Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany

Intro

Here in the narrative of John’s gospel we are officially entering into the final week of Jesus’ life leading up to his crucifixion. It is six days before the passover, where Jesus will have the last supper with his disciples before he is betrayed and handed over to be killed. This text is going to focus on a meal in the town of Bethany, about two miles outside of Jerusalem. This is going to be a different kind of supper, but one with a whole lot of foreshadowing concerning what will soon happen.

In this text we are going to see a drastic contrast between two main characters: we will see the devotion of Mary, and the deceit of Judas. This contrast is going to produce an obvious conclusion: Jesus is of far greater value than anything else on this Earth. These will form the three points I want us to consider from the text today.

The Devotion Of Mary

State: The importance of a heart that would give up everything for Christ

The first two verses are helping to set the scene for what is about to take place.

John 12:1–2 ESV

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.

Remember, we just read about how Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, had died. In an amazing miracle, he did not stay dead, but Jesus brought him back to life. After that, the religious leaders determined that they needed to kill Jesus because he was gaining too great a following, and life as they knew it was being threatened by the ministry and work of Jesus. As a wanted man, Jesus spent some time laying low in the lesser known places, but not for long.

We are now entering the endgame of everything that we’ve been reading about. The Passover is approaching, which means that soon everyone will be congregating in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast. Thats why Jesus and his disciples show up in Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus live just two miles from Jerusalem. Here we see them in a home, the week before passover, having a dinner that is meant to honor Jesus as their guest.

John 12:3 ESV

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.

What happens next here might sound a bit weird to us, because we’re looking at a cultural custom that has fallen completely out of use in our day and age. We’re all familiar with the custom of having guests over for dinner, but here we see Mary do something that I’m sure none of us have seen at any of our dinner parties: She takes a pound of ointment made from pure nard, and she uses it to anoint the feet of Jesus. Whats going on here?

The ointment: First of all, we should take a second and think about what this ointment is. This isn’t what we would normally think of as ointment, this was truly a prized possession of Mary’s. We are told that it was an ointment of pure nard, probably from a faraway land, and we learn from the text that it can be sold for 300 denarii or more. According to other ancient documents, that would be the upper limit of what the highest quality of ointment would go for.

To give some context, 1 denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer. 300 denarii, therefore, is roughly equivalent to a year’s salary. It would take all of your income for an entire year to purchase this ointment. Mary was either an incredibly wealthy woman or this was passed down through her family; either way, this was a costly sacrifice.

But why did she do this?

The anointing: There could have been several reasons a person would have been anointed by oil or ointment in this culture. Kings were anointed when they were chosen. Sick people were anointed like we read about in the book of James. Dead people were anointed for burial. There was also a custom when the hosts of a dinner would anoint their guests if they wanted to show them great honor. This is likely what Mary intended to do here, but she desired to show immense honor to Jesus by breaking open the highest quality of ointment a person could own.

The feet: And not only did she show honor in this way, but also by the way in which she anointed Jesus. It was more common to anoint a person’s forehead to show them honor, but there was also a custom to anoint both the head and the feet of a person as a display of excessive honor. This is what Mary does here, likely using the entire pound of precious ointment to show Jesus the greatest possible honor here as her guest.

Illustrate: To bring this into our own culture a bit, the closest thing we can compare this to would be like breaking out a ridiculously nice bottle of wine for a guest. And I’m not just talking a $200 bottle, I’m talking like an $80,000 bottle that would be the envy of collectors around the world. And it would be like you open the bottle and pour the entire thing just for one guest at the table

Apply: I hope this illustration helps you to see just how excessive this gesture from Mary is here. What can we learn from this for our own lives?

First of all, we can leave out the idea that we are supposed to live in this kind of a financial excess at all time: this was clearly a unique act that wouldn’t (and couldn’t) have been repeated. What matter much less here is the money being spent, and what matters much more is the heart that was behind the action.

This was no bragging or boasting on Mary’s part. By her doing this, and by wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair, she is showing complete and humble devotion to Jesus as her Lord. She did not consider that anything in her posession, nor anything in the whole world was worth more than the opportunity to show honor to Jesus. Here, she was truly living the life of a disciple of Christ, completely devoted to him.

In our lives today, we must question ourselves; do we show this kind of a devotion to Christ? Do we seek to honor our Lord in a similar fashion? Obviously we do not have the ability today to anoint Jesus with expensive ointments; but do we make ourselves and our possessions available to be used for his honor and glory?

Transition:

As Mary anointed Jesus, we are told at the end of verse 3 that the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. In a sense, the devotion of Mary had a strong smell to it, and everyone in the room had a reaction to it.

This serves as a perfect transition to help us really grasp the contrast between Mary and Judas. As the aroma of the ointment filled the room, Mary is filled with love and adoration for her savior. Judas, on the other hand, is beyond annoyed and seems to be quite angry.

This reminds me of the passage we read in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

2 Corinthians 2:15–16 ESV

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?p

Here the ointment, as a symbol of devotion to Jesus, is a wonderful aroma to Mary, and an odor of death to Judas. It’s to Judas’ reaction to all of this that we turn our attention to now.

The Deceit of Judas

State: morality that is only exterior is not what Jesus desires

John 12:4–6 ESV

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.

In some sense, we are witnessing the beginning of the end for Judas. It isn’t that Judas is changing in this text, but the sin that has been festering in his heart is beginning to reach its mountaintop.

He responds with what would have certainly been the most common, most reasonable, and probably most popular response in the room at the time. Judas rebukes Mary, annoyed with her excessive spending and positions himself on the moral high ground. He claims that the cause for his frustration is that the money could have been spent more wisely: if Mary was willing to part with such expensive ointment, she should have sold it and given the money to the poor.

Judas makes himself hard to argue with here. In Matthew’s account, we’re told that “the disciples grumbled about what Mary did.” It is very likely that most of the people in the room were agreeing with the complaint of Judas here.

And to be fair, giving all that money to the poor would have been a good use of the money. The main problem here is that Judas doesn’t care about poor people, but only about himself. Judas is angry and says the thing that will win public opinion to his side and justify his anger; he’s actually angry because he just saw a golden opportunity to steal from the group evaporate before his eyes. Just like when you take a substance away from an addict, Judas is agitated that he won’t have access to such a valuable resource.

This reveals a nasty habit of many people, and unfortunately, this can be the vice of many who are drawn to religion: the temptation to use the appearance of morality and righteousness to disguise sin that you harbor in your heart.

This is the deceit of Judas: He would make the whole room think he was an upright, just, and moral man, all the while harboring sin in his heart. This is what primarily differentiated Judas: it wasn’t the sin that made him different, but the deceit. Everyone in the room except for Jesus struggled with sin, not one of them was perfect; but Judas was harboring his sin and entertaining it, all while keeping it a secret.

In fact, John lets us in on the secret that Judas had been doing this for the entire three years that he was a disciple. Augustine wrote a sermon on this text where he says

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1.7: St. Augustin: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies Tractate L

For not a few, inattentive to the Gospel, suppose that Judas only perished when he accepted money from the Jews to betray the Lord. It was not then that he perished, but he was already a thief, and a reprobate, when following the Lord; for it was with his body and not with his heart that he followed.

This was Judas’ problem: he followed Jesus with his body, but his heart was dead the entire time while he helped himself to the money that was to be set aside for the needs of the group and taking care of the poor.

And when Mary broke the flask and used it to honor Jesus, Judas became so enraged that within days he would determine to find money a different way: by betraying Jesus to the Jewish leaders for 30 pieces of silver.

Apply: We must take Judas as a cautionary tale — the life of a disciple of Jesus is not always about making the choices that appear to be the most sensible or optimal. The life of a disciple of Jesus is far more about a genuine devotion to Jesus.

To be clear, these things will have overlap. In fact, we would often expect that genuine love for Jesus will lead a person to act in outwardly moral ways.

But more important than what we do is why we do it. Are our lives motivated by a genuine desire to love and obey God, to bring glory to him? In this case, even though Judas may have had the room fooled, it was clear that his heart was far from Jesus.

So the contrast here is clear — Mary is marked with a genuine devotion for her Lord Jesus, while Judas is clearly a deceiver that cares nothing for Jesus or for others. But what do we do with this information? I believe we should look to what Jesus says here in response to all of this.

The Surpassing Worth of Jesus

State: The death of Jesus is far more valuable than anything else

John 12:7–8 ESV

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.”

Jesus knew Judas’ heart, but he doesn’t speak to the thievery there. Instead, he considers what Judas said at face value in order to make a greater point. Even if Judas intended to sell the ointment and give all the proceeds to the poor, which would be a wonderful thing, it would still not be as great as what they just witnessed. This is because Mary has just done something that she very likely doesn’t even fully understand herself.

Jesus explains that Mary has kept this incredibly valuable ointment for the sake of Jesus’ burial anointing. The Greek behind the original language of this text is a little difficult to get into English, but the basic idea is that whether or not Mary has realized it, she has just anointed Jesus to his burial.

This would have been just as confusing for everyone in the room, because it seems apparent that none of his disciples are fully aware that Jesus is currently in the last week of his life and that he must die.

But this burial that Jesus speaks of is referring to what is easily the greatest event in the history of all creation, and Mary’s devotion has just played a part in it. In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus remarks that wherever the gospel is preached, Mary will be included as a result of what she has just done.

This isn’t necessarily because of the greatness of Mary’s act, but because she has just entered the narrative of the greatest event in history as it was playing out.

And what makes this event so impactful? Why is this anointing so incredibly important, so valuable?

Because this death of Jesus, and his subsequent burial, which would take place in about a week’s time from this dinner, would effectively accomplish the redemption of humanity from their sin. Because this would be the climax of all of God’s promises that he has made to his people ever since Adam and Eve fell from that paradise garden. Because this was what all of creation has been groaning for since sin entered the world; that the promised Son of Eve, Son of Abraham, Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God, the Christ, the promised One, the Savior of the World would be anointed for his imminent death and burial on behalf of all who believe in him.

What better use could any bottle of ointment have than this: anointing the Son of God for his death and burial that would accomplish God’s eternal plan of redemption?

Jesus makes the point clear: we will always have poor people, and we should always do our best to take care of them; but this dinner served a unique role in the history of the world and in the history of our redemption.

This actually becomes the final damning piece of evidence against Judas: he cared nothing for the death and burial of Jesus. Have you ever considered that Judas and Peter committed similar sins? This week leading up to the death of Jesus would be a terrible one for both men: Judas would betray Jesus to his enemies, and Peter would deny ever even knowing Jesus three times the night of his arrest. And yet one of them would be called by Jesus a Betrayer and another would become a Shepherd and leader of the church. Why the difference?

It is because Peter considered the death of Jesus and was was grieved with a godly grief that led to repentance, whereas Judas was only grieved with a selfish, worldly grief that led to despair and death. In other words, the aroma of Christ to Peter was the aroma of life, whereas the aroma of Christ to Judas was an odor to death.

Apply: What of you? Consider the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Consider that he willingly took on flesh for your sake. Consider that he lived a perfect life for your sake. Consider that he bore your sins in himself on the cross so that you could be forgiven. Consider that he resurrected from the dead three days later so that you could have new life in him.

What do these considerations stir up in you? Does the gospel of Jesus Christ lead you to the repentance of life, as it did Peter? Is the aroma of Christ’s gospel an aroma of life or death to you?

Meditate on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Read it in the Scriptures, continue to listen to it as we preach it at church, mull it over throughout your days.

Consider the gospel of Jesus, think on its immense worth and value, and consider whether this Savior is worthy of your fullest devotion.

FCF: We can often use outward moral high-ground to cover up our sinful hearts

CFC: Christ gives us hearts that truly desire him