This morning we attended church at the Refinery Church in Brea. The sermon delivered by Pastor Kelly Fellows was a part of a series called "Moments." Today's sermon was based in John Ch. 12:1-8 and was focused on Honor: honoring God in our home, honoring God in our heart, honoring God with our best, and honoring God with our time.
The sermon in and of itself was very good, and memorable. However, the epiphany that I had this morning was in realizing that the story of the anointing at Bethany was about much more than just seeing Judas upset that the very expensive anointing oil was "wasted" and that it could have been sold and used to help the poor. I realize that in the past when I heard or read this story, I was relating more to what Judas said than what Mary did. When I consider these other two facts of the story: (1) that Mary was HONORING Jesus with the oil; and (2) that Jesus DEFENDED her actions and told Judas to leave Mary alone, it is then I realize that the story is more about honoring Jesus and that we need to follow the example of Mary. To clarify, I wasn't interested in following in Judas' footsteps either here in this story or in his ultimate betrayal of Jesus, but I did realize that in the past my heart and mind related more to Judas' words then they did to Mary's actions.
As Pastor Kelly spoke this part of the sermon, I was immediately reminded of a spoken word track by Jackie Hill Perry called "Eyes Like Judas." Was I relating more to Judas because I too was more concerned with the alleged waste of the costly anointing oil, or was I relating more to Mary who was giving everything including her time to Jesus?
We should all ponder this: is our heart honoring God or are our eyes more like Judas'? "Try asking a blind man to life his eyes toward the sky and tell you the color of the sun. If he can't see, he'll never understand his need for light, so darkness will be all that he knows."
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4 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:1-6 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians+4&version=NKJV)
footnotes and references:
(1) Refinery Church website: https://wearerefinery.com/
(2) Jackie Hill Perry's spoken word poem "Eyes Like Judas": https://youtu.be/nFrFRfhtRTk
