NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
› Engagement
When I was taking seminary classes at Golden Gate Seminary, I was fortunate enough to get to know one of their adjunct professors, Dane Miller, and to take several of his classes. Dane was one of the most brilliant people I have ever known. He was proficient in both Hebrew and Greek and had a Doctorate in the History and Culture of Ancient Israel from the University of Arizona.
But Dane was one of the most humble and unassuming people I’ve ever known and I am happy to say that he was a friend as well as a mentor. The only time that I and the other people who know him ever called him “Dr. Miller” was in jest. To all of us, he was just Dane.
In spite of his credentials, Dane pastored Serenity Baptist Church in Three Points, Arizona for over 30 years. If you don’t know where Three Points is located, you’re probably not alone. And if you do, you’re probably wondering why such an intelligent and gifted servant of God would stay at a relatively small church in that community for so long. During his tenure there, a lot of other people also wondered that. He was often asked why he was “wasting his talents” in a small church in that community.
Those reactions remind me that even within the church, we don’t seem to have a problem with a moderate, measured devotion to Jesus. But when someone is totally sold out to serving Jesus in a small troubled remote community, whether that is Three Points, Arizona or a remote jungle village somewhere, there will always be those who consider that to be a “wasted life”.
› Tension
The prayer that we’re going to look at this morning as part of our Dangerous Prayers sermon series is undoubtedly the hardest of the three prayers to pray for most of us. It’s certainly not easy to pray “Search me”, like we talked about last week. There are a lot of us who find that prayer difficult because we know that once God reveals those blind spots and hidden sins in our lives, we’re going to be responsible for doing something about them. And a lot of Christians just aren’t willing to go that far.
And next week, we’ll look at another dangerous prayer - Send me. That is also a difficult prayer that many of us aren’t willing to pray. But the prayer that we’re going to focus on today - Break me - is one that I think very few Christians are willing to pray. That is because praying that prayer means I’m willing to be totally sold out to serving Jesus regardless of the cost. And frankly, there aren’t many Christians who are willing to go that far. But, just like we’ve seen with the other dangerous prayers, if you’re willing to pray this prayer, it will undoubtedly draw you closer to God and radically transform your walk with Jesus.
› Truth
Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 14. We’re going to be looking at two different accounts in this chapter that probably appear to be unrelated at first. But I hope I’ll be able to explain why there is an important connection between the two. Let’s begin in verse 3. You can follow along as I read:
Mark 14:3–9 ESV
3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.
4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that?
5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her.
6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.
8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
This same event is also recorded in Matthew and John’s gospel accounts. Matthew’s account is very similar, but John gives us some more detail that we don’t have here. He identifies the woman as Mary, Martha’s sister. He also tells us this event takes place six days before the Passover on which Jesus would be crucified.
Unfortunately, some have tried to tie this to a similar event that is recorded in Luke chapter 7 and have therefore claimed that this woman is a prostitute. But there are enough significant differences in the timing and the details of the event recorded in Luke 7 to make it clear that is not the same one recorded here. That event occurred in Galilee at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. This one takes place in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper. Simon was a very common name in that culture, so the fact that both events happened in the home of someone with that same name does not mean they have to be the same event.
The Simon in this account in Mark is very likely a former leper who has been healed by Jesus or otherwise he wouldn’t have been holding a dinner party. No one would go to the house of someone who was still suffering from leprosy for fear of contracting it themselves.
On His way to Jerusalem, where He would be crucified only a few days later, Jesus traveled through Bethany, in order to see His friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary. That was the same town where Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead just a short time before this. Those attending the dinner would have included Simon, possibly Mrs. Simon and all the little Simons, the twelve apostles, and Mary, Martha and Lazarus -so maybe up to 25 people in all.
As they are reclining at the table, enjoying a leisurely meal, Mary gets up, takes an alabaster jar full of pure nard, breaks the flask and pours it on Jesus. We have no idea how Mary had come to be in possession of this costly perfume, but we do have some idea of just how valuable it was. At least one of the disciples remarked that it could have been sold for 300 denarii. Since a denarius was roughly equal to one day’s wages, that means this nard was worth roughly an entire year’s wages. To put that into perspective, for most of us that probably be the equivalent of a really nice car, or more likely even a couple of cars.
Nard was a rare aromatic oil that was produced from a plant grown in the Himalayan Mountains. It was typically stored in a flask made of alabaster, a hard stone that resembles white granite. The flask had a long neck which was sealed with wax to protect the contents. Normally the seal was opened to just allow a drop or two to be used since the contents were so valuable.
Perhaps Mary had stored this up over time as a means to provide for her and her family since in those days there were no savings accounts or IRA’s or 401(k)’s.
But Mary doesn’t just break the seal and pour out a few drops of her valuable nard. Instead she takes two important actions that Jesus is going to repeat as an object lesson just a short time later. Let’s go back and take a look at the end of verse 3 again:
…and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.
Can you help me identify the two things that Mary did with the flask?
That’s right. The first thing she did was to break the flask. She very likely broke the long narrow neck of the flask.
And then the second thing she did was to pour it out. This, as we will discuss more in a moment, is a radical, costly act of worship.
Mary’s flask is broken and poured out
Although we’re going to need to look at one other passage before we will be able to develop this fully, we begin to see the essence of the dangerous prayer we’re talking about today:
When I pray “break me” I am committing to serve Jesus regardless of the cost
This is certainly not consistent with the version of Christianity that is so prevalent in our culture today. This not compatible with “Come to Jesus and He will make your life comfortable and prosperous”. But it is a prayer that has the potential to open up your life so that God can use you in ways you never imagined.
Before we develop this idea further let’s look at another account in this same chapter. Skip down to verse 22 and follow along as I read:
Mark 14:22–25 ESV
22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.
24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Most of us are probably so familiar with this passage concerning what we call the Lord’s Supper or Communion that we may very well go right pass some important details here. So let me enlist your help here.
• What does Jesus do with the bread that represents His body? That’s right - He “breaks” it. Now as we talked about the last time we observed the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ body wasn’t physically broken on the cross, or at least none of His bones were. That fulfilled several Old Testament prophecies. But there certainly is a sense in which Jesus was broken mentally and emotionally by the ordeal of crucifixion and also broken spiritually by taking on the sins of all mankind.
• And then Jesus takes the cup of wine and says it represents His blood which is what? That’s right - “poured out for many”.
Jesus is broken and poured out
So Jesus talks about being broken and poured out. Where have we heard that this morning? That’s right - Mary’s alabaster flask of expensive nard was broken and poured out. So just as I promised to show you earlier, there is a connection between these two passages. In both cases, the idea of being broken and poured out is a picture of being fully committed to serve God regardless of the cost. In both cases, nothing is held back.
In Mary’s case, she doesn’t hold back even one drop of her expensive perfume. She could have easily opened the seal of her flask and just anointed Jesus with a few drops of nard. And that nard was so aromatic and pungent that would have probably been adequate. To be honest, that’s how many of us serve Jesus, isn’t it? We give Him a part of our lives, but then we hold back most of it for ourselves. But Mary gives everything she has - every last drop.
And certainly Jesus did that for us. He didn’t hold anything back. He willingly allowed Himself to be broken and poured out on the cross in order to carry out His Father’s plan for our salvation. He did that not for His own benefit, but for ours.
Before we can completely tie this all together and show how it relates to the prayer to “break me”, we need to look at one more passage. In Luke’s account of the Last Supper, he provides one crucial bit of information that Mark did not include in his account:
Luke 22:19–20 ESV
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Notice the added words at the end of verse 19:
Do this in remembrance of me.
Paul also includes that phrase in his instructions about the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11.
I’ve always thought that this merely meant that we are to remember Jesus’ sacrificial death by participating in the Lord’s Supper and eating the bread and drinking from the cup. But this week, I was introduced to an idea that I believe has a lot of merit. What if the “this” here isn’t just referring to the eating of the bread, but rather to Jesus giving His body and being poured out? The underlying Greek grammar certainly allows for that possibility.
If that is the case, then that would mean that the way we remember the sacrificial death of Jesus is to be broken and poured out, just like He was and like Mary’s flask was.
I remember Jesus by being broken and poured out
That idea would certainly be consistent with Paul’s familiar words in Romans 12:
Romans 12:1 ESV
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Paul is making the point here that real worship is more than just gathering together and singing some songs and hearing a sermon. It is more than just eating a piece of bread and drinking a thimbleful of wine or juice. It is offering up our bodies to be broken and poured out in the service of Jesus and His kingdom. Or, as we said earlier:
When I pray “break me” I am committing to serve Jesus regardless of the cost
That is why this is such a dangerous prayer that many Christians are unwilling to pray.
› Application
As we close I want to go back to the first passage we looked at in Mark 14 and talk about...
THREE THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN I PRAY “BREAK ME”
• Be prepared to be criticized
As I talked about at the beginning of the message, if you decide to be totally sold out to Jesus, there will be plenty of people who will stand in line to criticize you.
To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever really prayed this prayer to the extent that we’re talking about this morning. But I suppose the closest I’ve come is when God called me to be a pastor. I certainly didn’t take the usual route there. I didn’t go to Bible college and then seminary right out of high school. In fact, I wasn’t even a disciple of Jesus until half way through my college years and I didn’t go into vocational ministry until I was in my forties.
I still remember that when I made that commitment to God, there were some, including a pastor that I really respected, who just weren’t very supportive because I wasn’t taking the “normal” path to becoming a pastor. Fortunately, there was another pastor who really encouraged me and helped me find a place to begin my ministry.
We certainly see that in this passage, don’t we? Those who were only observers and bystanders were the first to criticize the woman. And isn’t that usually the case? In John’s account we learn that Judas is the one who is most vocal in his criticism. To him, Mary had “wasted” the nard. And I suppose from an earthly perspective what he said was true. It did make more sense to sell the nard to help the poor than to pour it all out to anoint Jesus. But as Jesus’ makes clear here, from His perspective, she had done a “beautiful thing”.
If you’re willing to pray this prayer and to be totally sold out to Jesus, you will certainly be criticized, especially by those who are merely standing on the sidelines being spectators. So if you’re not willing to pray this prayer yourself, please at least refrain from criticizing those who do.
• Generosity is good, worship is better
When Jesus says that “you will always have the poor with you”, He is quoting a verse from Deuteronomy that those in attendance would have been familiar with. So let’s look at the entire verse so we can put it in context:
Deuteronomy 15:11 ESV
11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
History certainly bears out the idea that we will always have the poor with us. Here in the United States, President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on poverty” in January of 1964. Over the next 50 years, our government spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs, only to see the poverty rate remain nearly the same as it was in 1964.
But it is also true that in Deuteronomy, God commanded His people to be generous to the poor. And Jesus confirms that. He tells His audience that they will continue to have opportunities to help the poor and that they ought to do that. And so should we.
When the disciples criticized Mary for her extravagance, not only were they disparaging her, they were also making a statement about their regard for Jesus. In effect, they were saying that Jesus wasn’t worthy of having Mary use up all that expensive nard on Him.
What Mary did was an extravagant act of worship. She was willing to do what no one else would do and anoint Jesus’ body before His impending death. And she was willing to do that even though it likely cost her her entire nest egg. And once again, let me point out that Jesus called that a “beautiful thing”.
So we see here that while generosity is a good thing, and something that should characterize our lives, worshiping Jesus by offering our lives to Him as living sacrifices, totally sold out to serving Him, is even better.
• Don’t compare myself to others
Jesus says something very important in verse 8:
She has done what she could...
Not everyone else gathered at the table that day had the same financial ability that Mary had. Many of Jesus’ followers were very poor. So Jesus didn’t expect them to do exactly what Mary had done. Nor does He ask us to do that.
But what Jesus does ask of each of us is to use whatever He has entrusted to us to serve Him and His kingdom. And that is going to look different for each one of us.
I think one of the biggest barriers to praying “break me” is our tendency to look around and compare ourselves to others. And when we do that, we can always find someone who has done less than us and point to them as evidence that we’ve done “enough”.
On the other hand, I think we can also be like the disciples who knew they couldn’t give as much as Mary had and who felt like since they couldn’t do that, maybe their service to Jesus wasn’t needed or valued. I really have to believe that there was a certain amount of jealously and envy among the disciples that fueled their criticism of Mary.
So when I pray “break me” I need to make sure that I’m focusing on what God has entrusted to me, not on what He’s given everyone else.
› Action
When I pray “break me” I am committing to serve Jesus regardless of the cost
So this is certainly not a prayer that any of us should pray lightly. But, like the other prayers in this series, it is one that I want to encourage you to pray, but only when you’re honestly willing to be broken and poured out for the sake of Jesus and His kingdom.
› Inspiration
D.L Moody is one of the best examples of someone who genuinely prayed “break me”.
Born in 1837 into a poverty-stricken home, he was led to faith in Christ when he was 17 years old by a faithful Sunday School teacher. As a young man he moved to Chicago with the intention of becoming a wealthy businessman. But he also began teaching a Sunday School class in the poorest, most crime-ridden areas of the city. He soon realized that leading children to faith in Christ was more rewarding that making lots of money.
In spite of having only a fourth grade education, he began to draw large crowds to hear him preach the gospel. And the local newspapers, though often befuddled as to how such an uneducated man could draw thousands to hear him speak, included his sermons in their morning editions.
One day when he traveled to England he heard evangelist Henry Varley say, “The world has yet to see what God can do through a man who is totally yielded to Him.” Moody was captivated by these words and resolved, “By the Grace of God, I will be that man!” Will you make that commitment, too?
