Holy Week: Wednesday--Covenants and Coins

Scriptures:

• The plot to kill Jesus (Mark 14:1-2; Matthew 26:1-5; Luke 22:1-2)
• The anointing described by Mark and Matthew (Mark 14:3-9; Matthew 26:6-13; his head is anointed)
• Judas agrees to betray Jesus (Mark 14:10-11; Matthew 26:14-16; Luke 22:3-6)

Today is sometimes called "Spy" Wednesday to highlight the acts of conspiracy of those plotting to kill Jesus and Judas betraying Jesus. Commonly in the accounts of Mark, he sandwiches a contrasting story between two similar stories, a Markan sandwich. The beautiful event of the woman anointing Jesus' head stands in incredible contrast with the conspiracies against Jesus. 

(Feel free to pick and choose what you want to study from these posts...I recognize they are probably intimidating in length)

Mark 14:1-11
1 After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.
2 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.
3 ¶And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured iton his head.
4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
9 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
10 ¶And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.
11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.

There are many humbling lessons we could glean from this unnamed woman's testimony and service to Jesus. Amidst conspiring men, the woman's tender and generous act demonstrates her realization that Jesus would be killed soon and she was anointing his body to prepare for His burial. 300 pence might be around $300 today; this was no small offering, but it was humbly given. I'll let you do the pondering on the other lessons we could learn from this woman as Jesus clearly stated, "shall be spoken of for a memorial of her."

CHURCH HISTORY
Indulge me for a moment of church history:

I have always loved Brigham Young for his "lion heart" and steadfastness to the Prophet Joseph Smith, similarly amidst conspiring men plotting against Joseph. We can learn SO much from Brigham (who clearly has the same vision and loyalty as the unnamed woman who anointed Jesus) from this story:

“On a certain occasion several of the Twelve, the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and others of the Authorities of the Church, held a council in the upper room of the [Kirtland] Temple. The question before them was to ascertain how the Prophet Joseph could be deposed, and David Whitmer appointed President of the Church. Father John Smith, brother Heber C. Kimball and others were present, who were opposed to such measures. I rose up, and in a plain and forcible manner told them that Joseph was a Prophet, and I knew it, and that they might rail and slander him as much as they pleased, they could not destroy the appointment of the Prophet of God, they could only destroy their own authority, cut the thread that bound them to the Prophet and to God and sink themselves to hell. Many were highly enraged at my decided opposition to their measures, and Jacob Bump (an old pugilist) was so exasperated that he could not be still. Some of the brethren near him put their hands on him, and requested him to be quiet; but he writhed and twisted his arms and body saying, ‘How can I keep my hands off that man?’ I told him if he thought it would give him any relief he might lay them on. This meeting was broken up without the apostates being able to unite on any decided measures of opposition. This was a crisis when earth and hell seemed leagued to overthrow the Prophet and Church of God. The knees of many of the strongest men in the Church faltered.
“During this seige of darkness I stood close by Joseph, and, with all the wisdom and power God bestowed upon me, put forth my utmost energies to sustain the servant of God and unite the Quorums of the Church” (Manuscript History of Brigham Young,comp. Elden J. Watson, 2 vols. [1968–71], 1:15–17).

Isn't he so awesome! I hope I can always stand strong for my Savior, even if it means to stand alone like Brigham or the unnamed woman.

COVENANTS
Okay, so what I really wanted to dig into with my study for today was from Matthew's account of Judas betraying Jesus:

Matthew 26:14-16
14 ¶Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

I had never noticed the distinct wording of "covenanted" before and realized it had great implications. If you try and covenant and make a deal with the world, you won’t get much more than a measly 30 pieces of silver. But if you covenant with God, you will get “all that the Father hath’ (D&C 84:38).

I thought of this quote and the following scriptures:

"You cannot break the laws of God—you break yourself against them... You jump off a skyscraper and you do not break the law of gravitation. You break your neck, but not the law of gravitation." —Vance Havner

Matthew 21: 44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Simply put--if you covenant with the world, as Judas, you will get nothing in return except a sure way to "sink yourselves to hell," as Brigham Young so boldly stated. We can hold onto our safety line to God or cut ourselves from Him--there is no in-between. There are no fence-sitters or luke warm water in God's kingdom Revelation 3:16.

Some people want to keep one hand on the wall of the temple while touching the world’s “unclean things” with the other hand. We must put both hands on the temple and hold on for dear life. One hand is not even almost enough. --Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All for All

UNDERSTANDING TRAPS OF SATAN
If you are like me and have struggled with understanding how Judas could go from disciple to deceit, it is helpful to understand the craftiness of Satan. For a change in perspective, read a few of these quotes from C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters," a book written in the perspective of the Devil's helpers and how they persuade and lull humans into Satan's traps. Here's a couple that helped me to comprehend how Judas was caught by Satan:

“The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”

Seriously, I pondered on this for a good 10 minutes. Very insightful. "Faith without works is dead" James 2:20

“It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Wow. Ponder that for a moment. Any red flags come to mind when you think of "gentle slopes" in your life?

THE TAKE-AWAY
So what is God's purpose for us and promise to us when we covenant with Him?

“Give me all of you!!! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self---in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart.” --C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

At our little devotionals with friends every night of Holy Week a dear friend shared the following inspiring quote on Monday when we were talking about Jesus cleansing the temple and how He is cleansing and restoring us. I've also been on a C.S. Lewis kick lately, so it was meant to be :) 

One more! It's so good, I promise!!

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. --C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

That's right. When we covenant with God and give ALL of ourselves to Him, His heart will become our heart and we will be a magnificent palace for Him to dwell with us always. Isn't that incredible?! Why would He be so willing to give us EVERYTHING He has? Because He loves us.

I love how Neal A. Maxwell put it in his talk, Consecrate Thy Performance:

In striving for ultimate submission, our wills constitute all we really have to give God anyway. The usual gifts and their derivatives we give to Him could be stamped justifiably “Return to Sender,” with a capital S. Even when God receives this one gift in return, the fully faithful will receive “all that [He] hath” (D&C 84:38). What an exchange rate!
Meanwhile, certain realities remain: God has given us our lives, our agency, our talents, and our opportunities; He has given us our possessions; He has given us our appointed mortal spans complete with the needed breaths (see D&C 64:32). Guided by such perspective, we will avoid serious errors of proportion. Some of these are far less amusing than would be hearing a double quartet and mistaking it for the Tabernacle Choir!
No wonder President Hinckley has stressed our being a covenant people, emphasizing the covenants of the sacrament, tithing, and the temple, citing sacrifice as the “very essence of the Atonement” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [1997], 147).

Another great talk, especially for Priesthood holders, is from President Thomas S. Monson, All that the Father Has. 

Invitation:

Think about someone (it may be yourself) that may be "covenanting" with the world instead of the Savior or experiencing the "gentle slopes" of sin.

Then ACT. Pray for promptings from the Spirit as to how to act. Think of even one small way you can act today to bring them closer to making covenants with God.