Father in heaven, as we open Your word, we pray for the Holy
Spirit's illumination. We pray that we better eyes to
see and ears to hear, minds to think correctly, and hearts that
feel what You want us to feel, that respond with affection,
devotion, and love. Pray that You would cause a
story that's very familiar for many of us not to remain in a
place that is too familiar, but one that inspires us to see your
glory and what it means to love you with all of our heart, mind,
body and soul. We pray this in Jesus name,
Amen. If you would remain standing for
the reading of God's Word. And we're in the Gospel of John
now entering into chapter 12, and the story I'm about to read
is the most beautiful expression of love from this woman, Mary to
her Savior. Matthew records this account, as
does Mark and as John. And in doing so, at the end of
the account, both in Matthew and Mark, Jesus said what this woman
has done for me will be told of her over the entire world
wherever the gospel is proclaimed.
Why did he say that? As I read the story, I want you
to enter in. I want you to imagine the scene
where the disciples at the home of Simon the leper reclining at
this table is Mary is present, and Martha is present and the
risen Lazarus is present. I want you to see and hear and
even smell what's taking place in this truly remarkable story
of love beginning at verse one. And I'll read through verse 11.
Six days before the Passover. Jesus therefore came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
So they gave a dinner for him. There Martha served, and Lazarus
was one of those reclining with him at table.
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from
pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with
her hair. The house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his
disciples, he was about to betray him, said why was this
ointment not sold for 300 denai and given to the poor?
He said this not because he cared about the poor, but
because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag
he used to help himself to what was put into it.
Jesus said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day
of my burial. For the poor you always have
with you, but you do not always have me.
When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there,
they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus,
whom he raised from the dead. So the chief priest made plans
to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many
of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.
This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.
Please be seated in John 11. After the resurrection of
Lazarus, there's a hinge for the rest of the Gospel of John.
And what John is doing is he's showing how people are
responding to who Jesus is. Some have believed and some
remain in unbelief. Last week, the raising of
Lazarus, we saw that some of the Jews had come to saving faith in
Jesus. They believed in Jesus, but some
left an unbelief to turn Jesus into the authorities.
Some had received Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and some
continued to reject him. Now we find ourself a number of
days later in a town called Bethany, and there is a dinner
being held. This is amazing because it's
risky. The Jews, the Jewish leaders
have said, if you see Jesus, if you hear where he is, let us
know. So the very fact that they're
gathering is risky in and of itself, but this meal is taking
place to celebrate the reality that Lazarus, who was dead, is
now alive. Mary and Martha are there, their
brother Lazarus and the disciples.
John tells us that the purpose of his gospel is that you may
hear and you may believe. That's the ultimate goal, that
you would believe that Jesus is who he says he is.
This story that we just heard, many of you've heard before, but
it truly is the most amazing picture of love for Christ that
we see. This is a very, very hard sermon
to preach. It's not hard to preach because
it's hard to understand what happened.
It's hard to preach because Mary's experience and her
affection for the Lord seems so far ahead of my very own.
And I would imagine for many of you, the truth is the same.
You're going to sit under this for about 20 minutes.
I've been sitting in this for weeks.
The conviction of the Holy Spirit is so powerful and so
gentle and so kind. But the fact that Jesus said in
Matthew and Mark to Judas, leave her alone, just as he said in
John, what she has done to me is a beautiful thing.
And then Jesus says what she has done will be told.
Wherever the Gospel is told in this whole wide world, this
story of this woman and her affection for me, what she has
done and anointing me, it's going to be told.
Here's what's amazing. John's actually fulfilling that
promise. His Gospels written decades
later, and he's telling the story 2000 plus years later,
this flock committed to the Word of God.
God's fulfilling his promise. Again, we're looking at the same
story of a woman who was so transformed by the love of
Christ, the glory of Christ, the goodness of Christ, Christ the
living God, that what she did was extraordinary.
What I want to do this morning is I want to look at the ACT, I
want to look at her motives, and then I want to look at the
responses. But as I do it, I want to give
you a warning. Mary is a woman.
She's not divine. She is not sinless.
She is a woman, a full human being just like you, a human
being just like me. Why would Jesus twice in the
Gospel say this about Mary? Why would he say through Matthew
and Mark to be recorded? What she has done to me will be
told everywhere. He didn't say that about anyone
else. Because two things.
One Jesus received her praise, her adoration, her love.
He received it because he alone is worthy of such affection.
He alone is worthy of us, His children, saying, I want to love
you with all of my heart, mind, body and soul.
I want to be free to love you. I want to be full in the way I
love you. Jesus alone is worthy of the
only one worthy of that affection, the only one worthy
of that praise. And Mary is a woman who showed
it in such an extraordinary way. But sometimes I think we think
that she was so far ahead of us or so far divine that that's not
possible for us. Friends, it is.
She was just a human being saved by the grace of Christ, just
like you and just like me. But what she does is truly
extraordinary. Jesus tells us that the story we
will be told to teach us that he's worthy of praise, but also
to inform us what true devotion, what true love, what true
adoration, what true worship should look like.
Now immediately some of you are going.
I'm not sure Mary's response should be seen as normative for
the people of God. I want to ask you a question
then. If Mary's is at the extreme end
of adoration and love and wonder, how far are you willing
to go away from that to say this is really what God's expecting?
Friends, the Word of God says that the greatest command is to
love the Lord God with all of your heart, mind, body and soul.
Here in this narrative, He is showing us a picture just before
He goes to the cross of a woman who for His glory and by His
grace is seeking to love him that way.
And it's because she knows nothing better.
So let's look at the ACT, then the motivation, then the
response. So how would we define the ACT?
If you were present, you would have been shot.
We don't know if Mary told Martha she was going to do this.
I don't, since she did. But if you were there and all
you were doing was sitting, reclining at the table,
listening to the conversation, smelling the fragrance of the
food that Martha's cooking, suddenly this woman, you know
this woman, she appears, she takes this perfume, she breaks
it. Suddenly this, this perfume
that's expensive. I'll talk about that more in a
minute, Begins to overcome the the flavour in the air of the
food. This fragrance that's beautiful
and strong is moving through the house.
You'd have been shocked. You'd have been shocked because
Mary did that to begin with. You'd have been shocked.
But then she takes her hair down, a very intimate gesture.
Women did not take their hair down in public, but here she is
in a public setting, taking her hair down and washing the feet
of Jesus. You would have been shocked.
You would have been shocked because of the gift and it's
extravagance. The act was so extravagant.
That's what Judas complaints about.
Judas knows how expensive it is, the spikenard that she had in
her possession. This ointment, this perfume is
worth a year's wages. It is extravagant.
A year's worth of wages for a day labourer.
If you take the average salary of somebody who makes the
minimum wage and you multiply it out in today's terms, that means
her perfume would have cost around $14,000 for that bottle.
It's not the most expensive perfume you can buy today.
I looked it up, it's $1.2 million.
Why did I do that? It's Mother's Day.
This perfume was a treasure. This perfume was expensive.
This perfume was to be saved. But for Mary, there was no more
significant woman. The only way she knew to truly
honor the Lord, to anoint him as he was being prepared for a
death. He would die.
Something she, I believe deeply knew about.
This was the right thing to do. It was extravagant.
Judas took exception, and I believe the other disciples did
too. Extravagance.
Some might say it was generous, and I think you could only say
that if you have the right definition of generosity.
For many of us, we don't have the right definition of
generosity. Generosity is not something that
is defined by a distribution from an account.
Generosity is not defined by a distribution from an account, no
matter what that number is. Generosity is defined by a
disposition of the heart. It's defined by love.
In other words, you can give the largest gift you've ever given.
It might even shock you and not be generous.
You could be the lead giver for a capital campaign.
You could give in ways that people all around you celebrate
you and say you're so generous and not be generous because it's
not from a place of love. Mary is offering this
extravagant gift because of love, which moves us to the next
part, her love for Christ. It's not just shocking.
Her expression and demonstration is not just extravagant, it's
fearless. To me, this was the most
significant part personally, and I honestly think it's the most
important part for us. I think when we think about
worshipping the Lord so often our eyes are not focused on the
feet of Christ. They're not focused on the
person of Christ. We're singing and saying things
about Christ, but our eyes are actually focused on the people
around us. We are afraid of what they are
thinking about our worship. We're afraid if they think we
don't sing very well. We're afraid if they think we
aren't dressed appropriate. We're afraid if we don't know
enough of the Bible. There's so much fear.
It's such a profound stronghold in this church and in churches
like this, where when we come to worship, it really is more of a
horizontal What are the people around me thinking?
Mary wasn't there. Mary had every reason, even
physical harm reason to be concerned about what people
thought. But she didn't.
She didn't care that Judas might say what he said.
She didn't care that her sister might say something.
She only cared about being obedient to expressing her love
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else mattered.
This is what made sense to her. Some have thought, well, maybe
it was just an impulsive decision.
It wasn't impulsive because they're not in her house.
They're at Simon the Leper's house.
This isn't Mary, who suddenly saw what was happening, felt
this flood of emotion and ran to her room, opened her drawer,
pulled out her perfume. This is something she brought
with her. This is something she felt led
to do and that which was inside her, leading her to do this was
the greatest joy of her heart that caused the fear of what
others might think to dissipate. That could happen to you.
You absolutely can enter this place and say I don't care what
anyone thinks and mean it because Mary was a human and so
are you. But I'm telling you, it's hard.
I know it's hard. So what was her motive?
If the ACT was shocking and the ACT was extravagant and the ACT
displayed this fearless love for the Lord, what was her
motivation? In a word, love.
That's it. Love.
She had been loved by the only perfect man.
Same man that loved her sister, loved her brother, love the
disciples, loves us. She had been loved perfectly and
that love LED her, motivated her, compelled her in the right
way to do what she did. What she did she did, because in
that moment that is the thing that made the most sense to her.
She loved him. What is the great commandment?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul,
in your neighbors, yourself. She is informing our love.
Christ said the story will be told so that we could see
throughout history. He's worthy of that love and by
His grace and glory we can love in a shocking, extraordinary,
extravagant, fearless way. Her motive was love.
How do we see it? Well, it comes every time we see
her in the Gospels, and it has to do with her posture and her
position. Where is Mary at?
Always in the Gospels. Say it with me at the feet of
Jesus. Say that again, one more time at
the feet of Jesus. By the way, I didn't have the
8:00 service do that or the 9:30, but I feel free at the
feet of Jesus. She's at dinner in her home and
Martha's there. Martha is stressed out.
She's accusatory, she's bitter. She's expressing all of this to
Jesus because Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus and what is
she doing there? She's listening to Him and she's
learning. Listening to Him and learning
about Him will lead to love for Him.
If your goal isn't just knowledge, you can have a lot of
knowledge of Christ and not love Him.
You can have a lot of knowledge of God and not love Him.
That's the Pharisees, the Sadducees.
She was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening and learning.
I want to encourage you if you tend to be more of a Martha than
a Mary. In John's account, near the end
of Christ, earthly walk upon the earth, what's Martha doing?
She's serving. What does Jesus?
What does Jesus say to her? There's no rebuke.
Serving is not the issue. Serving was an issue because
Martha was complaining and upset about many things.
But in John's account later in the life of Martha, she has
learned she's using her gifts to serve the Lord.
It's really beautiful and easy to miss.
But Jesus in the count and Luke says to Martha, Mary has chosen
the better portion, and this is not going to be taken from her.
And it's not from the posture of sitting at the feet of Jesus, of
listening and learning. Mary understood what was
happening. Jesus had said many times over
the years, I'm going up to Jerusalem.
I am going to be crucified. I'm going to rise.
But the disciples didn't get it. Time and time again, we see that
they just aren't getting it. But Mary did, and in this
moment, at this dinner, she is bringing this expensive,
extravagant gift to Christ. To prepare his body for
something she knows is about to happen.
She listened to him and she learned.
The next time we see Martha, I'm sorry.
Marry at the feet of Jesus was just the chapter before.
It's when Jesus delayed in coming to see Lazarus.
He's now been dead and in the tomb for four days.
Martha comes to see Jesus first. If you've been here, my brother
would not have died. But I still know that whatever
you ask, the Father will give you.
Mary doesn't say as many words, but John makes it clear.
Mary was at the feet of Jesus, the same place where she had
been listening and learning. Now Mary is present, lamenting.
She's lamenting the death of her brother Jesus.
If you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
She weeps, her friends weep. And then Jesus weeps.
Mary learned to love Christ fearlessly, with extravagance,
in a shocking way, by sitting at his feet, listening, learning,
lamenting. And now she sits at his feet
again, loving him, taking her very hair and the expensive
perfume and wiping his feet, the very feet that will soon be
nailed to the cross, as Matthew's Gospel tells it.
And marks. She also anointed the head of
Christ with the same nard, the same ointment.
The ACT was shocking, extravagant, fearless, The
motivation, love, love born out of being at the feet of Jesus,
listening, learning, lamenting. So what was the response?
First response, Condemnation. It comes from Judas.
Look with me at verse 4. But Judas Iscariot, one of his
disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this
ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?
John tells us, looking back, he said this not because he cared
about the poor, but because he was a thief, having charge of
the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it.
Judas objects, he condemns. By the way, these are the first
words of Judas in the Gospel. Why wasn't this money, this
perfume, sold and given to the poor?
Judas doesn't care about the money.
He condemns the ACT because in that moment what Mary was doing,
that which made sense to her, made no sense to him.
He did not have love for Christ. Sadly, Judas is going to betray
Jesus. He's going to do it for 120
denarii. Basically 2 1/2 times less than
what Mary would pour out on the feet of Christ.
So sad. Judas condemns, Mary wasn't
worried about his condemnation. She wasn't worried about any of
those people and what they thought.
She was fearless in her love for Christ.
He condemns, but then there's the next response and it comes
from Jesus. It's a swift response.
And verse 7 Jesus said leave her alone so that she may keep it
for the day of my burial. Leave her alone in Matthew and
Mark's gospel says what she has done for me in preparing my body
for burial is a beautiful thing. And then he goes on to say it
will be spoken of and this whole wide world and you were the
gospel was proclaimed. Jesus affirms her first he
receives the gift. If it was inappropriate, he
would have rebuked her himself. But he receives it.
Then he rebukes Judas and the other disciples if they felt the
same way. And what I don't want you to
miss is this woman who's just like you and me, a Sinner in
need of a Saviour, brings worship and praise and adoration
to the Lord that causes him to delight.
That's beautiful. But there's one other response
and I'm going to call it continuation.
There's condemnation, there is affirmation, and there's
continuation. When Mary took the perfume and
broke it and poured it on the hair of Christ's head, and then
poured it on his feet and untied her hair and begin to wipe his
feet. At first the fragrance of that
perfume would have just moved through the house, overwhelming
at any other scent. But at some point that which was
in the air would dissipate. But it wasn't just in the air.
This ointment was sticking to the hair of Jesus and to the
hair of Mary. I don't know if this happened,
but it's possible because it wasn't many days after this when
Jesus had the crown of thorns placed on his head.
It's very possible that those placing it there could have
smelled this nard remnants of it could still exist.
But think of this. The woman who is wiping his
hair, her his feet with her hair now has that perfume in her
hair. And as she stands up, I'm sure
begins to help her sister Martha serve.
Everywhere she went, that fragrance went with her.
It was a continuation of this extravagant gift, but it was
also a continuation in that this story continues to be told by
John the Gospel writer by this church, 2000 plus years later,
believing in the Word of God, taking in John 12, being shown
again that Jesus alone is worthy of our praise, but He is worthy
of it, and that by his grace and for His glory we can bring him
praise that might shock the world, that might be so
extravagant and so fearless. Jack Miller, who was a professor
at Westminster Seminary for a long time, would often ask
students, when is the last time you did something just because
you love Jesus? Today's Mother's Day, and if
you're just now realizing that there are places ready for you
at the front of the doors to buy a card or flowers, moms should
rightly expect their children and grandchildren to say
something, to give something. It's expected, it's Mother's
Day, but there's another section in the card section at the store
just because. So maybe a month from now or six
months from now, buy a card or write a note or just tell
someone you love them. Just because Jesus Christ made
us to be worshippers that would worship Him without fear of man,
that would not be held back by the wonder of what others might
think. He has given us the ability
through sitting at His feet, listening and learning to
worship Him with extravagance because He's worth it.
How do we get there? This is when a sermon like this
becomes dangerous, maybe because of what I'm about to say, but
also because of something that might be heard in a way it's not
meant the goal. And this passage is not for you
and I to leave and say I need to be more like Mary.
I'm going to become more like Mary.
Yet it is the goal. Because if it wasn't, Jesus
wouldn't have said wherever the gospel is preached, this story
is going to be told. And he adds to that in honour of
her. Not in praise of her, but in
honor of her. Why?
Because she was showing us how to honor him in the only way.
You and I will ever honor him. That way is if we become like
Mary, not so much with an expensive bottle of perfume, but
in a constant posture of sitting at His feet, listening and
learning, lamenting the broken world and rising to show Him our
affection in love. Jesus delighted in what Mary
did. He rebuked the one who condemned
it. He affirmed it, and it
continues. So here's my question for you.
Most Sundays when you leave here, if those you are around
have an appetite to talk about what was experienced in the
service, my guess is it goes something like this.
What did you think about the sermon or what did you think
about the music? I want to encourage you that
those questions are OK, but the more important question is what
Christ think of your worship? What did he think about the way
you prepared to come? What did he think about the way
which you confessed even in the middle of the service?
I'm so distracted. When the offering plate.
Passes and you think what's enough friends most.
Of the time in. A community like ours, we're.
Conditioned to think of. Worship even as a consumer.
Did I like the music? Did I like the sermon?
Did I like the people around me? Did I like?
Did I like?
Mary wasn't entering that place as a consumer.
Some of you, that's not your issue.
Yours is different, but it's also serious.
You actually see yourself as a critic.
You're here. To evaluate.
Now, don't hear me wrong, we need to listen carefully to what
is being taught. But for many people, they
probably have a little more Judas in them than they realize,
and they see it as their position really to just kind of
give an analysis, almost like a food critic.
That's not what. Your role is.
Many more people just act like they're part of a crowd at a
concert or a movie. If you are in Christ and you.
Were a worshiper of. Christ, you are never the
audience. Ever.
The audience is Him. You and I are the actors filled
with the Spirit to love Him the way our dear sister Mary loved
Him. She did what made sense to her
from sitting at His feet. She loved him.
It begins at his. Feet it.
Stays at his feet. The feet of the very one who
died for us. She did what made sense to.
Her. But so did Judas.
Father in heaven, we. Are so desperate.
To listen and learn the way Mary did.
And Father, even that act in and of itself.
We don't know the power to do so.
Take us there. Give.
Us eyes to see. And ears to listen and then
cause us to rise up with an affection for you that would
cause you to delight in what you are doing in US.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your grace, for your mercy, for your
provision, the promise to set us free.
And Lord, would you, I ask, and I beg you, please cause the
opinion of man to grow strangely dim in the light of your glory
and grace. Turn our eyes upon Jesus and
whose name we pray. Amen.
Please stand.