“Mary: Wasting Your Life on Jesus” (John 12:1-8) - God’s Story Our Story I -

Three Ways to Honor Jesus

Today’s passage is the sequel to last week’s story, “the resurrection of Lazarus.” Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus and his family were so grateful. So they invited Jesus to dinner at their place to honor him. Verse 2 says, “So they gave a dinner for him there.” This is a thank-you dinner to Jesus for raising Lazarus from the dead. We find at least three different ways to honor Jesus in this story. The first one mentioned is Martha. Martha served (v.2). We can easily find this picture of Martha, cooking, serving, giving the best of her heart to Jesus through the gift of hospitality. You see, for Martha, honoring Jesus means serving Jesus, doing that which she knows best, cooking and serving. That is her love language. The next person mentioned is Lazarus. The Bible says “Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table” (v.3). Lazarus just wanted to enjoy Jesus’ presence. He talked with him, dined with him, and enjoyed every minute he had with Jesus. For Lazarus, honoring Jesus means simply enjoying fellowship with him, spending time with him, simply being there in his presence. But then we find Mary. Moved with love and gratitude for Jesus, she demonstrated her devotion in a more dramatic way. You see, Martha and Lazarus both loved Jesus, and what they did was perfectly normal, but for Mary, her love and gratitude was so great. She wanted to do more, do something special. She wanted to go deeper. So she did extraordinary things.

Today’s story is also written in the gospels of Matthew and Mark. At the end of the story both of them wrote how Jesus sees Mary’s devotion. Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her” (Matt 26:13; Mark 14:9). Chinese preacher, Watchman Nee, says that Jesus “intends that the preaching of the Gospel should issue in something along the very lines of the action of Mary here, namely, that people should come to Him and waste themselves on Him.” In other words, the gospel is “to bring each one of us to a true estimate of His worth.” Today’s story tells us when the worth of Jesus and the love of his followers match, it is a beautiful thing. Jesus is worthy for us to devote all we are and all we have to him.

At the Feet of Jesus

When it comes to devotion, timing is essential. There is a time for everything. A time to listen, and time to act; a time to save, and a time to give. I think Mary was a very wise woman. She knew God’s timing. She knew when to listen and when to act. And I would say that wisdom came from sitting “at the feet of Jesus.” Every time we encounter Mary in the Gospels, she is at Jesus’ feet. When Jesus visited her home, she was listening to his word at his feet (Luke 10:39). When her brother, Lazarus, died, she poured out her sorrow to Jesus at his feet (John 11:32). When troubles came, she ran to Jesus and sitting at his feet. And now when Jesus had last supper with her before he died, she expressed her love and devotion to him at his feet (12:3). She did the most beautiful thing at the right time. Jesus affirms her discernment in this way, “For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” There is a time for everything. We learn this wisdom at the feet of Jesus.

Waste Your Money on Jesus

Mary knew the hour was at hand. She knew it was time to act, to give her best to the Master. Verse 3 says, “Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus…” True devotion is always costly. In most cases it costs us financially. Nard was a precious spice imported from northern India. So a pound of the spice would have been huge and lavish. Judas estimates that it could have been sold for 300 denarii. In Jesus’ time one denarii was equivalent to about 1 day’s pay for a working man. If we say we get paid $9 an hour (minimum wage of Maine) and work 8 hours a day for 300 days, it adds up to $21,600! Mary broke the jar and poured all the perfume on Jesus’ feet at once. Her action was extravagantly costly. It’s no wonder why Judas and the other disciples were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?” From the disciples’ pragmatic, sensible perspective, Mary’s devotion didn’t make sense at all. She was out of her mind. But, from Jesus’ perspective, it was beautiful, commendable, and memorable. Suppose we have just one last chance to express our love to the one whom we love most in the world. What would you do? I think probably all of us in this room will do something special, something memorable, give our best to that person. That’s exactly what was happening in this story. Jesus defends Mary, saying, “For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” He is not discouraging helping the poor. That’s not the point. Here he is saying, “I am more worthy of your undivided devotion than all the world’s poor put together!” Mary knew that Jesus is worth it. So she gave it all. Isaac Watts describes the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ in this way (“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”):

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far two small:

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

True devotion is costly. And it often costs us financially. We can easily find out how much we treasure Jesus if we look at our checkbook and bank statement. Let us ask ourselves: Is my devotion to the Lord costing me financially? Do I treasure Jesus more than my stuff?  

Waste Your Life on Jesus

Mary even goes further. Not only did she anoint the perfume on Jesus’ feet, but also she wiped his feet with her hair (v.3). Why is this so meaningful and remarkable? Because Jewish women never unbound their hair in public. It fact, in Jesus’ time it was considered a mark of a woman of loose morals. In all ages, reputation and dignity are considered more important than wealth. Proverbs 22:1 says, “Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold” (NLT). But as for Mary, what matters most was what Jesus thinks about her devotion to him, not what others might think about her. She was willing to take risks of losing her reputation, pride, even dignity, in order to gain Christ. In fact, Mary didn’t just waste her perfume on Jesus, but also she wasted her life on Jesus. Judas criticized Mary’s action, saying, “Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?” (v. 5) The other disciples said, “What a waste!” (Matt 26:8) When we give our best to the Lord, some people may criticize us and not appreciate what we’re doing. True devotion costs us socially as well as financially. Let us ask ourselves: Do I treasure Jesus more than my reputation, my pride and my dignity?

Do It for Jesus

Once one of Wycliffe missionaries shared this story. The missionary couple was assigned to translate the Bible into one of the Indian tribal languages. As we know it takes years. Before computers, it often took as long as twenty years. During the process, at first the church seemed to grow. But as time went by, the tribal people were becoming more and more involved in selling their crops for the drug trade and less and less interested in the Scriptures. When they finally finished the translation work and scheduled a dedication service, not even one person came! The missionary couple was angry and bitter. They had given 20 years of their lives for the tribe, but they didn’t appreciate it at all. But then God opened the missionary couple’s eyes to see all this from God’s perspective. They began to realize that they did it for God. The missionary wife said, “That is only thing that makes any sense in all of this. We did it for God!”[1] People may criticize us and not appreciate what we’re doing. But we are not wasting our lives if we waste them on Jesus. I would like to close with Mother Teresa’s prayer poem, “Do It Anyway”:

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

…

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

…

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough.
Give the best you've got anyway.

You see,
in the final analysis it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

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[1] Steven J. Cole, “Lesson 64: Wasting Your Life on Jesus,” https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-64-wasting-your-life-jesus-john-121-11