Wake Up My Heart

IS JESUS ENOUGH?
What does the church scene feel like in Scotland in 2012?
It is a very difficult question to answer. There is
a strange mix taking place, a cloudy cocktail
where clarity is hard to discern. Death and
resurrection, hope and despair, action and
paralysis, unity and fragmentation all shaken
and maybe stirred as well.
There is some great work going on. From
fasting to food banks, on the streets
evangelism to political advocacy, alpha
courses to creative arts projects, the
church is seeking to make a difference in
the nation.
Yet alongside the encouragements there is still
decline. Some congregations fear their future
and a sense of uncertainty pervades many.
There are church leaders who appear to be
under a huge strain, and for some, mission is
taking a back seat to maintenance issues and
church structure.
In the midst of all that is going on in the nation I
have a growing conviction. Our greatest need
is to fall more in love with Jesus. We need a
renewed passion for the presence of God. My
conviction is that both our identity and our
praxis needs to be more rooted in a passion for
Jesus. As individual Christians and as the
church in the nation we need to allow ourselves
to be shaped by our abandonment to the one
who took the punishment for our sins upon
Himself. Let me ask you the question I am
asking myself. Is Jesus enough? Is My desire
for the presence of Jesus central to my life.
Rather than seeking new techniques and the
latest ideas do we need to simply throw
ourselves again on the
beautiful mercy of our
Saviour.
I have reflected many times on this story from
John chapter 12v1-8. It is such an easy
incident to visualise. A small dinner party for
Jesus at Bethany a week before Passover. I
picture excitement and conversation around
what Jesus did the last time He had been in
Bethany. How did Lazarus feel sitting next to
Jesus after Jesus had raised him from the
dead? What would the atmosphere have been
like?
Then suddenly there is this unexpected
intervention by Mary. This is a Jesus centred,
lavish, extravagant act of adoration that must
have made a few guests a little uncomfortable. I
am convinced some people wouldn't have
known where to look. Tom Wright comments,
"by the apparently outrageous gesture of
anointing Jesus feet and wiping them with her
hair. She would need to let it down for the
purpose, that's roughly the equivalent, at a
modern dinner party, of hitching up a long skirt
to the top of her thighs." (John for everyone
SPCK p22) The point is that this is almost
shameless. It is further than most people would
find acceptable. It is also seen in the type of
perfume that she pours out on the feet of
Jesus. This was no cheap fragrance grabbed of
a dressing table. This pure nard was incredibly
expensive. Don Carson writes " the quantity of
the perfume was large, about 11 ounces. Nard
is an oil extracted from the root and spike of the
nard plant, grown in India....... Its purity,
quantity and origin count for an appalling cost;
when John labels this an expensive perfume,
he is thinking on a scale far larger than what we
may mean by the words." (D. Carson, the
Gospel according to John I.V.P p 428 )