The Gratitude/Resentment Test Series

Do you know the difference between gratitude and gratefulness? Gratitude is something inside of your heart. Gratefulness is something you do. Or thankfulness is something you do. When you have gratefulness or you have thankfulness, those are really exercises that build gratitude inside of hearts. We all need gratitude because gratitude is one of those things that God has designed to keep us centered in our lives. We start to get off track and gratitude is one of those tools that God has given us to get us back to where we need to be many times in certain areas of our lives.

Today we're going to see a contrast between two people, Mary (her gift of gratitude) and Judas Iscariot (his resentment). It’s an interesting contrast that we'll see in the passage as we look at it today.

I'm concerned in my own life that I have a little bit of Judas, as I think maybe many of us do, that I need to deal with. I'm sure that the lessons I learn from Mary can help me address that in my own life today. So this is a very practical passage of scripture. As we enter into the story and we find ourselves looking at the picture of what's happening here, I think God's going to provide some deeper insight into our spiritual lives that isn't just for Thanksgiving week, but it's for the rest of our lives.

So I want to ask you to stand with me, if you would, please. I'm going to read this passage of scripture from John 12:1-11. Feel free to open your own Bibles and follow along. Or you can listen as I read this in John 12.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

Isn’t that interesting? They were coming to see Lazarus. I think I’d want to see Lazarus too. Here's a guy who was raised from the dead. I googled that this week, “dead and come back to life.” There's a lot of people who've been dead and come back to life. The longest person was dead for 17 hours and then came back to life. We like those stories. YouTube has videos of people telling their story about coming back to life. So I can imagine this preoccupation we have about death draws us to a story like this one with Lazarus that has some questions.

I think that they want to ask him questions like, “What was the last thought you had before you died? What was it like when you first kind of came to consciousness and you heard Jesus calling you out of the tomb? What was your first thoughts at that point? What was it like between those two times? Did you experience anything in the midst of that?” I think we have a preoccupation with that. It's interesting to us. So we're intrigued. We’re intrigued by that whole idea.

It reminds me of the leader of young people who had the young people around, and he wanted to impress on them the importance of life itself. So he asked the question, “I want you to think about your funeral for a moment. And I want you to think about what would you wish someone would say at your funeral?” That's a good question for us to think about. The young people pondered that for a moment. One young man said, “I know what I wish people would say at my funeral. ‘Look! He's moving!’” Oh yes.