TOUCHED BY OTHERS AND THE PASSING OF TIME
Mark 14:1-11
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Today is certainly a special time as we assemble to remember the lives and contributions of members of this community who over the years have gone to be with the Lord.
2.) Today, I want us to see a good friend of Jesus. The woman we will look at has been remembered for over 2,000 years, just as Jesus had prophesied she would be.
3.) I want us to see from Mary three lessons on life and the influence we can have in the lives of other people.
I. MANY PEOPLE COME INTO OUR LIVES.
1.) We will meet some people who will continue to pass by.
A.) It is possible that we might not even get their names before they are gone.
B.) Daily, we will meet people whom have not in any impacted our lives, nor have we made an impact on their lives.
C.) In fact, if we were to meet them again, we may not even remember meeting them the first time.
D.) some of those people are truly wonderful people who would have been a great blessing in our lives if we had got to know them.
da.) But for whatever the reason there may not even have been that opportunity.
db.) And so some have come in and passed out of our lives, without being noticed.
2,) We will meet some people who will linger in our lives for a time.
A.) There are those who make an impact on our lives for a time, but then are gone.
aa.) We have all had friends from school, or college, neighbours from other communities or even former co-workers.
ab.) some of these were people who for a time were very important and special to us.
aba.) Some of these folks were so much a part of our lives that we imagined they would always have that special place in our lives.
ac.) Yet for whatever the reason they are no longer part of our lives; many of them we may have even lost track of and do not even have a way of contacting them now.
B.) Even Jesus had those who for a time had come into fellowship with Him, and then were gone.
ba.) Up to the time of the feeding of the 5,000 many stayed with Jesus and fellowshipped with him.
bb.) But the day after this great miracle, Jesus revealed who he was and what his purpose and mission was on this earth.
bba.)From that point on many were no longer in fellowship with Him.
bbb.) John 6:35, 41, 60, 66
3.) We will meet some people who will remain part of us for a lifetime.
A.) Those who make a lifetime impact on us are very few.
aa.) Maybe only a handful of people will fit into this category.
B.) Those special few will remain close to us as long as we have life on this earth.
ba.) Those special few are cherished in life.
bb.) Those special few are cherished in memory after they have passed on.
bc.) Today we are here to remember some of those people who have made such an impact on our hearts and lives, even though they may have themselves died several decades ago.
II. ONLY A FEW ACTUALLY INVEST IN OUR LIVES.
1.) In this account of Mary anointing Jesus, she had invested in the life of Jesus.
A.) John 12:3 tells us that this Mary was the sister of Martha and Lazarus.
B.) They had often opened their home to Jesus.
C.) Jesus would stay with them while in Bethany.
ca.) From what we see in Scripture it would seem that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were very good friends of Jesus.
cb.) they were the kind that made a permanent relationship.
2.) Mary had invested time, interest, friendship, fellowship, and partnership in ministry with Jesus.
A.) In this account today, as Jesus is coming near the cross, Mary invested financially and extravagantly in Jesus.
B.) Mark 14:3-5
ba.) She spent an entire year’s wages on this gift.
3.) To invest in a person requires an interest.
A.) There is a cost to investing in another person.
aa.) There is a cost of time.
ab.) There is a cost of interest.
ac.) There is a cost of involvement.
ad.) There is the cost of giving of ourselves.
B.) There is sacrifice involved in investing into another person.
C.) Even with all these thing considered it is rewarding to invest in another person.
ca.) Often that reward is not tangible.
caa.) It is usually no one thing to make you see how special a person is.
cab.) Most of you could likely not sum up the specialness of who you are honouring today in one brief sentence.
cb.) Many times the reward is the same one you have today as you remember many people from this community.
cba.) The reward is simply that you have shared in their lives, and they have shared in yours.
III. THE INVESTMENT BY THE FEW MEANS NOTHING TO THE MANY.
Like Mary of old, what she had done for Jesus meant very little to most of those people. But to Jesus, it meant much.
1.) The many had not really known the person.
A.) Those being remembered here today are likely not names that will live on in the history books.
aa.) Because of this, these individuals and their contributions will not be remembered by the many.
B.) The reality, is that after we are gone most of us will only be remembered by the few.
C.) Most of us can really only impact a few lives in a powerful and lasting way.
ca.) The names of many from this community who have passed away over the last several decades mean very little or even nothing to most people.
cb.) But to the few who have been impacted by each of these people, these names and people mean more than mere words could ever tell.
2.) The many had shared less with these few.
A.) Those who have shared little, remember little.
B.) those who have shared greatly, remember them with fondness.
ba.)That is why you have come here today.
bb.) Those you are honouring today may be forgotten by most people, even in this community.
bba.) But to you, these individuals still live in your hearts because they invested in your lives.
3.) The many have not come to love and appreciate the few who have personally touched you and your life.
A.) It is only a few who really touch most of us.
aa.) We continue to remember those few.
ab.) Mark 14:9
ac.) This woman made an impact on Jesus.
aca.) What she has done has been remembered.
acb.) In the first century, it is likely that Simon who had hosted this party was considered of greater importance than Mary.
acc.) Yet today over 2,000 years later we remember Mary and of her love and devotion for Jesus, but yet we know nothing of Simon the Leper.
B.) Likewise, it is those who have shared so much and so powerfully in your lives that you have come to remember here today.
ba.) You are not necessarily remembering great poets, statesmen, or individuals who may have changed the world by their influence, but rather people who have changed and influenced the lives of perhaps only a handful of lives.
bb.) But today, you are part of that small handful of people touched by these people.
CONCLUSION:
1.) As we leave here today we have seen three lessons about those who come into our lives:
A.) Many people come into our lives.
B.) Only a few invest in our lives.
C.) The investment in our lives by the few means nothing to the many, but all to us.
2.) As we leave here today we leave with rejoicing as we have reflected on how we have been blessed, challenged, and molded, by the few who have touched our lives.
A.) Let us leave here with the greatness we have acquired from the former generations.
B.) May we leave here today determined to invest the greatness from the past into the present and future generations of this community.
