What do you do for love of God?

Love of family, love of food, love of friends, love of the outdoors — all these things drive us to some of our best and noblest choices. When it comes to God, however, we have a tendency to not be so passionate and all-in with our time and resources. And yet, is He not worthy of the best we have to offer?

God, before all, is the Giver of all good things. And He, after all, is the only One who can guarantee us a glorious eternity free from our tears and fears.

No one has gone so far as Jesus Christ has gone to lay down heaven’s glory for a season and shoulder the burdens we carry. So, is He not worthy of the best we have to offer?

In pursuing a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ it’s good for us to look into the life of Mary of Bethany. The progression in her life as a follower of Christ mirrors the progression of our own lives as Christ-followers. I believe the three snapshots we are given in the Gospels of her life are meant to show us 3 postures of life in relation to Jesus Christ that will help us to be all he wants us to be.

These three postures perhaps don’t happen just once in our lives but may have to happen again and again, each time hopefully taking us deeper and deeper into a love relationship with Jesus Christ. Mary of Bethany is no more a candidate for sainthood than the rest of us flawed human beings. Though perhaps she was a quiet, gentle woman by nature, that would not have kept her from having an occasional unkind thought, doubts about God, anger toward her brother and sister, the temptation to gossip with other village women, or questions about the purpose of her life. Just like the rest of us, she was a flawed human being.

But, looking into the Scriptures, we learn so much from her. In Luke 10, we see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus as a devoted disciple.  In John 11 we see her as his beloved friend — falling at his feet in desperate need, falling and waiting there in the comfort of his tears with her to see what only He could do with that moment. And then, in John 12:1-8, we see her kneeling at his feet as his servant, out of love lowering herself as far as she could, to serve him with all she had to give.

This supper is obviously a big deal for the village of Bethany. The setting is not in Martha and Mary’s home, but that of Simon the Leper. There may have been many helping with the meal and much going on around the table, but what do we see Mary doing? It’s stunning.

Since this supper is not in her home, Mary had to have brought this pint or pound of spikenard perfume with her, coming to Simon’s home with an intention hidden in her heart to pour out her love for Jesus, understanding more than anyone else where he was headed in the following few days when he went to the cross.

Spikenard was VERY expensive. It was an uncommon perfume extracted from grasses that grew in the Himalayan mountains of India. Once the juices were squeezed out of the grass, they were dried into a hard, lardlike substance. Turning that lardlike substance into perfume was a very lengthy and costly process. If you add to this the cost of transporting spikenard from India to other parts of the world, you can see why this particular perfume cost so much money.

Spikenard was so expensive that few people could buy it; most had to buy one of the many cheap imitations available. But the word used in John 12:3 tells us that Mary didn’t bring Jesus a cheap imitation; she brought Jesus the real thing — an ointment so valuable that it was normally reserved and used only as gifts for kings and nobility. This was the gift Mary brought to Jesus—a gift reserved for royalty!

In bringing this gift, most likely her most treasured possession, Mary is bringing herself. This perfume represented who Mary was as a person — and it probably set her apart as a favored, respected woman in her family and village. Had she inherited it? Was it given to her from her family to use as a dowry in the event of marriage? How could she, a quiet woman from a very small village, have purchased it? We don’t know how she obtained it, but it must have been a very treasured possession.

Mary broke the flask and began to anoint Jesus with the fragrant oil. Obviously, her intention was to use it all and there was no going back once it was broken. She was determined to give all she had in her hand to Jesus! What Mary did was not from duty, or to earn favor. It was purely out of love.

First, she anointed Jesus’ head as her King. This might have been expected if Jesus were being recognized as the King. But then, she anointed his feet as her Beloved Master and her Precious Savior. Hear the gasps as she proceeded. See shock and surprise on faces.

This action she takes is extremely personal and unheard of in that day. After she poured the spikenard onto Jesus’ feet, Mary reached up to her head and untied her long, beautiful hair, gathering it in her hands. Then she leaned down and began to wipe Jesus’ feet dry with her hair. In the days of the New Testament, a woman’s hair represented her glory and honor. The apostle Paul referred to this in 1 Corinthians 11:15 when he wrote that a woman’s hair was her “glory.”

Mary loved, appreciated, and valued the feet of the Master!  It’s not hard to imagine tears streaming down Mary’s cheeks as she touched those precious feet. You see, no other feet in the entire world were more beautiful to Mary than the feet of Jesus. Jesus had changed her life. Jesus had brought her brother back from the dead. Jesus had brought new meaning into her family. To Mary, every step Jesus took was precious, honored,and greatly valued…

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” — Isaiah 52:7 NIV]

When Mary did this for Jesus, she was taking the position of his slave. Her kneeling there at his feet was the lowest position possible for her, or anyone. And it was all because of love.

What an extravagant, all-in kind of love!

Mary had been a disciple, sitting there at his feet. Then, she was Jesus’ beloved friend, falling there, at his feet. But now she is fully consecrated to his service as his slave, kneeling at his feet. Amazing!

And the aroma filled the house! No one, including Martha, could have missed what Mary did here for Jesus!! The scent reflected the beauty of Mary’s spirit and her devotion. It was her love in a bottle.

But then criticism and shaming start falling upon her. Judas puts in words what they’re all thinking.

Criticism for love poured out?! This is not unusual. Extravagant love for God is always met with disapproval in a world where what a person controls or possesses is the measure of wealth. When the economy of a family or village is threatened (when the dowry is poured out on the floor, so to speak), the result isn’t applause. It’s suffering.

Suffering is heaped on the lover of God. Jesus said would be so. John 15:18-21 NASB — “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”

A believer out of control with love for her Savior and Lord is considered dangerous, an embarrassment and perhaps even crazy. She must be controlled or punished in some way for shaming the culture and ignoring customary boundaries.

King David was despised by his wife for dancing before the Lord in his tunic. Jesus was accused of being demon-possessed after healing a demon-possessed, blind, mute man. The Apostle Paul describes passionate followers of Christ as being counted fools without honor, the scum of the world, the dregs of all things. 2 Samuel 6:12-23, Matthew 12:22-29, 1 Corinthians 4:1-13, 3:19, 1:18-21

Mary was criticized and shamed publicly, BUT Mary does not answer back. She doesn’t stop ministering to Christ in the best way she knows how. At his feet, Mary is totally absorbed in who Jesus is. Where he is going in the next few days? Her love says, “Take me with you.”  What will his fully human soul suffer? Mary declares, “I’m with you.”

What we see in Jesus’ words is that she anointed his body for the grave – in other words, she anointed him as her Savior, the precious Lamb of God being given to take away her sin.

Forever one with Christ!

Mary’s actions to communicate her devotion and gratitude to her Lord, and Christ’s words over her love gift are spirit and life. They point to his grace carrying her forever. Jesus declared that the testimony of her love would go on forever, wherever the Good News of life in Him was preached, but perhaps it took a while for that to take root in her life and the testimony of the Christian brotherhood.

What happened to Mary after this event?

If her perfume was her nest egg, or her security for whatever the future would bring, what position did her extravagant action put her in with Martha and Lazarus — or in terms of her having a husband and family of her own?

We don’t know what happened to Mary, but we can make some good guesses based on the way God has dealt with his people down through the years since Christ established his Church…

• Her soul was satisfied.

Psalm 34:5 NAS — “They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed.”

Matthew 5:6 NAS — Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

• The Spirit of God would have prompted her to forgive those who criticized her.

Colossians 3:12-13 NIV—Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (cf. 1 Peter 2:18-25)

• Whatever struggles Mary had going forward from her extravagant moment of death to self-concern, her life from that moment on would be raised up by faith in the one with whom she was dying.

The relationships she carried on in her village and family, whatever ministry she might have taken toward others — it ALL was impacted by this moment of self-giving.

Mary had died with Jesus there at his feet. That moment of total selflessness would likely have carried her the rest of her life. It certainly shaped the rest of her life in some way.

As time went on, she as much as anyone, would have understood what Paul declared in Galatians 2:20 NLT—

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

What do you do for love of the Christ? If it’s from love, it will mean you’ve finally seen Jesus for who he really is, and it will mean you’ve finally counted Him worthy of whatever the cost to your life.

Like Mary, do we love Jesus more than their good opinion? Do we love Him more than getting ahead? Do we love Him more than accomplishment and applause? The only good reason to give up our almighty reserve toward Christ, our calculating self-protection, self-advancement, self-interest—is if we begin to love Jesus and believe that He is worthy of everything.

“And when the world wonders why, we’ll just tell them we’re loving our King. We’ll just tell them we’re loving our King.[1]

---

The preceding sermon based on these notes was delivered on July 16, 2023 at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Castleton, NY. You can see the entire service by navigating to https://encountererc.com/sermons, or watch the YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP49l2yTFoM.

---

[1] We Will Worship The Lamb of Glory – Dennis Jernigan