Hand in the Coconut

Mark 14:1-11 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.” While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume?  It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Pastor JJ, continuing in his Sunday Sermon series through the book of Mark focused on the parallel of this passage in the fourteenth chapter and the two different Followers of Jesus today. There are those who believe that there was nothing so precious to them that they cannot lay it at Jesus’ feet. They actively anoint their king with the perfume of “Worship”. Then there are those who see that perfume as a means to personal gain. Those who are not will to let go of the “goods” of this world. He told the story of how native tribes used to catch monkeys by hollowing out a coconut and filling it with rice or other delicacies, then leaving it tethered to a tree for a monkey to find. A monkey would reach in and grab the desired delicacy and be trapped because the hole had been deliberately made just big enough for a flexible hand to enter but not for a closed fist to leave. Clearly it was not the coconut that was trapping the monkey. Rather the true trap was in the monkey’s own mind, the monkey’s greed, the monkey’s attachment to his physical possessions, and the monkey’s unwillingness to “Let Go.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

But do not be caught up in “doing good’, because there is something greater. As a word points to the subject of the word (as the word “Jesus” point to the person of Jesus Christ), works point to the “gift of God”, for which the “good works" are performed. We do not do “good works” to earn salvation, but because God (by His grace, through our faith in the Savior) gave us salvation as a free gift. So in gratitude, we worship God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Our goodness cannot replace our worship of the Lord. Do not let the opportunities pass for praise, worship and a life of gratitude in thought, word and action. We need to stop and examine our lives, that we do not allow a negative spirit to dwell in our hearts and master us with a “what’s in it for me?” attitude; it’s not about “feeling better about ourselves.” Are we willing to give what is most precious to us to the gospel of Jesus Christ for the advancement of the kingdom of God? Have we stopped and thought of how much God has done for us? Do we have our hand in the coconuts of this world and too busy holding onto the things of this life; allowing them to capture us … trapped and keeping us in bondage, because we won’t let go of them?

In gratitude, will we worship and honor the Lord and lay the distractions of this world at His feet, while showing grace to others as we have been shown grace by God? Or continue to live distracted and hardened, greedily focused of the proverbial “rice” in the coconut that we will not let go of. Let Go. Let God. Live.

In Christ, Brian