God's Last Words

“Carrying the Nail to the Cross”

JOHN 12: 1-8 (NRSV) 

You might want to scrunch around on your seats a little – I’m going to talk about sin and sin talk usually gets the people in the pews nervous!  

On this last Sunday of Lent I want to start this message off with a quote by a well known Reformed Church Theologian some of you may recognize, Rheinhold Neibuhr: “Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and {yet be} incapable of achieving it.” 

Thomas Fuller said, “He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasts of it, is a devil.” 

A French Proverb reads: He sins as much who holds the bag as he who puts into it. 

Josh Billings wrote: “Confess your sins to the Lord, and you will be forgiven; confess them to men, and you will be laughed at.” 

Three pastors went to the pastor convention and were all sharing one room. The first pastor said, "Let's confess our secret sins one to another. I'll start - my secret sin is I just love to gamble. When I go out of town, it's‘cha-ching, cha-ching,’ let the machines ring." The second pastor said, "My secret sin is that I just hate working. I copy all my sermons from those given by other pastors."  

The third pastor said, "My secret sin is gossiping and, oh boy, I just can't wait to get out of this room!" 

We are warned about leading others into sin: Two men got out of their cars after they collided at an intersection. One took a flask from his pocket and said to the other, "Here, maybe you'd like a nip to calm your nerves." 

"Thanks," he said, and took a long pull from the container. "Here, you have one, too," he added, handing back the whiskey. "Well, I'd rather not," said the first. " At least not until after the police have been here." 

Or the famous interaction between the Priest and the Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" A priest answers: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?" 

Malcolm Muggeridge probably summed up modern sin best when he said, “One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we've developed to a very high level, is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.” 

Believing that the truth can be anything you make it is a deadly deception.

The truth of sin must never be forgotten: Dwight L. Moody taught, “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”

Faith in God, on the other hand, is recognizing, acknowledging, and admitting our own shortcomings and depending on Jesus’ perfection to overcome them.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once preached: “We are certain that there is forgiveness, because there is a Gospel, and the very essence of the Gospel lies in the proclamation of the pardon of sin."  Let’s read John 12: 1-8:

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 

Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” 

When Jesus says “you will always have the poor with you” he is quoting the Book of Deuteronomy and reflecting Jewish thought on the social conditions of the time. 

It was not a suggestion to avoid helping the poor nor was it a suggestion to use wealth exclusively as an accessory to proclaim your faith.

As in everything else Jesus is encouraging balance.  

As I read this passage I am struck that the meaning here may be the warning of Judas more than the sacrifice and service Mary does for Jesus. Mary’s kind and soothing service to Jesus was no doubt needed and welcomed. What wonderful disciples, followers, and examples Mary and Martha are to the Church. 

But there are times we need to celebrate Church, God’s Word, and our Savior Jesus Christ. “Gaudiness,” giving your best, and even dressing nicely for Church should be expected at least every once in a while! We need to honor God. 

Yet Judas presents a whole different issue. Why did he betray Jesus? Was it for money? Was it for pride? Was it out of spite? Was he possessed by a demon or forced to act by Satan? Or was it a normal manifestation of his human personality? 

Was Judas just a mean-spirited, nasty person in the wrong place at the right time?

We know enough about Judas to surmise that his motivations seem to be attached to his interest in money and wealth. Unless the Gospel writers misjudged Judas or had grudges against him we must assume that he is the person he has been said to be. 

G. K. Chesterton wrote, “To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.” Satan must have used Judas’ weakness against Jesus. 

Each of us knows someone like Judas who has allowed their wants to overshadow their behavior, ethics, and relationships with others. We’ve seen it in ourselves, our relatives, friends, co-workers, bosses, and neighbors. And we’ve certainly seen it in our Churches. Even those whom Jesus’ chose as disciples weren’t exempt. 

It takes just a little to get out of balance. None of us are immune. It is often said of a person who has a strong commitment to something that they are “card carrying” devotees.  

In the matter of human sin I have come to call it “nail carrying” instead. If you look at the cross I wear during most of our services you’ll see I’ve added an extra attachment. It’s a nail that signifies the sins I commit which “nails” Jesus a little tighter to that cross on my behalf. He’s up there because of, and for, me! And for all humanity.

Dr. Robert Schuller was once on a whirlwind book promotion tour, visiting eight cities in four days. It was exhausting work in addition to his normal duties as pastor of a large church, yet he enjoyed the attention, loved being important to the point of becoming very prideful. 

As Schuller reviewed his schedule with his secretary, she reminded him that he was scheduled to have lunch with the winner of a charity raffle. Schuller was suddenly sobered when he found out who the winner of the raffle was, for he happened to know immediately that the $500 the person had bid to have lunch with him represented that person’s entire life savings. 

The winner was his own teenage daughter.

 

His priorities were out of whack. He was starting to feel  he was more important than his family and church. He had let his own needs get in the way of the blessings and responsibilities God had given.  

In the end Judas was self-centered and selfish. He felt he had to be devious in order to get what he desired. In truth what he really should have done was to ask Jesus for what he needed. He would have been blessed abundantly. Mary, in her gratitude for Jesus’ abundant care for herself and her family, anointed Jesus in gratitude.

We need to see this as the ideal for our own relationship with Jesus and God. It represents the simple life God intended for us in the Garden of Eden – harmony in relationship with each other and with God.  

Yet Adam and Eve were enticed to consider actions outside of God’s Will and they acted in a devious way to satisfy themselves. They ended up rebelling from and deeply disappointing God. 

If we too act outside of God’s Will and care we risk betraying Christ as well. We put ourselves in the crowd before the cross on that Friday morning, yelling for His crucifixation while supplying the nails to do it with. 

The answer to our failure lies in Jesus’ response to Judas:  

“Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” 

Friends, while we are at the cross on Friday afternoon, we are also at the empty tomb on Sunday morning. One without the other would be meaningless. 

Jesus knew He was sacrificing Himself for each of us providing we see and recognize what He has done. He must be given His due, in praise and worship. 

That’s what his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven has been about.  

I would like to end with a quote from the great Reformer Martin Luther, “In this

life, Christ is an example, showing us how to live; in his death, he is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; and in his resurrection, a conqueror over eternity.” 

As Dr. Henry Harbaugh, Church Historian, Professor, Poet, Pastor, and Reformed Church Icon said it best in a Hymn* he wrote in 1850:

Jesus, I live to Thee, The Loveliest and Best;
My life in Thee, Thy life in me, In Thy blest love I rest

Jesus, I die to Thee, Whenever death shall come;
To die in Thee is life to me, With Thee I’m ever one! 

Whether to live or die, I know not which is best;
To live in Thee is bliss to me, To die is endless rest. 

Living or dying, Lord, I ask but to be Thine;
My life in Thee, Thy life in me, Makes Thee forever mine.

Amen.

 * E & R Hymnal, page 254.