Monday 20th March
Read John 12:1-8
“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about half a litre of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’ 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7 ‘Leave her alone,’ Jesus replied. ‘It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.’” (NIVUK)
John recounts two meals before Jesus’ death. The first is this ‘dinner’ (‘deipnon’ in the Greek) six days before Passover. The second ‘dinner’ is Jesus’ last meal, on the night He was betrayed. We are far more familiar with the second dinner than the first but I suspect John wants us to draw comparisons between these two meals. Both meals involve the washing of feet, both involve Judas, and both refer to Jesus’ death. We are meant to contrast Mary and Judas in this first meal and consider their response to Jesus and the motivation behind them. We will consider Judas later, but like John, it is best to pause and reflect on Mary’s amazing act and consider her motivation.
Jonathan Edwards, a great 18th century American preacher, considered Mary’s behaviour shocking. Shocking because it was so useless. It was useless to Jesus because he was still alive. All it would achieve is that he would smell good for a few hours. It was also useless to Mary. She was winning no favours from Jesus as her brother had already been raised (cf John 11). There was no earthly purpose to her act. It flowed entirely from what Jesus had already done and is therefore a perfect picture of faith. What this famous act did was declare unequivocally and passionately that Jesus was the most important person in the world to her – worthy of worship simply because of who he is not what can be gained from him. Useless, passionate, shocking worship.
One suspects that Mary herself, rather than be embarrassed at the expense she has lavished upon her Lord, was more embarrassed at how small and tokenistic it was. Though the perfume was worth a year’s salary, she considered it incomparable to his worth. Mary would sing the final verse of that great Isaac Watts hymn wholeheartedly. Would you join her?
“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
