Shane Kirkword - Class 1: She Has Done What She Could

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   This is day one of the 2010 Idaho Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Shane Kirkwood. His general subject is, Our Lord's Last Week. Today's topic is, She Has Done What She Could. Brother Shane. Thanks, Brother Jeff. Good morning, everyone. I hope we're all feeling nice and refreshed after a night's sleep.

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   Well, this subject is a wonderful subject. It's a subject I'm overawed by. It's a difficult subject to talk about. And I hope you'll bear with me as we go through this subject. But it is a subject we need to talk about. Because it directly impinges on our own discipleship. There's a vast amount of the Gospels which speak about the Lord's last week.

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   So, this week, obviously, I'm not going to be able to deal with all of it. In fact, I'm hardly going to deal with any of it. It would take much more than six 40-minute sessions to deal with everything that happened in the Lord's last week. So, I've picked out just a few incidents and tried to bring them together for us to get a feeling for the Lord's last week.

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   Or our Lord's last week, as I asked them to title it. A little bit of background before we get into the actual last week itself. In Luke 9, it says in verse 51 that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Now, that was about five or six months before the Lord actually arrived in Jerusalem.

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   But he had to determine to take that path which would eventually find him in Jerusalem to fulfil what he must do in laying down his life. So, he set his face to go toward Jerusalem. And there was an intense period of five or six months preaching that he undertook as he made his way to that city.

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   And then in Mark chapter 10, verses 32 and 34, it gives us a bit more of the background. And it says, And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed. And those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him.

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   Saying, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. And they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him. And after three days, he will arise.

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   But you know, they never understood that. He went right over the top. He was very, very clear about what had to happen to him. But they had no comprehension of it. And in Luke, in Luke chapter 18, it says,

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   And they understood none of these things. And this saying was hid from them. Neither knew they the things which were spoken. And that's a really important scripture to keep in our head as we look at our Lord's last week. Because if we don't remember those verses, we're likely to judge the disciples much more critically than we ought to.

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    To give a little bit of context for ourselves here this week, I want you to imagine we've all come here from different places, from around the world, and we're joining together for a wonderful week of fellowship. Just as they travelled up to Jerusalem from the Passover, from different places of the Roman Empire.

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    So in their mind, all these people are thinking, it's going to be a great time of fellowship at the Passover. There were literally millions of people who went to Jerusalem at Passover. So we've come here to Weidelwald.

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    Imagine, if as the week unfolded, something started to go dramatically wrong. The person who we'd put most of our trust in, who had been able to deliver us from every difficult circumstance we'd encountered in the last three and a half years, as the week unfolded, was arrested. So the authorities come in here to our camp, as we're enjoying fellowship, and they arrest one of the people at the Bible school.

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    How would that change your perspective on this week? I think it would change our perspective dramatically. It would be all we could talk about. Not only were they arrested, but as the week unfolded, they were tried, they were tortured, and eventually, somewhere up on that hill, they were taken, stripped naked, and crucified in public.

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    How would you feel? Would that change your perspective on this week? Wouldn't you be absolutely devastated at that? You see, we've come here with no expectation of that happening, have we? Nobody said to us, as we're going to Isla, by the way, do you know what's going to happen by the end of the week?

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    Someone is going to be taken and crucified at your camp. I do that by way of us trying to get some context for the events that unfolded in this last week. If we could put ourselves in that situation, we can then begin to understand the impact that these events had on the Lord and His disciples.

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    Perhaps another way of viewing it is to think of this week as being the beginning of the last week of your life. That by the end of this week, you're going to be dead. How would that? Impact the way you're thinking.

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    So we can see it from two perspectives. From the disciples' perspective, if someone was taken and crucified at our camp, and from the Lord's perspective, if we begun to believe and to know that at the end of this week, our life would be over.

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    And so Jesus began that trip that would eventually take Him to the city of Jerusalem for His crucifixion. He is walking into the enemy's camp.

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    He'd been selected ahead by the authorities as the Passover lamb. He was the one they wanted to slay more than any Passover lamb. And so Jesus walked, and as He walked, the disciples were afraid.

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    You know, sometimes when we look at the disciples and we think, why didn't they understand, we really only need to think about ourselves in relation to the Lord's return because so many things are going on around us and yet at times we're not even aware. the events unfold and it's almost like we have a mental block about the Lord's return and it will happen.

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    Just as shortly as His crucifixion was going to happen, the Lord's return will happen. And He's warned us time and time again and He said, watch, be ready, be alert, and yet somehow or other, if you're like me, it just goes over the top, doesn't it? So again, we can make a connection with the disciples and how they were thinking.

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    So, the Lord continues this journey and He tells them a parable just before the beginning of the last week and in Luke chapter 19 He enters Jericho and we have the story of Zacchaeus but down after the incident with Zacchaeus we find in verse 11 it says, and as they heard these things He added and spoke a parable because He was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

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    So that's another verse to keep in your mind as we go through our Lord's last week. They didn't understand about His arrest and His torture and His crucifixion but more than that it wasn't just that they didn't understand it was they actually believed that the kingdom of God was about to dawn. If you bring those things together and you can see why they had such a difficulty when the Lord was taken and finally killed.

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    over in John as we get a little bit closer to eventually the Lord's last week and in John chapter 11 a little bit more information by way of background verse 55 it says and the Jews Passover was nigh at hand and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves then sought they for Jesus and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple what think you that He will not come to the feast?

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    Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were he should show it that they might take Him. So again we add a little bit more information to the background there was a debate going on as they went out of all the surrounding districts and they travelled up to Jerusalem for the Passover the debate raged because of course you remember that the Lord had risked His own life to raise Lazarus from the dead and you throw that into the mix of all these events and you can understand why there was so much anticipation will He come to the feast?

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    Jesus of Nazareth did raise the man from the dead is it too risky? Do you think He'll stay away? And behind it all underneath all these layers were the chief priests and the Pharisees and they sent out a message that filtrated through the community and they said listen if anybody knows it's a commandment from the top we would say if anybody knows where He is you give us the information we want to take Him now of course there were people who were willing to be bought the information could be paid for you throw that into the mix of all the other verses we've just briefly looked at so Jesus eventually comes toward the city of Jerusalem knowing of all these things the disciples complete unawareness of what's about to happen their belief that He's about to establish the kingdom the scribes and the Pharisees putting out the information about someone coming and showing where Jesus was He comes it says in John chapter 12 at last six days before the Passover He came to Bethany Bethany is that little town about two miles from Jerusalem where the Lord had been before and where there was a loving family there was an environment where the Lord could feel among friends and I want you for a moment to think about Bethany in contrast to Jerusalem if I was the Lord I would have just wanted to stay in Bethany two miles out of town because there was fellowship there was friendship there was understanding there was comfort there was all of those things that he was never going to get in Jerusalem down there in the city

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    of Jerusalem was hatred was malice was anger and was eventually torture and crucifixion would you choose to go into that valley that's why he had to set his face the Lord was no cardboard cut out it was like us and at times in our lives we have something difficult that we have to do what are we going to do the example of Jesus is we have to set our face to do it and so he comes to Bethany where Lazarus was which had been dead whom he raised from the dead and we're told that it was the house of Simon the leper both Mark tells us that and also Matthew it's the house of Simon the leper now we don't know whether Simon had been cured by the Lord and we suspect he may have been because there was no other way that you could get rid of leprosy this is also an interesting fact emerges that Judas is called Simon's son this may also have been the house of Martha and Mary so it could have been the whole family or it may have been that Martha and Mary's house was another house and this was a separate house which could accommodate the Lord nevertheless all of these people were there Bethany means the house of the afflicted Lazarus means God is helper and as he comes there it says they made him a supper and Martha served not another occasion in the gospel of Luke in chapter 10 verse 41 you may remember the occasion when Martha served and she wanted that Mary should serve also and she spoke to Jesus about it

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    and Jesus on that occasion said to Martha Martha Martha served you are careful and troubled about many things and we can relate to that can't we we are so often careful and troubled about many things in our busy 21st century lives but on this occasion Martha was happy to serve and that's a very important function in our ecclesias you know this whole thing wouldn't happen without people serving in all the various capacities and you can only imagine what Martha and Mary felt for the Lord because he had raised their brother from the dead you know their hearts were overflowing for what Jesus had done for them and Lazarus was there as one of them and he sat at the table with Jesus now this is just a remarkable thing imagine sitting in a meal where someone had actually been raised from the dead there's a sense of unreality about that that you could actually be sitting opposite him sharing a meal with someone who you'd actually seen had been dead and been dead for four days so it's quite a remarkable supper that's going on here but at that meal also was Mary and Mary had a problem Mary understood that the Lord was going to die alone among those people she understood how do you say goodbye to somebody you know is going to die not just going to die but die in the most awful way how do you say goodbye to somebody you know that's going to happen to how did Mary know that the Lord was going to die because in Luke 10 verse 39 it says that she sat at

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    the feet of Jesus and heard his word Mary loved Jesus when you love someone you listen and that's what she did so over the course of time as she sat and listened to the Lord and conversed with the Lord she had gleaned that the Lord was going to die that's a great example for all of us how often do you sit at the feet of the Lord and listen how often in our busy lives do we actually sit down and just let the word penetrate our heart so that he speaks to us so that we understand what he means to us now what was Mary going to do you see this room was full of testosterone right this was a difficult situation we're fortunate here we've got a mix of male female this afternoon and the coffee clutch it's not going to be all testosterone right does a woman want to volunteer and come into the coffee clutch this afternoon and do something that is beautiful but not something male that's a risk so she's seeing this and she's thinking how do I express my love but she must do something love must triumph and that is the lesson of our Lord's last week love in the end despite all the torture and the pain and the suffering love was triumphant and that's the story of his life so she's going to take a risk here and love hurts you ever been hurt by showing love I'm sure all of us have she's going to take a big risk because she sees the Lord the way he eventually would be bleeding dying for her and for

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    all others so she moves forward and it says she took a pound of ointment of spike mart so a large amount of spike mart in quantity a pound but not just in weight in cost John says it was very costly spike mart is interesting the word spike actually comes from the word faith the Greek word for faith is pistis the word for spike is pistic it's derived from the word for faith so what we're looking at here is faith ointment this is going to be a faith anointment of her Lord so she takes this alabaster box we're told something contained something very very precious in today's market worth about thirty thousand dollars if you can fathom that she took that and it says there came a woman in mark having an alabaster box of ointment of spike card very precious and she broke the box it's symbolic of Mary and the way she felt you see she wanted to display her love so what she does is she breaks open the box which is really in a way a symbol of herself of her feeling of her emotion of her inner most being she is so focused on this man that when she breaks open the box it's like she's pouring herself upon the Lord she breaks open the box in front of this room full of men and Mark says she poured it on his head so it just ran down through his hair through his beard down his garments down his body John says that she anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair you know that's where we

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    get the expression today of to let one's hair down you know when someone says I'm going to let my hair down it means they're going to be extravagant in what they do this was an extravagant thing to do it was lavish particularly in the context of that room Song of Solomon 1 verse 12 says while the king was on his couch my nard gave forth its fragrance and that's how she felt this was her king you think of psalm 133 the anointing of the high priest that runs down through his hair through his beard and down to the skirts of his garment and all that imagery comes through in what Mary is doing here she reached out and she touched her Lord and with her glory with her hair she wipes his feet and a beautiful odour filled the house what an amazing thing to do Mary opening her heart just imagine if she never done that have you ever wanted to give someone something someone really special to you and you just couldn't work out when to do it you had an opportunity and you weren't sure of the risk of exposing yourself and so you didn't do it how do you feel could you imagine if Mary hadn't taken this risk if she just sat there and debated with herself and said I can't do it in this room now it's not the time there's too many men it's too risky it all could go wrong I'll wait another opportunity and it never came and she was left with a box that she never opened and emotions that just were inside herself that she

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    wouldn't be able to deal with it's a great lesson about love about taking risks about seizing an opportunity to express ourselves even at the risk of condemnation but to some in the room it was a waste and you could scarcely believe they'd say that but sometimes we're no different it says then saith one of his disciples Judas Iscariot Simon's son which should betray him why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor this he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the bag and bare what was put there in I just want you to imagine for a moment this scene she goes out openly publicly and exposes herself because of her love and while she's opening out while that alabaster box is broken and the perfume fills the house while she's opening out he's closing down he's a complete contrast to her he's inward she's outward he's a thief she's a giver $30,000 worth of ointment he's got the bag he's closing it she's opening and across the room from one another sometimes people do things we don't understand in the service of the Lord either try not to be a Judas fight against that spirit of condemnation the other disciples joined in there was a chorus of criticism they said the same how would Jesus respond now just for a moment try and take the Lord's position six days out from your death you would just be so over it so completely over these disciples don't you understand by the end of the week I'll be dead can you not

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    for a moment enter into this woman's feelings I've had enough but he didn't do that the patience of the Lord is remarkable he doesn't say that in fact all he does is the only recorded condemnation of Judas we have in scripture Jesus says let her alone just leave her alone against the day of my burying she has done this because they said look this could have been sold for 300 pence and given to the poor he said you have the poor with you always but me you won't have always there's another indication that he's going to die but they weren't listening she has done what she could she has come a forehand to anoint my body to the burying oh that's a wonderful verse do you know one of the reasons why spikenard was so costly because it had the most lingering fragrance particularly in a hot climate like the Middle East some perfumes don't last this one does you think for a moment about this she had chosen so carefully some people put a lot of thought into gifts don't they I never seem to be able to think of what to give and it always seems to be inappropriate this is a woman's intuition brethren take note of this this is a woman's intuition there are some things women do that we just really can't come anywhere near so what was she thinking when she broke open the box I'll tell you what she was thinking she was thinking they're going to take him they're going to torture him and by the end of the week he's going to be on a cross

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    what can I give that will last think about that something that will last so often we want to give a gift that will last think about what the Lord went through and then think of this they could never take away her gift why because it became part of him when it runs through your hair and down through your beard it mingles in with you so when they took him and they beat him and they spat on him and they grabbed part of his beard and they tried to pull it out and they stuck a crown of thorns on his head around that man was the lingering fragrance of Mary's gift and when they took him to the site to be crucified and they stripped him naked and they nailed him to a cross there was Mary they couldn't take away what she'd given they couldn't undo her expression of love it would stay he said she's done it for my burial she understands she's entered in more than that he said she has done what she could she couldn't stop the process it had to go through she's done what she could you know the Lord could have said oh Mary don't worry don't spend thirty thousand dollars on that precious spike nard I'll be raised in three days what a powerful lesson it is that he didn't say that why love love changes our priorities it changes our perspectives you see sometimes we give something and at the time we think I've overdone it but over the course of time the gift itself becomes far more meaningful and that's what the Lord is going to

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    say about Mary he says do you know this wherever this gospel will be preached throughout the whole world this also that she's done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her this gift isn't just for now yes it will last through his hours of torture and pain and eventually on the cross he'll still smell the scent of Mary's devotion but that gift is more than that it's a gift to teach us something it teaches us about love about taking opportunity about doing what we can so often people say oh there's nothing I can do I don't have a gift I don't have a talent that is not true it's not true at all it never been true it's about us seizing the opportunity and looking for the opportunity day by day what can we choose to do we can choose to be like Mary and not like Judas we can choose to love love is a choice it's a difficult choice our community has not always been famous for love I think that's an understatement isn't it but love is a choice we can either close down or we can open up that's what happened in that room and yes it's a risk love is a risk it's always a risk and you will get hurt do you know one of the remarkable things about the Lord he loves like a man that's never been hurt I find that amazing I've exposed myself at times to the risk of loving someone and it's come back and it's rebounded and it's hurt me and when that happens how do we feel we feel like well that's

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    it I'm not going to go there again I'm not going to risk that I feel hurt I feel humiliated I can't deal with it so we can close down Jesus didn't do that the hallmark of his character is that he got over that he overrode even in his most remarkable circumstance so it is a risk God chose to love that's what the gospels tell us he chose to love at the risk of being hurt at the risk of being rejected and he is rejected by people all around the world did he close down to that no he didn't he's still choosing to love now by calling people even though the majority of people walk away the father chooses to love just as the son chose to love and it costs there's always a cost with loving along with the risk comes the cost but love will always triumph over the opposition eventually even though it took the whole week to unfold before the love was seen to triumph over the hatred and the wickedness and so in that room six days before the Passover the thoughts and intents of many hearts were revealed the lack of understanding of the disciples the incredible devotion of Mary the negativity and the criticism of Judas in all that the Lord remained committed to what he had to do he still continued with the disciples even though for most of us that would have blown the whole thing away the fragrance of Mary's love lingers now when it says it filled the house you think about how it lingers is to this very day here now at Iowa as the

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    fragrance of that and the emotion of that is captured in our minds as we sit here 2,000 years later thinking about her talking about her as the Lord said we would wherever the gospel is preached he said this will be told in memory of her so we need now to identify with all of these characters as we begin to see the way they are going to interplay with each other we begin to see their motives come to the fore we begin to understand these men that he'd chosen who struggled against their own humanity and their own lack of faith and at times we were thinking they could be so brave and yet they weren't and being critical when they ought not and then there's Judas to one side because you know Judas now had been set in motion there had been in him this criticism because when a person speaks like that it comes from the heart and he was a thief and we can't colour that in any other language because scripture doesn't so what of Judas he's made a wreck of Mary's devotion question but when the Lord rebuked him as mild as that rebuke was it was the one thing to tip him over the edge to make him determined to betray his Lord because we're told and Judas Iscariot one of the twelve went under the chief priests to betray him just think of Judas he leaves that little house in Bethany that place of comfort for the Lord he's ruined a wonderful meal and now he's going to ruin his own life because he's closed down completely to the son of

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    God he's shut off he's thinking about himself and so he takes a lonely walk oh Judas a lonely walk he didn't see it as a lonely walk to start with but he chose a path that would lead to his death and so he goes to the chief priests and he says I'm the man you're looking for I've got the information and when they heard it they were glad and promised to give him money I think they'd done some homework on Judas hadn't they they'd been sussing out the disciples I don't know if you use that term over here sussing people out they'd been sussing out the disciples they'd found the weak link in the chain they'd exploited a man they knew had a love of money and it says and he sought how he might conveniently betray him so from that time forward in that group was one man who was always looking for the opportunity to betray the son of God in the absence of a multitude so that they might take him and put him to death without a public uproar and for us now what of our service to the Lord think about what you've done in the last week have you done what you could for the Lord you know this week when we talk about his life we do so in his presence not physically but we know he's here he's among his people he knows our motives he knows our heart he knows our service have you done what you could when he comes back what's he going to say to us when he questions us about our discipleship

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    when he wants to know the reasons why we did and we didn't do things what do we say the great lesson out of this wonderful incident is to be like Mary to say to the Lord Lord I'm sorry so often I was like the disciples that didn't understand and I was afraid of being hurt and I was afraid of opening up and there were too many risks well that's like the man who hid the talent in the ground isn't it he was afraid of his master he's not a man to be afraid of he's a man to love Mary understood that now let's be like her so that when he comes back we might hear from him the same that he said of Mary I watched you work in my service I knew your motives come into my kingdom you did what you could