(15-20 min)
Scripture
John 12: 1-8
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
Such deceivers we are
In today’s Scripture verse, Judas presents great concern for the poor. This is not surprising for a Jewish person. In Deuteronomy 15 God emphatically says the poor should be cared for even if it means giving a loan that cannot be paid back. Judas is expressing a very Jewish concern when he rebukes Mary for not selling the perfume to raise money for the poor.
The concern is a deception. He doesn’t want the perfume wasted because the money raised from it would go into the reserves for the group and he could steal it. But he can’t say that. Instead, he gives a more virtuous explanation of defending the poor using them to hide his true motives.
I think we do this as well and the behavior is not constrained to religious issues. While working in academics I attended a meeting with other department heads. The topic was faculty evaluations and each of us described how we evaluated individual faculty members within our departments. The stated goal was to learn about successful (or unsuccessful) assessment strategies so that evaluations would improve across campus.
Presenters fell into two categories. Maybe a third of them described how they personally developed their evaluations. Great emphasis was given to the enlightened process used. The rest of the presenters omitted the developmental back story and focused on how their process worked. The first group were quite proud of their efforts while the second group seemed more reflective.
Why the difference? The enlightened presenters attempted to provide it. Intuitively knowing they were departing from the goal of the session, several offered justifications for including the developmental steps. When all the pretty words were through most had made the same argument. Their faculty evaluation strategy could only be understood and implemented if the listener knew how it was developed. This wasn’t remotely true. The evaluations used by the enlightened and unenlightened department chairs were all very understandable, many quite good, and none required developmental details to appreciate or implement.
Apparently the enlightened presenters wanted to describe their development process so badly they would deceive to do it. Why? I can take an educated guess because the behavior was very familiar. When I was practicing physical therapy, taking clinical education courses was necessary to stay sharp. I would frequently ask presenters questions with the preamble “I’m not sure I understand.” It took several years for me to see the preamble was a lie. I understood just fine. The purpose of my questions was to reveal how smart I was in discerning some worthless nuance that benefited no one. I suspect the enlightened presenters also wanted to demonstrate their intellect in addition to helping people improve their evaluation processes. Like me and Judas, they wanted to hide their true motivations behind something that sounds more appealing or virtuous.
No one is deceived
Notice in today’s Scripture verse that Jesus does not call Judas out on the deception. Christ does this sometimes boring into the very core of people (the woman at the well comes to mind), but not here. Maybe he ignores the deception because Judas’s words and timing betray his insincere heart for all to see.
The keeper of the money bag offers his moral admonition in a room where a once dead person sits brought back to life at the hand of the man being honored. The same honoree who previously in John’s gospel healed a person born blind, fed 5000 with a few fish and loaves of bread, healed an official’s son and a fellow by the pool, and turned water into wine. Then a woman of no great means pours the most expensive thing she owns on his feet, publicly unbinds her hair (not done in those days) and uses it to wash his feet as a servant would use a washcloth. In response to such a touching display of complete submission and love, Judas lectures the room and miracle worker about helping the poor. Something’s not right with this picture.
John gives us the explanation. Judas is deceiving to hide his greed. There was no need for Christ to identify the deception because the timing and tenor of the protest itself made the lie apparent. Like Judas, the enlightened department chairs and I deceived no one because people are very good at identifying contrivances particularly when those contrivances are hiding unspoken motivations. The deceptions just don’t ring true or fit the circumstances and people know it immediately. When I heard the enlightened department chairs offer their justifications, I did a cognitive eye roll. Likely the attendees at the continuing education courses expressed profanities for me under their breath each time I interrupted with: “I’m not sure I understand”. I suspect everyone in the room with Judas had a similar response.
Focus on Christ
Ignoring the deception Jesus treats the words of Judas as if they were genuinely motivated: “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
Christ first defends the one who is acting with a pure heart from the man who is acting with a disingenuous one. Then he points out what Judas has ignored. The son of God is with you. Mary seems to be aware, but Judas is blinded by his greed and unsuccessful attempt to deceive. Finally, he addresses Judas’s concern about the poor with a comment that strikes directly at the man’s corrupt motivation.
In Deuteronomy, God speaks these words to the Israeli people concerning the poor: “However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. (Deuteronomy 15:4-5)
Because the poor only disappear when everyone fully obeys the Lord, there will be poor always no matter how much we give. In one short sentence Christ illustrates that greed prevents Judas from seeing that a focus on Jesus would resolve the plight of the poor and Judas’s deceiving heart. Mary understood and worshiped the Messiah accordingly. Judas misses it because his focus was on satisfying his greed and hiding it.
The blinding nature of sin
Indeed, when our thoughts are driven by sinful motivation, we miss more than just our surroundings and failure to deceive. We also become blind to the motivation and deception itself, and this is the real core of the problem.
It would not surprise me if Judas offered his protest unaware of the greed motivating it. I know for certain I was unaware of my true motivation when asking questions during continuing education courses. Had I been challenged I would’ve vehemently argued that I was trying to acquire knowledge or that the presenter was incompetent making it hard for me to understand. I suspect the enlightened department chairs also had no idea the justifications for their back stories of development were deceptions. Likely, they truly believed their strategies couldn’t be understood unless you heard how they developed it. In short, the deceivers are deceiving themselves as well.
How can a blind person see?
Judas, the enlightened department chairs, and I were consumed with satisfying our sinful motivations to the point we accepted the lies we wove to hide them. What is deceit to others with clear minds is invisible to the deceiver.
If we cannot see our sin-driven deceptions, how can we possibly hope to end them? Alone, we can’t and are left to wander in a wilderness of deception constantly looking for something that cannot sustain. For Judas it was wealth, and he deceives to hide his longing for it. For me and the enlightened chairs it was the recognition/admiration of others, and we deceived to hide this motivation while satisfying the sin. Because none of these sin-driven desires once achieved genuinely quenches our thirst, we are condemned to seek them anew and weave new lies to hide the sin. And there we will stay in the wilderness forever thirsty.
Jesus is telling Judas it need not be this way. Focus on me says the Lord and your deception will not be necessary. Indeed Isaiah 43 provides prophecies about God’s work through the Messiah in this way: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. (Isaiah 43:18-21).
We can think of ourselves as the owls and jackals who roam the wilderness blindly looking for estuaries of clean water only to drink repetitively from the fouled pool of sin. But focus on Jesus rather than sin and receive streams of redemption in the wasteland of sinful motivations and water in the wilderness of deception. Truly sated, we will no longer look to sin for our fulfillment and there will be no need to use deception to hide the darkness within.
The ostensibly onerous remedy
Sounds good, but for most of us it is hard to see through the deceptions to find our corrupting motivations. If we believe our own lies, why would we even look at what motivates them? Jesus provides the remedy to Judas in his short defense of Mary. “Leave her alone.” Mary’s attention is on Jesus where it should be while yours, Judas, is on greed. Attention on Jesus provides a new motivation to look inside in gratitude for the forgiveness of sins. Indeed, God did a new thing. The Spirit then provides the vision to see sinful motivations and the lies we tell to hide them.
Like our physical vision, this sight doesn’t come fully developed. To establish normal physical vision a child must converge both eyes on what they wish to see. Suppose one of the eyes cannot attend. Maybe there is a muscle imbalance that causes one eye to wander while the other attends to the object of interest. If this persists, the wandering eye will not establish strong connections with the visual regions of the brain and ultimately be ignored. This, even though the eyeball is perfectly capable of seeing the world. From lack of appropriate use, the perfectly good information from the eyeball is ignored.
Jesus and the Spirit are a sixth sense also requiring use. The more we read from the Bible, the more penetrating our introspective gaze becomes. Most of the teachings of Jesus represent avenues of introspection we should take. The more we listen to the Holy Spirit, the more sensitive we are to corrupt motivations and the deceptions we weave to hide them. Like developing physical vision, this sixth sense will become increasingly sharp with use.
Alternatively, we can treat this sense like a wandering eyeball. Something with perfectly fine vision we choose to ignore. If this is our choice, the vision that could’ve helped Judas, that did help me, and could have help the enlightened chairs lies fallow. Ignore this sense and stay as blind as Judas, the enlightened chairs and me.
What a never-ending burden
Constantly perusing your motivations for sinful intent may seem burdensome but that too is a lie this time from the consummate deceiver. Use the sensibility but once, and it will be stronger the next time evoked.
For example, I mentioned it took years for me to realize my con-ed questions were deceitful covers for a sinful need. Over the course of those years, I became a Christian and started to read the teachings of Jesus. Everywhere in the Gospels, he emphasizes exploring your motivations. For example, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22).
Anger is the motivation for murder and Jesus directs us there. Passages like this started me on a Spirit-led journey of looking at my motivations. It was no burden to read these Scriptures. All it took was a little time. The Spirit eventually guided me to see my foolish con-ed questions were a deception. This too was no burden but a simple willingness to listen.
But the best part are the results. No longer did I sit in continuing education courses hunting for opportunities to look smart to others. No more did I have to blather out unconvincing lies to hide my sin. Now I could listen to people unencumbered by these wretched needs. Rather than a burden, this is a blessed relief.
Obviously, like you I have lots of sinful motivations. Who knows, maybe I write this blog to satisfy a kernel of the sin left in me from my continuing education course days. That’s okay because my focus on Jesus is no longer fallow. The ability to see sinful motivations is no longer unused like a wandering eye. Instead, like our physical vision, it grows stronger with each use. I’ll either see the remaining kernel or be forgiven if I miss it. There is no downside to believing in or focusing on Jesus instead of sin. As I quoted in a previous sermon, Jesus guarantees this:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Let’s all leave our Judas days behind as much as the fallen can. The process to do so is not a burden. On the contrary, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. Maybe at the end of each day we can ask ourselves: what did I do today that Jesus would not have done and why. By using this simple comparison to the perfect, it is entirely possible to see one sinful motivation at a time. With the Spirit’s help, it is within our grasp to recognize the deception we may use to hide this sin from the world and ourselves. Sin by sin, motivation by motivation, deception by deception we can slowly move closer to God by focusing on Jesus Christ. We will never be free of sin, but at least for me, the lightening of my load from just one success was worth every bit of the effort. If only Judas had listened. Will we?
As always, I hope my words were a help rather than hindrance and that the Lord will sustain you this and every day of your faith journey.
Dave
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