The Devotion of Mary

Introduction

So what do you guys think of when you think about someone who is very devoted to something?

Obsessed

Spend a lot of time

Think about it all the time

Follow it all the time

And what are some of the things people are devoted to?

Sports

Politics

Environmental causes

But what today’s passage shows us is Christian devotion. And when I think about devotion in the Bible, one of the first people I think of is Mary. She is always at Jesus feet, clinging onto him, her eyes are always fixed on him, there is nothing that occupies her mind more than Jesus Christ.

And why is devotion important for the Christian? Because as Christians, we are all called to be devoted to Christ.

What’s the first commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

What does Jesus say? He says ‘No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.’ You cannot be devoted to God and something else at the same time, it’s one or the other. (Matt 6:24)

What does Revelation say? ‘Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth’ (Rev 3:16). Christians cannot be half hearted towards Jesus, we cannot be lukewarm - God calls us to be hot, devoted towards him only.

And Mary is the perfect example to show what Christian devotion looks like.

Let’s read the passage together.

Mary’s Devotion

In this passage, you’ve got a scene with Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Jesus, and Judas. Martha is busy preparing the meal, cooking, cleaning, etc. Then you’ve got Lazarus who was recently resurrected from the dead - I sort of see him comfortably sitting back in the chair on the dining table with his hands on his belly having a good time.

But then, this passage fixes its attention on two people: Mary & Judas. And by comparing them, John teaches us a few important lessons.

The first thing this passage does is it shows Mary’s complete devotion, love, adoration for Jesus. Her eyes are completely fixed on Jesus, and Jesus is everything to her. There must be something wrong with her, because whenever you read about Mary, she’s never standing, she’s always at Jesus’ feet! Has she never heard of a chair?

But all this is to show how completely and utterly devoted she is to Jesus. And this passage shows us Mary’s devotion is (1) costly, (2) humble, and (3) courageous (4) timely.

First we see her devotion is costly. Read John 12:3–5 “3 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. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?””

This perfume was expensive! It was something worth 300 denarii which was roughly the equivalent of a person’s 1 year’s salary. But despite how expensive this perfume was, Mary saw how much more valuable and worthy Jesus was than any amount of money or possession, and she was willing to give anything and everything in her life for him.

So devotion as a Christian can be costly, but when you know how valuable Jesus is, that cost pales in comparison. And rather than being sad over how much you are losing, you rejoice in the infinite value you get in Jesus Christ.

Mary’s devotion is also incredibly humble. If we read John 12:3, we see Mary is at Jesus’ feet, not only sitting on the ground, but she is wiping his feet with her hair. In the day’s of Jesus, this was something that was incredibly self-deprecating, something very shameful. The reason was back in those days, one of the few rights slaves got to enjoy was that they had the right not to wipe or clean the feet of their masters. Although society looked down upon slaves, they still thought that slaves shouldn’t be made to clean the feet of their masters. So not even in the lowest of the low in that society wiped the feet of others. But here we have Mary wiping the feet of Jesus. For Mary, Jesus is of all, central, singular importance to her, that she doesn’t care about her pride, her ego, her status, her rights - all she cared about was Jesus Christ. So Mary’s devotion, allows herself to bring herself down, so that Jesus can be magnified.

Mary’s devotion was also courageous. Not only did she wipe Jesus’ feet, but she wiped her feet with her hair. This was something that would attract judgement and attacks of people around her. This is because back in those days, women were required to have their hair bound up, and it was extremely scandalous for a woman to unbind her hair in public - her hair was only to be unbound with her husband or with close family members at home. To unbind your hair in public, your husband could divorce you - that’s how serious it was. But she does not care about the consequences - she has the courageous to look past any judgement or punishment, if it is all for the sake of serving and devoting herself to Jesus. So her devotion was courageous.

Lastly, Mary’s devotion was timely. Read John 12:8 “8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”” Yes, she could have sold the perfume to help the poor, but Mary recognised that she wasn’t going to have Jesus physically in person at her house forever. She recognised the preciousness and uniqueness of the moment of Jesus being at her house, and she jumped on the opportunity. She didn’t delay - she recognised the time, and latched onto it, and devoted herself to Christ.

So Mary is a beautiful example of what devotion looks like. Mary is the perfect person to look to in the Bible to see what our hearts should be towards Jesus. Yes, on one hand the Christian life brings with it the greatest joy and wonder, greater than anything this world has to offer. But on the other hand, as we devote ourselves to Christ, it can be:

Costly. What are you doing in your Christian walk that is costly for Christ? Or do you feel as though there is nothing in your life that you are sacrificing for Christ?

Our Christian life is also meant to be humbling. Do we place anything in ourselves, our pride, our ego, above Jesus? Do we prioritise making ourselves look good before we make Jesus look good to others?

Our Christian life is also meant to be courageous, because there are aspects of being a Christian that will bring the judgement and negativity from others. Does your Christian life stand out from the people around you, which may draw judgement? Or do you just try to fit in with everyone else, even if it is at the cost of Jesus Christ?

And the Christian life is also meant to be timely. Jesus is asking you to devote yourself to him today, now. Not once you are done with your fun phase in life. Not once you are done with your studies. Or once you finish whatever you have planned and then you can serve him. Jesus wants your heart today, in the now.

Judas’ Mind

If Mary shows the beauty of the Christian life through her devotion, Judas shows us the opposite. He shows us the fake Christian life, the lukewarm Christian life, because in contrast to Mary, he does not have devotion to Jesus. He was a disciple but Jesus, but his mind, and his heart, was so different to Mary’s.

Firstly, his mind. The mind of Judas, unlike Mary, was not fixed Jesus Christ. If we read verse 5, we see that Judas is more interested in selling the ointment to donate to the poor, rather than using it for Jesus. In one sense, this seems like a noble good cause, because he is trying to help the poor. But what he’s really doing, is shifting the focus of his Christian life from Christ, to the practical aspects, liking helping the poor.

And the problem with this is, Judas is placing all these practical aspects over devoting himself to Jesus. It’s like coming to church, and making all the church-y things more important than Jesus: spending time with your church friends, serving and volunteering in church, getting ready for the mission trip. But when you make these things the priority, and it causes you forget about Christ, what happens is you separate practical service at church, from Jesus Christ. It becomes an either/or: you either focus your attention on Christ and fail to serve practically, or you focus your attention on practically doings things for the church but you get so busy you forget about Christ.

But this is wrong, because they always go hand-in-hand. Devotion to Christ, should spur you on to practical service. When you fall at Jesus’ feet like Mary, and look up to him with all that we have, we see someone, who devoted everything that he had for us first. And when we see that, our response should be devotion, praise, worship, but also practical service for him.

(SKIP - Read John 12:8 “For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” What Jesus is saying here is not, ‘don’t serve the poor’ (we should as Christians), but what he’s saying is get your priorities right! Jesus is saying, focus on me first. Just like Mary, fixate all your energy, attention, and love, dedication, devotion, to me. And when we fall at Jesus’ feet, and look up to him with all that we have, we see someone, who devoted everything that he had for us first. This passage shows us this very truth, this passage presents Jesus as the one who is about to die for us:

This scene is right before the passover, so Jesus is the sacrificial Passover lamb, who dies in place of us for our sins.

Mary anoints Jesus, and this anointing of putting perfume on his body, is exactly the same procedure that Jews performed for dead bodies right before buring them. Mary is preparing Jesus for his death and burial.

Jesus even says in verse 7, ‘leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.’ )

So when you work and practically serve the church, that’s great, but don’t let that come from a heart of obligation (feeling like you have to because you’re a church member), and don’t let that come from a heart self-righteousness (trying to make yourself more upright and of good standing in your church). Make sure your practical service comes from a devotion to Christ and Christ alone.

Judas’ Heart

So that’s Judas’ mind - focusing on the practical, rather than Jesus Christ himself. But what about his heart? We see that Judas’ heart is not Christ-centred, but self-centred.

We talked about earlier how Judas wanted to help the poor with this money, and it seemed all noble and good on the outside. But then what do we see in John 12:6? “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.”

He was stealing money. He was a thief. He wasn’t devoted to Christ like Mary was; he was devoted to himself. He wasn’t Christ-serving, but rather he was self-serving.

In another words, he wasn’t a follower of Jesus. He was a follower of the benefits of Jesus, which was the money he could steal as he tagged along this Jesus bandwagon.

And isn’t that so true for many Christians today? So many Christians attend church, in search of a benefit. Maybe companionship and friends, or church is a good way to make business networks, or church is fun, or maybe you come to church in search of a spirituality, or maybe church provides some meaning in life for you. And it’s ok to come to church and receive these benefits. But at the core of your heart, what you must seek is Christ himself, not the benefits that he offers.

And isn’t it such a fine line between the two? I’m sure all of us, even though we have the best of intentions to fix our eyes on Jesus, without even realising we end up seeking the benefits He offers rather than Christ himself. And even though there doesn’t seem like much difference between the two, John tells us there is a big difference: Mary who is commended and praised by Jesus for her devotion, while Judas is called the traitor and a thief. And I’m not saying everyone here is a traitor or thief of Christ, but we can see how easy it is to fall into the trap of having a heart like Judas.

Conclusion

So today in your small groups, I want reflect on your heart and your mind in your Christian life.

Is your mind fixed on Jesus? Or is it distracted by other things, even though those things may be good and noble, like church service?

And is your heart fixed on Jesus? Is your heart self-centred or Christ-centred? Are you fixed on Jesus himself, or just the benefits he offers?

And the only solution, and antidote, to a mind and heart like Judas, is to come back to a mind and heart like Mary’s. And this is to fall at Jesus’ feet every day. It’s only when we fall at Jesus’ feet, every day, and look up and fix our eyes on Him, that our minds and hearts can be transformed, from Judas to Mary. And this may be costly - it may consume a lot of time and be inconvenient as you have to read your bible and pray everyday. It may require humility, because you may have to think less of yourself and more about Christ. And it may need courage. But Christ is asking us to devote ourselves to Him today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not once your older. But today.

Ending song:

I give you my heart - Hillsong Worship

Reflection questions:

-What are you doing in your life to express your devotion to God?

-Are you practically serving in the church? What is your motivation for serving the church?