You Can't Win'em All - But She Did What She Could

Bible Book: Mark 14 : 3-9

Subject: Funeral; Devotion; Commitment; Christian Living

Introduction

I first met Ms. Ruby Cotham on October 16, 2005, at Tom’s Creek Baptist Church during a revival meeting in which I was preaching. It wasn’t too long afterwards that I got to know her better and even had the privilege of being her interim pastor for two years. In fact, I became more than a pastor to her. I became an adopted member of her family and she then became “Granny” Ruby.

At that time, I didn’t know how much I was going to need another “Granny” in my life. You see, I didn’t know that my Granny Carroll was about to begin a three year battle with cancer and that God was going to call her home in 2008. My heart was shattered into pieces when I lost Granny Carroll, but thankfully the Lord provided me with another Granny—Granny Ruby. And she has faithfully stood in the gap, loving me with unconditional love as though I was one of her own biological grandchildren.

To say that it’s an honor and privilege to stand here today to celebrate and eulogize her life would be an understatement. Nevertheless, I want you to know that I am as honored to stand here today as I would be if I was speaking before the President of the United States. Furthermore, I am not here to preach her funeral because I think all of us would agree that she’s already done an extraordinary job of that. It’s evident by your presence here today and by all of the kind remarks about her life that you’ve expressed over the last few days.

Now to adequately eulogize Granny Ruby’s life and reveal all of the wonderful traits about her would take days, even months—perhaps years. There are a lot of things I would like to tell you about Granny today.

I would like to tell about how she loved to dance. While watching Hee-Haw, when the cloggers would begin to clog she would oftentimes clog along with them when her kids and grandkids were around. In the 1980’s while watching the movie Footloose for the first time, she begin to “cut loose” with her granddaughters. I would like tell you of how she would teach her granddaughters to pick apples in the summer and then take them to the creek to catch crawdads……..I would like to tell you……. but unfortunately, time won’t allow it.

Well, as I was preparing this message I thought to myself—if I could sit down beside Granny on the couch in her home one more time and ask her, “Granny, if I were to speak at your funeral, what would you want me to say about you?” And her response would be something like this, “Aww, just whatever you wanna say…OK?” Then I would probably say, “Now Granny, deep down in your heart tell me something I could say!” And she would probably pat me on the leg and say, “Well child, just tell about Jesus and that I did what I could to serve Him…OK?”

So with that in mind, I want to read to take God’s Word and read to you about a lady from the Gospel of Mark 14:3-9. Now this lady is not even named in this passage, but we know from the other gospel writers that she was known as Mary of Bethany. And, like Granny Ruby, was a lady who “did what she could” for the Lord Jesus. Listen to these verses:

“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 it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. 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” (Mark 14:3-9, KJV).

Now let me take just a moment and to put this passage in perspective. Shortly before Jesus was crucified, he came to the home of Simon the leper. They were having a celebration because of his miraculous healing. Among the guests were some cherished friends of Jesus: Martha, Lazarus, and Mary. While they were talking and enjoying the event, an astounding thing took place. Mary, who loved to sit at the feet of Jesus, knelt unexpectedly beside him, shattered the neck of a flask of expensive perfume, and poured it on Jesus’ head and feet.

She then wiped the rapidly evaporating perfume from his feet and dried them with her hair. It was absolutely a spellbinding moment. In fact, this act of devotion is one of the most incredible stories of devotion in all of the Bible. It speaks of the love, humility, and sacrifice in Mary’s heart—a heart that strongly resembles the loved one we are here to remember today.

Well, in this magnificent moment, we see the heart of a woman who, like Granny Ruby, did all she could for her Savior. In this wonderful Scripture, we see four characteristics in the life of Mary that runs parallel with the life of Granny Ruby.

Granny Ruby, like Mary of Bethany, was always:

I. WAITING TO SERVE JESUS

We will look in a moment why Mary did what she did, but the point I want you to see here is this—while everyone else was attending to their own needs, Mary was waiting on the needs of Jesus. Mary was like a sister to Jesus. She, her sister Martha and her brother Lazarus was (you might say) the adopted family of Jesus. She had been around Jesus long enough to know that his heart was heavy. He was living within sight of the valley of the shadow of death and Mary knew something was deeply troubling him.

Mary knew what Jesus needed, because she spent time with Him. Like Mary, Granny Ruby knew how to serve Jesus because she too had spent time with Him. She studied the Word of God. She talked to the Son of God. She meditated on the things of God.

I recall preaching a New Year’s sermon while at Tom’s Creek. In that sermon, I challenged the church to join me in reading through the entire Bible over the course of the year. I provided a Bible reading plan to the congregation to aid them in a year long journey through God’s Word. About two weeks after that challenge, I was visiting with Granny on a Sunday afternoon. She told me she was getting a little head of schedule in the Bible reading plan that I provided. When she told me where she had got to in her reading it was evident that she had read almost half the Bible within just two weeks. She had read almost all of the Old Testament and had begun reading in the New Testament.

You see, like Mary, Granny had an eagerness to spend time with Jesus and do whatever she could for Him. Whether it was attending church, singing in the choir, serving others and telling them about God’s goodness, whatever she could do she was waiting to do. To put it simply, like Mary, Granny made herself available to Jesus. She understood that God did not want her ability. He wanted her availability. Let me give you a word today—if you are available to God you are usable by God.

II. WILLING TO SERVE JESUS

Listen to what Mary does in verse 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 it on his head” (Mark 14:3, KJV). Mary takes some very expensive perfume that she had probably saved years to purchase and pours it on the head and feet of Jesus.

Now this was the finest perfume money could but in that day. This perfume would have cost over a years salary for an average worker. Yet, Mary breaks the alabaster box and pours it onto the body of Jesus. Do you know what she was doing? She was giving the best she had to Jesus. And, you know what? For over ______ years, Granny Ruby would give the best she had to Jesus.

Not only would Granny give her best to Jesus, she would give her best to others. Granny Ruby never had much in this life, but whatever she had—if you needed it she would give it to you. My wife, Shannan, was visiting with Granny one afternoon. As she was getting ready to leave, Granny got her purse and gave Shannan some money. It wasn’t a lot, but she wanted to try to do a little something to help her granddaughter. That’s just one of countless examples of Granny Ruby trying to give her best to somebody else. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 25:40 (KJV): “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” You see, when she was giving her best to others, she was giving her best to Jesus at the same time.

Granny was never considered one of the smartest in the world; however, I believe she was one of the wisest. Like Mary, she understood that your best may not be as much as somebody else’s best. Your best may not be as great as somebody else’s best, but if you give your best to God, then as far as God is concerned, your best is best.

The mark of a person who understands the beauty and the joy that comes from serving Jesus is a person who gives no thought to what it may cost in terms of time, talent or treasure, but simply wants to give what they can to Christ. Like Mary, Granny Ruby was that kind of person.

III. WANTING TO SERVE JESUS

Mary was thinking only of Jesus when she broke that vase and poured that perfume all over his body. But, before that last drop had hit the floor, she had to with stand a withering blast of critical fire from a hypocritical furnace. Listen to verses 4 and 5:

“And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her” (Mark 14:4-5, KJV).

Let me just say, if you serve Jesus Christ, people are going to murmur, people are going to complain and people are going to criticize. Truth is, you are ever going to do anything in your life that is going to be make a difference for someone else—you are going to be criticized

This world thinks anything you do for Jesus is a waste. They would look at the life of Granny Ruby and say, “Just look at that little old lady—she never drove a car, she was never a successful business woman, she never owned a nice, expensive home. What a waste!” But when you really get down to the brass tacks, all that matters is what Jesus said in verse 6:

“And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me” (Mark 14:6, KJV).

Jesus said that what Mary had done was a good work. Every time Granny would do a good deed and try to help others, Jesus would say, “You have done a good work!” I want you to remember something about Ruby Cotham today. She was a woman who realized that what really mattered about her life was not what I think or what you think. What matters is what Jesus thinks!

One of Granny’s favorite preachers, next to me of course, was Adrian Rogers. He was a friend and mentor of mine. I will never forget something I heard him say many times. He said, “If please Jesus it doesn’t matter who you displease, but if you displease Jesus it doesn’t matter who you do please.

What Mary did was not a big work or a famous work. Jesus simply said it was a good work—just a small thing but a good work. There are some today who think churches a built on people who are willing to do the big things. But actually churches are built on people, like Granny Ruby, who are willing to do the small things.

The true heroes of the church are people like Granny Ruby who would sit on the floor and play with toddlers and teach them that “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so” The true heroes of the church are people like Granny Ruby who would rock babies in the nursery. The true heroes of the church are the people like Granny Ruby who would model a Godly life before teenagers and help them be all God wants them to be. And last but not least, the true heroes of the church are the people like Granny Ruby who would get up on Sunday at the crack of dawn to make sure her preacher had a good meal after church, a place to rest, and a bowl of baked apples to take home. Those are the kind of people churches are built on.

Today, the lines are filled with people who want to do the big things, but it’s hard to find people like Granny Ruby who want to do the little things.

IV. WORKING TO SERVE JESUS

One simple statement Jesus made about Mary speaks volumes about her and it’s a statement that sums up Granny’s life for sure. Jesus said in verse 8, “She hath done what she could.” What really impressed Jesus about Mary, and I’m sure what impressed Him about Granny is that she did what she could.

Whether it was rearing her children, whether it was teaching her grandkids a lesson, whether it was being a community seamstress, whether it was babysitting little ones, whether it was being a role model to others, whether it was singing her heart out in the church choir, whether it was loving a friend unconditionally, or whether she was being a witness for Christ to someone who was lost—Granny Ruby did what she could!

In light of the circumstances before us, here is a something we should all think about—

"I have only one life

It will soon be past

Only what’s done for Christ will last"

CONCLUSION

When Granny Ruby entered the Kingdom of Heaven Tuesday evening, she met Jesus face to face and heard him say “Well done”—I imagine she shouted with a big “Hoo-Rah!” I’m sure as he took her by the hand and showed her around that glorious city and gave her a tour of her new mansion with an eternal garden in the backyard for her to tend, she probably bellowed “Well, sir!”

As she and Jesus went a little farther and strolled down the streets of gold—He probably introduced her to Moses, Elijah, Jonah, Peter, Paul, Matthew, Mark, and family and loved ones gone on before her. I can hear Jonah telling her about being swallowed by that great fish and her responding, “You can’t win’ em all! That’s for sure!” And I can just hear Jesus say, “Ruby, my child, you’ve now won it all! You’ve fought a good fight! You’ve finished the course! I now present to you your new robe and your crown of righteousness!”

Dear family and friends, I have done my best to pay tribute to the life to this remarkable lady—Ruby Lee Cotham. As I have tried to convey in this message, Granny was a humble woman. While praying, she would always say, “Lord, keep us humble!” I believe we should all make that same plea. Granny often said, “You’re born to die.” She’s right. Every one dies . . . And it would be her hope that each of you would be prepared to die.

If you are here today and have never humbled yourself and received Jesus as Lord and Savior, I believe Granny would want me to tell you to “get right” before it’s too late. “Granny, I am gonna miss you, but because of Jesus and His death on the cross, I’ll see you in a little while!”