The church in Corinth had problems. I almost said that it had a, “unique set of problems,” but they were not unique to that church alone. It was a somewhat wealthy church; it was definitely a worldly church. Some of the members had problems with the Christian standards that Paul was trying to teach them. There was open sin among the members. Some of them rejected Paul’s God-given authority, and even though he didn’t need to defend himself before them, he did respond, especially in his second epistle to the church. And as we saw in II Corinthians 10, he wrote – “Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s. For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.”
As a general rule, it is not wise – nor scriptural – to make comparisons between ourselves and others. The only thing that such comparisons can do is hurt – either ourselves or the person with whom we are comparing ourselves. There is not a person in this room who is not the best person in this room – in some areas. And at the same time there are some areas of our lives, which it would be best not to mention, because just about everyone else is better in that area than we are. “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
While pointing out these dangers, to compare people can sometimes be highly beneficial. To compare some modern-day cult leader to the Lord Jesus Christ quickly proves one to be divine and the other to be Satanic. To compare any two of Christ’s apostles, should bring out points to emulate and points to spurn. Comparing Bible characters is a good way to learn of our own deficiencies. And this morning I want to compare the two primary characters in this text of scripture. Perhaps someone will recognize that he is more like Judas than Mary. Perhaps someone else will see something in Mary which needs to be strengthened in his life. What a contrast there is between these two people – can there be any greater contrast?
But both Mary and Judas were DISCIPLES of Christ.
Judas was one of our Lord’s’ twelve primary disciples. And again, what is a disciple? The word means – “a learner, a student, a follower.” You could say that both these people were like students in a Sunday School Class or regular attendees at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as it happens, Judas was more faithful in his attendance than Mary was – he had more opportunity. For the first two or three years of its existence the Church of Christ was itinerant – traveling about. Mary was by necessity forced to stay in Bethany and to sit at Jesus’ feet only when He came to town.
We can sit in the House of God, or we can be taken to Sunday School regularly and consistently, but no one can make us learn anything if we refuse to apply ourselves. And to be a student doesn’t eventually make a person a professor or even a possessor of what’s been taught. We will look at Judas more closely when we get to the end of Matthew 26, but even then I won’t be able to tell you what motivated the man, or what he was thinking. But I am reasonably sure that he was not a good student of Christ – he didn’t learn what the other disciples were learning. But Mary, even with her limited opportunities, saw that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God – just as Peter had seen. Mary, perhaps because it was in her nature, learned to love Jesus Christ – but Judas obviously did not. And Mary apparently recognized that Jesus was soon to become the Passover Lamb — ordained to be sacrificed from before the foundation of the world – Judas somehow missed that lesson. Even though he had heard it far more often than Mary, Judas wasn’t paying attention, or he misinterpreted the purpose and meaning of the death of Christ.
The point of contrast at this point is that to be a disciple of Christ, doesn’t make a person a child of God. To attend church and Sunday School fifty-two times a year for the first eighteen years of someone’s life will not make that person a genuine Christian – a believer and worshiper of the Lord. To sit a thousand times at the feet of the Saviour, or even three thousand times, will not necessarily put a desire in someone’s heart to wash those feet and rub precious ointment into them. Assuming that YOU are a disciple, which kind are you – Mary or Judas?
When it comes to SELF – Judas and Mary were at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Mary took what was probably the most valuable physical object in her life and gave it to Christ. This may have been something she had collected for more than a decade. This may have been a substantial part of her dowry – under the old order of things it was a part of what it would take for a man to marry her. (I would hope that under Christ and from among the saints of God some good Christian man recognized the inner beauty of this woman and took her to be his wife.) But as she poured out this spikenard onto the body of the Lord, she may have been thinking that she had nothing left to offer any man. Furthermore she didn’t care what Peter and Andrew, Lazarus or Martha had to say about what she did. She didn’t care about her reputation before the world, but she was extremely concerned about what the Lord might think. I believe that it’s fair to say that Mary was thoroughly selfless. Not only did she not care what the world thought about her or about what she did, but she didn’t care about what might happen to her in the future.
But then we look at Judas – is there a more selfish individual described in the Word of God? Judas reminds us of Achan who stole money and forbidden goods from the devoted city of Jericho. He reminds us of Absalom who was not above killing David, in order to steal the throne and glory of Israel. He reminds us of the two disciples in Acts who lied to the Holy Spirit about stealing their tithes from God. As we saw in John 12:6 last week, Judas expressed concern about the “waste” of all this ointment. “This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.” The man was a thief – that is, motived by greed, he wanted what other people had – or were “wasting.” We are told that the disciples estimated the worth of Mary’s gift at 300 pence or about a year’s salary. Judas was so upset at this waste and Jesus’ attitude about it that he went to the chief priests of Israel and arranged to betray Christ for what I am told was about a third of Mary’s gift – 30 pieces of silver. Again, not really knowing all that motivated Judas, we are definitely told that he was a thief, so at least a part of his motivation was selfish greed.
As I said a couple weeks ago, one of the key ingredients of sin is “self” – selfishness. Mary displayed selfless godliness, by putting the Son of God before her own needs and future. Judas sinned in putting himself before Christ and the eternal will of God. Judas was dishonest while Mary was openly honest – exposing her heart before the eyes of Simon, Lazarus and everyone else present.
In that regard, Mary was also courageous, exposing her convictions. Later, after Judas had made his sinful financial arrangements, he returned to church and Christ. He was looking for a means of giving Christ to His enemies with the least bit of exposure and difficulty. He had covenanted with the priests to arrange a “convenient betrayal.” He made the enemy of God happy. “And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.” So, ignoring or forgetting, that Christ “needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man,” Judas slipped back in among the rest of the Lord’s disciples. And after the Lord tells the men that one of them shall betray Him, and they are all asking, “Lord, is it I?” even cowardly Judas, knowing that the deed had already been done, protects himself in the sight of the disciples by asking the same question. Judas, as many selfish men are – was a coward. He was the complete antithesis of Mary in this point.
Mary and Judas were opposites also in the SOURCE of their MOTIVATION.
Again, while I cannot speak to the actual motivation of Judas, I can affirm that its source was Satanic. Luke 22 says, “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.” Clearly, Satan played a role in Judas’ betrayal of Christ.
How could that possession possibly have happened? I can’t specifically tell you. But I can suggest some of the general underlaying principles. Our children, when we bring them into the world, are spiritually dead creatures – physically alive but spiritually dead. Jesus Himself said in John 7 – “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Apart from the grace of Almighty God, we and our children are easy prey for the enemy of Jehovah. Each and every one of us initially walk “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Our children, like ourselves before them, “all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” It is not until, by the grace of God, that we are born again, will we ever be able to tell Satan to leave us alone – to resist the Devil to the point that he is forced to withdraw.
Satan had for centuries been trying to destroy the lineage of Christ and to put an end to God’s promices of salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven. It wasn’t really his desire to devour human souls; it was his goal to overthrow the sovereign God. With the incarnation, God had taken up human form and made Himself apparently vulnerable to Satan. After the initial temptation in the wilderness, and all the subsequent Satanic attacks thwarted by Christ, the Devil saw another opportunity. He foolishly thought that if the Son of God could be killed, he could take over the Lord’s vineyard. He had a million human tools at his disposal, but in Judas was a “sleeper” within the disciples of Christ. As an unredeemed man, and without the Holy Spirit indwelling him, there was nothing that Judas could do to successfully drive the Satanic temptation away. He had no DESIRE to drive it away. Satan was tempting the man with the oldest and easiest ploy in his repertoire – selfish greed. Judas was led into this most horrible sin by Satanic temptation.
On the other hand, I think that it is safe to say that Mary was motivated by the Holy Spirit. As a child of God – as someone born again, regenerated, redeemed and converted – Mary had been indwelt by God’s Spirit. Like any other human being, she might have been tempted by Satan. But she was protected by the promise and presence of the Lord. Her vulnerability was a fraction of that of Judas, who was totally at the mercy of the wicked one.
Mary, as a child of God, possessed among other things, the gift of the Spirit. If we took the time, we could see Mary clearly reflected in each of the words of Galatians 5:22-24 – “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” The source of Judas’ motivation was Satan, but Mary was moved by the Holy Spirit of God.
And what was THE END of these two people?
We don’t hear much more about Mary after this chapter. As I said, I would like to think that she married a Christian man, raised a family and died at a ripe old age. If she was fifteen or eighteen when she gave this gift to her Saviour, then she might have lived a full life before Jerusalem was finally destroyed by the Romans. On the other hand, her love of Christ might have been such that she devoted the rest of her life to His service in other ways – blessing and supporting the ministry – not interested in marriage and children. But whatever her earthly life was like, I am sure that she is in glory today, sitting at the feet of her Saviour once again, just as she was in this chapter. Finishing a thought of Paul, which I started a few minutes ago – “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
In contrast to Mary, what became of Judas? We know that he became filled with remorse after the death of our Lord. He tried to return the money which he had been given; it was burning a hole – not in his pocket –but in his soul. When it was refused, he threw in down in front of the men who had hired him, as though this somehow relieved him of his guilt. But only in the grace of God is there forgiveness and ultimate peace. Then he went out and tried to hang himself, but the rope either broke or became untied, and he fell to a very grisly death – “he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”
What is the difference in the ultimate end of these two disciples? From one perspective, it was the grace of God – the unmerited favor of the Lord. Mary was blessed with the Lord’s salvation, while Judas was not. It was not the heart, motives or sins of either of these two which induced God to save them. The motivation for salvation is found in God’s sovereign grace and love. But from another perspective, Mary learned to love, reverence and believe Christ Jesus, while Judas never took to heart what he had been taught. The great difference in the future eternities of these two people lay in their relationship to Christ.
And the same will be said of you, when the angels of God compare you with other descendants of Adam. Either you in humility agree with God about your sin and your need of Christ, or you foolishly think that sin is not the problem that the preacher said it is. Either you bow before Christ, worshiping Him and trusting Him for deliverance from the eternal penalty that your sin deserves, or you stubbornly try to deal with your sin in some fashion which you think is sufficient. Either you sacrifice your ego, your pride and your self, clinging to Christ, or you retain those things and hope for the best. But your best will end up in disaster as it did with Judas. You need a Saviour the way that Mary needed Him – and she found Him. Is Christ Jesus your salvation and the love of your soul?