Mark 14

 Key verse: Mark 14:3

Big idea: Humility and sacrifice are the offerings fit for the Son of God. 

It is hard to buy gifts for my Dad. He does not want much, and what he does, he already has. What do you get someone like that? We probably all have that kind of person in our lives. You want to show love and appreciation but cannot find the vessel to do it. It was even sillier when I was a kid, and my Mom would take us to the store to pick out something to get for Dad with the money he made. If that can be true of people, how much more is it true of God? Everything we have, He gave us. He needs nothing and has everything already. If there were something He did not have, He could simply speak and it would come into being. You cannot buy a nice Swiss watch for the one who aligned the orbit of the planets in perfect harmony with the word of his power!

So what does the Son of God want from us? Only everything. A woman (we know it was Mary from John 12:3) took a precious bottle of perfume, worth a year's wages, and poured it over Jesus. Some scolded her, saying that this was a tremendous waste. Jesus loved the poor; surely this gift could have been better employed by being sold and given to them. But Jesus took a different point of view. She did a good work for Him out of love, which would not be forgotten. Although she did not understand it all, she was setting His body apart for burial, something they would not have time to do later that week. The point was not the value of the perfume that she poured - that is nothing to God. It was her humility to decide that Jesus was worthy of the best and her lavish sacrifice to pour it all out for Him.

We cannot give God anything He needs but there is one thing He wants: our hearts. If we resolve to give Him our best, no matter the cost, He will delight in that gift. When we give Him things, we give Him what is already His. When we give Him ourselves, we recognize that even though it is not enough, He deserves nothing less.

Discussion idea: What are some modern equivalents to saying the perfume should have been sold and given to the poor? 

Prayer focus: Pray for a heart like Mary's, that gives Jesus all that we have and all that we are with total abandon.