Mary Anoints Jesus (John 12:1-11)

Announcements

Bible Study & Prayer—is going to resume this Wednesday, October 20th at 7pm. I know that I’ve mentioned a few times that I’d like to also do an optional meal at 6pm for those of you that have to come straight from work, but I don’t think we’ll be ready for that for a few more weeks, but Bible Study & Prayer will resume this coming Wednesday at 7pm. This is the first time that we’ve ever offered the service in-person, but if you’ve seen the videos on YouTube, you already know what to expect. It’s a slightly shorter service that’s intended—about 45 minutes of teaching and about 5-10 minutes dedicated to the giving of prayer requests and group prayer. We’d love to have you join us at 7pm, starting this Wednesday for our inaugural in-person Bible Study & Prayer as we continue our Wednesday series through the book of Psalms.

Renovations on the new building are coming along well. If you’re interested in helping, please contact Natalie ASAP. In addition, please note that until we raise more money for the building renovation project, some of the projects will just have to wait. I believe, we’ll need about $6,160 more to finish up the projects listed in your worship guides, though some of those projects are already pledged for, so we’re actually looking at closer to $3,500-$4,000 to finish up everything.

October 30th, 2021 at 1:30pm, the Philipsburg Revitalization Corporation is hosting a Harvest Vendor Event and Halloween Parade in downtown Philipsburg. We have a decent relationship with the organization and since the vendors are to set up on our road, we’ve asked to set up a canopy right outside of our building to provide free apple cider, popcorn, and information for the church. We’re going to need about 4-5 volunteers to help us that day, if you’re able to help, please contact Natalie as soon as possible.

November 7th, 2021, we have two different things going on that day that you should be aware of:

First, we have a business meeting that day right after the Sunday AM mornings. This business meeting is a little bit different than past business meetings, in that it isn’t just a quarterly meeting and it isn’t a meeting for members to join the church. This is a quarterly business meeting with the addition of our annual budget meeting for 2022, and with a few items to vote on. Expect this meeting to be a little longer than our normal business meetings, but it’s vitally important that all of our members be there, since we’ll be voting on different issues.

Second, November 8th marks exactly one year since the church was incorporated. To celebrate this milestone, we’re going to have a meal after the business meeting in the Activity Room on the 7th. Like all our meals, the church will provide the main dish, but we do need help providing the side dishes. If you’d like to help by providing side dishes, there is a sign-up sheet at the entrance.

As always, let me remind you to continue worshiping through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) cash and check giving can be done at the black offering box at the front of the building. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace, and if you’d like a receipt for your cash gifts, please put it into an envelope with your name on it; debit, credit, and ACH Transfers can be done by (2) either texting 84321 with your $[amount] and by following the text prompts or by (3) visiting us online at www.graceandpeacepa.com and selecting Giving in the menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Adoration and Repentance

Call to Worship (Psalm 34:1-10)

Psalm 34:title–10 ESV

Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. 1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! 4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10 The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Congregational Singing

Come Praise and Glorify

To God be the Glory

I Will Glory in My Redeemer

Scripture Reading (1 Chronicles 16:23-36)

1 Chronicles 16:23–36 ESV

23 Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. 24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 25 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 27 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place. 28 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; 30 tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. 31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” 32 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! 33 Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. 34 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 35 Say also: “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 36 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!” Then all the people said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord.

Sermon (John 12:1-11)

Introduction

If you have your Bible with you this morning, please turn it to John 12:1-11.

This morning’s sermon is a continuation of our series on the Gospel according to John; and we’re in the point in John’s account that he’s starting to get to the climax of Jesus’ life, which is of course the last week of his life as he is put to death, buried, and as he is resurrected. It’s starting at this point, in which the timeline of Jesus’ life slows down tremendously. Whereas the previous chapters seemed to have been a little inconsistent in how much time was between each event and occasionally, we would jump to different points of Jesus’ life, John seems to be a bit more consistent on how much time comes between each event in Jesus’ last few weeks and he seems to be a bit more comprehensive as he explains the different events that lead to the cross of Jesus Christ.

Which implies that John considers Jesus’ last week on earth, of utmost importance. And in hindsight, from our perspective several thousand years later, it is of utmost importance. As Paul says to the church in Corinth, everyone is seeking for the wisdom and knowledge of the world, but the world did not know God through wisdom, but rather through the folly of what we preach. And he goes on to say that some people are looking for signs and miracles; and some people are seeking worldly wisdom, but we preach Christ and him crucified. John sees Jesus’ last few weeks of life on earth as utmost importance because it is is in Christ’s last week of life that he offers himself as our substitutionary atonement, it is in the last week or two of his earthly life in which our salvation is secured.

The event of Jesus’ life that we’re looking at this morning involves something that without Jesus’ commentary about the situation, we wouldn’t understand completely. Mary is acting in devotion and in worship, she glorifies Jesus, but Jesus makes the point that part of what is happening in this situation is the preparation of his body of his burial. But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s read the passage, John 12:1-11.

John 12:1–11 ESV

1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 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?” 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. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” 9 When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into three parts, (1) Vs. 1-3, is going to look specifically at Mary anointing Jesus—we’ll talk a bit about what this anointing was and what it meant; and why Mary did this. (2) Vs. 4-8, is going to look at Judas Iscariot’s response to Mary’s anointing of Jesus. It’s clear from the text that Judas isn’t approving of Mary utilizing such expensive perfume to anoint Jesus—and so we’ll spend that portion of the sermon talking about Judas’ heart condition, the reason for his disapproval, and Jesus’ response to Judas. (3) The last three verses, returns us to the overarching storyline in which the chief priests are scheming in the background to not only put Jesus to death, but now to also put Lazarus to death. It reminds us that this passage doesn’t stand in isolation to the rest of Scripture, it’s inherently connected to the overarching redemption storyline of the Bible. This morning’s message will encourage us to do what Mary does—to worship Jesus, devote ourselves to him, and to glorify him. It’ll also stand as a warning those who have yet to repent from their sin—Judas and the chief priests were responding to Jesus out of sin; and their responses should warn us to keep watch in our own lives and put to death our own sin.

Prayer for Illumination

Mary’s Anointing of Jesus (1-3)

Our passage this morning, starts by giving us the setting of the text. Vs 1., “Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised form the dead.”

The timeline, is of note, of course, because we know that Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation for the Sabbath during the Passover festivities.

So, the way that this would work in first-century Judaism is that the Passover meal would be celebrated on Thursday, Friday was utilized to prepare food for the Sabbath, the Sabbath is of course on Saturday and Sunday would be the start of a new week.

Vs. 1, tells us that this event happened six days before the Passover, so we’re a week from the death of Jesus.

We can tell from the context of the passage, that Jesus has returned from the Ephraim and he’s on his way back to Jerusalem for the Passover festivities (remember, last week, the people in Jerusalem had been questioning whether Jesus would come).

So, Jesus is in Bethany, and Vs. 1 calls Bethany the place where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

Which might seem a little odd to record, because the raising of Lazarus from the dead actually just occured and John had just recorded the raising of Lazarus in the previous chapter.

But if you think of this with a literary lens and you remember that John is writing this all after-the-fact, what this tells us is that John is intentionally mentioning Lazarus’ resurrection.

And the reason for his mention of Lazarus’ resurrection is to compare and contrast Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection with Lazarus’ death, burial, and resurrection. That comparison started in John’s record of Lazarus’ resurrection, but it continues as we get closer to Jesus’ own death.

Essentially, what John is saying in this verse, is that Jesus is in the location in which he brought Lazarus back from the dead, but as we continue looking forward, we’re headed to Jesus’ death. Whereas Lazarus was resurrected and lives, Jesus is about to experience death (though spoiler alert, just like Lazarus, he doesn’t stay dead).

So, we’re in Bethany, which is just outside of Jerusalem and Vs. 2 tells us that “they gave a dinner for [Jesus] 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.”

Now, I do want to say one thing before we look more in-depth at the event that’s occuring. This isn’t the only time that a woman comes and anoints Jesus. In fact, all four Gospel accounts record a woman coming to anoint Jesus.

And when you look at all four accounts, you’ll notice something, Matthew and Mark seem to give the same details for the event that they describe, whereas Luke and John give completely different details. The reason for this, is actually quite simple—they’re describing different events.

Matthew and Mark utilize the same details to talk about this woman anointing Jesus while they were in the house of Simon the leper. Thus, it’s the same event told twice and this anointing of Jesus in the house of Simon actually occurs two days before the Passover.

The anointing that occurs in Luke 7, is done at the house of Simon the Pharisee and the woman in question is a woman of the city who was known to be a sinner. And the reason for the anointing in this event, is repentance. The woman was anointing Jesus out of repentance, and many commentators believe this event occured a year before Jesus’ death.

So, be sure not to read in the details of one of the other times Jesus’ was anointed into the event in John 12.

In John 12, they gather for dinner—Martha is serving dinner, Lazarus was reclining with Jesus at the table. And Mary comes with a pound of expensive ointment and anoints the feet of Jesus.

This ointment that Mary utilized is described as pure nard or some translations call it spikenard. You can actually still buy this oil today, but it’s not as expensive today due to the internet and global trade. People use it today primarily for natural medicinal uses, they’ll use it for colds, chronic cough, asthma, and arthritis.

In the first-century, pure nard was imported throughout the Roman Empire from Northern India from the Himalayan Mountains, which, of course, made it exceedingly expensive. And because of its high cost and pungent smell, it was primarily utilized by Jewish people to prepare a body for burial, which is clearly symbolic in what was about to come.

Today, you can buy Spikenard oil from India for $89.75 per ounce, which means a pound of Spikenard would cost somewhere around $1,436. It’s still a bit expensive, but not like it was in first-century Rome.

The objection from Judas in Vs. 5, is because of its high cost, which at the time was three hundred denarii. A Roman denarius was a day’s wage and quite frankly, it’s a little difficult to explain and understand the value of money from the first century in comparison to today’s wages, but if you take the modern-day concept of a day’s wage, I think you could come to a decent understanding of how expensive this oil was in Jesus’ day.

Today’s minimum wage is $7.25 and on average, people work 8 hours a day. That puts the gross income per day at $58, multiplied by 300, because a pound of pure nard was worth 300 day’s wages, and you’d come to about $17,400.

Which again, isn’t quite accurate because of the huge differences in monetary value over the past two thousand years, but it does give us a relative idea of how valuable this ointment was.

It was exceedingly expensive and Mary utilizes it to pour on the feet of Jesus. Vs. 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.”

Mary’s use of pure nard to anoint Jesus’ feet shows us her heart and her understanding of who Jesus is.

Many of us, could never imagine the idea of spending such a large sum of money for something like an oil or ointment. We could understand and justify the idea of spending 300 day’s wages on something like a car or a house, but on oil, it might seem a bit out of reach.

But regardless of what she spent the money on, the fact remains, that she utilized it for Jesus and with that understanding, we have to take into account how many of us would give such a large amount to Jesus—and we have to take that from more than just a financial standing.

300 Day’s wages doesn’t just equate a large sum of money, it’s also 300 day’s worth of work. By utilizing what she had worked for for Jesus, she essentially not only gave of her financial means but also of her time and her dedication.

Understanding the great value of pure nard helps us see just how big of a deal Mary’s anointing of Jesus really is.

She gave her best to Jesus and we can surmise that the reason for her to give such a great gift was to express her great devotion for him.

The fact that she anoints Jesus by pouring the oil on his feet and by wiping his feet with her hair shows us great humility.

For Jewish people, the idea of even touching someone else’s feet was considered degrading, which is why Jesus washing his disciples’ feet was so shocking to them.

For anyone, the idea of utilizing their own hair to clean someone else’s feet would be seen as degrading in a personal way.

And yet, Mary has no issue with utilizing her most expensive ointment to pour over the feet of Jesus; and she is humble enough to wipe his feet with her hair.

Mary’s action in anointing the feet of Jesus with pure nard shows us a great devotion for the person that she understands to be God—she’s worshiping Jesus and she’s glorifying Jesus in how she acts.

Mary utilizes the best of what she has to show devotion, to worship, and to glorify Jesus. And in her situation, that’s seen in her willingness to humbly express her love and her thanks to Jesus for what he had done, but not everyone viewed Mary’s actions in a positive light; and one of them speaks up about what he claims is great waste. Take a look at Vs. 4-8.

Judas Iscariot’s Disapproval of Mary’s Anointing of Jesus (4-8)

John 12:4–8 ESV

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?” 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. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

John continues this paragraph by pointing out the objection to Mary’s use of such expensive oil. Judas says, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

And it’s clear in this passage that as Judas says this, he’s not actually concerned about the poor whatsoever. John writing after-the-fact, has no qualm with pointing out that Judas is the one who is about to betray Jesus and John has no difficulty pointing out that Judas didn’t care about the poor whatsoever.

Vs. 6 says that Judas posited this objection not because he cared for 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.

Which gives us fairly good insight into the heart of Judas Iscariot. It’s clear that he doesn’t really believe in Jesus as the Christ and it’s clear that he’s more concerned with earthly matters than he is with spiritual matters.

Judas, unlike Martha doesn’t worship and devote himself to Jesus—and quite certainly, he doesn’t see devotion to Jesus in the same way that Martha does. Martha’s devotion extended to offering the best of what she had to Jesus; Judas was more concerned in what he could receive from Jesus.

Judas was a thief who betrayed Jesus because Jesus wasn’t the type of Messiah that he wanted—much like the rest of Israel, Judas wanted a king who would ride into Jerusalem and lead the Israelites to victory, but Jesus during his earthly ministry 2,000 years ago didn’t come to initiate his kingdom on earth. He came to provide salvation for his people, the kingdom though present will not be manifested until the eschaton.

Judas shows his disdain for what he considers waste by feigning concern for the poor. He’s pretending to be upset that they can’t utilize the potential proceeds for the pure nard to feed and clothe the poor

But again, from hindsight, John reminds us that Judas was stealing from the moneybag and that’s the only reason why he’s concerned with the money that the disciples could’ve gotten from the pure nard.

His concern is not of worshiping Jesus or of glorifying God, but of uplifting himself financially.

And Jesus handles this situation in a way that might seem unusual. In Vs. 7, “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.’” And we have to spend a little bit of time here because there could be some confusion in how you understand these sentences.

Starting with Jesus’ statement, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.”

The confusion in this statement is actually in the way that it’s translated. The ESV translates this sentence as “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.” And in a footnote, it says, “Or, leave her alone; she intended to keep it for the day of my burial.”

The NIV translates it as “Leave her alone, it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.” And the NASB translates it as “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.”

And the reason for this confusion in translation is in the Greek word order itself. The Greek wording is unusual; and because of the unusual wording, there are a number of different ways that it’s been translated. The ESV gives two different options that are reflected in the NIV and NASB as well.

It could be that Jesus is saying that they should leave her alone so that she can keep what remains for the day of her burial—the issue with this idea is that Vs. 3 definitely seems to imply that Mary took all of it and just poured it all on Jesus, which means she probably didn’t have much left to save for his burial because she probably didn’t have enough left to anoint a whole body.

DA Carson mentions that some commentators think that the Greek wording should be taken imperatively, in such a way that it should be translated as “Leave her alone. Let her keep it for the day of my burial.” With keep meaning to “keep in mind” or “remember,” but that type of usage doesn’t happen often in the Bible and it’s an awfully generous way of trying to understand the passage.

He also mentions that some believe that the idea behind this sentence is, “Leave her alone. Let her keep the credit [of having poured out this perfume] for the day of my burial,” but again, that’s quite a generous way of trying to translate this sentence.

Let me suggest, that some commentators and scholars have spent too much time trying to iron out what exactly this sentence means and that by trying to iron out exactly what this sentence means they’ve actually missed the point of the verse.

Let me suggest, that when Jesus makes the statement that the pure nard was originally intended for the day of his burial, that he isn’t implying that Mary knew that Jesus was about to die.

Remember, none of his disciples understood God’s plan of redemption at that time, which is why they so quickly deserted him during the trials and the crucifixion itself.

I doubt Mary knew that Jesus was about to die, so I doubt that she bought the pure nard with the idea that Jesus was about to die and that she needed to anoint him.

My suggestion is that Mary did this for his burial without actually knowing that she was doing it for his burial—just like Caiaphas in chapter 11, unknowingly prophesied Jesus’ death for all nations.

Mary intended on utilizing that perfume for a purpose, which we’ve discussed (her willingness to give of her best for the LORD and to give all that she had in devotion to him), but God is utilizing that perfume for his redemptive purpose in Jesus Christ.

Whereas Mary meant the anointing of Jesus as a sign of her commitment, worship, and honor of Jesus; God is utilizing the anointing of Jesus as a foreshadow of his death, which will happen in a week’s time.

Commentators and scholars have gotten caught up with all the details of this one sentence, but they ultimately end up missing the point.

That Mary meant the anointing of Jesus as a means to show her devotion and worship; and God is utilizing the anointing of Jesus to show that he is about to die.

And as Jesus continues in that statement, he focuses in on Mary’s purpose for anointing Jesus. Vs. 8, “For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

Again, this event is foreshadowing the death of Jesus that’s about to occur, but this time its foreshadowed in such a way that it’s clear that what Mary did was right and good.

What exactly did Mary do again? Well, of course, she poured this expensive ointment on the feet of Jesus, but why did she do it?

Mary utilized a large amount of very expensive ointment to anoint Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. This shows a high regard for Jesus, one in which it’s clear that she had no concern of the value of earthly possessions because Jesus is of far greater worth to her.

The fact that she touched his feet with her hands and her hair shows that she believed Jesus to be greater than her—in the First Century, the only people that would touch someone else’s feet were slaves who were forced to clean the person’s feet—it was considered degrading to do such a thing.

Yet Mary had no difficulty in doing it—she revered Jesus, she worshipped him, she glorified him in this action.

And by telling the disciples that they’ll always have the poor, but they won’t always have him, he essentially tells us that Mary had her priorities straight. She was right in her actions and in her thoughts because she thought it to be more valuable to worship, revere, and glorify Jesus than to do anything else with that ointment.

Some have utilized this passage and have twisted its meaning to make it sound like Jesus doesn’t want the church to take care of the poor, but that isn’t what he’s saying and to assume that would mean to neglect several other passages of Scripture.

Essentially, their argument is that just like Mary who was in the presence of Jesus focused on worshiping and glorifying him, so should we when we’re in the church.

There are a number of issues with this ideology, even just logically, because if you are a believer, you’re always in the presence of God because he resides within you.

But not only that, it’s clearly not what this passage is talking about and it actually neglects several other passages of Scripture.

It neglects the Law itself in which the Israelites were told to take care of the poor within their nation.

It neglects Jesus’ own command to “give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”

James writes that “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” He goes on to talk about the necessity of treating those who aren’t as economically well off with respect and love.

If Jesus intended for this statement to mean that the church shouldn’t take care of the poor, then we’d have a terrible mistake in Scripture when the rest of Scripture points to the need to take care of those who need help.

This sentence when taken in context isn’t Jesus saying that they shouldn’t care for the poor, but it’s Jesus again pointing towards the fact that he’s about to die and he’s about to leave them.

And in that point, he’s stating that Mary is right to worship him as her priority because he won’t always be there.

In this instance, the idea is that Mary is right to anoint him and glorify him because after that week, Jesus will be killed and shortly after that, he’ll ascend into heaven.

But the poor, they can still be helped afterwards.

It isn’t Jesus telling them not to care for the poor, it’s Jesus telling them that they need to take advantage of the fact that he is still there in the flesh with them.

Judas is upset at the what he perceives is the loss of a great amount of money because this perfume in his estimation was wasted by pouring it out on the feet of Jesus; but Mary sees it as an act of devotion, worship, and glorification of Jesus; and Jesus sees it as both an act of devotion, worship, and glorification, as well as an act that foreshadows what’s about to come—a preparation for his death. Now, there’s three verses left in our passage of Scripture today, and it’s going to seem as if it’s completely changing topics, but remember, John is driving his book with the intent of convincing people to believe and the book itself is building to Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. So, John is driving the storyline along, but reminding us that Mary’s anointing of Jesus didn’t happen in isolation, in happened in the midst of several other events. Read with me Vs. 9-11.

The Chief Priests’ Plan to Kill Lazarus (9-11)

John 12:9–11 ESV

9 When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

Again, to remind us of everything going on around Jesus and the building tension between him and the Pharisees and chief priests, John reminds us of that plot that the chief priests had to remove Jesus from the equation. This is the same plot that was first mentioned in John 11:45-57, the one in which Caiaphas unknowingly prophesied that Jesus would die not just for Israel, but for all who believe to gather them into one children of God. Except now the plot has expanded.

The Jews learned that Jesus was in Bethany, they came, not just to see Jesus, but also to see Lazarus.

Which honestly, makes a lot of sense. Lazarus was deathly ill and he had been dead long enough that he had been placed within the tomb.

And enough people had heard of his death that just prior to the resurrection of Lazarus, there were crowds of people there to grieve with Mary and Martha.

People had heard that Lazarus had died, so when Jesus raised him from the dead, it was something that all wanted to see tangible proof of.

So of course, the first chance that they all had, they all flocked to see this man who was dead, but is now living.

And the chief priests respond to this the same way they responded to all the miracles of Jesus. They essentially doubled-down and as Vs. 10-11 says, they “made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.”

Colin Kruse, “The effect of Lazarus’ restoration to life had a powerful impact upon the crowd, which made things even more difficult for Jesus’ opponents . . . The chief priests had most to lose. They cooperated with the Romans in the administration of the province of Judea, and Jesus’ rapidly increasing fame was a growing threat to their position . . . Now Lazarus too was adding to that threat, so the simple solution was to kill him as well [as Jesus].”

These brief few verses remind us again of the extent that people will go to not believe in Jesus as the Christ. Jesus had performed one of the greatest feats known to man by resurrecting Lazarus from the dead.

And yet, the chief priests were so vehemently opposed to Jesus, that they ignored the implications of Lazarus’ resurrection and sought to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.

They were more concerned that people were leaving them and believing in Jesus than they were about what the miracles of Jesus said about him.

Which is an indictment against the chief priests and a warning for those whose sins have deceived them from following Jesus.

In our remaining few minutes, I want us to look at some specific application for this passage. Normally, when we get to application, we work our way through the text starting from the beginning, but this morning, I want us to start from the end of the text and work our way back to the beginning. The reason for this is because the primary application of this passage doesn’t make sense unless you’ve already taken to heart the secondary application. So, let’s take a few minutes for application, starting from the end.

Application

Vs. 4-8 and 9-11, which we worked through as two separate sections both share the same application. In Vs. 4-8, we see Judas Iscariot’s disapproval of Mary’s Anointing of Jesus. He sees Mary poor out such an expensive ointment on the feet of Jesus and he reacts by asking why they didn’t sell it to raise money for the poor (and of course, through John’s statement, we know that Judas is only asking this because he was responsible for their money and he was stealing from them). In Vs. 9-11, the author almost pans out to look at the overarching storyline again and he points out how the the chief priests, in their sin, still refuse to believe in Jesus to the extent that they would rather kill both Jesus and Lazarus than admit that Jesus just might be the Messiah. The application here stems from one idea: that many people would rather not believe than believe in Jesus.

In the case of the chief priests and of Judas Iscariot, their love for power, authority, and money superceded their love for God; but ultimately, it is the love for sin that will always distract people from love for God.

John himself, iterates this point in John 3:19, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

And it is that love for darkness rather than light that convinces people that unbelief is better than belief; the author of Hebrews said, that we should exhort one another every day, “that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin is deceitful and it will convince you that anything and everything is better than simply following Jesus. Judas believed that money was better than following Jesus. The chief priests thought that power and authority was better than following Jesus.

In your own life, it could be power, authority, and money, but it could also be pleasure, comfort, or entertainment that keeps you seeking sin rather than Jesus.

Thus, the first side of the application is this: don’t allow sin to deceive you into thinking that sinning is better than following God.

Sin is deceitful and it waits to ensnare you, but if you believe in Jesus, he has freed you from the power of sin.

Don’t go back to your sin and don’t seek after your sin, but repent from your sin and follow Jesus.

The very idea of repentance is a continuous change of mind—it doesn’t just happen once, it happens repeatedly. You repeatedly must put away your sin and you continuously must choose to follow Jesus.

As John Owen said, “Be killing [your] sin, or [your] sin will be killing you.”

Your sin is not worth the consequence that it brings—repent, believe, and follow Jesus.

Mary’s Anointing of Jesus (1-3)—from the first section of this passage, we see Mary anointing Jesus with this really expensive ointment. Jesus says that part of the reasoning that this anointing was for his burial, but as we worked through the passage, I pointed out that Mary didn’t know that this was why she was doing it. Rather, she was anointing Jesus to show her devotion to him, she was anointing Jesus to worship him and glorify him. Our application for this section is actually rather simple, because it’s based on how Mary responded to Jesus.

Mary responded to Jesus by simply worshiping him, but she did it in a way that we need to learn from. How did Mary worship Jesus? Mary gave of her best, she realized who she was in submission to Jesus, and she didn’t care one bit about the people around her:

We see her giving her best by what she chose to anoint Jesus with. She didn’t utilize whatever she had laying around, she didn’t give the least she could get away. She gave him someone that was worth a tremendous amount of money and she liberally poured that substance all over Jesus’ feet. Now consider how you worship Jesus

Is worshiping Jesus important to you? Do you give of your best? And I’m not just talking in a financial standing, but do you give Jesus your best time, do you give him your best effort, do you give him all that you can?

Or is worshiping Jesus just something that you do though you don’t really care? Is attending church just something that you do because you know you should or do you come with the confident expectation that you’re going to worship the LORD with your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Do you give Jesus your best time? Or do you just kind squeeze him in when you can, but if you miss a day it’s not too big of a deal? Do you take time every day to commune with him, or is he relegated to the last ten minutes of your day? Do you take time to read his word and pray to him or do you only do it when nothing good is on TV, maybe right before you eat, or only every now and then?

Considering all that Jesus has done for you as your Savior, don’t you think your worship of him should be more valuable to you?

You show what you think of God and of Jesus by whether you seek him as a priority or not. Is he important enough to give of your best, to give financially, to give your time, to give him your all? Or is your job more important? Or is your entertainment or comfort more important? Or are your friends more important?

Is Jesus important to you? Is worshiping him important to you? Or is he only important when nothing else can distract you from him?

We see Mary recognizing her position in comparison to Jesus in that she recognized her need to submit to Jesus. This is really seen in how she anoints his feet and wipes his feet clean with her hair.

I mentioned that in Jewish culture the idea of someone washing someone else’s feet was seen as a degradation—only the servants would clean other people’s feet. And quite honestly, in our modern-day world, many people see it in a similar way. I’ve been in some churches that practice feet-washing and even in the churches that regularly do this practice, it’s odd and awkward for many of the people.

And the reason for that oddness and awkwardness, is because we typically see the idea of washing each other’s feet as something that servants do for other people.

Which is how Mary viewed herself in light of Jesus—she was his servant.

Often, we have a false idea that Jesus and really God exists for us, but in reality, we exist for God. As Colossians 1:17-18 says, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church .He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

God does not exist for us, we exist for him and we exist for the glory of God—we exist to make the name of Jesus great, to do all for God’s glory, and to give all glory to our Father in heaven. We exist to serve Jesus.

And serving Jesus starts with first understanding that this world is not about you—it’s about Jesus, and you, if you believe are his servant.

So serve him, by submitting to him in obedience, by seeking him, and by showing your love for him.

And lastly, we notice in the way that Mary anointed Jesus, she didn’t care one bit about the people around her.

Many of us have what we would call a fear of man—we might not actually be afraid of a person, but we’re afraid of what they think and how they perceive us.

Mary literally wiped Jesus’ feet with the hair of her head; and we’re worried that someone might think that we’re foolish for coming to church, stupid for believing in God, and weird for talking to them about Jesus.

Let me help you with that—Mary didn’t care about what the people around her thought, because she was doing what she was doing for an audience of One. Jesus was her audience of One. She only cared about serving, worshiping, and pleasing him.

Bring that into our modern-day world—in your world. You might think that people are watching you, which people are; and you might think that they have opinions of you, which they do; and you might allow their watching of you and their opinions of you dictate how you live your life, which most people do subconsciously.

But let me encourage you to stop caring what other people think about you—stop worrying about other people’s opinions of you, what they think ultimately doesn’t matter. If what you’re doing, you’ve been convinced that Jesus wants you to do it, it doesn’t matter if someone thinks it’s foolish, stupid, or weird. Jesus is your audience of One.

So, stop living your life trying to win the adulation or praise of people around you—live your life doing all that you can for Jesus, your audience of One.

You need to submit your life to Jesus, your audience of one, and you need to give of your best to him.

Put simply, John 12:1-11 warns us to not allow our sins to deceive us into thinking that sin is better than following Jesus; and then it exhorts us to do what Mary does, submit yourself to Jesus, live with him as your audience of one, and give of your best to him.

Jesus is worthy of your best, Jesus is worthy of your attention, Jesus is worthy of your submission, Jesus is worthy.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

I Stand Amazed in the Presence