The 5th Sunday of Lent - John 12:1-8 - Mary's Lavish Expression of Love for Jesus

This past Sunday the piece of scripture which I selected from the Lectionary offerings was the 12th Chapter of the Gospel of John, verses 1 through 8.  This passage concerns a 'celebration supper' in the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  The celebration is due to Jesus having raised Lazarus from the grave in the previous Chapter in the Gospel story.

But, before we go any further, let's take a look at the verses themselves...

John 12:1-8  (NRSV)  "Mary Anoints Jesus"

12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

So, here we have Mary once again at the feet of Christ just as we found her in Luke 10:39.  But, here in John we find Mary not focused upon Jesus' words and teachings, but rather in a state of worship and adoration.  Mary is anointing Jesus' feet with a very fine and very pricey perfume.   Modern commentaries estimate that this perfume's volume was approximately 12 ounces and if we were to convert the value to our modern dollar it would be somewhere in the range of $12,000.00, a pretty pricey product to say the very least.

This is extremely lavish love that she is heaping upon Jesus, and to make it even more startling... she is using her own hair to wipe this precious ointment upon his feet.  Now, there are a number of things that we can take away from this passage (and I've gone deeper into this in the actual sermon, the video is linked) but perhaps the most poignant is the lavishness and intimacy of this act.

Mary does not care what others may consider of her act, she has let her hair down in order to be even nearer to her beloved Lord Jesus.  Now, we need to remember that in Jewish culture an adult woman (other than a prostitute) would never let her hair down in any company other than that of her husband.  Here she has let her hair down and has used it to apply this very expensive perfume to Christ's feet.  This is an act of intimate and lavish love... this is a model of how we are to love our Lord in like fashion.  Not in a literal reenactment of this scene but rather in our spirit, we are called to love our Lord intimately and lavishly... just as our God loves us.  God loves each of us with an intimacy and a lavishness that is beyond our own comprehension.

Also in these verses we see Judas reacting to this extreme display of excess.  He rightly points out that from a strictly pragmatic stance, this is wasteful behavior, but the Gospel writer quickly points out that Judas' heart wasn't in the right place, rather than being worried about the poor, he only wanted the monies in the common purse so he could have access to them.  Jesus steps in on Mary's behalf and defends this extreme act of worship, he rightly points out that there will always be poor in this world but he in the flesh would not always be among us. (of course in spirit he remains with us always)

Here we see Judas criticizing how Mary has chosen to display and act in her devotion and worship of her Lord; perhaps we can take away from this exchange the thought that we should never let others opinions or criticism influence how we feel compelled to live out our worship, love and adoration of our all loving and gracious God.  Let us never be afraid to publicly, lavishly and intimately love our Lord.

Remember to be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ!
Roy