Back in chapter 12, you will remember that Jesus was asked, “what is the foremost commandment?” And of course the answer that Jesus gave was “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”
Now that should be very familiar to all of you. However, have you really thought about this foremost commandment of God? If you consider all of the traditions of all the false religions and false gods of the world, in which of them does their god declare that the most important thing is that you love him? Fear him, maybe. Obey him, probably. But love him? I dare say that our God is the only deity I am aware of that desires that His subjects love Him, first and foremost. Now granted, such love necessitates obedience and reverence. But the overriding principle is that you love Him with all your heart. That reveals the fact that we are designed to have an intimate relationship to God which is distinct from any other religion.
Today we are going to look at the characteristics of that kind of love, as illustrated primarily by a woman. And in her actions, we see exemplified the great sacrifice, the great extravagance, and the tremendous effect of such unmitigated love, a love with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Then in contrast, we are going to see someone that is attracted to Christ, that purports to be a follower of Christ, and yet does not love Him, but loves himself and loves the world.
Now to be clear, love is not the means of salvation. Faith in Christ is the means of justification. Faith is the way we are considered righteous before God. Abraham believed God and He counted it to him as righteousness. However, once we have been justified by faith, love is the means of sanctification. Love is the outworking of that righteousness. Love is how we become like Christ. We love, because He first loved us. And because we love Him, we do the things that are pleasing to Him. There was another woman who anointed Jesus with perfume at the beginning of His ministry in Luke 7. And though Jesus praised her outpouring of love for Him, yet He said “your faith has saved you.” Love was working with her faith. We are saved by faith, and love is the result.
Now Mark’s account picks up the story in the middle of the Passover week, two days before Passover. Jesus and the disciples are visiting Bethany, which is about 2 miles from the Mt.of Olives in Jerusalem, which is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived, and they had dinner at the home of a man called Simon the Leper. The Gospel of John tells us that the woman whom Mark leaves unnamed was actually Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.
So Jesus and the disciples are having dinner with Simon the Leper. And it’s likely that not only Mary, but Martha and Lazarus are there. Lazarus, you will remember, was just recently raised from the dead by Jesus. And we might also assume that Simon the Leper was healed by Jesus at some point previously as well, because the fact is that if he were still a leper, no one would have come to his house for dinner. He would have been an outcast from society. It’s obvious that he had been healed by Jesus at some point previously. So it’s a dinner party, and considering what has recently transpired, it was a happy occasion, perhaps even meant to be a celebration.
Now it was customary for the host to provide for foot washing at such events. That was normally taken care of by the servants of the host. In some wealthier homes, the attendees might even be anointed with perfume. That might be a luxury provided by a wealthy host. But in this case, as Jesus is reclining at the table, Mary comes in and begins to tend to Jesus in a most peculiar way.
Mark tells us that she had an alabaster vial of very costly perfume called nard. Nard would have been imported from India, and so it was very rare and valuable. And what is important to understand is that such vials were used as a way of storing wealth. Perfume such as this was like liquid gold, that was able to be stored and preserved for the future. Many people did not have access to savings accounts at banks such as we have today, and so this was a way of putting aside money for the future. Of course, it could be used in small amounts as well for special events, but for the most part it represented an investment. This particular ointment was kept in an alabaster vial, a translucent, glass vial that was expensive in it’s own right.
If you look further along in the text, you will notice that the disciples said this perfume might have been sold for 300 denarii. A denarius was equivalent to a day’s wage, so 300 denarii means that it was worth around $30,000, or close to a year’s wages. That’s a lot of money for perfume, or better yet, representative of a lifesavings.
But there is more to it than that, I believe. In those days, it was customary for a young woman to receive a dowry from her family to be used to help her acquire a husband. Now this worked both ways. On the one hand the bridegroom gave gifts to the parents, but the woman also had a dowry which was used as a financial gift to the groom from the brides family. Women were not considered in those times in the same way we think of them today. Marriage was many times a financial as well as a social arrangement. And so the dowry would sometimes be a financial incentive for a woman to get a husband. And without a husband, a woman had a very poor future. She was very limited in terms of owning property or having any sort of employment that would provide for her living.
However, it cannot be overstressed how important marriage was to a young woman in that society. Much like in our day, many young women look forward to and plan for their wedding day long before they even find a suitor, in hope that finding a husband will be the beginning of fulfilling their dream of children and a family. And it was even more true in that culture. So I believe that this alabaster vial of very expensive ointment was Mary’s dowry. And these vials of expensive perfume acted as a sort of savings account for the woman which would become her dowry which was given to her husband. And in the case that she didn’t find a husband, she could sell this perfume and it would help provide financially for her future.
So Mary comes to Jesus as He is seated at dinner, and she anoints Jesus, but in so doing she breaks the vial and pours it on His head and on His feet, and John even tells us that she washes His feet with her hair. What she did must have caused a tremendous affect on everyone there. It would have just stopped all dinner conversation. It would have caused everyone to stop eating and just stare in disbelief. It would have just been a magnificent act of extravagance that dumbfounded everyone present.
What Mary’s offering represented was an act of sacrificial love. It was a tremendous cost not only in terms of money, but even more telling, in terms of her future. It was as if she was saying that her love for the Lord was more important than that of the love of a future husband. She was putting all that she had hoped in for this life, in this great act of devotion for Jesus. I find it very similar to the widow of chapter 12, who in giving an offering in the temple gave two small coins, which Jesus said was all she had to live on. And consequently, when Jesus saw it, He said, this widow has given more than all the contributors, because she gave all that she had, all that she had to live on. Though Mary’s gift was considerably more valuable in terms of money, it was no less valuable in terms of worth as it represented all that she had hoped for in this world. And as such it illustrates the sacrificial, all encompassing love that we are to have for the Lord.
As I have mentioned previously, it’s reminiscent of the love of Jonathan for David. It was a noble love that David, as a type of Christ, said surpassed the love of a woman. That is the love we are to have for the Lord. It is not a romantic love, but a noble, sacrificial love. Our hope is not in a mate, not in finding a husband or wife, but our hope is in the Lord, and we love Him supremely above every human affection. And please understand that Mary’s love for the Lord was not a romantic love. It was on a higher level than sentimental, or romantic love. She loved the Lord more than life itself. More than all that this life might offer.
Mary’s act of love was not only sacrificial, it was extravagant. It would have been more reasonable to have poured out a few drops, or perhaps as much as a handful of the precious ointment. That would have been more than generous. But Mary broke the vial and lavished it’s contents on the head of feet of Jesus. Nothing could be gathered up and put back in the alabaster vial. It was spent, it was spilled, it was splashed over Him from His head to HIs toes. John’s gospel tells us that she wiped His feet with her hair. She kneels before Him and uses her hair to wipe Jesus’s feet. What a magnificent act of humility, what an extravagant expression of her love for Christ.
Then thirdly, Mary’s act of love effected everyone around them. Have you ever noticed when someone has put on a little too much perfume or cologne? There is an almost overwhelming, pungent aroma that pervades the room, or trails the person as they walk by. Well, Mary just emptied a pound of this extremely powerful, costly perfume on Jesus. And again, we look to John’s gospel for this detail, and he says the house was filled with the fragrance. I bet it was. In fact, I bet Jesus had this powerful aroma on His body and clothes for days afterward. In fact, Jesus alludes to that by saying to the disgruntled disciples, “she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.” I suppose that there was still the aroma of Mary’s perfume on His body when they laid the cat of nine tails against His back.
But her act of love not only anointed Jesus with the perfume, but she was covered with it as well. It was now on her hair. Her lavish gift of love for Christ anointed herself even as she was anointing Him. This is an illustration of the verse, “it is better to give than to receive.” For in giving to the Lord, you bless yourself. In loving the Lord, you are loved.
And not only did she bless herself, but it had an effect on all who were in the house. Everyone there had the aroma of this offering upon themselves. All of them left the house that night and carried with them the tangible reminder of this woman’s unabashed, unmeasured love for the Lord as a testimony to them. When we love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul and mind and strength, then the world will smell the pleasing aroma of that sacrificial love and it will be a testimony greater than any words can express.
In fact, Jesus said that her testimony was not only going to fill the house, effecting everyone present, but it would also stand throughout the ages to come as a testimony to future Christians of what unmitigated love for the Lord really looks like. Jesus said in vs9 "Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”
And I would suggest to you that when you truly love the Lord and worship Him with an all encompassing, sacrificial love like Mary had, then it’s going to start affecting others in your house. So you live with a husband who doesn’t care about things of the Lord? The answer is not to nag him to death, but to so love the Lord with an all encompassing, sacrificial love that he cannot help but be affected by it. Your kids don’t seem interested in the things of God? The answer is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And when you are consumed with the genuine love of God, that fragrance is going to affect everyone in your house. Every marital problem, every family problem, every sin problem, finds it’s solution by putting Christ first and foremost in every place in your life. When you get your love for the Lord right, then those other things are going to start to fall into place.
Well, though it should be obvious to all of us that Mary’s love is one to be emulated by generations of the church throughout the ages to come, yet it seemed to be a sore subject to the disciples. Mark tells us that some of the disciples were indignant. John, once again, gives us a little more detail. He says it was primarily Judas who was indignant. Perhaps Judas was just the most outspoken of the 12 concerning their indignation.
In vs4, they said, ““Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her. Notice that they considered the anointing of Jesus to be a waste of money. They saw it as throwing money down the drain. In actuality, Mary was transferring her savings from earth to heaven. She was storing up treasure for herself in heaven, rather than on earth.
The fact is, the disciples are only focused on the here and now. As we have seen, they have been squabbling over who will be the greatest in the kingdom. In just a day more, they will still be arguing about who is the greatest as they file into the upper room for the Passover Feast, blissfully unaware that this is Jesus’s last meal with them. But somehow, Mary has gotten a true sense of what is going to happen. Perhaps the fact that her brother had died and risen again helped her to understand better when Christ taught that the Son of Man would die and rise again. Or maybe it was the fact that when others were working in the kitchen, or arguing about who would be the greatest, Mary was found sitting at Jesus’s feet, soaking up the words being taught by the Savior. Somehow, God revealed to her that Jesus is going to die, and so she has taken this opportunity to anoint Him with her gift of love for His burial.
And that reveals yet another aspect of her love that needs to be emphasized. And that is the urgency and immediacy of her gift. Jesus said in vs 7, “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me.” In just a couple of days, Jesus would be arrested and crucified. The time for her sacrificial gift was now. Certainly, the disciples, especially Judas, were being hypocritical in their concern for the poor. John says Judas said that not because he was concerned about the poor but because he carried the bag and used to pilfer what was put in it.
But Mary recognizes the immediacy of the need to show her devotion for Christ. So many times we put off for tomorrow what should be done today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. The scriptures says, “Today is the acceptable day of salvation.” We think we have a lot of time left to serve the Lord. After I get this done I will really devote myself to the Lord. After I get to the next level in my job, after I get married, after I move to my new house, whatever our excuse, it’s just an excuse. Today is the acceptable day. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Love requires an immediate response. Now is the acceptable time to serve the Lord with all your heart.
But the contrast to Mary’s love is that Judas loved money more than he loved the Lord. He would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He loved money so much it really irritated him to see Mary lavishly give her life’s savings in one grand gesture of love. She gave $30000 to anoint Jesus for burial, and Judas sold Him out to be killed for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a common slave.
I’m sure most of us today are appalled at what Judas did. We may think that though we might not reach the height of sacrificial love that Mary had, we would never betray Jesus like Judas did. But perhaps we already have. Matt. 6:24 says, “No man 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. You cannot serve God and wealth.” And James 4:4 says, “You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” And finally, consider 1John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I’m afraid if we love the world, if we put the things of this world ahead of our love for the Lord, then we have done exactly what Judas did, in selling his soul for the temporal gain of this world. Mark 8:36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Let me remind you of something. Judas was close to the Lord. Judas was revered by the other disciples. He was part of the inner circle of Christ. He had a position of great privilege. He even participated in the healing and miracles and casting out of demons. By all measures, he was a leading member of Christ’s church. And yet, Jesus said he had a devil. He was the son of perdition. He sold out Jesus for a little bag of money. Our prominence in the church is not what counts before the Lord. Our position in the church is not an indication of our love for the Lord. Our esteem by others is not what counts before the Lord. It is the whole hearted love for the Lord from a pure heart that God sees which is what really matters.
That reminds me of another disciple. There was one of Paul’s disciples named Demas. He went with Paul on mission trips, he worked with Paul for a long time. But finally, Paul wrote, “Demas has deserted me, for he loved this present world.” He loved the world and the things of this world more than he loved the Lord, and as a result he deserted Paul. And Paul said that such “went out from us, because they were never part of us.” That’s the same story with Judas, though he was with Jesus and the other disciples for three years, yet his heart was never given completely to the Lord and so he went out from them and deserted Jesus and in the end he was destroyed by his own desires.
Let me just mention one final point in closing. And that is, even though Jesus was all knowing, and He knew that Judas was pilfering from the money box, yet Jesus never rebuked him, never had that “I got you!” moment with Judas. Right up to the very end, even when Judas was betraying Christ with a kiss, Jesus was giving Judas the opportunity to repent. The Bible says that the kindness of God draws you to repentance. Jesus was very patient with Judas.
That reminds me of the scripture which says, that in the days of Noah, the patience of God was kept waiting, waiting for men to repent of their wickedness. This idea that God is hiding around the corner with a baseball bat ready to whack you over the head if you get out of line is not biblical. God is patient, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Judas never did repent. He kept hardening his heart, until it says that Satan himself entered into him and he went out from the Lord. And as a result he never found forgiveness and hung himself in a fit of despair.
Well, we have seen two contrasting examples of how to love the Lord. The example of Mary, who gave all her hopes and dreams up to the Lord in a lavish, extravagant, sacrificial outpouring of love, or that of Judas, a self serving, self righteous love of the world and the things of the world. I wonder which example best describes us? I pray that I might be like Mary, and lay everything at the feet of my Savior and Lord. The good news is, even if we have fallen short, even if we have sold out the Lord time and time again for the temporal pleasures of this world, the Lord is patiently offering us a chance to repent and be forgiven. But the time is now. Don’t put off until tomorrow what the Lord wants from you today. Today is the acceptable day of salvation.
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