[From a sermon preached at the Healing Service in StAndrews Cathedral, Sydney in 1997.]
As Jesus reclined at the table in a private home, a woman came to Him carrying a jar whose contents (perfumed ointment) were valued at almost one year’s salary. Others might be plotting His death, but at least one person was showing Him, that to her, He was special.
I want us tonight to look at how love behaves, as we see it expressed by the woman.
THE EXPRESSIONS OF TRUE LOVE.
1. Love Takes The Initiative. She Came To Him. 14:3
We don’t know what sort of contact this woman had previously had with Jesus, but obviously her heart had been moved by His ministry of love. It may have been in gratitude for a blessing she had received at His hands. Or it may have been that she was overcome with the sheer integrity of His life. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass to express her love. She came to Him.
Let me ask you, whether there is anyone that you should be loving, but you’re holding back. You’re waiting for them to take the initiative before you give of yourself in love to them. You think to yourself, “When I see some evidence that they’re sorry; when I think they’ve suffered enough through my withdrawal of love to them; when they have proved that they have changed; then and only then will I become loving and gracious to them.”
If you’ve got that sort of attitude, it’s something you need to repent of, because that’s not how love behaves. What would have happened if God had acted on those same principles. He would have looked at the world in all its sin and said, “What an ungrateful, sinful mob. They don’t deserve to have me send my Son Jesus into the world to die for them.” But His word says that it was while we were yet sinners that Christ came and died for us. He took the initiative. God may be calling many of you tonight to take the initiative in seeking to reach out to restore relationships. To bring His healing grace and power into human lives.
2. Love Offers The Best That One Has. 14:3
It is almost certain that this was the most valuable possession that the woman had. She could have thought, “I’ll just put a little dab on His forehead and keep the rest for another time.” But there wasn’t going to be another time. Within hours He was going to be dead. She broke the jar and poured it all over His head and anointed His head with it.
What a contrast to so much in the church through the ages. Support for missionaries in the form of second-hand tea bags. Support for Christian causes from small change in the pocket, rather than committed giving. But love offers the best that one has, sacrificially and generously. Praise God that so many of His people give sacrificially and with love.
3. Love Makes The Most Of Every Opportunity. 14:3-4
It must have been hard for her to go into that home and do what she did. But it was important enough for her to risk all the ridicule and the misunderstanding of her action. Men could have thought the worst of her morals. Women could have thought that she was downgrading the status of women by making such a pathetic display of pandering to a man in this public way. She did what she could, when she could, making the most of the opportunity before it was too late.
I have often come across very sad situations in visiting people who have been bereaved. But the saddest of those circumstances is that in which people are living with regret for the opportunities that were missed for showing love and affection. As a young person, I once heard the words that go something like this, “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” [Words attributed to Stephen Grellet (1772 –1855) who was a prominent French-American Quaker missionary.]
The moments for expressing love which were never taken up, are lost for eternity. I remember being in my late 20’s and most of my younger friends had already married. I had begun to have deep feelings about one of the girls in my fellowship group. I felt she was far too good for me and was destined to become the wife of a Lord Mayor or a Prime Minister or some other dignitary. All I had to offer her was my love and a life in an ordinary lifestyle. I hesitated about telling her how I felt. But I had this strange thought. Would I ever seek less than God’s best for her? NO! Would I ever deliberately hurt her or fail to appreciate her? NO! I felt I would be committed to her for the rest of our natural lives if she was willing to accept me as a lifelong partner. One Sunday night after I had driven her home from church I decided to share what I was feeling. Adopting a very low-key approach I said to her, ”I think I’m beginning to like you.” When it appeared that my profession of love in this form pleased her I was able to tell her that I loved her very much. And to my delight, this beautiful attractive creature replied, ‘I love you too!” It meant that months afterwards we began our richly blessed life together for almost 54 years before she passed into the presence of the Lord. I am so glad that I got around to expressing my love to this wonderful servant of God and as a result serving Him together for those 54 years.
What marriages could have been enriched, what families could have been blessed for generations, if husbands and wives had taken those opportunities to express their love for each other, and the influence of that be passed on to their children. Unfortunately, the pattern that is set for marriage in the eyes of many children, is that of conditional love, not the self-giving love of the New Testament.
The way we behave is not just affecting you and me; it is affecting generations where those wrong attitudes continue in the family.
4. Love Is Never Wasted. 14:4-5
I want us to notice the different value placed on her action. Many there perhaps, including some of the disciples said, “What a waste. “ In fact they tried to be spiritual about it, saying, “This ointment could have been sold and given to the poor. ” They saw it all as a terrible waste. What they were really saying was this, “HE ISN’T WORTH IT.” But she thought He was. What did Jesus think? He called what she did a “beautiful thing.” Not only was it beautiful, but it was timely. The poor could benefit from help at any time, but He had only hours to live. Her opportunity to show love was not wasted. Nor is love ever wasted.
Sometimes we might hear the words uttered by parents when a daughter marries someone whom they feel is inferior to the family, “She threw herself away on him. What a waste of a talented girl.” But it’s no waste if there is genuine love between the daughter and her husband and they affirm each other, encouraging each other to know and do the Lord’s best for them. God, you could say, gambled when He sent His Son into the world. What if most people rejected Him, wouldn’t that be an incredible waste of the life of His precious Son? But it was His initiative in sending His Son into the world to die for sinners that made some respond in love to His love. Love gives in spite of not being appreciated, and can bring forth love in the other person. Praise God for every person who has responded to the Lord’s love by loving Him in return!
5. Love Is Eternal. 14:6-9
That’s what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 13. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Love never ends.” So significant was this expression of love in the eyes of Jesus that He gave it eternal value. He said that her actions would be told throughout all the generations of humankind in memory of her. This action of the woman will never be forgotten while there is a world. Our expressions of love are also eternal. They change the world around us and then spread out to touch the lives of others, who in turn acting in love, touch more people. But our failure to love is also eternal. It has eternal consequences. What would the world be like now, if generations ago, some of the people in the Middle East or in parts of Africa had put aside their bitterness and determined by the grace of God to take the initiative and to be loving to those whom they once hated?
This is a very powerful story. Jesus knew we needed to be challenged with a human example of someone who loved. I believe that tonight God is going to begin to open some of us wide open, so that He might pour His love into us by His Holy Spirit, and He is going to impress upon us the need to take the initiative in showing love to those whom He will show us.
We need to cooperate with Him as He shows us who those people are, even though we may be going through difficult times, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5.
We are able to love even the unlovable with the agape love of God. It is God’s own love poured into our hearts, flowing through us to enrich the life of a person [or people] who long to be loved. To whom do we need to reach out with God’s love?
Blog No.537 posted on Tuesday 12 March 2024,
holbeck 
537. Sermon on Mark14:1-9. True Love Achieves Great Things. [A Gospel reading for Sunday 24 March 2024]
[From a sermon preached at the Healing Service in StAndrews Cathedral, Sydney in 1997.]
As Jesus reclined at the table in a private home, a woman came to Him carrying a jar whose contents (perfumed ointment) were valued at almost one year’s salary. Others might be plotting His death, but at least one person was showing Him, that to her, He was special.
I want us tonight to look at how love behaves, as we see it expressed by the woman.
THE EXPRESSIONS OF TRUE LOVE.
1. Love Takes The Initiative. She Came To Him. 14:3
We don’t know what sort of contact this woman had previously had with Jesus, but obviously her heart had been moved by His ministry of love. It may have been in gratitude for a blessing she had received at His hands. Or it may have been that she was overcome with the sheer integrity of His life. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass to express her love. She came to Him.
Let me ask you, whether there is anyone that you should be loving, but you’re holding back. You’re waiting for them to take the initiative before you give of yourself in love to them. You think to yourself, “When I see some evidence that they’re sorry; when I think they’ve suffered enough through my withdrawal of love to them; when they have proved that they have changed; then and only then will I become loving and gracious to them.”
If you’ve got that sort of attitude, it’s something you need to repent of, because that’s not how love behaves. What would have happened if God had acted on those same principles. He would have looked at the world in all its sin and said, “What an ungrateful, sinful mob. They don’t deserve to have me send my Son Jesus into the world to die for them.” But His word says that it was while we were yet sinners that Christ came and died for us. He took the initiative. God may be calling many of you tonight to take the initiative in seeking to reach out to restore relationships. To bring His healing grace and power into human lives.
2. Love Offers The Best That One Has. 14:3
It is almost certain that this was the most valuable possession that the woman had. She could have thought, “I’ll just put a little dab on His forehead and keep the rest for another time.” But there wasn’t going to be another time. Within hours He was going to be dead. She broke the jar and poured it all over His head and anointed His head with it.
What a contrast to so much in the church through the ages. Support for missionaries in the form of second-hand tea bags. Support for Christian causes from small change in the pocket, rather than committed giving. But love offers the best that one has, sacrificially and generously. Praise God that so many of His people give sacrificially and with love.
3. Love Makes The Most Of Every Opportunity. 14:3-4
It must have been hard for her to go into that home and do what she did. But it was important enough for her to risk all the ridicule and the misunderstanding of her action. Men could have thought the worst of her morals. Women could have thought that she was downgrading the status of women by making such a pathetic display of pandering to a man in this public way. She did what she could, when she could, making the most of the opportunity before it was too late.
I have often come across very sad situations in visiting people who have been bereaved. But the saddest of those circumstances is that in which people are living with regret for the opportunities that were missed for showing love and affection. As a young person, I once heard the words that go something like this, “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” [Words attributed to Stephen Grellet (1772 –1855) who was a prominent French-American Quaker missionary.]
The moments for expressing love which were never taken up, are lost for eternity. I remember being in my late 20’s and most of my younger friends had already married. I had begun to have deep feelings about one of the girls in my fellowship group. I felt she was far too good for me and was destined to become the wife of a Lord Mayor or a Prime Minister or some other dignitary. All I had to offer her was my love and a life in an ordinary lifestyle. I hesitated about telling her how I felt. But I had this strange thought. Would I ever seek less than God’s best for her? NO! Would I ever deliberately hurt her or fail to appreciate her? NO! I felt I would be committed to her for the rest of our natural lives if she was willing to accept me as a lifelong partner. One Sunday night after I had driven her home from church I decided to share what I was feeling. Adopting a very low-key approach I said to her, ”I think I’m beginning to like you.” When it appeared that my profession of love in this form pleased her I was able to tell her that I loved her very much. And to my delight, this beautiful attractive creature replied, ‘I love you too!” It meant that months afterwards we began our richly blessed life together for almost 54 years before she passed into the presence of the Lord. I am so glad that I got around to expressing my love to this wonderful servant of God and as a result serving Him together for those 54 years.
What marriages could have been enriched, what families could have been blessed for generations, if husbands and wives had taken those opportunities to express their love for each other, and the influence of that be passed on to their children. Unfortunately, the pattern that is set for marriage in the eyes of many children, is that of conditional love, not the self-giving love of the New Testament.
The way we behave is not just affecting you and me; it is affecting generations where those wrong attitudes continue in the family.
4. Love Is Never Wasted. 14:4-5
I want us to notice the different value placed on her action. Many there perhaps, including some of the disciples said, “What a waste. “ In fact they tried to be spiritual about it, saying, “This ointment could have been sold and given to the poor. ” They saw it all as a terrible waste. What they were really saying was this, “HE ISN’T WORTH IT.” But she thought He was. What did Jesus think? He called what she did a “beautiful thing.” Not only was it beautiful, but it was timely. The poor could benefit from help at any time, but He had only hours to live. Her opportunity to show love was not wasted. Nor is love ever wasted.
Sometimes we might hear the words uttered by parents when a daughter marries someone whom they feel is inferior to the family, “She threw herself away on him. What a waste of a talented girl.” But it’s no waste if there is genuine love between the daughter and her husband and they affirm each other, encouraging each other to know and do the Lord’s best for them. God, you could say, gambled when He sent His Son into the world. What if most people rejected Him, wouldn’t that be an incredible waste of the life of His precious Son? But it was His initiative in sending His Son into the world to die for sinners that made some respond in love to His love. Love gives in spite of not being appreciated, and can bring forth love in the other person. Praise God for every person who has responded to the Lord’s love by loving Him in return!
5. Love Is Eternal. 14:6-9
That’s what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 13. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Love never ends.” So significant was this expression of love in the eyes of Jesus that He gave it eternal value. He said that her actions would be told throughout all the generations of humankind in memory of her. This action of the woman will never be forgotten while there is a world. Our expressions of love are also eternal. They change the world around us and then spread out to touch the lives of others, who in turn acting in love, touch more people. But our failure to love is also eternal. It has eternal consequences. What would the world be like now, if generations ago, some of the people in the Middle East or in parts of Africa had put aside their bitterness and determined by the grace of God to take the initiative and to be loving to those whom they once hated?
This is a very powerful story. Jesus knew we needed to be challenged with a human example of someone who loved. I believe that tonight God is going to begin to open some of us wide open, so that He might pour His love into us by His Holy Spirit, and He is going to impress upon us the need to take the initiative in showing love to those whom He will show us.
We need to cooperate with Him as He shows us who those people are, even though we may be going through difficult times, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5.
We are able to love even the unlovable with the agape love of God. It is God’s own love poured into our hearts, flowing through us to enrich the life of a person [or people] who long to be loved. To whom do we need to reach out with God’s love?
Blog No.537 posted on Tuesday 12 March 2024,
Share this:
Related
About Jim Holbeck
Once an Industrial Chemist working for the Queensland Government but later an Anglican minister in Brisbane, Armidale and Sydney. Last position for eighteen years before retirement in 2006 was as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney.