Published on May 29, 2012 in Education and Ministry.
This past weekend it was my privilege to be the commencement speaker for the graduation ceremony at North Cobb Christian School in Kennesaw, Georgia. I challenged the graduates with the actions of Mary pouring costly oil on Jesus and wiping his feet with her hair (found in John 12:1–8 with parallel passages in Matthew and Mark).
Mary showed her total devotion and glorified Christ by giving Him her best—very costly oil (worth a year’s wages) and wiping his feet with her hair, her crowning glory, which Jewish women did not let down in public. Mary went against the expected, the norm, and the popular. The disciples were very vocal about their displeasure with her. They wanted to sell the oil and feed the poor. Their focus was on the temporal. Jesus turned their attention, as He had done many times before, to the eternal—Himself and His glory. He praised Mary for her actions and stated that wherever the gospel was preached, what she had done would be told in memory of her.
I challenged the graduates to remember Mary’s devotion and sacrifice to bring glory to Christ and to do the same. I told them that what they believe about God and His Word meant that many times what they thought, said and did would go against the norm, the majority, and the popular. The secular world and even some of the Christian world would try to convince them that their time, effort, talent, and intellect would be wasted if they stood on God’s Word as truth. I exhorted them to focus on the eternal, the heavenly reward (Matthew 5:11–12) and the commendation by Jesus one day in heaven when He says to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. … Enter into the joy of your lord.” (Matthew 25:21). From the comments I received afterwards, I could see that the Lord was able to use these words to encourage the teachers, graduates, and their families.
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