If you would, open your Bibles to John chapter 12. John 12. We're at the halfway point through the book of John. And yet, the next 9 chapters are actually all just one week of Jesus' life. John really slows down, from here on out, to focus in on the road to the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:If you cheat ahead and you look in the next few chapters, you're gonna notice lots of words in red. They are some of the richest chapters in all of the bible. But tonight, we are in chapter 12. This is 6 days before the Passover, the last week of Jesus' life that this text happens. I'll begin reading in verse 1.
Jeffrey Heine:6 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 the 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.
Jeffrey Heine:But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples he was about to betray Him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii 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. And Jesus said, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.
Jeffrey Heine:When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on the account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests 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. And pray with me. Our Father, we ask that through your Spirit, you would soften our hearts and ready them to receive your word.
Jeffrey Heine:Spirit of God, we ask that you would make Jesus beautiful to us, irresistibly attractive. Jesus, may you draw all people to yourself. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, and now He's back in Lazarus' hometown of Bethany. The sisters, Martha and Mary, are preparing a dinner for him. This is really a celebratory feast more than a dinner. It's a feast of thanksgiving to Jesus for raising their brother from the dead.
Jeffrey Heine:We know from the other gospels that this was done at Simon the leper's house. Likely it was Simon the former leper. I would just imagine it'd be kind of awkward if Jesus didn't heal Simon and He had healed Lazarus. So I'm just assuming that He had healed and it was Simon, the former leper. And what you're getting here is this great picture of post resurrection life.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what this is. Here you see people who, who've been redeemed, they've been healed, they've been given new life, and now they are sitting at the table with Jesus, eating. This is a picture of being seated in the heavenlies with Christ. I can imagine them going around and telling lots of stories, stories how they encountered Jesus, stories how they were healed. They're probably all trying to, you know, one up one another.
Jeffrey Heine:You have Simon the leper telling his story, and then of course, it always gets to Lazarus and ends with Lazarus. You can't one up a guy who came back from the dead. I was actually in a small group one time, no lie, and we're briefly sharing our testimonies. And the guy before me, he was sharing, he was a hellion. You know, he's telling about his life, and he goes, of course, all this changed after I died and then was brought back.
Jeffrey Heine:And I'm like, he literally, he had an accident and he died. He was dead for over a minute, and then they brought him back. And I could just tell you, you don't wanna follow that guy in a testimony, like, that's not who you want there. But I had to follow him. I actually love it that Lazarus here never says a word, actually never says a word in scripture, And yet he is one of the greatest witnesses to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:People don't wanna put Mary to death or Martha to death, but people want to put Lazarus to death because his mere presence just testifies to the greatness of Jesus. During this feast, we see 2 sisters serving Jesus in their own unique way. They're very different people, Martha and Mary. Martha is task oriented. She's practical.
Jeffrey Heine:She's rational, logical. She's the one who gets things done. Mary is is more emotional. Mary feels things very deeply. We saw this earlier in both of their reactions to Jesus after Lazarus had died.
Jeffrey Heine:Martha could go and meet Jesus on the road, and she was pretty put together. And she could interact with Jesus, and she could even take some truth, and she could incorporate it and believe some things. And then you have her sister, Mary, who just fell apart. She felt things so deeply, she couldn't even go to meet Jesus. When Jesus finally called her and she came, she literally collapses at His feet, overcome with emotion.
Jeffrey Heine:2 very different sisters here, but now we see both of them in their unique personalities, in their unique gifting, serving the Lord, all for the glory of Jesus. Jesus doesn't rebuke Martha as she is in the kitchen in the gospel of Luke in another occasion, because she's no longer just the busy body, you know, the martyr that's in the kitchen, I'm just doing so much. Nobody here's to help. She's no longer that, she's using her gifts for the glory of God. And she's using her gifts to fill the entire house with an aroma, the aroma of baking bread and good cooking.
Jeffrey Heine:And then Mary is using her gifts, her personality as well. And she is filling the house with the aroma of perfume. But both of them are using their gifts for the glory of God. Lazarus, I don't know what he's doing. He's just sitting there, grinning at the table, and that's kinda what I picture him the whole time, never saying a word.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe that's his gifting, just being there. In verse 3, verse 3, we read these words. 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. This word therefore lets us know that this this wasn't a spontaneous act. This was a a planned act on Mary's part.
Jeffrey Heine:Everybody is getting to honor Jesus in their own unique way, and now it's Mary's turn. And then John, who's telling this story, he now slows down, and he focuses in. He wants you in the room, in the house, watching this happen. And so I want us to take some time to slow down and to savor these actions of Mary. And we're gonna look at 3 things.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna look at the sacrifice of Mary. We're gonna look at the humility of Mary, and we're gonna look at the intimacy of Mary. Let's look at the sacrifice. I won't bore you with all of the details about nard. It's an expensive perfume.
Jeffrey Heine:You can only get the ingredients from it in the foothills of the Himalayans. Alright? You can't go to a Macy's and buy this. Alright? This is a a Saks Fifth Avenue behind the counter.
Jeffrey Heine:Ask for the manager. He will show it to you. If you have to ask how much it is, you can't afford it. That's that's this kind of perfume that it is here. We would put the price tag at $30,000 for this perfume.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a a better way to think of it. This is a $30,000 bottle of champagne, if you will, in which Mary is going to bring out for this occasion. She's gonna shake it up, pop the cork, and she's just gonna kinda spray Jesus with it, alright? Because I don't know anybody who would waste their money on perfume, but that's what we would do to celebrate, alright? 30,000 It's festive.
Jeffrey Heine:This is celebratory. This is unbridled celebration for who Jesus is, for what He has done for her. Now we know that this nard cost this much because Judas instantly calculates the price in his head. He prices it at 300 denarii or a year's salary, but not Mary. Love isn't love if it's calculated, if you calculate the cost.
Jeffrey Heine:Mary's only regret, if she had any, was that she she didn't have anything more to give. But Judas, he's instantly, he's calculating the cost, and and in his head, he is thinking that this is a total waste. Mary is being unreasonable. She's being impractical, illogical. I mean, you could just get a few drops, okay?
Jeffrey Heine:Just a few drops on the feet and we're all gonna smell this. Jesus would be good. You don't have to to waste it all. Now it's tempting when we read this to, to want to put ourselves in Mary's shoes instead of Judas'. I mean, because this is Judas.
Jeffrey Heine:Who wants who wants to be Judas? Alright? But the thing is, we probably side with Judas in this. I mean, we would probably have the exact same thoughts. It's likely the disciples were having the same thoughts, like, oh my gosh.
Jeffrey Heine:I can't believe she is doing this. I mean, how can Mary waste so much money on this one act of adoration, especially when there are so many poor and hurt people in that day who would have been right outside these walls. And that's a lot of money. If you were thrifty, somebody could feed, clothe and house their entire family for a year off of this. I could picture, you know, Mary, she's she's pouring this on Jesus's feet, and it's literally just spilling off his feet and onto the ground, and I just kinda picture Judas like this nervous little twitch.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, his veins are just bulging. He's angry. He can't believe this is happening. I've met a lot of Judases in my life. I've been Judas in my life.
Jeffrey Heine:When I was in college ministry, I got to see a lot of college students come to know the Lord, which was great to see, and a lot of times, I get to meet their parents afterwards, and their parents would come up so appreciative, and this is how a lot of the conversations would go. Oh, we're just, we're just so appreciative and so proud of our boy that he's found his place. We're just really glad that, you know, he's kept out of trouble. We're just really glad that he's kinda found a place to belong and a sense of community here, and that's their takeaway from this. And then when their child starts actually really showing displays of love to Jesus or really trying to obey Him, maybe they feel called to go on the mission field or called to go to seminary, or maybe they feel called to give some of their money away.
Jeffrey Heine:And then the parents are like, what in the world have you gotten yourselves into? Like, oh, put on the brakes here. I mean, come on, all things in moderation. Let's not go all in here. But here, Mary's not tapping the brakes.
Jeffrey Heine:She's hitting the gas. Alright? Unbridled joy, popping the cork, spraying it all over Jesus. $30,000 wasted in this moment. The difference between Mary and Judas was not in knowing how much the bottle of perfume was worth.
Jeffrey Heine:It was in knowing how much Jesus was worth. That's the difference between them. Judas didn't think Jesus was worthy of such an honor, but Mary knew that $30,000 was not near enough, near enough to honor such a man. Jesus had raised her brother from the dead. This is not just a mere man.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the son of God. And no gift can be too large for him. No sacrifice too great, no honor too large for this man. We find out later exactly what Jesus Judas thought Jesus was worth. 30 pieces of silver, which comes to about $1,000.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look at this humility of Mary. Mary knelt down, and she washed Jesus's feet with her hair. If you've grown up in church, vacation bible school, you've probably heard all about foot washings. This is this is a task that was reserved for gentile slaves, certainly not for Jewish women. Yet here, we see Mary humbling herself and kneeling at his feet.
Jeffrey Heine:And more than that, but she she takes on her hair, and she begins to wash his feet with her hair. Now, a woman's hair was her glory. So she's literally, she's stripping herself of her glory at this moment, and she was saying, the most beautiful thing about me is only worthy to wash your feet. The most beautiful thing about me is is best not used for my glory, but for yours. Not to honor myself, but to serve my king.
Jeffrey Heine:And so she, in this moment, she is saying that my desire is not for people to be attracted to me, but to be people to be attracted to you. Not for people to think of my worth, but for people to think of your worth. She literally humbles herself, lets her hair down. She is making much of Jesus. To understand what's going on here, we might need to throw away our most common understanding of humility.
Jeffrey Heine:Humble person is one who thinks that they don't personally hold any value or that they are unworthy. A humble person who's always going around saying, I'm unworthy, I'm unworthy, but that is mistaken. Humility is not unworthiness. Humility is a declaration of worth. It's when you're declaring the worth of another.
Jeffrey Heine:You're always pointing to the value of another. And by washing Jesus's feet with her hair, she is saying, not that I'm unworthy, but she is saying that Jesus is worthy of all honor, and there is no dignity that is beneath me. No devotion is beneath my dignity. Once again, when we look at this, we see the difference between Judas and Mary, because Judas thinks himself of great, great value and worthy of all these things. We know this because he used to steal from the money bag.
Jeffrey Heine:I guess the way we could put a label on that is Judas felt entitled. He felt entitled. He thought Jesus owed him a little something, because he's given up a whole lot to follow Jesus. I know once again we like to throw Judas under the bus, but has anybody given 3 years of their life away from their home to follow Jesus around, to live in in pretty much poverty? Judas did that, and he thought, you know what?
Jeffrey Heine:I've served so hard. I've served so long. I've done so many good things. God God owes me a little. He owes me a little, and so he would skim a little off the top.
Jeffrey Heine:Judas was a good guy doing good things. So of course, God owed him. And this is the very definition of self righteousness. A self righteous person says, God, you owe me. But Mary here is declaring, Jesus, you owe me nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:I owe you everything. I find it fascinating that Mary, she's we only see her 3 times in the gospel of John. All three times, she's at the feet of Jesus. So Mary's preferred position is being at his feet. Let's look at intimacy.
Jeffrey Heine:Be honest. Do you have a hard time picturing this scene ever happening at a church? Do you? I mean, it's it's pretty charismatic. I mean, it's pretty out there.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, for me, it's a little too emotional, way too artsy, you know, what's happening. It's unpresbyterian like. I grew up Baptist. It's unbaptist like. Some of you probably felt uncomfortable even as you were kinda reading through this.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, I've I've seen it. There's times if a person says amen or claps, you kinda like just scoot aside, and you you look at them. I mean, that makes you feel uncomfortable, But here, it's it's like we're witnessing something we're not supposed to witness, like we're almost invading somebody's private space. The the word that I would use here to describe this scene is intimate. You see, a woman in this day was not supposed to ever let down her hair outside of her home.
Jeffrey Heine:That was that was where she let down her hair in the presence of her husband and the privacy of her own home. If she let down her hair in public, it was actually grounds for divorce. It was scandalous. One commentator that I read said, Mary letting down her hair is the equivalent of a a lady hiking up her dress mid thigh. Kinda draw all the attention of the people around.
Jeffrey Heine:It's pretty scandalous. But what's happening here is it's it's not sexual. It's intimate. This is a woman who loves Jesus, and she does not care what you think about it. She is going to display her love for Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:She will not be restrained in her worship. And you know what? Jesus is not repelled by this. He is attracted to this. Jesus does not rebuke her.
Jeffrey Heine:He's completely at ease. He's completely comfortable with what she is doing before him. Everybody else is cringing as they're watching this. You know, parents covering the eyes of their children. You know, I I can picture like the women just kinda whispering to one another, kinda like, can you believe she is doing this, the indecency?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, like, this is happening and people are cringing, but Jesus is just welcoming it. He's completely at ease. We know from the other gospels that she also anointed His head. And so here's a woman literally, you know, hiking up her skirt, touching Jesus head to toe, and Jesus says, I welcome that intimacy. I welcome it.
Jeffrey Heine:After all, we are his bride, and he is our groom. There's a lot of application points here, but let me just give you 2. One, your worship needs to be full of emotion. You might be more than just an emotional being, but you are certainly not less, and your worship demands emotion. 2, it demands a forgetfulness of yourself, a self forgetfulness, where you're not putting on a show, thinking about what you look like before others.
Jeffrey Heine:You're not even aware of what you're doing. You just wanna be close to Jesus. You're not calculating the cost of your worship, calculating the actions. That's what Judas does. That's not what Mary does.
Jeffrey Heine:Judas cared about what others thought. Mary cared about what Jesus thought, and Jesus thought what she was doing was beautiful. I love the detail that John adds in verse 3 when he says that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. I love that. The aroma of Mary's worship lingered, and it's lingered for 2000 years.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you know people like this? People who worship Jesus so dearly that they let off an aroma. I mean, I love this. What you're seeing here is is Mary, she she strips herself of her glory, and she she puts it at Jesus's feet and she intimately worships Him. And as she's working her hair into His feet, you know what, she walks away smelling like Him.
Jeffrey Heine:She she walks away and Jesus and her smell the same way. There's this aroma of Christ because she laid her glory down and she adored him. It's worship. It's a beautiful, beautiful picture of worship. So we've looked at sacrifice.
Jeffrey Heine:We've looked at humility, and we have looked at intimacy, but if if I were to just put one word to this story, it would be adoration. This story is about adoration. Mary does not come to Jesus and ask for anything. She doesn't say, I need refreshing. She doesn't come to him to hear a sermon.
Jeffrey Heine:She comes only to adore him. This is a picture of adoration, and you wanna know what the engine of adoration is, what drives adoration? It's beauty. Beauty is the engine of adoration. We adore what we find beautiful.
Jeffrey Heine:I have found that beauty makes me a waster of time, energy, and money. If you're at the beach and there's a beautiful sunset, what do you do? You look at the sunset. You just kinda stand there, and you watch the sun go down, because it's beautiful. Now, technically, that is a total waste of time.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? You could be doing so many more productive things. You could be learning to play the violin. You know, you could be reading a book on on physics. You could be going and serving the poor.
Jeffrey Heine:You you could be doing something, but instead you're just standing there like a bump on the log doing nothing. Beauty makes you waste time. We waste our money on what we find to be beautiful. We will gladly spend money on some kind of art that captivates us. So if there's a painting that you absolutely love, you don't think anything about spending a whole lot of money for that painting because it's beautiful.
Jeffrey Heine:If there's music you absolutely love, you you find to be beautiful, you will drop so much money going to concerts. To do what? Just stand and behold. That's all you're doing is you're standing and you're beholding what you find to be beautiful. Beauty makes you a waster of time.
Jeffrey Heine:It makes you a waste waster of your money. Beauty shapes what we do. Another way of saying this is that delight drives our deeds. Delight drives our deeds. Judas found money to be beautiful, and this ultimately drove him to betray Jesus and to sell him out for money.
Jeffrey Heine:And it is also suicidal. Mary found Jesus to be beautiful, and this led Mary, in her joy, to waste her time, her money, and her dignity before him. Let me ask you. Do you ever waste anything before Jesus? Do you ever waste your time before him?
Jeffrey Heine:Now, I know you have a crazy schedule. Everybody has a crazy schedule. Alright? Everybody in the South, their plate is full, and there are no more bandwidth. Whatever language you're gonna use.
Jeffrey Heine:I realize you have a crazy schedule. But do you ever waste time? You're wasting time on other things that you find beautiful, or are you wasting time before Jesus, just setting aside time to simply sit before Him? And you're not asking Him for anything. You're not studying anything.
Jeffrey Heine:You're just beholding and adoring. When I was in college ministry, when fall was coming around, that's your busy season, I would get my staff together, and I'd say, okay, this is what we're gonna do. We are we're gonna take 30 minutes and just waste time with Jesus. I know there's just a ton we need to do, but what I want us to do is just a 30 minute block. I want you to read.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't want you to ask for anything in prayer. I want you to just say, Jesus, you are worth me just sitting and beholding and wasting time. You ever waste your money before Him? Let me tell you what. You cannot follow Jesus and not waste money for him.
Jeffrey Heine:You see it all through scripture, that Jesus is gonna demand that you give to things. Do you waste money before him? Listen. Your heart is going to find something beautiful. It can't stand a vacuum.
Jeffrey Heine:You can't just have nothing in your heart. It will always find something beautiful. The question, is it Jesus? Whatever you find beautiful, whatever you delight in, that's gonna drive your deeds. If you have a hard time with adoration, and I, at times, have a hard time with adoration, focus on these two things.
Jeffrey Heine:Focus on what Mary focused on. She focused on the resurrection of Jesus, or the resurrecting power of Jesus. Jesus had just raised her brother from the dead, giving us a picture of life to come. Focus on that. And then she also focused on the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:She's doing more than she knows, but Jesus says, hey, she wasn't gonna save it from a burial, but she's using it here. And somehow, she had this sense that not only did Jesus did he, could he bring back life, but Jesus was about to lay down his life. And when she thought of those two things, the one who brought her brother back from the dead and the one who was about to sacrifice himself, when she thought of those two things, it led her to the feet of Jesus in adoration. And I would say one more thing. If still, you're like, I know I need to adore.
Jeffrey Heine:I know I need to have joy, but it's just it's just not there. I mean, those commands for an emotion are the most frustrating commands. You read in the Bible, it's like, rejoice. You're like, how do you make yourself just rejoice? You know, you can't.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a gift from God to change your heart. So if your heart's not changed, what do you do? Now, I would say this. Have the posture of Mary, and then pray that God changes your heart. Take the time to kneel.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm not saying be a hypocrite. I'm not. I'm saying take the time to kneel before Him, to go through those motions of thinking of his sacrifice, thinking of the resurrection, thinking of adoration, all the while repenting that you're not adoring, saying, God, change my heart. I want you to change my heart. I would encourage you to do that.
Jeffrey Heine:When I look at this story, I am so challenged to simply kneel and to worship, to come and to adore, and to waste my time, my energy, and my money before my king. Pray with me. Jesus, I pray that we would know your worth, that you are the pearl of great price. It's worth selling everything we have in order to, in our joy, buy it. Lord, I'm thinking of the hymn, were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a gift would be a gift far too small.
Jeffrey Heine:For love so amazing, so divine, demands my heart, my life, my all. And I pray that would be true with us, that we would know your worth so much that there would be no gift, no gift that would be too large for you. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.