Costly Perfume
Notes
Transcript
Anointed
Anointed
Two very different people come together in the first few verses here to give us different perspectives. 12 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.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 12:1–2.
I said two people and perhaps I should have said three. But Martha can seem to be insignificant. It says that Martha served. Have any of the servers in this congregation felt insignificant? 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.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 12:3. So, was Mary’s act considered unimportant? We know that Jesus felt it was of great significance. 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.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 12:7–8. We can sometimes be quick to see the error of others way. In this story, depending on which gospel letter you are reading, you will find people pointing a finger at waste. Let us understand just how costly this was. In today’s standards, and I am not sure how accurate this is, the cost of the perfume was a days wages and today that would amount to 12,000 dollars in those days. What a sacrifice! A years wages was no small amount of money. Could we fault the people around Mary for what they said? Many here today here today would consider that being a poor steward of the money.
We know that Jesus approved. We also know what was in the mind of Judas. 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.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 12:4–6. Piously, he objects to this “waste.” He says, instead, the nard could have been sold and the money given to the poor. The amount he mentions (300 denarii) was just about a year’s wages for a working man! Of course, he wasn’t interested in the poor; he was a thief who used to steal from the money bag which he carried for the disciples. Here was a significant amount of money from which he thought he might have enriched himself.
Jay E. Adams, The Gospel of John, The Letters of John and Jesus, The Christian Counselor’s Commentary (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 20), 134.
if you haven’t learned it before, learn it now: much pious talk is but a cover-up for sin.
Jesus’ reply “In effect, He says that the money was well spent by pouring the nard on His feet; after all, it was an act that prefigured His death and was like the anointing that took place at burial.
Jay E. Adams, The Gospel of John, The Letters of John and Jesus, The Christian Counselor’s Commentary (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 20), 135.
English Standard Version Chapter 12
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.”
As devoted followers of Christ we must be careful not to do things for the wrong reason. Martha was getting the meal ready and was so busy that she could not take time for what Jesus said was good. This does not mean that what Martha was doing was bad. We all need to be Martha’s at times or things would not get accomplished. As Martha’s we must try and remember that some are in the process of being Mary’s and are worshipping at the feet of Jesus. The troubling person in this story for me, is Judas who hides behind his service to the poor to fill his pockets. Judas is not just an opportunist here. The scripture declares that he is a Disciple who has taken care of the common purse. This would have been the ministry bank where ministry was funded by many different people. Often times women would follow the movement and care for the Disciples and make money that could support it. Would you compare Judas to the modern day televangelist?