TRADING HIM FOR TRINKETS

(Post by: Michelle Hobbs)

As you would have read in last week’s post by Lilly, our family was at our annual Church Camp for the past several days. I have to say, it was a powerful week for me. The Lord reminded me of some basic truths that I have been distracted from, and challenged me regarding what I, personally, was going to do with that reminder.

Here is the thing, friends. If I am brutally honest with myself and with you, I can tend to rely too heavily on our family’s corporate faith and push for a group response to challenges rather than just focusing on what the Lord is asking of me specifically, regardless of what anyone else does.

Our faith and our devotion to Jesus must be ours alone. It must be between me and Him; you and Him. We cannot ride into Heaven on the coattails of our parents or grandparents. We cannot expect our spouse’s faith to carry us through. Jesus asks each and every one of us, “Who do you say I am?”

A beautiful picture of what our personal devotion to Jesus should look like is in Matthew 26:6–13 and in John 12:1-11. It is the story of Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha, pouring out her bottle of special perfume onto Jesus’ feet. If you have been around here long, you may remember that I have written about this story before. (LINK to Scent of a King and Aroma of Christ) 

Yes; I love this story, and you can imagine how excited I was to hear one of the camp evangelists speak about it! However, it turned out to be a challenging message. One that demands a response.

You see, Mary’s act of bowing down at Jesus’ feet and pouring out her perfume to bless Him, in full view of a house filled with men who would have scrutinized her doing anything aside from serving them food and drink, is a picture of the posture that I must maintain in relationship to Jesus.

It is the posture that I must maintain regardless of what anyone else around me is doing. The posture I must maintain regardless of criticism or judgement by man.

What does Mary’s posture, this beautiful act of anointing Jesus, tell us regarding our relationship to Christ? How should we then live, you might ask?

With absolute devotion to Jesus. Now, I am not talking about devotion to a church, to a routine of going to church, to a pastor, denomination, or ministry.

I’m talking about absolute devotion to Jesus.

Taking a closer look at this story, we should note that the perfume Mary used would have been expensive/costly, possibly a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation. The jar was likely sealed in such a way that it had to be broken open. There was no closing it back up to save the rest for later. It was meant for a single use; once open, all of it had to be poured out, used completely.

Sounds like a perfect illustration of what the Christian life should look like, doesn’t it? We must be broken open, poured out, and pass on that same desire to serve Jesus from generation to generation. Mary gave Jesus the very best she had and so must we.

It will be costly for us to live this way, but no gift laid at Jesus’ feet costs us too much. He will use it for His glory. Jesus recognizes that Mary did a beautiful thing to Him; an act of worship that is remembered to this very day (Matt. 26: 10 – 13).

However, we also see, in the same passage of Scripture, a stark contrast. Judas is vocal in his objection to Mary wasting this expensive perfume. He is rebuked by Jesus for his lack of understanding of the importance of what she had done. Judas clearly valued money over worshipping the Lord and later turns Jesus over to His enemies for thirty pieces of silver.

St. Ambrose, the historian, highlighted the irony that the devil pays “miserable silver” for something infinitely priceless. Judas sold his devotion to Jesus for mere trinkets.

It is easy for us to judge Judas, but don’t we do the same thing? Daily, we leave that posture of bowing at Jesus’ feet and bow to the world; to the enemy. We trade Bible reading for doom scrolling. We trade worship music for secular songs that do not glorify the Lord in any way. We trade time spent in prayer for watching TV shows and movies that we know we should not see. We trade time serving others for our own selfish pursuits. Trinkets compared to offering our lives to Christ completely.

And we wonder why we end up in despair.

Friends, we can clearly see the contrast between Mary and Judas. Humble vs. proud. Generous vs. greedy. Extravagant vs. stingy. Seized an opportunity to worship vs. squandered a blessing. Which posture will you choose?

The bottom line is this. No offering lavished on Jesus is too great. No offering received in exchange for Jesus is ever worth it.

Let’s stop trading Him for the trinkets of this world.