John 12-13
Notes
Transcript
Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
According to Eastman’s Bible Dictionary, spikenard “is the root of an Indian plant, the Nardostachys jatamansi, of the family of Valeriance, growing on the Himalaya mountains. It is distinguished by its having many hairy spikes shooting out from one root.” The ointment prepared from the root was highly valued. Spikenard symbolized the very best in ancient cultures the way that “Tiffany diamond” or the “gold standard” does to us.
Spikenard had a unique fragrance, and the presence of its aroma was an indication that the very best had been offered. In the Song of Solomon, spikenard is mentioned in reference to the love between bride and groom.
“Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”
Denarii is one days salary. So almost a years wages.
But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also,
One tradition holds that, after Jesus’ ascension back into heaven, Lazarus and his sisters moved to Cyprus where Lazarus became the bishop of Kition and died of natural causes in AD 63. Another theory claims that Lazarus and his sisters moved to Gaul to preach the gospel, and Lazarus became the bishop of Marseilles, where he was beheaded under the tyranny of Emperor Domitian.
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
And the potential of one wheat seed is tremendous. If you would take a kernel of corn and plant it, and then take from that one kernel of corn all of the seeds that came off the kernels that grew from the one, plant them. I think it is in ten years that you would have enough corn seed to plant every acre of ground on the face of the earth with corn. Just each year planting everything that came from the one.
You see, when God created the plants and all, He said, "Be fruitful, multiply. Fill the earth." And surely, the potential is there. And so, Jesus is using a neat little illustration here, referring to His death. "Look, unless it dies, it stays by itself. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit."
But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him,
Our brains are an interesting instrument, and we can create brain patterns, so that a repeated action can create such a pattern in our brain that it's difficult and, at times, impossible to change the pattern that you've established there.
You watch a woman learn to knit and the needles just seem to go everywhere and it's slow, it's tedious. But as she continues to persist, you find that what's happening is you're patterning the brain, you're establishing grooves up here.
After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
Duty of a slave or servant. Girding a towel.
Now, the washing of the feet was a common practice in the Roman baths. After they had left the bath and returned to the dressing room, they would pick up dirt on their feet walking through. And so, they would always wash their feet when they got back to the dressing room before they got dressed and left.
That would be their first act in returning to the dressing room, to remove the dirt picked up on the bottom of their feet, walking from the bath to the dressing room. They were totally clean, they had just been in the bath for maybe an hour or two, but they did pick up some dirt or defilement walking from the bath to the dressing room.
Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
The dipping of a sop and handing it to a person in those days was equivalent to toasting a person. Now today, sometimes at functions and all, they'll give a toast to somebody. It's a gesture of friendship.