Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, that He had come from God, and was going back to God … John 13:3 ESV1
If you had a money tree in your room that produced $100 bills and every time you picked one, two more grew back in its place, would you be stingy with your spending? Wouldn’t there be something seriously wrong with your thinking if you lived in poverty? Likewise, wouldn’t you be incredibly selfish if you refused to be generous?
“She has done a beautiful thing to Me.” Mark 14:6b ESV1
One of my favorite hymns is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” by Joseph Medlicott Scriven (1819-1886). Mr. Scriven suffered much loss in his life. He penned the words of this hymn in 1855 after the tragic loss of his second fiancée. The trouble in his life drove Mr. Scriven into a deeper relationship with the only One he could never lose. Thus, the words of this hymn are especially encouraging to anyone struggling in any manner. Likewise, singing this hymn is particularly moving to many who know Jesus intimately because of the times He has met them in their need. The powerful words of this hymn are as follows:
“What a Friend we have in Jesus; all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit; oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a Friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our Refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms, He’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.
What a Friend we have in Jesus; take it to the Lord in prayer.”2
Indeed, Jesus has been a tremendous Friend to me, but have I reciprocated? I have been looking at a well-known and often referenced passage of Scripture in the light of friendship with Jesus.
“For they all contributed out of their abundance but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:4 ESV1
During my life, I have never lived more than twenty miles North or South of the Western half of the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. It is a land of bright, green grass and dark, rich soil. In the warmer months, this area looks like God spread a monochromatic, patchwork quilt, stitched in forest green and tied in barn red, over the rolling hills. It is a land meant for growing things. I live in the country and if I look out any of the windows in my house, I can see flourishing fields.
Last Fall, my husband purchased a roto-tiller to pull behind his tractor. I watched him work up four separate areas in our lawn to prepare them for planting grass. It was beautiful, the way that roto-tiller worked up the ground. It broke up the soil into pea-sized or smaller chunks, evened out the dirt, and made these little tracks to collect the seeds and the water. My husband sowed grass seed in each of those areas. And every day, I watered those sections, dreaming about how beautiful our lawn was going to look when Spring came.
When Spring arrived, three of those sections had green, grass shoots appearing. But the fourth area produced only weeds. Even though that fourth section was given the same treatment as the other three, the seed in that place, for whatever reason, didn’t germinate.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure…” Matthew 13:44a ESV1
Not far from the home in which I was raised, stood an abandoned house. As a child, I often daydreamed about what was in that old house. Contrary to reason, never once did I imagine that the rundown house was home to rodents, varmints, and pests of all kinds, or dust, mold, and rotten wood, or a plethora of useless, broken items. Every time I thought about that faded yellow house with the falling-in porch, the shot-out windows, and the holey roof, I imagined that it was the hiding place of a vast treasure. I assumed that house, set back from the road and surrounded by trees, had been the perfect cover for a band of thieves who had stored piles of cash under the floorboards, jewels in the registers, and bags of gold, of incalculable worth, between the studs of the walls. Of course, in my dreams, the robbers had, for whatever reason, been forced to leave behind their hide-out and loot. If only my parents would have allowed me to explore that old house; I was sure I would have brought back a treasure that would have changed for the better the course of the lives of my family members.
When my children were small, I used to get together with my sister frequently. My sister also had small children, and the cousins enjoyed having playdates together. Once, when we came to visit my sister’s family at her home, we found her standing at her kitchen counter, eating a piece of candy. The other children ran off to play, but my son recognized what his aunt was doing. My son watched my sister nibble and said to her, “That piece of candy looks really good.” My sister continued to enjoy her piece of candy. My son noticed a bag of like candy lying open on the counter and stated, “Wow, I could really use a piece of candy.” My sister smiled and took another bite. My son, a little louder, exclaimed, “A piece of candy would really hit the spot for me right now.” My sister popped the remaining bits of her piece of candy into her mouth, closed up the bag, and placed it on top of her refrigerator. My son was shocked, but saying no more, he walked away saddened. My sister then turned to me and said, “You know, I would have given him a piece if he had just asked.”
I have the feeling God could say the same thing about us from time to time; He probably wonders why we don’t just ask. We spend a lot of time meditating on our problems. We mull over in our minds what we think we may need. We go to God and worry before Him, but do we really end up asking for anything? In the passage we will consider today, some people came to Jesus, and they audaciously asked for something they desired. They were surprisingly bold and asked for a grand thing. Let’s look at Jesus’ response?