Believe and Live
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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. 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. 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. 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.”
3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. At some point during the meal, a strange incident transpires. Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with ointment and wipes them with her hair. There are several points to consider about this action.
Perhaps her motive can be understood if the conjunction (Greek oun) is given its full causative force as “therefore,” rather than simply “then.” This would tie Mary’s act to the fact that Lazarus is one of those eating with Jesus. It is because Lazarus is alive, restored from the grave, that Mary pours out her heart in gratitude to Christ by her symbolic and extravagant act of worship. That the act is extravagant is emphasized by John. She uses an unusually large amount (slightly less than 12 ounces avoirdupois) of a very expensive perfumed oil (called “nard”) to anoint Jesus. Matthew and Mark state that she anoints His head while John says that she anoints His feet. Both are accurate, though incomplete, statements. She probably pours the anointing oil upon the whole length of Jesus’ body as He reclines at the meal, starting at His head and moving downward.
There is so much that it literally drips upon the floor. Mary spontaneously loosens her hair and begins to wipe the excess from the only part of Jesus’ body which she dares to touch, His feet. Even as he writes, John remembers the episode vividly: the room was filled with the pungent sweetness of the perfume. This is another of those incidental observations of detail which mark this Gospel as the work of an eyewitness.
Mary’s action is doubly offensive to those present, appearing to be garishly excessive, in poor taste, undignified, and wasteful. The oil is very expensive and there is much of it. A small amount poured out in a dignified manner on the head would be one thing, but for the whole bottle to be poured on His whole body is too much. Her loosening of her hair and using it to wipe Christ’s feet is also objectionable—unbecoming, even vulgar, embarrassing everyone in the room except Jesus. Only He understands her motives and is impressed by her effusive love and gratitude.
Stallings, Jack Wilson. 1989. The Gospel of John. Edited by Robert E. Picirilli. First Edition. The Randall House Bible Commentary. Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications.
Jesus Came to Save the World
John 12:44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
Belief is of God.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
If you believe this, you will be at rest. Believing it does not mean that you sense it is like that or that you understand it to be like that. Having faith means that you build your life on God’s Word; you conduct yourself according to God’s Word and reckon that God, who has said it, guides everything and is a rewarder.
Belief opens our eyes.
Ephesians 6:5–8 (ESV)
Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.” Helen Keller
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
C. S. Lewis
Belief leads to freedom.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
“The core message of the Christian faith—the Gospel—is that Jesus Christ rescues us from the slavery of sin and offers true freedom in this life and beyond.”. Billy Graham
As believers we must remember the freedom that has been gifted to us.
As unbelievers we can know the freedom of seeing and knowing the one true God.
