The Normal Christian Life (27 page)

But I do not want to dwell too much on Judas. Let us go on to see what was the attitude of the other disciples, because their reaction affects us even more than does his. We do not greatly mind what the world is saying; we can stand that. But we do very much mind what other Christians are saying who ought to understand. And yet we find that they said the same thing as Judas; and they not only said, it but they were very upset, very indignant about it. “When the disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor” (Matt. 26:8–9).

Of course, we know that the attitude of mind is all too common among Christians which says, “Get all you can for as little as possible.” That however is not what is in view here, but something deeper. Let me illustrate. Has someone been telling you that you are wasting your life by sitting still and not doing much? They say, “Here are people who ought to get out into this or that kind of work. They could be used to help this or that group of people. Why are they not more active?”—and in saying so, their whole idea is use. Everything ought to be used to the full in ways they understand.

There are those who have been very concerned with some dear servants of the Lord on this very ground, that
they are apparently not doing enough. They could do so much more, they think, if they could secure an entry somewhere and enjoy a greater acceptance and prominence in certain circles. They could then be used in a far greater way.

I have spoken already of a sister whom I knew for a long time and who, I think, is the one by whom I have been helped most. She was used of the Lord in a very real way during those years when I was associated with her, though to some of us at the time this was not so apparent. The one concern in my heart was this: “She is not used!” Constantly I said to myself, “Why does she not get out and take some meetings, go somewhere, do something? It is a waste for her to be living in that small village with nothing happening!” Sometimes, when I went to see her, I almost shouted at her. I said, “No one knows the Lord as you do. You know the Book in a most living way. Do you not see the need around? Why don’t you do something? It is a waste of time, a waste of energy, a waste of money, a waste of everything, just sitting here and doing nothing!”

But no, brethren, that is not the first thing with the Lord. He wants you and me to be used, certainly. God forbid that I should preach inactivity, or seek to justify a complacent attitude to the world’s need. As Jesus Himself says here, “the gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world.” But the question is one of emphasis. Looking back today, I realize how greatly the Lord was in fact using that dear sister to speak to a number of us who, as young men, were at that time in His training school for this very work of the gospel. I cannot thank God enough for her and for the influence of her life upon me.

What, then, is the secret? Clearly it is this, that in approving Mary’s action at Bethany, the Lord Jesus was laying down one thing as a basis of all service: that you pour out all you have, your very self, unto Him; and if that should be all He allows you to do, that is enough. It is not first of all a question of whether “the poor” have been helped or not. That will follow. But the first question is: Has the Lord been satisfied?

There is many a meeting we might address, many a convention at which we might minister, many a gospel campaign in which we might have a share. It is not that we are unable to do it. We could labor and be used to the full; but the Lord is not so concerned about our ceaseless occupation in work for Him. That is not His first object. The service of the Lord is not to be measured by tangible results.

No, my friends, the Lord’s first concern is with our position at His feet and our anointing of His head. Whatever we have as an “alabaster box,” the most precious thing, the thing dearest in the world to us—yes, let me say it, the outflow from us of a life that is produced by the very cross itself—we give that all up to the Lord. To some, even of those who should understand, it seems a waste; but that is what He seeks above all. Often enough the giving to Him will be in tireless service; but He reserves to Himself the right to suspend the service for a time in order to discover to us whether it is that, or Himself, that holds us.

“Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached . . . that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of” (Mark 14:9).

Why did the Lord say this? Because the gospel is meant to produce this. It is what the gospel is for. The gospel is not just to satisfy sinners. Praise the Lord, sinners will be satisfied! But their satisfaction is, we may say, a blessed byproduct of the gospel and not its primary aim. The gospel is preached in the first place so that the Lord may be satisfied.

I am afraid we lay too much emphasis on the good of sinners, and we have not sufficiently appreciated what the Lord has in view as His goal. We have been thinking how the sinner will fare if there is no gospel, but that is not the main consideration. Yes, Praise God! the sinner has his part. God meets his need and showers him with blessings; but that is not the most important thing. The first thing is this: Everything should be to the satisfaction of the Son of God. It is only when He is satisfied that we shall be satisfied and the sinner will be satisfied. I have never met a soul who has set out to satisfy the Lord and has not been satisfied himself. It is impossible. Our satisfaction comes unfailingly when we satisfy Him first.

But we have to remember this, that He will never be satisfied without our “wasting” ourselves upon Him. Have you ever given too much to the Lord? May I tell you something? One lesson some of us have come to learn is that in divine service the principle of waste is the principle of power. The principle which determines usefulness is the very principle of scattering.

Real usefulness in the hand of God is measured in terms of “waste.” The more you think you can do, and the more you employ your gifts up to the very limit (and some even go over the limit!) in order to do it, the more you find that you are applying the principle of the world and not of the
Lord. God’s ways with us are all designed to establish in us this other principle, namely, that our work for Him springs out of our ministering to Him. I do not mean that we are going to do nothing; but the first thing for us must be the Lord Himself, not His work.

But we must come down to very practical issues. You say, “I have given up a position; I have given up a ministry; I have foregone certain attractive possibilities of a bright future, in order to go on with the Lord in this way. Now I try to serve Him. Sometimes it seems that the Lord hears me, and sometimes He keeps me waiting for a definite answer. Sometimes He uses me, but sometimes it seems that He passes me by. Then, when this is so, I compare myself with that other fellow who is in a certain big system. He too had a bright future, but he has never given it up. He continues on and he serves the Lord. He sees souls saved and the Lord blesses his ministry. He is successful (I do not mean materially, but spiritually) and I sometimes think he looks more like a Christian than I do, so happy, so satisfied. After all, what do I get out of this? He had a good time; I have all the bad time. He has never gone this way, and yet he has much that Christians today regard as spiritual prosperity, while I have all sorts of complications coming to me. What is the meaning of it all? Am I wasting my life? Have I really given too much?”

So there is your problem. You feel that were you to follow in that other brother’s steps—were you, shall we say, to consecrate yourself enough for the blessing but not enough for the trouble; enough for the Lord to use you but not enough for Him to shut you up—all would be perfectly all right. But would it? You know quite well that it would not.

Take your eyes off that other man! Look at your Lord, and ask yourself again what it is that He values most highly. The principle of waste is the principle that He would have govern us. “She is doing this for me.” True satisfaction is brought to the heart of God when we are really, as people would think, “wasting” ourselves upon Him. It seems as though we are giving too much and getting nothing—and that is the secret of pleasing God.

Oh, friends, what are we seeking? Do we seek for “use” as those disciples did? They wanted to make every penny of those three hundred pence go to its full length. The whole question was one of obvious “usefulness” to God in terms that could be measured and put on record. The Lord waits to hear us say, “Lord, I do not mind about that. If I can only please Thee, it is enough.”

“Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor always with you, and whensoever ye will ye can do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could; she hath anointed my body beforehand for the burying” (Mark 14:6–8).

In these verses the Lord Jesus introduces a time factor with the word “beforehand”; and this is something of which we can have a new application today, for it is as important to us now as it was to her then. We all know that in the age to come we shall be called to a greater work—not to inactivity. “Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21; and compare Matt. 24:47 and Luke 19:17). Yes, there will be a greater
work; for the work of God’s house will go on, just as in the story the care of the poor went on. The poor would always be with them, but they could not always have Him.

There was something, represented by this pouring out of the ointment, which Mary had to do beforehand or she would have no later opportunity. I believe that in that day we shall all love Him as we have never done now, but yet that it will be more blessed for those who have poured out their all upon the Lord today. When we see Him face to face, I trust that we shall all break and pour out everything for Him. But today—what are we doing today?

Several days after Mary broke the alabaster box and poured the ointment on Jesus’ head, there were some women who went early in the morning to anoint the body of the Lord. Did they do it? Did they succeed in their purpose on that first day of the week? No, there was only one soul who succeeded in anointing the Lord, and it was Mary, who anointed Him beforehand. The others never did it, for He had risen. Now I suggest that, in just such a way, the manner of time may be supremely important to us also, and that for us the question above all questions is, What am I doing to the Lord today?

Have our eyes been opened to see the preciousness of the One whom we are serving? Have we come to see that nothing less than the dearest, the costliest, the most precious, is fit for Him? Have we recognized that working for the poor, working for the benefit of the world, working for the souls of men and for the eternal good of the sinner—all these so necessary and valuable things—are right only if they are in their place? In themselves, as things apart, they are as nothing compared with work that is done to the Lord.

The Lord has to open our eyes to His worth. If there is in the world some precious art treasure, and I pay the high price asked for it, be it one thousand, ten thousand, or even fifty thousand pounds, dare anyone say it is a waste? The idea of waste only comes into our Christianity when we underestimate the worth of our Lord. The whole question is, How precious is He to us now? If we do not think much of Him, then of course to give Him anything at all, however small, will seem to us a wicked waste. But when He is really precious to our souls, nothing will be too good, nothing too costly for Him. Everything we have, our dearest, our most priceless treasure, we shall pour out upon Him, and we shall not count it a shame to have done so.

Of Mary the Lord said, “She hath done what she could.” What does that mean? It means that she had given up her all. She had kept nothing in reserve for a future day. She had lavished on Him all she had; and yet on the resurrection morning she had no reason to regret her extravagance. And the Lord will not be satisfied with anything less from us than that we too should have done “what we could.”

By this, remember, I do not mean the expenditure of our effort and energy in trying to do something for Him, for that is not the point here. What the Lord Jesus looks for in us is a life laid at His feet, and that in view of His death and burial and of a future day. His burial was already in view that day in the home in Bethany. Today it is His crowning that is in view, when He shall be acclaimed in glory as the Anointed One, the Christ of God.

Yes, then we shall pour out our all upon Him! But it is a precious thing—indeed it is a far more precious thing to Him—that we should anoint Him now, not with any
material oil, but with something costly, something from our hearts.

That which is merely external and superficial has no place here. It has already been dealt with by the cross, and we have given our consent to God’s judgment upon it and learned to know in experience its cutting off. What God is demanding of us now is represented by that flask of alabaster—something mined from the depths, something turned and chased and wrought upon; something that, because it is so truly of the Lord, we cherish as Mary cherished that flask, and we would not, we dare not break it. It comes now from the heart, from the very depth of our being. We come to the Lord with that, and we break it and pour it out and say, “Lord, here it is. It is all Yours, because You are worthy!”—and the Lord has got what He desired. May He receive such an anointing from us today.

“And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment” (John 12:3). By the breaking of that flask and the anointing of the Lord Jesus, the house was pervaded with the sweetest fragrance. Everyone could smell it, and none could be unaware of it. What is the significance of this?

Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered—someone who has gone through experiences with the Lord that have brought limitation, and who, instead of trying to break free in order to be “used,” has been willing to be imprisoned by Him and has thus learned to find satisfaction in the Lord and nowhere else—then immediately you become aware of something. Immediately your spiritual senses detect a sweet savor of Christ. Something has been crushed, something
has been broken in that life, and so you smell the odor.