John 12:1-11

Faith's Costly Sacrifice and Unbelief's Greed

Intro

How do you express devotion to someone you care deeply for and want to show how much you love them? Some express this by giving gifts, or making grand gestures, others through acts of service, or words of kindness. Mary, sister of Lazarus, friend of Jesus, expresses her devotion to Jesus by combining these in one costly grand gesture that extravagantly showed Jesus just how much she loved Him.

Set as a foil against this costly devotion of faith is the avarice and greed of Judas' unbelief. Whose calculating spirit causes him to miss the significance of this woman's devotion.

Both will live on infamously in history, as saint and traitor. Chapter 12 of John serves as the transition point in the ministry of Jesus as Jesus prepares to enter his last full week of His earthly ministry. For John, it wouldn't do just to abruptly have Judas, companion to Jesus for so long, betray him out of the blue. Instead, he shows us the deep character flaw which, at root, led Judas to perdition. To do that, he set that flaw in contrast to the sterling character of a woman's extravagant devotion. Which, Mary could not have even known herself its significance, both symbolically and as an example of faith.

Never far removed from His main goal, John's picture of faith in action, is there to provoke a response, as you judge the two somewhat extreme examples in this episode, you may ask yourself do I believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? And do I believe that if I have faith in Him, I will have eternal life? And If I believe these things, how will I express my devotion to Jesus, the Christ and Son of God, who gave His life for me?

John 12:1-11

Summary of Text

Six days before the Passover would have been the Sabbath Saturday before holy week, and the eve of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem as king. Which Sunday was also the day when all the lambs were brought into Jerusalem for preparation for the Passover (Ex. 12:3). A version of this story is told in each of the gospel, with subtle details changed for their own purpose. The most similar to John's telling is Matthew and Mark, with Luke's being drastically different, that some suggest it is a different occasion (which I agree with). John tells us the woman who is unnamed in Mt. & Mk. is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, whom we have already encountered in Ch. 11.

After raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus left Judea for the countryside, and only now, after much speculation by those curious in Judea (11:55-57), Jesus returns to prepare for the Passover, and is welcomed by some unnamed host in Bethany whose other guest includes Lazarus, with his sister Martha serving table (as per usual). During the meal, Mary takes a costly bottle of perfume and anoints the feet of Jesus, wiping the profuse amount with her hair. Judas takes umbrage at this expensive show of devotion. Which John, ever the helpful narrator, warns us, is driven by nefarious motives of greedy gain. Jesus defends her, giving a deeper significance to Mary's devotion, which would only after His death become apparent.

The scene ends with a transition, as the Judean leaders issue warrants for the death of Lazarus (again) because he, along with Jesus, was a threat to their hold of the people's devotion (honor). Proving the adage that proximity to Jesus is dangerous, and all who would follow Him must be willing to die (12:24-26). Let us first consider the costly devotion of faith, by looking closer at Mary's grand gesture, and the significance Jesus gives it.

The Devotion of Faith

First, consider that the last time we saw Mary she was upset that Jesus hadn't come sooner when he found out Lazarus, His friend was sick, because then he might not have died. Jesus was moved by her faith, and her lover for her brother, having waited purposefully to showcase his power over death, so that His disciples (including Mary) would believe in Him. She had witnessed something very few people have ever seen, the restoration of someone you love, someone who was dead. But that was only confirmation for her faith, which is already evident in her devotion to Jesus prior to her anointing his feet.

Jesus commends Mary in Luke's gospel, when her sister Martha complains she is not helping with the chores, but "sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching" (Lk. 10:39). Jesus told Martha that "Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her." Sitting at the Lord's feet was a posture of humility that students took when they were learning from a Rabbi. She is devoted to the teachings of Jesus, and it's impossible to separate the teachings of Jesus from His person. For unlike every other teacher born of Adam, Jesus is absolutely truthful in all that he teaches. Not only as one with authority, but as "God of God, light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the father." (Nicene Creed).

And here we see Mary continue to sit at the feet of Jesus, where she takes a roman pound (about 12 ounces) of pure nard (or spikenard) and anoints his feet, wiping the excess with her hair. As Judas will make plan, this is a costly anointing. 300 Denarii is about three hundred day's wages, which if you include sabbaths, would be almost a full year's worth of work. Which in modern parlance works out to be something like $15,000. That is a lot, especially for a young woman who is probably not married. (It's unlikely a married woman would have let down her hair in front of other men, not her husband). In all likelihood this is her inheritance. It may be all there is. Who knows whether that was given her as her dowry so that she could secure a husband?

It doesn't seem from this telling that she took any notice of how costly this was. She doesn't measure out a small bit and dab it on his feet, her excess fills the entire room with its aroma. Like the glory cloud that filled the temple. And since woman is the glory of man, and a woman's hair is her glory, she takes all that glory and in humility wipes the feet of Jesus. An act of submission, like the kings who in heaven cast their crowns of glory before the lamb who was slain, the lion of Judah.

But Mary doesn't understand the half of it. For in six days time, Jesus our Passover lamb will be sacrificed on a cross. He would die the bloody death of thief, which meant he would not get a proper burial. So Jesus rebukes Judas, telling him to leave Mary alone, and here the grammar is difficult. But it is best to read this as Jesus saying, Let her be! She has kept this for my burial, meaning that the day of His burial was now. Not in any way intending that Mary knew she was keeping it for His burial, but like Caiaphas who had already prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, her action carried significance beyond what she knew. And this fits with the other accounts of anointing in Mt. & Mk. which highlight that the woman anointed His head, for he is the king, who would soon receive a kingdom. For his enthronement was the cross, so an anointing for His burial is fitting as an anointment that he is king.

From the moment of His birth to the moment of His death people came and lay down their glory in his wake. With what glory they had they gave, in loving devotion to Christ their king. And so it is down to this day. When you bow the knee to Christ, you offer yourself (glory) to Him.

Men, if you're having trouble putting yourself in this situation, that's OK. We are seeing a feminine response to her king. Your devotion should be as extravagant, as costly, and filled with as much love as hers, but it will look different. It might look a lot more like the devotion of the apostle Paul. He had prided himself on gaining a certain notoriety for what he thought was zealous devotion to God, which turned out to be little more than self-righteousness.

Philippians 3:4–8 (ESV) — 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

I remember when I told one of my good friends that I was going to sell my successful business and cash in my 401k and go to seminary so I could potentially be a pastor. He looked at me like I was crazy, and although he was a Christian, and my elder, he tried to dissuade me because he didn't think it was a good idea. And to the world, it surely wasn't. To give up a good job, one that was growing and expanding, and to spend all my future savings, on an education that would lead me into a calling with no promise of prosperity, or of even recoup what I would invest, seemed foolish at best.

A cursory read through the Faith's hall of fame in Hebrews 11 will produce the same sorts of sacrifices, with the same prospects, and a good deal worse, all out of an other-worldly devotion, which viewed from the world looks like madness. It is exactly this foolishness to the world that, by faith, gives the last full measure of devotion, for Christ who bids us follow Him. So whether it is breaking the most costly item you own, to drench the feet of the Lord in perfume, to counting what the world considers gain as so much rubbish, to considering "the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt" (Heb. 11:26), faith devotion is seen most clearly in all that it will willingly give up just to have Christ.

But not all who follow Christ, are stirred to such measures of devotion. Some think it all overdone, seeing only waste where they should see devotion. Some, who are even privileged to walk with Christ for a time, betray their true character when the greed of unbelief rears its ugly head.

The Greed of Unbelief

Born partly of envy and partly of greed, Judas's response is familiar, almost cliched by now. Do you remember the response of Cain, when he saw that his brother's sacrifice was accepted while his was not? Even though the Lord warned him that sin was crouching at the door waiting to consume him, he still let envy get the best of him and rose up and killed his brother. I can see it clearly.

Mary comes in, already she is making the men uncomfortable, I mean this is no place for PDA's. Intra-sex relationships were already taboo. Martha we get, but what is Mary doing? Who does she think she is? And now this, flooding the room with the smell of perfume, it's a bit much, right? We get it; you love Jesus, you're obviously grateful. But why the waste? You could have said the same thing with a hallmark card. You could have showed the same devotion by following the lead of your sister. Now there's a girl who knows her place—in the kitchen. You really should have approached the finance committee before such a costly item was wasted. I know for certain as the chairman of that committee, I would have advised against such an extravagance waste. You could easily have sold that for a year's worth of wages and given it to our benevolence fund. Then I could have at least overseen its distribution to the poor. Which, by the way, is what we really need to be about anyway. Besides, we want to avoid in more bad PR. If Jesus is going to usher in the kingdom of God by putting down our Roman oppressors, we're going to need the leaders on our side. So please cash gifts only and keep all the tears and sighs and all these public displays to a minimum.

You can see from this episode that John has looked back over these events with the keen eye of hindsight and notices that all the clues of Judas's betrayal were clearly evident. His care for the poor was a clever ploy to keep the money coming in because he helped himself to the profits. His was a calculating love that always thought of what was best for him.

Proverbs 23:6–8 (ESV) — 6 Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, 7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. 8 You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.

Socialism would be such a great thing were it not for one thing--sin. For the socialist, ever concerned with the welfare of his neighbor, or at least he makes a big show of caring for his neighbor, nevertheless insists that if this thing is going to work, he must be the one to hold the purse. But don't worry, he will make sure everyone gets their fair share.

Much of the social justice movement and particularly its evangelical side, uses the same argument that Judas does, and we need to be careful here. Ron Sider was famous for this in his book Rich Christians in an age of Hunger. His whole project swings on an attempt to manipulate Christians by making them feel guilty for the prosperity they enjoy. David Chilton, in his very helpful response to Sider in his book Productive Christians in an age of Guilt Manipulators, put it this way.

A comparatively recent phenomenon...is the use of envy to manipulate the object of envy into feeling guilty for being envied. He is made to believe that he really is responsible for the sufferings of others, that his wealth is actually a cause of poverty in other people. When envy is so pervasive in society, when it is positively encouraged by our leaders —and preachers in particular — we turn the envy back on ourselves and feel guilty for what we possess.

For instance, I had this professor in Seminary who was an Antiracist; he taught out missions class, during the tumultuous season after the Michael Brown police shooting. He made the entire class go out on the seminary lawn for a privilege walk. He had us line up evenly. Then he asked a series of questions. If you answered yes, you moved forward a step; if not, you moved back. These were all designed to show just how much privilege you had. It was really to single out the white male and show him in terms he could understand just how privileged he is.

This kind of Marxist thinking has infiltrated the church, but as we see is nothing more than the greedy spirit of judas. Driven as these ideologies are by envy, the greedy man looks out at the world as a zero sum game, thinking that he can better himself, only if someone is worse off. Usually this gets couched in care for the poor, and the noble desire to lift everyone up together in some equalitarian dream.

But Jesus' rebukes Judas, not because care for the poor is not important; not because the disciples should not make efforts to do such things. But because of timing. There will always be poor, and therefore there will always be opportunities to help them, but there will not always be opportunities to prepare Jesus for burial, to anoint Him as king. He rebukes Judas because he missed what was important, but was right in front of him all along, but without eyes of faith he failed to see and believe that Jesus, was the Christ, the Son of God, and by trusting Him, he would have eternal life.

Conclusion

We must consider the lesson of these two very different responses to Jesus. Faith's devotion results in costly expressions of love. Whereas the greed of unbelief is calculating and is blind to what is right in front of Him, namely Jesus. But just as Luke taught in Lk. 10:42, "Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her." And that is to sit at the feet of Jesus, to be devoted to him and His teaching. That is the main thing, and when we keep the main thing the main thing, we ensure that our priorities in ministry do not become skewed. Because without Christ at the center, care for the poor becomes little more than a work of flesh. For no amount of care for the poor, or sacrificing everything to live in a leper colony, or giving away all that you own and going about as destitute, will ever save you. Only vital faith in Jesus Christ, in His person and His work, can save you from death and hell, and only devotion to Him can orientate your good works, ordering them to their proper end.

We are born with the side-long glance, and it's not hard to develop the green eye of envy. Rather than rejoice in his sisters devotion to Christ, Judas, envious of her, plays the role of the accuser, trying to pick holes in her piety. But as Jesus shows, Judas' missed the point altogether. What about you? How do you see yourself, more in the devotion of faith, of the greed of unbelief?

Since genuine faith disregards the cost of devotion to Christ, you must guard against the greedy calculations of unbelief.