The Heart of Good Stewardship
During the last week of Jesus’ life as given in Mark’s Gospel there are three people, in addition to Jesus, who figure prominently: Judas, who betrays Christ, Peter who denies him, and an unnamed woman who anoints him before the failures of Judas and Peter. It is interesting that the stories of Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial are well-known to most Christians, but the story of the woman is virtually forgotten in comparison to the other two. Even though Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her,” the woman’s prophetic action didn’t become common knowledge to Christians. Even her name is unknown to us. The name of the person who betrayed Jesus is known to virtually everyone, the name of the faithful, generous disciple who served and honored Christ is forgotten, probably because she was a woman.
November 14, 2010: Mark 14:3-9, The Heart of Good Stewardship
Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
Listen to the story:
“While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4 But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii,c and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
I have long been impressed by the woman in this passage for a number of reasons. First of all, the anonymous woman in Simon’s house gave generously, lavishly, out of love for Jesus. Most importantly she anointed Jesus’ head, not his feet, recognizing that he was the Messiah who would suffer and die for God’s people. Jesus was giving himself, all of himself as a gift to God’s people and the woman recognized that and in return she gave as much as she could to Jesus in return. However, the other people in the house are ashamed and embarrassed by the woman’s generosity and perhaps how it makes them look in comparison. They express their emotions in anger toward the woman and scold her. They try to cloak their lack of love and generosity in the well-worn garment of self-righteousness, as if they were supremely concerned for the poor. Jesus’ rebuke to them makes it clear that their objections didn’t come from pure hearts or genuine compassion for the poor. When Jesus says “you always have the poor with you,” that is not an excuse to ignore the poor or to justify poverty. Jesus makes that clear by saying, “You can show kindness to them whenever you wish.” The question that leads to is do we show kindness to them? What do we do with the alabaster jar in our possession?
Listen to what a man wrote about an experience he had:
“A couple of years ago I found out what “you can’t take it with you” means. I found out while I was lying in a ditch at the side of a country road, covered with mud and blood and with the tibia of my right leg poking out the side of my jeans like a branch of a tree taken down in a thunderstorm. I had a MasterCard in my wallet, but when you’re lying in a ditch with broken glass in your hair, no one accepts MasterCard….We come in naked and broke. We may be dressed when we go out, but we’re just as broke. Warren Buffet? Going to go out broke. Bill Gates? Going out broke. Tom Hanks? Going out broke. Steve King? Broke. Not a crying dime. All the money you earn, all the stocks you buy, all the mutual funds you trade—all of that is mostly smoke and mirrors. It’s still going to be a quarter-past getting late whether you tell the time on a Timex or a Rolex….
So I want you to consider making your life one long gift to others. And why not? All you have is on loan, anyway. All that lasts is what you pass on….Now imagine a nice little backyard, surrounded by a board fence. Dad—a pleasant fellow, a little plump—is tending the barbecue. Mom and the kids are setting the picnic table: fried chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, a chocolate cake for dessert. And standing around the fence, looking in, are emaciated men and women, starving children. They are silent. They only watch. That family at the picnic is us; that backyard is America, and those hungry people on the other side of the fence, watching us sit down to eat, include far too much of the rest of the world: Asia and the subcontinent; countries in Central Europe, where people live on the edge from one harvest to the next; South America, where they’re burning down the rain forests; and most of all, Africa, where AIDS is pandemic and starvation is a fact of life. It’s not a pretty picture, but we have the power to help, the power to change. And why should we refuse? Because we’re going to take it with us? Please. Giving isn’t about the receiver or the gift but the giver. It’s for the giver. One doesn’t open one’s wallet to improve the world, although it’s nice when that happens; one does it to improve one’s self….
A life of giving—not just money, but time and spirit—repays. It helps us remember that we may be going out broke, but right now we’re doing O.K. Right now we have the power to do great good for others and for ourselves. So I ask you to begin giving, and to continue as you begin. I think you’ll find in the end that you got far more than you ever had, and did more good than you ever dreamed.” Guess who wrote that, not a preacher or a theologian or even a Christian but none other than horror novelist Stephen King who apparently understands giving better than most people even though he largely looks at giving from a personal point of view.
In Verse 8 Jesus says of the unnamed woman, “She has done what she could.” I find that statement inspiring and almost haunting. Have I done what I could for Jesus? Have I done all that I could for Jesus? It’s like the man who had a dream that he was standing in a line of people before St. Peter at the gates of heaven and St. Peter was either admitting people to heaven or denying them entrance. The man found he was in line right behind Mother Teresa. She stepped in front of St. Peter and he said, “Well, you could’ve done more.” And the man woke up in a cold sweat.
The Bible makes it clear that God deserves better than our leftovers. The Butterball Turkey Company sets up a hotline this time of year to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. Once a woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years! The operator told her it might be safe if the freezer had been kept below zero degrees the entire time. But the operator warned the woman that, even if it were safe, the flavor had probably deteriorated, & she wouldn’t recommend eating it. The caller replied, “That’s what we thought. We’ll just give it to the church.”[1]
That is not the kind of giving that reflects a vital faith or a desire to honor God. Can you imagine a woman coming in to the house of Simon the leper and presenting Jesus with a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years? God tells people to tithe, to give the first 10% of what they earn or produce to the Lord as an act of gratitude and celebration for the Lord’s provision of their needs. The purpose of tithing is to teach us to always put God first in our lives. A survey by Your Church magazine shows that of people who read the Bible four to seven times per week, 85% donate 10% or more of their income to charitable causes compared to only 40% of those who do not read the Bible. People who tithe also have far less credit card and other kinds of debt.
Giving generously like the woman in the Gospel requires stretching faith, faith like a rubber band that can extend farther than we think. Many years ago Scott Lewis, owner of Scott Machinery, attended a conference where Bill Bright challenged people to give one million dollars to help fulfill the Great Commission. This amount was laughable to Scott—far beyond anything he could imagine, since at the time his machinery business was generating an income of under $50,000 a year. Bill asked, “How much did you give last year?” Scott felt pretty good about his answer: “We gave $17,000, about 35 percent of our income.” Without blinking an eye, Bill responded, “Over the next year, why don’t you make a goal of giving $50,000?” Scott thought Bill hadn’t understood. Fifty thousand dollars was more than he’d made all year! But Scott and his wife decided to trust God with Bill’s challenge, asking him to do the impossible. God provided in amazing ways; with a miraculous December 31 provision, the Lewises were able to give the $50,000. The next year they set a goal of giving $100,000. Again, God provided. A number of years ago (in 2001), they passed the one million dollar giving mark. The best part is they aren’t stopping. Their lives reflect the generous, lavish giving at the heart of good stewardship.
Giving reveals our heart. Giving shapes our heart. It did for the woman and the people in the home of Simon the leper, for Stephen King and the Lewises and it does for us. After successfully establishing a restaurant chain, two banks, a ranch, farm and real estate ventures, Jerry Caven says that’s when the real fun started. “At age 59 I was headed into retirement, looking for a nice lake home. Then God changed our plans and led Muriel and me to put our money and time overseas. It’s been exciting. Before we gave token amounts, now we put substantial money into missions. Our hearts are in another country now. We visit and minister there often.” What changed the Cavens’ attitude toward giving? “It was realizing God’s ownership that got through to us. Once we understood we were giving away God’s money to God’s work, we had a peace and joy we never had back when we thought it was our money! After seeing the way poor Christians in other countries trust Him, we’ve asked God if he wants us to give away all of ‘our’ money. He hasn’t led us to do that yet. But we’ve meant it when we asked.” Jerry says, “A nonchristian couple saw us giving, and saw how much it excited and changed us. Then they started giving too, even before knowing Christ. They saw the joy and they wanted in on it!” He added, “One of the big results of our giving is that we no longer hold things too close to our hearts. We can let them go, realizing they won’t last…but we will.”
What the woman did in breaking open her alabaster jar was to lavishly anoint Jesus before his burial and to acknowledge him as the Messiah who would give his life for everyone. What she did was unique to her, no one else did it. Her prophetic act revealed that Jesus’ death was an act of generous giving and lavish love which calls for generous giving and lavish love in return. The Lord has a unique role for each of us to play. We all have our own alabaster jar and we decide what we’ll do with it.
The scripture Pastor Dave read earlier from 2 Corinthians 4:5-11 speaks to how God can uses us when we are broken open like an alabaster jar and are willingly poured out for Christ. Vance Havner wrote, “God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume.” A single page from the journal of John Wesley, the founder of what became the Methodist movement, reads:
Sunday a.m., May 5 – Preached in St. Ann’s; was asked not to come back any more.
Sunday p.m., May 5 – Preached at St. John’s; deacons said, “Get out & stay out.”
Sunday a.m., May 12 – Preached at St. Jude’s; can’t go back there either.
Sunday p.m., May 12 – Preached at St. George’s; kicked out again.
Sunday a.m., May 19 – Preached at St. Somebody Else’s; deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
Sunday p.m., May 19 – Preached on the street; kicked off the street.
Sunday a.m., May 26 – Preached out in a meadow; chased out of meadow when a bull was turned loose during the service.
Sunday a.m., June 2 – Preached out at the edge of town; kicked off the highway.
Sunday p.m., June 2 – Afternoon service, preached in pasture; 10,000 people came.[2]
Wesley poured himself out like the ointment in the woman’s jar in the Gospel. If we have committed ourselves to Christ, then like the unnamed woman in Mark’s Gospel, we will hold nothing back in our devotion to him no matter what the cost or what other people think. If we have committed ourselves to Jesus like Paul though there may be times we are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted or struck down we need not be crushed or destroyed because the life of Jesus is in our life and in the life of those in our faith community who minister to us as we minister to them. As we show and the share the life of Jesus through our lives, as cracked & banged up & weak as they may be, as we share each other’s joys and sorrows – Christ will be seen & God will be glorified among us. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it well, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
c The denarius was the usual day’s wage for a laborer
[1] Leadership Journal, Summer, 1996.
[2] Bob Hartman, Plugged In, (9-16-97), p. 6.