Come to the Korpse-King!

[0:00] please take your Bibles and turn to John's Gospel if you're visiting with us there's a Bible in a chair in front of you and a little pocket underneath there's a visitor card you can fill that out too and as well as a Bible that's there you can pull out that Bible find page 82 it's towards the back in that Bible because they renumber the New Testament so find page 82 the Gospel of John chapter 12 John 12 John's Gospel chapter 12 we're going to do the first 11 verses here again page 82 and that's uh oh page 82 in that black Bible in chair in front of you 82 to 83 in John chapter 12 we're going to read the first 11 verses okay and do our study John 12 verse 11 mama makes everything better therefore six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead and they made supper for him there and Martha was serving and Lazarus was one of those the firstborns who was reclining with him therefore Mary taking a pound of very costly ointment of pure nard she anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance the smell of the ointment but Judas Iscariot one of his disciples who was going to betray him and he said why was this ointment not so for 300 denarii and give it to the poor and he said this not because he was concerned about the poor because he was a thief and having the money box he would take what was put in therefore Jesus said leave her alone nor that she may keep it for the day of the preparation of my burial for the poor you always have with you but you do not always have me therefore the great multitude of the Jews he learned he was there and they came not only because of Jesus but also they might see Lazarus too whom he raised from the dead but the chief priests resolved that they would also put Lazarus to death for because of him many of the Jews left and were believing into Jesus embedded in my memory

[2:47] I think it was I was 11 years old 6th grade was going to my grandma's funeral and for the first time as an 11 year old you know they had a funeral with an open casket and I saw a dead body freak me out I'm 11 years old and no I'm you know freaked out you're a kid you're walking by oh my goodness what is this it's embedded in my head very much so and my my dad was you know 47 when he had me so my grandma was probably when she passed away maybe in her early 80s mid 80s so she's much older than me that's why she passed away so soon but that that memory is embedded in my head of this corpse just lying there a corpse is the still reminder that a person is gone they're passed away it's not a place of hope or peace or comfort joy or life it's just the opposite you don't find hope in a corpse you don't find peace comfort joy life in a corpse you don't well actually you do when it comes to Jesus when it comes to Jesus and his corpse and yes indeed his resurrection solidified hope solidified our peace solidified comfort joy and life that's true but in the passage today the focus is actually upon his corpse at least he focused it there and giving our devotion to him in a corpse who is also a king

[4:49] John is calling his readers to come and receive Jesus and trust Jesus know Jesus believe Jesus receive Jesus he's calling his readers and today he calls us as his readers come to the corpse king yes I spelled it with a K on purpose come to the corpse king come to him notice the two terms how they contradict each other corpse king well in some measure maybe not in every way but in some regard they do I mean a king reigns a king brings life a king brings hope a king brings comfort a good king that is a corpse doesn't make any sense but it does for Jesus come to the corpse king the true posture of a Christian disciple is at the feet of our corpse king only this king can give us life by his very corpse dot dot dot the cross he gives us life by going to the cross and by the way get this corpse king from clink again in this commentary it's so helpful a true disciple of Christ humbly serves Jesus as king and shows true full devotion to him who alone is worthy of our service and allegiance he gives us life so we in turn give him ours so we in turn give him our devotion our allegiance only this king can give us life by his very corpse him going to the cross he gave us life by giving us life by giving his life excuse me he is our corpse king who died for us so we can have life and then he would be exalted interesting so this king would be crowned with thorns and dressed with shame before he would be crowned with a golden crown and dressed with honor and that's going to be the irony in the text because they give Jesus this supper to honor him and yet he shows them

[7:23] I'm actually going to be dressed with not honor but with shame I'm going to die as Klink says quote the king's throne is a cross and his castle is a tomb he is both king and corpse what a perfect way to describe Jesus you know we read from Philippians chapter 3 but early on Philippians chapter 2 that's what Jesus excuse me that's what Paul says about Jesus he's going to be exalted but first he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross and then he would be exalted and so once again we see the irony and the paradox with Jesus John loves doing this he's given this lavish honorable dinner yet he turned it to show it was truly about preparing him for the shame of the cross and how we must be devoted to him in that way to his corpse when he goes to the cross you're going to see three responses to this corpse king and the first response you see which is most of the text verses 1 through 8 is devotion to the corpse king again I'm using the K on purpose

[8:44] I didn't misspell it I didn't know how to spell corpse but I do you know K king get it never mind devotion to the corpse king let's start in verse 1 6 days before the Passover so in preparation of Jesus to be the Passover Lamb of God John here is emphasizing this would be Jesus last week before the cross so 6 days this last week Jesus came to Bethany it's 2 miles from Jerusalem the home of the Bethany family Mary, Martha, Lazarus remember chapter 11 Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead verse 2 they had a supper for him there a celebration supper now remember at first it was going to be a dirge meal it was going to be a meal that you would have after the funeral an after funeral type meal horrible sadness sorrow it became a joyous celebratory time because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead so Jesus was being honored honored because of it and they held this celebratory meal on the preceding

[10:08] Saturday Sabbath at this meal and notice Mary excuse me Martha was serving and Lazarus was there reclining with Jesus and they gathered to celebrate this great sign that Jesus had done for Lazarus and look what happens in verse 3 therefore Mary taking a pound of very costly ointment of pure nard let's stop there by the way it's better to see this connected to Matthew Mark's gospel not Luke's I said that erroneously two weeks ago notice how she quietly approached Jesus kneeling at his feet and the feet would be pointed away because they'd be reclining down their feet would be pointed away from the table so she went over there quietly to where his feet were and she took a pound this was a ginormous ridiculous lavish amount of ointment or nard and this ointment or nard it was genuine aromatic oil pure and unadulterated

[11:12] I mean it was of the highest quality only the well-off would possess this kind of perfume this kind of ointment especially this much this pound she anointed his feet so a lavish amount of ointment was used all at once and just one person talk about extreme she anointed the feet of Jesus he says anointed a person in the ancient world was meant to set a person apart for a particular task or role ruler king prophet priest plus it would establish honor and praise for that person you're going to honor a person you're going to anoint them you praise that person and adore them you're going to anoint them that's why you would do that as you know his feet John's focus here is on his feet now caring for the feet well even today if you're a podiatrist

[12:22] God bless you you know not everybody likes looking at feet some people have hideous keep your feet away from me type thing and in this time period caring for the feet was the most demeaning task it was assigned to household servants because a person's feet would be completely filthy I mean they would wear sandals and be filthy who knows what it was on their feet so only the household servant would do such a thing so this anointing symbolized the anointing of royalty and that sweet smell was for a king she anointed his feet says and this was done in private she's magnifying his kingship next week you're going to see Jesus' kingship would be magnified publicly but Mary meant to present

[13:28] Jesus as the king her royal king he's my king so her acts symbolize her great devotion to Jesus her love for Jesus she was self-humbling herself before him an absolute resolve to trust him this is Mary and then she goes farther her hair the text says and wiped his feet with her hair her hair would be up so shaking loose her hair she wiped his feet with it her act was a sign of deep love and affection for Jesus and understand but for a woman to let loose her hair in this culture was viewed as taboo or a scandalous expression between a woman and a man so lowering her hair was her way to express extreme gratitude and to show great humility before Jesus oh this is just in time for Thanksgiving is it not she's willing to shame herself for her king it's not a man it's a king her whole person was in service to her king so as she's letting down her hair she's opening herself to shame and yet this nard was equated to the worth of Jesus it was worth it it was worth it

[15:18] I will I will put myself to open shame because he's worth it may we give Jesus the thanks he deserves this week putting ourselves to open shame and notice the last part of verse 5 excuse me verse 3 and the house was filled with the smell of the ointment it was a way to highlight Jesus royal official kingship I love him he's my king and king you have my life I'm devoted to you this act symbolized slave like worship of Jesus you have great worth oh Jesus we have this kind of devotion allegiance dedication dedication and commitment to Jesus like Mary did may we stay faithful to him this dedication this devotion to Jesus friends this is key as we're dealing with the addictions of substance abuse and other things within our world alcohol drugs whatever

[16:43] LGBTQIA plus money greed this is the key the problem is not that they're continuing on with this substance abuse or this relationship the problem is they need to love Jesus more than that substance they need to love Jesus more than that girl loves that lesbian other girl other lesbian girl they need to love Jesus more than that relationship that's key this is key devotion to Jesus the verses from greatest I faithfulness I found my treasure in you that's Mary you see this devotion this commitment this allegiance to Jesus verse four but Judas Iscariot one of his disciples aka

[17:46] Mr. Killjoy that's what we're going to call him aka Mr. Killjoy who's going to betray him John tells you last time he talked about him was in John chapter six he distorted this truth he poured water over the fire Mr.

[18:07] Killjoy his true character came out and usually does when money's involved huh verse five why wasn't this ointment not sold for three hundred and given to the poor maybe he didn't do in a whiny voice maybe he did I don't know notice how he directly rebukes Mary stupid chick and then also indirectly rebuked Jesus the king come on Jesus probably you he focused only on the economic loss of the act 300 denarii was a full year's wage for someone ginormous amount so here's Mary offering herself as a slave to her king yet this jerk was only thinking about the economic ramifications really by the way just because someone is so into social justice doesn't mean it's for the lord now there's two aspects from his question that

[19:22] I want to bring out one aspect first he assumed the value of the ointment was financial clink is good with this when he talked about this so as far as he was concerned this anointing was wasteful superfluous downright stupid what idiot now a second aspect though to his question he thought another office was more vital more significant more important what office the poor they're more important than Jesus social justice is much more important than Jesus social justice is much more important than devotion than Jesus Mary measured the perfume this ointment by his price of expression put it this way its worth was equated to the worth of the person she anointed that's how clink put it it's a great way to put it the worth of that ointments of that nard was equated to the worth of the person

[20:25] Jesus was of highest quality so it's just why she used the nard the highest quality of nard Judas measured the perfume by its purchase price the value was found in itself not the person anointed so Mary viewed the worth of the ointment through the lens of how much she regarded Jesus Jesus didn't value Jesus the things we value we hold in high regard we care about deeply my wife is extremely valuable so I deeply care for her Jesus is totally priceless he's of the highest value again addictions come into this they come into play this is how you deal with this you need to come to a place where Jesus is at the highest value much more valuable than that substance that you're consuming right and

[21:28] John tells you why Judas was thinking this way look at verse 6 now he said this not because he was concerned about the poor the truth comes out Judas question was rooted in his identity it's because he was a thief and having a money box he would take what was put in he would conveniently take money from the group's financial resources they would use to live and minister I probably need an extra couple hundred bucks for myself things going on at home I gotta take care of the wife so he was only speaking because he felt a huge personal loss or foolish act if only this was given to the poor because then I can have a bunch more money his true character came out greed coveting dishonesty notice again the irony in this and the stark contrast that John paints for you here's this devotion to the corpse king and then you see

[22:37] Judas he was a thief but now let's talk about this though this raises two good questions first was Mary right to give Jesus his honor second was it wrong for her to offer this kind of extravagant gift well Jesus answers both questions look at verse 7 therefore Jesus said back off Jack that's the Jim Masters translation back off bub Jesus first defended her so she done nothing wrong at all he affirmed the symbolic act done to him yet showed that she acted better than she knew ah such a trademark in this gospel isn't it people act better than they know you see that everywhere in this gospel the real reason behind her act

[23:42] Jesus tells you in order that she may keep it for the day of the preparation of my burial to prepare me for burial I'm going to die this royal king would end up not being served but serving his father by giving himself on behalf of the father's gift us by pouring himself out in death for them to have life that's that's really what she was doing she acted better than she knew she was anointing him for burial she even realized that this king would be enthroned with shame sitting not on a throne but hanging upon a cross that was true glory that was true glory this king would serve the servants this king would serve the servants by giving himself in their stead so they can have life he is our corpse king he would go to the cross so do you know this corpse king have you trusted in the corpse king have you come to a place where you see

[25:10] Jesus I need you to save me I should be condemned for who I am I know I'm a sinner please save me he'll save you repent turn from Christ and trust Jesus he'll save you turn from your sin and trust Christ he'll save you have you trusted him today and notice how Jesus ends this part look at verse eight for the poor you always have with you but you do not always have me Mary's act in other words he's saying Mary's act was more valuable than caring for the poor now Jesus was not saying the poor should not be cared he's not saying that which by the way I take that as Christians who are poor not the poor in general it's putting things into their proper place in comparison to Jesus the poor took takes a secondary position the primary sole object of devotion should be our

[26:15] Lord not philanthropy our focus should be devotion allegiance dedication and full commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel just saying that there's one gospel I stand in the gospel of Jesus Christ it should be the gospel not philanthropy and by the way philanthropy is not Christianity I told you this story and I was there in Jerome and somebody said hey you know this person they do all these good things isn't that person really being a Christian and I was about to speak up and yet another guy who's not a Christian he says well they're not being a Christian they're just doing things that Christians would do I'm like yeah what he said listen to him he nailed it philanthropy is not Christianity it may be the results of Christianity or the proof necessary that we've been looking at in 1st John that Christianity but it in itself it in itself is not

[27:20] Christianity Christianity is being a Jesus disciple a Jesus follower giving him full devotion since he alone deserves our full devotion that's Christianity Jesus did not put devotion to him against devotion to caring for the poor brethren again I believe it's about poor brothers and sisters in Christ not the poor in general we love Jesus of course therefore we're going to love our brothers and sisters in as John says deed and truth of course but caring for the poor is subset to allegiance to Christ caring for others is the result of trusting and focusing on Jesus that's what Jesus is saying so here you have verse 1 through 8 this devotion to the corpse king that you see this in Mary and then you see this little thing by Judas just Jesus kind of brushes him aside this devotion to the corpse king now notice this other response to Jesus you see number 2 a second response belief in the corpse king and I put that in parenthesis because we kind of not parenthesis quotation marks because belief what kind of belief is this it's in verse 9 we'll go to verse 11 in just a moment but you see also in verse 11 go to verse 9 therefore the great multitude of the Jews they learned that he was there so Jesus public reputation was beginning to grow and even more they came not just because of

[28:52] Jesus but they might also see Lazarus whom he raised from the dead with this sign Lazarus being raised from the dead I mean all these people were coming hey Lazarus was dead I heard about that Jesus raised him what you've got to be kidding me so they wanted to see Lazarus just as well they wanted to see Jesus unfortunately we know from past verses in John's gospel right that the crowds were not coming to see Jesus to be devoted to him but to be wowed by him you'll see that again in verse 11 but notice another response you see in verse 10 now there's belief in the corpse king but then you have hatred for the corpse king in verse 10 the chief priests resolve that they might also put Lazarus to death so you have Mary's response the crowd's response now the religious leaders response to Jesus who truly hated Jesus so much so they resolved to kill Lazarus as well what why well because he was raised from the dead that's a good reason to kill somebody what is wrong with you it's unbelievable that they wanted to kill him too why do they want to kill him this is where you come to verse 11 which is again belief in the corpse king verse 11 for because of him that is

[30:14] Lazarus many of the Jews were leaving that's the word actually means leaving were they moving their allegiance and were believing into Jesus so everything Lazarus said would be a huge thorn in the flesh of these religious leaders so they need to shut him down too again we're unsure of the depth or true genuineness of their faith we don't know that's why it's in quotations is it true belief well we will see later when Jesus would stand before them in about six days how deep or really how shallow that faith truly was devotion belief hatred notice the three responses to Jesus to Jesus the king's throne is a cross and his castle is a tomb says clink he is both king and corpse perfect way to describe

[31:18] Jesus Jesus gave us life by giving his life he is our corpse king who died for us so we can have life and then he was going to be exalted so again the idea from this text this king would be crowned with thorns and dressed with shame before he would be crowned with a crown and dressed with honor a true disciple of Christ humbly serves him as king and shows truthful devotion to him who alone is worthy of our service and allegiance he gave us life so we in turn give him our lives I'm devoted to him not philanthropy I'm just being a good person that gets you nowhere this was Mary's allegiance her devotion her love her commitment to Jesus this was her response to him the true posture of a

[32:20] Christian disciple is at the feet of our corpse king like Mary only this king can give us life by his very corpse the cross his death you're given life his death he forgives you of all your sins and wipes you clean our response should be devoted to him as a church let's pray to that end our father we renew once again our commitment devotion allegiance commitments dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ we know we fall short and in the midst of that we are also thankful because Jesus you died for that too thank you thank you for dying for the times when we fall short we sin we put other people and other things in that place a place where we're not treasuring you of highest quality the way

[33:28] Mary did so help us help us to treasure you above all to value you above all thank you for your mercy to us thank you for taking your spirit and working in us we renew our love for you once again Jesus us I encourage you to take this time about a minute or so minute and a half whatever take this time to renew your love and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ fill your mind with scripture fill your mind with this gospel this one gospel in which we stand and we'll sing a couple songs we'll pray let this time be between you and the

[34:30] Lord time of silence again for about a minute or so fill your mind with truth and renew your love and commitment to the Lord Jesus