs. But it is a surprising deterrent that God overruled. They said, not now, because of the crowds at the feast day. God said, yes, now. Now is the appointed time.

And the time came. But all of this shows us the folly of unbelief. Many examples of divine involvement in the life of Jesus should have persuaded these religious leaders by now that they were not dealing with an imposter.

They were not dealing with a counterfeit. They were not dealing with a false messiah. They were dealing with one that God had sent.

And all of the evidence is there for them to see, and yet they keep pushing the evidence aside and refusing to accept it and hardening their hearts evermore in their unbelief as they go determined to kill the Lamb of God and to seal their own condemnation, the folly of unbelief. Secondly, we notice the sacrifice of devotion. This is primarily found in verse 3, though some of the details are given to us in the verses that follow. But verse 3 says, In being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came, having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenert.

Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. The sacrifice of devotion. Three questions. Where, who, and what? Where did this event take place? We're told it took place in Bethany.

That's a little village about two miles east of Jerusalem, just beyond the Mount of Olives. We're also told that it took place in the home of Simon the leper. That in itself raises questions which are not answered for us in Scripture. Who exactly was Simon the leper? Presumably he was no longer a leper, or he wouldn't have been here, wouldn't have been hosting people in his home. So we would presume that he is Simon the former leper who's been healed by Christ. But what is his relationship to Lazarus and Mary and Martha?

They all seem to be part, actually, of the same household, but we don't understand what that relationship is exactly. But here the location is identified as the home of Simon the leper, and it took place at the time of a significant meal, a banquet, a feast. And who was there? Well, Simon the leper healed by Christ. Lazarus the man raised from the dead by Christ. Mary and Martha, sisters to Lazarus, and perhaps in some way related to Simon the leper, we really don't know. Jesus, of course, was there. His 12 apostles were there, and there may have been others who had been invited and were gathered around the table at this time.

But what took place during this time is of greatest significance. And we're told that in our account in Mark it says a woman, putting the other accounts together, we know who this woman is. It is Mary, the sister of Martha, the sister of Lazarus. Mary anointed Jesus with costly, I mean costly, costly, very costly perfume. It was contained in what we are told here is an alabaster flask. That would be literally a gypsum bottle, the closest thing to glass. They didn't have glass in their day like we have today, but they had these gypsum containers which were similar to glass, but very expensive, even the container itself. And this container was filled with what we are told in verse 3 is an oil of spikenard.

Spikenard actually indicates the nard part is the perfume, and the spike part is genuine or pure. This is the highest grade of this expensive perfume made from a plant grown in India and harvested there and manufactured into perfume and sold for large sums of money which could only be afforded by the wealthy, which now tells us a little bit more about Mary and Martha and Lazarus and presumably Simon the leper. They evidently were wealthy people.

Jesus is evidently dining in a large home, a home that is well able to provide hospitality and to provide a banquet and to invite many people in for this banquet. And the discussion that follows tells us that this perfume was valued at more than 300 denarii. Denarius, as most of you know, which was the most common Roman silver coin, was the common wage for a laboring man's one day of labor. A Roman foot soldier earned a denarius a day. Day laborers who went out in the morning to be hired in vineyards, we have a parable along these lines, were paid typically a denarius a day. When the good Samaritan took the man who'd been beaten and left for dead by the wayside and took him into an inn, he gave the innkeeper two denarii and said, Whatever else you spend, I'll repay when I come back this way. So that would have been the equivalent of two days' wages that he deposited with him to get things started until he could come back and settle the final bill. When Jesus fed the 5,000 and he was asking the disciples how they were going to supply food for this vast number, one of them said, Well, I don't know, because even 200 denarii wouldn't be enough to feed this crowd.

Now, that tells me a couple of things. One of the things it tells me was that though Jesus didn't have any place to call his own, he didn't have a place to lay his head, he didn't own a home, he wasn't going around broke most of the time either. Apparently there were at least 200 denarii in the treasury of the disciples, which was in the care of Judas. So this is a large sum. It's always difficult to translate exactly values from two millennia ago into values for today, but it seems to me like we wouldn't be far off to say that this represents about $30,000.

Approximately $100 a day times 300, we're talking about $30,000. Mary had a flask. One of the accounts tells us a pound, which means it would have been about a pint, if you want to know the size of the flask, a pint of this very costly perfume, which somewhere along the way she had acquired, presumably purchased, for $30,000 and was saving it for a special occasion, and that special occasion had now come. And Mary broke the flask, probably the only way to get it out, it was probably manufactured that way, because even though the alabaster flax would be of some value, that was nothing compared to what was inside. So when you got ready for this, you went ahead and broke the flask, and she broke the flask and poured it all out on Christ's head and on his feet as he was reclining at table in that home.

She didn't pour out a little bit, she didn't say, I'll give you a little dab and I'll save the rest for another time, but she was lavish. She poured out the whole $30,000 worth of perfume on Christ, there in the presence of them all. That's the sacrificial devotion. But we said there are three responses to Christ here. Number one, the folly of unbelief. Number two, the sacrifice of devotion. And number three, the criticism of callousness, that picks up the rest of the account, what the others said, and then what Jesus said in response to them. And there are a number of things, and we'll begin with the misplaced indignation in verse 4. But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted? Now we learn from John's account that the sentiment was voiced, was stirred up by Judas. Why wasn't this sold? This ointment that could have been sold for 300 denarii, why wasn't it sold? And then it could have been given to the poor, but John is careful to tell us. He said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was the treasurer, he kept the money and he was embezzling out of the bag.

And another $300 in the bag would make it easier for him to slip out several denarii worth without it being missed. But Judas is stirring up this indignation against Mary, but he's not the only one. You would have expected the other disciples to say, Wait a minute, wait a minute. Stop beating up on Mary. She's honoring Christ. She's honoring our Lord.

What she's doing is a good thing. But no, we are disappointed to note that at least some of the other disciples entered right in with Judas and they picked up on the same criticism and echoed it and added to it. Why was this ointment wasted? The Greek word has the idea of destroyed. Why was it destroyed in this way? Pour it out on Christ. You wasted it. You destroyed it.

Now I ask a question. If you have an alabaster flax of perfume that can only be accessed by breaking the flask, how would you ever use it without, in the words of these critics, destroying it? If you think about what they're saying, they're basically saying is it should never be used. It should never, never be an anointment on anybody.

Nobody should have it. That is basically what they're saying. Why was this wasted? Why was it destroyed? And their misplaced indignation is followed by a pretended concern in verse 5. For, they say, it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply.

This is how we know how much the perfume cost. They feigned concern for the poor. And we know that it was pretended concern because John tells us that in the case of Judas it was entirely a pretense. I wonder how many other people, under the pretense of being concerned and righteous, speak much about their concern for the poor when it's all a hypocritical pretense. I've noticed that many times those who are the loudest in professing their concern for the poor and the determination, the demand, that others do something to help relieve the poor, I've noticed that many, many times they themselves don't do much, just like Judas, just like the disciples. Oh, how concerned we are for the poor. Question. How much have you given to help the poor this last year?

We don't know the answer to that question, but the likely answer is about zero. You hypocrite. You pretender. You pious sounding humbug pretending you're concerned for the poor. It's so easy, isn't it, to criticize what other people do with their money. It's more difficult to properly evaluate our own spending.

Shall I say that again? We have such a tendency to see what other people do with their money, and we make our judgments of whether they did the right thing or not, and we decide that in some cases they should not have spent their money that way. Well, who made you the judge over other people's money and how they ought to spend it?

Don't you think you should pay more attention to your own spending, your own giving, your own stewardship, and not be so concerned about other people? Watch that spirit. That's a critical spirit. It creeps in so easily. Watch that spirit.

The next time you hear words flowing out of your lips where you are criticizing and judging someone because they bought this, they purchased that, they spent their money in a certain way, remember Judas, remember the apostles, remember this incident, and zip your lip. None of your business. Right? You're not sure?

Does anyone disagree? How many of you think it is your business? Raise your hand. Callie does. None of your business.

Remember that. And that calls forth, therefore, the timely rebuke in verse 6. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her?

She's done a good work for me. Why do you trouble her? One of the older translations said, why are you molesting her?

That's probably a little bit too strong for this Greek word, but trouble may be a little bit too mild too. They were harassing her. Why are you harassing her? She has done a good work for me. She has done literally a beautiful work, a beautiful work. What she did was beautiful. It was appropriate. It was God-honoring. It was beautiful. She took this costly perfume and poured it all out on Jesus Christ, and the disciples said, that was a waste, and Jesus said, that was one of the most beautiful deeds I have ever experienced.

Beautiful. Her devotion. I can't help but notice that there's a similar response from, on the one hand, a false professor who is no Christian at all, namely Judas, and the apostles who here, to my mind, represent half-hearted believers. They were true believers, but their response to this was identical to that of a pretending unbeliever, someone who was pretending to be a follower of Christ and was not, and their perception and their criticism was identical to his. It shows you how low we can go when our hearts are not fully devoted to Christ. It shows you how wrong we can be when our hearts are not fully devoted to Christ.

It shows you how much like an unbeliever, an ungodly unbeliever, we can act when our hearts are not devoted to Christ. And so that follows the helpful correction of verse 7. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever, rather, you wish, you may do them good, but me, you do not always have. The poor are always present, and you may help them at any time, but Jesus will not always be present.

You need to honor him now while you can. The poor you will have with you always. It would be good for a number of people to understand that statement in Scripture. The poor you will have with you always. Ah, but we can eliminate poverty. We can have the war on poverty. We can have the great society. We can eliminate poverty. Jesus said the poor you will have with you always. That doesn't sound like if we try hard enough we can eliminate poverty after how many years of enormous attempt, trillions and trillions of dollars of attempt.

The official poverty level is virtually the same as it was when all of this began. Something's not working. Maybe we cannot overturn the Word of God. Maybe, just maybe, just maybe. Now that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be concerned about the poor. We should. It doesn't mean we shouldn't help the poor.

We should. In fact, Jesus commends that here. He says you'll have, they'll be with you always, and you can help them any time you want to. And the implication is you should. You should help them often. But there's a higher priority. You'll have them with you always. You can do good to them whenever you wish, but Jesus will not always be present, and you need to honor him when you can.

You will not always be able to do that. Do it while you may. And so Jesus said in verse 8, with a very well-deserved commendation, She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Jesus, or rather Mary did what she could. Mary did what God had enabled her to do.

Good for her. There aren't very many people who could have poured $30,000 worth of perfume on Jesus. But if, as in Mary's case, you have been enabled to do that, then you should be doing something like that. And will, if you have the same kind of loving devotion that Mary had. But what is amazing, and this is what is revealed in verse 8, is that Mary understood the impending crucifixion, and apparently very few, if any, others did. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. That's what she was doing. She was anointing Christ's body for burial. She expected his death.

She expected his burial. The other disciples had been told over and over again, I'm going to Jerusalem where I'm going to be put to death. And they said, huh? What's that? I didn't hear that.

What's he talking about? I don't understand that. They just couldn't seem to process it. Couldn't seem to believe it. But one disciple did, namely Mary, who is known for what?

For sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his word. She did listen to his word. She listened carefully to his word. She heard what he said. She believed what he said. And she acted upon what he said. And she is now anointing his body for burial. And Jesus knew what she was doing. And he said that is an incredibly beautiful and wonderful and faith-filled act of devotion.

And this all culminates with the surprising declaration of verse 9. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is presented in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. Mary's deed will be memorialized widely. In fact, it's going to be remembered wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world. Now, this tells me that the gospel in the mind of Christ is more than simply the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Because you could preach that all over the world without ever mentioning what Mary did.

But if the gospel is declaring what is in the scriptures, then yes, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, this deed will be proclaimed throughout the whole world. And Mary's deed is divinely memorialized. She didn't expect that. What she was doing, as far as she was concerned, was a private act of devotion.

Yes, it was done in the presence of a handful of friends. But it was, to her, just a personal and private act of devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, this is worthy of being memorialized all over the world over the next, how many years? Two thousand plus years until Jesus comes.

This is one of the most significant things that has been done by anybody. And she said, what? What I did?

Little old me? I'm not an apostle. I'm not preaching the gospel. I'm not a leader.

I'm not building the church. I'm just a woman who's been given some resources, and I'm using them to show my love and devotion to Christ. And Jesus said, this is one of the greatest deeds that has ever been done.

This will be remembered all over the world. The disciples may not have highly esteemed what Mary did. They obviously didn't, but Jesus did.

He highly esteemed her deed. But of these three, what have we talked about? Three responses to Christ. Number one, the folly of unbelief. Number two, the sacrifice of devotion. Number three, the criticism of callousness. Of these three, which do you most resemble?

And of the three, which do you most want to resemble? And if you honestly have to say far too often, my response is not one of sacrificial and loving devotion. It tends at times to be critical, critical of this, critical of that, critical of the church, critical of the preacher, critical of other Christians, critical of what they're doing. That critical spirit betrays a problem, a problem in your heart that needs to be dealt with. Ask God to forgive you, to root it out, and to replace it with a heart of loving devotion. Well, there's so many lessons in this account, it's hard to know where to begin.

So let me go over two or three quickly. This certainly teaches us about the irrationality of unbelief. The unbelief of the religious leaders, their spiritual blindness was, of course, traced to their sin, and their sin blinded them to truth, and their sin caused them to act irrationally. They ignored evidence that they did not want to examine. And because they didn't examine it, didn't admit it, they denied it.

It didn't exist as far as they were concerned. And they persisted in their unprovoked hostility. This is a pretty good picture of this kind of hard-hearted unbelief.

But we also see the dangers of half-hearted faith, and the apostles are a sad example of that. Their carnal indignation toward Mary. How indignant we can get about this, how indignant we can get about that. Many times it feels very real and right and righteous. I ought to be indignant about this, I ought to be indignant about that. Maybe, maybe not. But that may be the indignation of carnality rather than of spirituality.

Be careful. But what we see in Mary is a number of manifestations of whole-hearted faith. The manifestation of her sacrificial devotion to Christ, her lavish giving, giving of her resources, giving of herself, giving of her time, devoting herself to Him. We see the spiritual hunger for God's Word again in Mary. She esteemed Christ's Word more important than food, than physical food. And her hunger and reception of Christ's Word enabled her to understand what others did not understand, and enabled her to do what Christ considered to be an incredibly appropriate deed.

And that brings us therefore to understand another manifestation of whole-hearted faith, which is the practical deeds of involvement. Mary did what she could. She couldn't preach. She couldn't build a church. So many things she couldn't do.

What can I do? Well, I can take the resources that God has so abundantly supplied and I can use them to honor Christ. That's what I can do. And she did.

She did what she could. And isn't that exactly what God expects of all of us? We're all tempted at times. I hear somebody who plays the piano beautifully and I say, I wish I could do that. Remember, if God wanted me to do that, He would have enabled me to do that. I tried hard enough. The Lord knows I tried hard enough.

I wasted more money on piano lessons than I would care to tell you, but it didn't make me a pianist. And that's not what God intended for me to do. But I suppose someone who plays the piano beautifully might say, I wish God had made me a preacher, but He didn't. God makes each of us the way He wants us to be. God gives us the abilities that He wants us to have.

God commits into our care the resources that He wants us to utilize. And all He asks of us, any one of us, is do what you can. Do what God has enabled you to do. But for God's sake, do it. Don't sit on it.

Do it. She did what she could. A lot of us have not done in 2020 what we thought we were going to do at the beginning of the year. And it's out of our hands.

The COVID just changed everything. There's so many things that we were doing that we couldn't do. But that doesn't mean we can sit on our hands and do nothing. We figure out what we can do and do it with a heart of loving devotion to the Lord. And that's what we should do in 2021. We have no idea what this year may hold, but this much we know.

Whatever it holds, it holds opportunities for us to take what God has given to us, the circumstances that He's given to us, the abilities and the resources that He's given to us, and He's allowing us to use them for His glory as long as we live until Jesus comes. And if we'll do that, He'll be honored. She did what she could, and that was a beautiful deed, and what she did is going to be proclaimed to the end of the earth. And He'll say that to any and every faithful servant. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Enter into the joy of thy Lord. The final manifestation of wholehearted faith is unexpected spiritual fruitfulness. Did Mary expect that what she did was going to have uncountable spiritual impact and fruitfulness for thousands of years? She had no idea whatsoever. Complete and utter surprise to her. She didn't expect that.

Just little old me doing what little thing I can do right now to her, that's all it was. And Jesus said, this has impact for time and eternity in an incredible way. Do what you can. You have no idea how fruitful that may be. Probably, if your heart's right and you're humble before God, probably you will assume that it will be of very little consequence.

But you're not the judge of that, and you're not the one who controls that. You do what you can, and you are going to be surprised at how fruitful Christ will make that for His honor and glory. So let us do what we can.

Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for its truth. Thank you for its encouragement. Thank you for its rebuke. Thank you for its guidance. May we take it to heart at the beginning of this new year. For Christ's sake, amen.