The Road to Calvary: Bethany
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We have been following the Journey of Jesus as he left Galilee and is heading towards Jerusalem.
We followed him first to the region of Samaria, where we learned that the people God can use the most are often the ones we least expect, and that when the right person comes to Christ, they lead others to him.
Then we followed his detour down to Jericho, Where God has repeatedly done the impossible, and that when we follow Jesus, we can expect impossible things to happen.
Now Jesus is making his way up from Jericho, (lowest city on earth, the only way to go is up) and he comes to a couple of villages outside of Jerusalem, Bethany and Bethphage.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
Okay So Jesus comes to Bethany, a town on the Mount of Olives, just East of Jerusalem, and his friend Lazarus is there.
If we look just one chapter earlier in John we read about the last time Jesus Visited Lazarus and his sisters.
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The Last time Jesus was in Bethany he brought someone back to life from the dead, after he had been dead for several days.
This is even more important to understand, as Bethany, is on the mount of olives, there are hundreds if not thousands of tombs on the mount of olives. It is a place where death is everywhere, and jesus comes in and brings someone back to life.
Death cannot stop the power or love of God, and the Bible promises that those who have died in Christ will rise again anew.
And Here is Jesus proving that he has the power to do so, when the time is right.
TO the people standing around this is Jesus fulfilling a prophecy from the book of Ezekiel
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
Jesus comes to Bethany, on the mount of olives, where the valley between the MT of Olives and Jerusalem is filled with tombs full of dry bones, and he opens a gave and calls a dead man to come out.
So now it is very clear that jesus is the Messiah, and there are people who don’t like that,
After Jesus did this he was forced to flee back to Galilee, because the religious leaders did not want him upsetting the status quo, and were seeking to kill him.
Now in John 12 Jesus is coming back.
Six 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 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. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred 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 moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Mary the one who was angriest at Jesus when Lazarus died, comes in to the house and pours a pound (a roman measurement about a soda can’s worth) of Nard - an expensive fragrace that came all the way from india or China.
Based on Judas’s reaction we learn that one pound is worth 300 denarii - a years worth of wages for a laborer,
In today’s money that is roughly $45,000. making this jar of perfume on par with one of the top ten most expensive perfumes in the world by todays standards.
it is a small fortune. perhaps to be sold to use for Mary’s dowry when she was to be married, and she pours it on Jesus’s feet.
that does seem wasteful.
But it was mary’s act of worship.
Matthew Mark and Luke also tell of this moment
Matthew and Mark reveal that they are in the house of someone called The Leper, and Luke reveals that Simon the Leper was a pharisee.
Homework, look those other passages up.
This perfume would have been so strong that Jesus over one week later, would have still been able to smell it as he was dying on the cross.
It would have been the last thing he smelled as he died.
the part of your brain that processes smells is right next to the part of your brain that records memory, so smells can often trigger memories.
As jesus was being crucified, being whipped over and over, having nails driven into his hands and feet, having people mock him on all sides, He would of smelled mary’s perfume. And would have that memory of one person worshipping him with everything she had on his mind as he was dying.
And while he was in the tomb, it would have been the only scent keeping away the scent of death, because they did not get a chance to properly prepare his body for burial.
which means when jesus rose from the dead, it was the first thing he smelled.
Church, never get too caught up in ministry that you forget to worship your savior.
Church so many of the offerings in the old testament are burned and create “a pleasing aroma to the LORD” we don’t offer sacrifices like that any more, but we can worship God by how we live.
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
Church let us be the fragrance of Christ to the World, and let us take time to worship our savior, the one who conquers sin and death.
How do we worship Jesus like Mary?
Sit at his feet.
The first time we meet mary and Martha and Lazarus we learn something interesting.
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Church Lets take time to sit at Jesus’s feet, and learn his teaching, and then we take what we learned, and we take that to others.
Let’s not let service get in the way of worship, but let our service be worship.
There has to be a balance.