John, pt. 71 | John 12:1-11

John 12:1-8 and the Preparation of Jesus’ Burial

If you will, at this time, take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the Gospel of John 12. The Gospel of John 12. We will consider verses 1 -8. The Gospel of John 12. Verses 1 -8. Our glorious God in Heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Lord, we ask that You, through Your Word, oh God, and through this broken vessel of a man, that You will speak to Your people. Lord, that You will help me to listen to You, not only as I studied Your Word, but as I stand in Your pulpit now, Lord.

I desperately rely upon Your Spirit. Lord, if You do not speak through me, Your people will walk away today still hungry for Your Word. So God, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, the name that is above every name, the name by which every knee will bow in Heaven and on Earth, that You will use me today mildly through Your Spirit.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. There's no greater place to be than to be reliant upon the Spirit of God. Let's begin with the text. John 12, verses 1 -8. 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 there. So they gave a dinner for Him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at the table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples 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 money bag, he used it to help himself to whatever 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 will always have with you, but you will not always have Me. Our theme for this Lord's Day is the preparation of Jesus' death or the preparation of His burial. Today as we're looking at these different interactions with Jesus, out of all these interactions we're going to see in this text, none of them are as significant as Mary's interaction with Jesus.

It seems as if the Holy Spirit through John is trying to show us something significant in the text. This is kind of how John has written his Gospel in such a way. So often we as Christians seem to downplay our own interactions with Jesus.

We even try to trivialize our time with the Savior as if our interactions are not as important as we see in the text. The reason as to why Mary's interaction seems more significant in the text is because Mary seems to understand the moment that she is in.

As you will see, she quite clearly understands in comparison to the others in our text. My dear friends, if we could just take one page out of the story of Mary, just one page, it would be this one. We would do good to understand the moment that we're in and take every opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus Christ.

Amen? In our outline, we're going to see this narrative play out. And we're going to see the different interactions with Jesus. We're going to see the interaction of Martha, the interaction with Lazarus, the interaction with Mary.

And the interaction of Judas. Our first point, we're going to look at Martha, our second, Lazarus, our third, Mary, and our fourth with Lazarus. But as we transition, let's remember that Jesus had just raised Lazarus, who was dead for four days.

He was four days in the grave. That Lazarus's resurrection was a picture of our future resurrection. And that because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders were now seeking his death.

They were plotting his death. Right. You remember Lazarus was four days dead in the scriptures. He was 21 days dead, according to our exposition. All right. That's how long it took us to get him out of the grave, out of that tomb.

Right. He was decomposing. He was rottening away. He hears the voice of Jesus. And he came forth from the grave. And I pointed out how this was a picture. This was a shadow. And our resurrection, including Jesus, him being the first fruit, was the anti type.

It was the substance of what we, what will happen whenever we, whenever Christ comes again and we are brought out of that tomb or out of our grave, or if it's the last day and you have not died, the Bible says you will be changed within a twinkling of an eye.

The Bible talks about that this is when we will be as he is. That this story was pointing us to something greater and that because Jesus had done this, that this was the straw that broke the camel's back, meaning that it was time to plot his death.

They were sick and tired of Jesus doing good. They were sick and tired of him feeding the hungry, sick and tired of him raising the dead, sick and tired of him healing blind people, sick and tired of him taking a lame man who could not walk and giving him the gift of walking.

These people were sick and tired of the good deeds. So as we read these first two verses, the first thing we're going to notice is that it's six days away from the Passover. At the very beginning of this gospel, John sees Jesus.

He says, Behold, the Lamb of God. He said that he's the one who takes away the sin of the world. And in our text, we're going to see that this is six days away, six days away until that lamb is slaughtered and he takes away the sin of the world.

And that also means that it's seven days actually to that moment. So it's six days away from the Passover, seven days away from the slaughter. One week. The rest of this book is going to be about one week, seven days according to the text, maybe a year according to the exposition.

I'm not exactly sure. Again, it took 21 days to get him out of the grave of the four days being dead. We're halfway through the gospel. We have one week left just to put your mind at ease. The text tells us also as we read this first two verses, that Jesus is back in Bethany, the town of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.

Martha Serving and the Greater Portion of Listening to Jesus

So let's begin this first point, the interaction with Martha. Verse one, six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany. Remember, he left Bethany because of the persecution. Where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

Verse two, so they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served. Let's stop right there. Right off the bat, we see Martha doing what Martha does. And I would argue that we see this because this is what Martha loves to do.

Martha loves to serve. Now, the scriptures doesn't tell us if Martha was married. However, it most definitely shows her in light of a homemaker, someone who wanted to serve, to serve with her gifts. We see this servant interaction between Martha and Jesus when she is first introduced to us in the Gospel of Luke.

If you would turn with me to the Gospel of Luke 10. Luke 10. We will read verses 38 -48. 38 -48. It says this, Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. Stop right there. Here we see Mary was at the feet of Jesus learning from him.

Meanwhile, Martha was busy serving. Now Luke doesn't tell us what Martha was serving. However, I would imagine it's the same thing that's taken place in chapter 12 of our text. Verse 2, So they gave a dinner for him.

The him here is Jesus. There Martha served. Martha was making a meal for Jesus as well as everyone else in that house. Martha's service was one of a homemaker. And as a Baptist, I'm thinking, hey, that's the Lord's work right there, right?

Food, serving food. And we can say that comically, right, like jokingly, but in truth, that is a part of the Lord's work. Right? If we're honest, Jesus, although he is truly God, he is also truly man.

And as a man, Jesus got hungry and needed to be fed. He needed someone to serve in that manner. I would say, well, I would hope every one of us has that piece of Martha in us. Where if we have someone in our home that we serve them or someone according to James 2 was to come in here, was poorly clothed and needed food that we would serve them.

We will provide this need for them that we would make them food or give them provisions in order for them to get food and we would clothe them. We would serve them. That's the kind of heart that we see with Mary.

And I believe that's the kind of heart that every one of us as Christians should have, although there is a greater service. As much needed as that service is, Jesus was also a man. He was God and man and needed to be fed.

So someone needs to feed Jesus. Someone needs to feed us. Someone needs to clothe us. Someone needs to clothe the poor and feed the poor. However, there is a greater service. Point number two, the interaction with Lazarus, we see this also in verse two.

Let's read that all together. It says, so they gave a dinner for him. Speaking of Jesus there, Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Here we see Lazarus hanging out with Jesus right after Jesus raised him from the dead.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that conversation, right? I would imagine Jesus was teaching something here. Maybe he was teaching on the last day and how Lazarus's resurrection pointed to that time to our future glorification.

Maybe they were having a discussion about heaven. I mean, Lazarus was just there instantaneously and then gone. Or maybe Jesus was talking about his approaching death. Bible doesn't tell us. I happen to believe it's probably something to do with the resurrection of Lazarus.

But I can't prove it from the text. I would imagine Lazarus is doing what Mary was doing in Luke chapter 10 outside of being at his feet. He was listening to Jesus. Let's go back to Luke chapter 10. Let's read that portion all together.

So Luke chapter 10 verses 38 through 42. Verse 38 now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who said at the Lord's feet and listened to his teachings.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. Listen to this. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious about.

Hold on. Troubling. You're anxious and trouble about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary, listen, has chosen the greater portion, which will not be taken away from her. One of the greatest services that we can do is to listen to the teaching of Jesus.

Don't despise your interaction with Jesus. Our being here today, listening to the teachings of Jesus, we're in that interaction that we can sometimes take for granted. Amen. And Luke 10, Mary chose to sit under the teachings of Jesus rather than serve in the kitchen.

And there's nothing wrong with serving in the kitchen. We need people to serve in the kitchen. I don't don't think that's what he's not saying. All right, please cook food and feed. Hallelujah. You know, we need these things.

But there's a greater there's a greater service. And he says, Mary has chosen that rather than to be in the kitchen. And Martha was mad. Just like I would imagine most of you women here would be mad. You know, you're in the kitchen, you're doing all the work, you're preparing the meal, you're getting everything together for us.

And then and then another able will and able, but unwilling body is not doing the work because of being fed by the teacher. Can you can you put yourself in her place and think how you would feel or how Mary must have felt?

And plus, to know that Mary could have chose to sit there and listen to the teaching. But at the same time, that other service needed to be done to Jesus does not condemn Martha for serving. However, he points out that there is a greater service than serving food.

And it is listening to Jesus. And here in our text, John, chapter 12, verse two, that's what Lazarus is now doing. Lazarus is at the table, reclining. So so at this time, when they would talk about reclining at table.

So it would be a table probably near this size. For most part, they didn't have chairs like we would today. And the reclining would be your left elbow on there. And you would eat with your right hand.

That's kind of the tradition for the most. I won't get into the nasty discussing part, but the left hand, the stuff done with the left hand that you didn't want touching your food. OK, let's just get into it, right?

They would wipe their butts with their left hands. And so that's where you get that right hand of fellowship, right? You always shake hands with the right hand because the left hand, it wasn't as great, right?

They've done some things that the right hand didn't do. And so for the most part, when they would recline at table, they would pop their left hand up and eat with their right hand. So that's what this is talking about.

They're enjoying their time together but they're feasting. They're reclined at table. And Lazarus has chosen the greater portion. This time, Lazarus is listening and most likely holding on. I know I would be holding on to every word that's coming from the master, Jesus Christ.

Now, there are also two other accounts of the same story that we're reading in Luke, I mean, in John, and they give different details. However, one thing I want to mention and I think this is important information is that it doesn't mention their names.

It doesn't mention Lazarus. It doesn't mention Martha. And it doesn't mention Mary. And that's going to be important here in a little bit. I would imagine Lazarus, like I said, is doing what Mary was doing.

He is listening. He's reclining. He is enjoying his time with the Savior. But these two other accounts inform us who else is in the house. And one of those persons is Simon the Leopard. So Simon the Leopard was also reclining at the table.

Listening to the teachings of Jesus. Now, notice I call him Simon the Leopard. By this time, Simon would not be a leopard. He would have to be clean. A leopard was not allowed to be in the company of others.

If a leopard was coming into the city and there were other people around, the leopard had to scream out, unclean, unclean, warning people of his leprosy, warning people not to get near him, that he himself is unclean.

But now we have Simon the Leopard reclining at table. So far we know it's with Jesus. It's with Lazarus and probably some of the disciples reclining at the table, listening to the teachings of Jesus, doing the very same thing.

Notice also, the text tells us that Lazarus was not by himself. Verse two says Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Jesus. So in chapter 12 of John, it tells us that there was others there.

Whenever you go to the other accounts of the Gospels and you read this, it doesn't mention Lazarus. It doesn't mention anyone else. All it mentions is Simon. That indicates it's telling us who else was in the room.

Mary’s Anointing as Preparation for Burial

So point number three, the interaction with Mary. Verse three. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with a fragrance of perfume.

Now, here is controversy. I was not looking forward to preaching this text because of this controversy. And as I stand here before you right now, I'm a little nervous, to be honest, because there's controversy here.

And as with controversies, you have to pick a side. And I've picked a side, and it's not the popular side. This is not the side that most reformed people pick. But I've picked my side and I'm going to stand by it.

And even though I'm nervous a little bit, right, I'm a little nervous about it. I'm going to present it to you. The controversy really begins in John chapter 11, verses one and two. Let's look at that real quick.

John chapter 11, verses one and two. Verse one. Now, a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Right here, verse two, it was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.

The controversy is this, is verse two of chapter 11 speaking about chapter 12, verse three, or is it speaking about something past tense? The Greek doesn't really give you any help here. I spent a night and a half in the Greek.

It doesn't really say, pick this side over this side. However, just from the plain language, it doesn't seem that it's telling something that's coming, but it's speaking as if something that has happened from chapter 11.

And that's the side that I have chosen to take. Remember, Jesus in this gospel, in this gospel, the gospel of John, John is also pulling from Old Testament pictures, like he's using stuff that's earthly to explain something heavenly.

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, right? We see this taking place. We see that Jesus speaks about the new birth as a way to explain salvation. And we would hope to that too.

Jamie, not long ago, came up here and talked about regeneration. I just had a debate focusing on regeneration and how the word regeneration is the Greek word, Pauline genosia, Pauline meaning again, genosia meaning birth, birth again.

And Jesus is using the new birth, birth again, as a way to explain salvation. So he takes something that we know, a birth, and he brings it to more, he gives it more light. And he's talking about this is what it means to be a Christian.

You must be born again. He took the wind there in John chapter three, and he says, he used the wind to explain to us the Holy Spirit. He took something earthly like wind to explain to us the Spirit. As we go up through John chapter six, he was talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

And whenever you read that, it doesn't necessarily say that eating his flesh and drinking his blood means believing. But when you follow the context of the whole book, eating his flesh and drinking his blood is believing in him.

Like it doesn't necessarily just say it like we would like for it to say. You have to do the hard work and you have to break everything down. You have to use all the scripture and to explain it and to understand it.

He took physical blindness and explained spiritual blindness and physical sight to explain spiritual sight. He takes the earthly to explain the heavenly. He took the resurrection of Lazarus as a way to explain to us our future resurrection.

And I believe that's what we see here taking place as well. And Luke chapter 7, 36 to 39 lays out for us a similar story that would have taken place before this event in our text. And the woman who is in the story is not named, but it's called a woman of the city.

And it is debated on what the woman of the city means. So in the same way where someone would say, Martha, Martha, or truly, truly, it mentions the woman of the city with a sinner. So this is kind of like double playing that this woman, whoever she is or whatever this means is not a good person.

She's, according to the pharisaical times, law of Moses, she would have been filth to them. When you study this woman of the city, the debate is that this is a nice way of saying a prostitute. But by calling her a woman of a city, we can take from that, for the most part, from what I've learned through studying this, that she is a prostitute, that she is someone who sold her body for money.

So let's read this account, not fully, but just so you can see the picture that's being painted here. Luke chapter 7, beginning in verse 36. Luke chapter 7, verse 36. It says, one of the Pharisees asked him, speaking of Jesus, to eat with him.

And he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment.

And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. So either Luke chapter 7, 36 through 39 is speaking about the same woman, which is Mary, in John chapter 12, verse three, or we have multiple women at the feet of Jesus anointing him with ointment.

Again, it doesn't name Mary. It only names Mary in the gospel of John. Only in the gospel of John is Mary named as pouring ointment, pouring expensive ointment on the feet of Jesus. Mary and her sister Martha is mentioned, excuse me, and Mary, the sister of Martha, is mentioned many times throughout the Bible, these gospels, as being at the feet of Jesus.

We saw one, we preached the one, the one that we've read today is Luke chapter 10, verse 39. It says that Mary is at the feet of Jesus. She's listening to his teaching. She has chosen the greater portion.

And in John chapter 11, verse 32, as Jesus is coming to her and her brother has died, she has gone to him. It shows that she falls at the feet of Jesus. And what I wanna do right now is I want us to look at these other accounts.

I want us to see this story through the lens of Matthew and Mark. So turn with me to Matthew chapter 26. I wanna take you through the journey of putting these stories together. Matthew chapter 26, verses 6 through 13, says this, now when Jesus was at Bethany, notice, same town, Bethany, in the house of Simon the Leopard.

So that tells you where they were from John chapter 12. They're at Simon's house, Simon the Leopard. A woman came up with, and a woman came up, so it doesn't give her name, it just says a woman, this is Mary, came up to him with an alabaster flask of ointment, a spence of ointment.

She poured it on his head. John tells us she poured it on his feet. This same event, she pours it on his head as he was reclining at the table. And when the disciples saw it, disciples now, it's not just Judas, it's disciples.

When the disciples saw it, they were indignant, meaning they were angry, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman?

For she has done a beautiful thing. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed, in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Now go with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, verses three through nine. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leopard, again, it named Simon, as he was reclined at table, a woman with an alabaster flask of ointment, of pure nard, very costly, and she broke it, she broke the flask.

Well, the other gospels didn't tell us that. She breaks the flask, this expensive flask, she breaks it and pours it over his head. And there were some who said to themselves, indigently, why was this ointment wasted like this?

For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they scolded her. But Jesus said, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

For you always have the poor with you. And whenever you want, you can do good for them, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, whenever this gospel was proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be towed in memory of her.

Now, for some of y 'all who might be new to the faith, you might be thinking, why does the story have different perspectives like it does? Well, that right there tells you that this story is true. If it was word for word correct between all three or four gospels, then you would know it was collaborated, right?

If we all from different angles see something happen and we wrote what we saw happen down, it would be the same, but different, right? I imagine Matthew and Mark wasn't good with names, right, like me.

I can't remember what was their name, right? And so he didn't write it down, right? But that's just how it is, right? It's just different. It's the same story told from different views. If you're at an intersection and there's a wreck and you have eight people telling the cops what happened, and if they all said the same thing, that cop knows that this is a lie.

It was collaborated. But if it's all different, similar, but different, they know it's the truth. Now, each account happened in Bethany, and in each account, a woman anoints Jesus with expensive ointments.

And everyone believes, knows, from Matthew, Mark, to John, it's the same woman, Mary, even though Matthew and Mark doesn't name her. It's telling the same event. However, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, for the most part, have a lot of the same things in it, right?

Like, every one of them talks about ointment. I would challenge you to go through here in your spare time and to write, just look at ointment. The alabaster flask, pure nard, anointing the head, anointing the body, and anointing the feet, and wiping his feet with her hair.

Like, these stories, they overlap. Three of them we know because it's the same incident. It's the same story being told from three different perspectives. With the one that I believe is from past tense, we still have the alabaster flask, we have the ointment, and it's very expensive, 300 denarii.

You see, I believe that the woman of the city, that Mary is the woman of the city in Luke chapter seven. And then in verse 48, because she was a prostitute, could have been, Jesus tells her that her sins are forgiven.

She's weeping, her tears like water, she's using her tears to wash his feet. She's taking her hair down, a woman taking her hair down. She's taking that prostitute veil off of her head. She takes her hair and she's drying his feet.

And then she anoints it with this ointment. And in this event from John chapter 12, I believe she does so for a different purpose than the text tells us. Because in Luke chapter seven, I believe it's for the forgiveness of her sins.

She's coming repentant. She's broken, she knows she's a sinner. She's falling at the feet of the Savior. But this time in John and in Matthew and Mark, she's doing so in preparation of the burial of Jesus Christ.

In Matthew chapter 26, 12, in Mark chapter 14, eight, it tells us why. You don't have to guess. It is for the preparation of his burial. It's for his death. It is as if Mary is able to pick up what Jesus is dropping.

All throughout the gospel, Jesus is talking about there's gonna come a day where he's going to die. He's going to be buried and he's going to be raised again from the dead. But his disciples did not understand this.

They were not picking up what he was dropping. But it seems as if Mary is. This ointment, this perfume, this pure gnar was for his burial. In Luke nine, I mean, in Luke seven, it's for her sins. It's her dying to her sins.

And this perfume, this pure gnar, this ointment, it says it was for 300 denarii. Let's put that in perspective. A denarii was a day's wage. So you go out and you work a whole day, you receive one denarii.

This ointment is 300 denarii. This is probably about a year's wage if you count some days off. Mary would have probably purchased this for her own burial because this stuff was used for burial. And then the same way today how people would go and prepay their funeral expenses, this is what we see this ointment was for.

This is what Mary did. Once you noticed when Lazarus was buried, four days later, they didn't wanna open that tomb because he stinketh, right? This is telling us that Lazarus did not have the 300 denarii to buy such perfume for his body.

This was not something that everyone was able to have because of the poverty that took place at this time. And today I am unable to prepay my funeral expenses, right? If I go right now, you're gonna see a GoFundMe on Facebook, right?

Because I don't have that kind of money to pay for my funeral expenses. Most people didn't. Somehow Mary does. She was able to buy this 300 days of wages, this pure gnar. She takes this 300 days of wages, which was most likely purchased from her sin, and she covers the body of Jesus with it in preparation of his burial.

I hope you're able to see the spiritual connection. Right here, I believe we're seeing Mary give to Jesus not only her life's savings, but also her sins. Being at the feet of Jesus in scripture or being at anyone's feet in scripture is a sign of servitude.

Like John the Baptist speaking about Jesus, he says, I baptize you with water into repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am unworthy to carry. And at this time you would have servants that would put your sandals on your feet and take your sandals off your feet.

John is saying, I am not even worthy to be his servant. I am unworthy to be the servant of Jesus. And every time we see Mary, she somehow finds herself at the feet of Jesus, listening as a servant. We also see this in the book of Ruth.

Naomi tells Ruth, because Boaz is a redeemer, she's told to go to Boaz as he is sleeping and remove the sheet from his feet and to lay there at his feet as a servant. And when Boaz awakes, she's to ask him to redeem her.

I think that this is a beautiful picture when we see this woman, this supposed woman of the city falling at the feet of Jesus, crying and washing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair and anointing them with her feet.

She is asking to be redeemed. This is exactly what's taking place. Washing and anointing. And Jesus tells this woman of the city, he continued to read that portion of the text, that her sins are forgiven.

Jesus redeems the woman of the city. And in our text, the house was filled with perfume, which at that time was the fragrance of funerals. Just like today, when someone says, this place smells like a funeral, they're most likely thinking of the intense scent of lilies.

Right, you're walking into a place and smell that intense scent of lilies, and think, man, this smells like a funeral home. Right, am I the only one? This is what they were experiencing. This perfume was the fragrance of funeral invoking thoughts of death.

If you look back with that on your mind and read verse three, because the disciples weren't in the moment. They wasn't not in the moment. They didn't understand the moment that they were in. It says, Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment, 300 days of wages, of pure gnar and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The whole house was filled with the fragrance of perfume. Interaction number four, the interaction of Judas. This is from verses four through eight. But Judas Iscariot, as we see, this stirs up all the disciples from the other text.

Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, he who was about to betray him said, why was this ointment not sowed for 300 denaria and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and have in charge of the money bag 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 will always have with you, but you will not always have me. We need to understand the moment that we're in, even while we're in church.

There's many good works that we could be doing right now. Feeding the poor, clothing the naked. And those are good works. The greater portion is being here today underneath the word of God, listening to the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus never says don't take care of the poor, but it does say to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. My dear friends, this is part of that greater portion, what we're doing here today. And as we've already read from the other gospels concerning this story, the reaction of Judas caused the other disciples to react in the same way.

His disciples were not living in the moment that they were in. Remember, we're six days from the Passover. We're seven days away from Jesus dying for sins. They were not picking up what Jesus had been dropping.

The text doesn't say Mary did, but the simple fact that she anoints him with burial oil, perfume, would say different. Although their focus was on something good, remember, feeding the poor, that's good stuff, minus Judas.

Judas was a thief. He might have been saying those words, but that was not his focus. They were not understanding the time. Concerning Judas, John MacArthur said this, quote, he knew the price of everything, but the value of nothing, end quote.