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Reading John 12:1-8 where Mary anoints Jesus at Bethany, preparing Him for the week where He will lay down His life as a fragrant offering for our sins. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Bible says that Jesus became a fragrant sacrifice for us when he died on the cross for our sins. And this fragrant sacrifice is foreshadowed in the story of Jesus anointing at Bethany when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary that we may be equipped for every good work in Jesus Christ our Lord. Please tell others about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you Becky. We come back again to our study of the Gospel of John chapter 12 this week and looking today at verses 1 -11. The Apostle John wrote, He prayed 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 the 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 in 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 always have with you, but you do not always have me. When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. So we come back again to verse 1, where it says, Six days before the Passover, this likely would have been on Saturday, and it was the day before the triumphal entry on Sunday.
That's the day that we refer to as Palm Sunday in the Holy Week calendar, and John has an account of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, coming into the city on a donkey's colt, to shouts of, Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! People laying down palm branches and their coats on the road as he went. So John's account of that is coming up in verse 12, and we'll be looking at that tomorrow.
But the day right before that event happens, this is the story that we have recorded in the Gospel of John, Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. Now, this story is also recorded in Matthew and in Mark. In the book of Luke, there's a completely separate account of Jesus being anointed, and it happened much earlier.
It wasn't as close in the calendar to Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So Luke records something different entirely, but Matthew and Mark have an account of this, and again, we also find it here in John.
So this is the day before Jesus' triumphal entry, and he came to Bethany. I think I mentioned this last week, but Bethany was where Jesus was when he went to and fro from Bethany to Jerusalem during that holy week.
So when he does the triumphal entry the next day, he had come from Bethany. And then during that week when he comes into the temple and teaches, where is it he goes and stays during the night? Well, he goes two miles over to Bethany.
He goes over the Mount of Olives to Bethany, stays the night, probably at Mary and Martha and Lazarus' house, and then he comes back over to Jerusalem the next day. So he's going to and fro between Jerusalem and Bethany.
And so here we have the account of Jesus coming back to Bethany the day right before he knows he's going to go to Jerusalem and enter into the city as was prophesied in the Old Testament. So it mentions again that Bethany was where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
That was the story we read last week in chapter 11. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. So we see Martha serving here, just like that's the picture of her that's given in Luke chapter 10.
A completely separate story, not the same as this account and also not the same of the account that we've already read of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. But Jesus came to a village, and there was a woman named Martha who welcomed him into her house.
This was his first occasion of meeting Mary and Martha and Lazarus in Luke chapter 10. And Martha had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. So she adored the teaching of Jesus.
But Martha was distracted with much serving, 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 instead of rebuking Mary, Jesus rebukes Martha and says, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha.
Anyway, so I couldn't resist the joke. You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. We will find peace in the word of Christ.
We do not find peace in constantly working for Christ. Now, there are certainly things that we must do. We are called to service in Christ Jesus. And you just think of the Great Commission, for example.
Go, therefore, into all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, making disciples of all nations and teaching them all that I have commanded you. So we have that commission that is given to us.
Now, not everybody is going to go to the mission field as we term. But but there are others that are going to be called to go to greater sacrificial lengths than than others. And then there are others that have a witness within their own community where they can spread the gospel.
But everyone who becomes part of the family of God has been commissioned to share the gospel. You have people that you're going to interact with and share the gospel with that who are never going to hear my voice.
I have the chance through this medium, through a broadcast such as this, to be able to teach you the word of God, that you may be equipped with the things of God as given by his spirit, through the prophets and the apostles, that we may know the word of God to be sanctified by it.
Jesus will pray later on in John 17. Father, sanctify them with the truth. Your word is truth. So it's by the word of God that we are sanctified. It is by the word of God that we have peace. We don't find peace through working.
We find peace in the promises of God given in his word, the hope of these promises. So there's there's certainly a work that we are called to. But that work doesn't give us peace. The peace that we have that surpasses all understanding, as Paul describes it in Philippians chapter four, is the promises of God given through his word and found in Christ Jesus.
So Jesus says to Martha that Mary has chosen the good portion which cannot be taken away from her. You are anxious and troubled about many things. Where is Martha going to find her peace and the resolve to this anxiety that she has by listening to the words of the master?
And so Mary adores Jesus. We have seen that from their very first encounter. And we see that portrayed for us here, even in this act of anointing the feet of Jesus. So a dinner is given for Jesus. Martha served.
Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. It shows the friendship that Jesus had with Lazarus. Remember in the previous chapter in the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It's mentioned several times how Jesus had a close kinship with with Lazarus.
He was indeed a dear friend. And so were Mary and Martha. So verse three, Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure NAR. Now, by the way, this is verse three, and it's the second time that we've seen the word, therefore, come up.
Jesus, therefore, came to Bethany. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment. Now, we may just think of that in English as a term that kind of connects events together. But specifically, the way this word is used here, the way it would have been given in Greek, is it indicates or suggests in however subtle way this is implied.
But that the providence of God is organizing all of these events to happen. So, therefore, the father brought this about in the ministry and life of Jesus. And Jesus is obedient to the will of the father.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus is putting himself in place to then go to Jerusalem the next day for the triumphal entry. So he would be in a place nearby, and that would be Bethany. Jesus, therefore, came to Bethany.
And we have in verse three, Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment. Now, why is that significant? In the ordination of all of these things, why is it important to know that God has arranged for Mary to do this very special thing that she's about to do?
Because it's preparing Jesus for burial, for what is about to happen. Anointing him as one who is a great high priest, who is going to go into the Holy of Holies for us on our account, entering into the presence of God, which he does with his death on the cross.
And then his burial, which the indication is given here in this story that the remainder of the nard that Mary has, she's going to use for the burial of Christ. But all of this is still, you know, leading up to that event, pointing to his death and his burial and his resurrection.
This is preparation for that. And when we talk about fragrance, all the way through the Old Testament, sacrifices and offerings raised up to God are connected with fragrance. Whenever we think of something being clean, there's a fragrance to it, right?
You have the the soap smell or if you use pine, saw the pine smell. Well, when something was or was anointed with fragrance, whether that was like a myrrh or an incense or a fragrant oil of some kind, then there was a holy aspect to it.
There was a connectedness with holiness to the pleasing aroma that it brought forth. Consider Psalm 45, starting in verse six. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and acacia from ivory palaces.
Stringed instruments make you glad. Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Forget your people in your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your Lord, bow to him. The people of Tyree will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. What's being talked about here? Well, the one who has been anointed with the oil of gladness and is made fragrant with myrrh and aloes and acacia, this is prophetically referring to Christ.
And the woman that adores you, at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. This is in reference to the church whom Christ is going to sanctify. Washing with the water of the word is described in Ephesians 5.
And it's also there in Ephesians 5, verse 2, where it says, Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. In the book of Genesis, after the flood that God had used to punish the earth and wipe out the wicked, after Noah and his family disembarked the ark, Noah built an altar and sacrificed on it.
And Genesis says that the aroma of the sacrifice was pleasing to God. And this was an indication that the wrath of God had abated, that it was satisfied in the offering that had been given up. Christ is that offering on our behalf.
And as a fragrant sacrifice, he satisfies the wrath of God so that all of us who are in Christ are no longer under the wrath of God, but we are rather in his blessing. We are given the same love that God has for his own son because we have been clothed in his righteousness and we have been purified.
Again, this washing of water with the word. Peace comes only through the word, as I had mentioned before. Peace with God because of the faith that we have in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
Romans 10 17. So we come back again, understanding more deeply this thing that Mary is doing and how this is foreshadowing what's about to happen and is less than a week away. Jesus sacrificed for us and burial in a tomb.
Mary took a pound of expensive ointment. Mary, therefore, verse three, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Now, I'm not really sure why John would only mention that Mary anointed his feet.
What we have in Matthew and Mark is that she anointed his head, but it was it was showing that she was anointing his entire body. And so for John to say that she anointed his feet, there's really kind of an indication here that she anointed him from head to toe.
So it was from his head all the way down to his feet. But it was specifically his feet that she wiped with her hair. Now, there is an intimacy going on here, but it's not a romantic intimacy. And that's what people will try to draw out of this story was skeptics and mockers.
Scoffers will say they are. That's what they try to draw out of this story was that there was something romantically intimate or even lustful going on between Jesus and Mary. You see it. I think the most common example where I see this portrayed is in the movie or movie, the play TV show, because it was just on NBC.
What was this last year or the year before Jesus Christ Superstar, that musical that was done by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice? And they try to explore this romantic relationship that existed between Mary and Jesus.
And I tell you that that's blasphemy that they do that. But that's not what's being indicated here. There was surely something intimate going on here, but not romantically intimate. It just shows the deep affection that Mary indeed had for Jesus.
The love she had for her savior, not this man whom she wanted to marry or wed, but that she would unbind her hair. It was very unusual for a woman, especially an unmarried woman, to unbind her hair. And yet she does this for Jesus and wipes his feet with it so that the ointment that covered him and made him fragrant.
The fragrance that fills the whole house. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume that she would have a little bit of it on her as well. Remembering and cherishing this thing that she had shared with her lord.
And so, likewise, Christ is a fragrant offering for us. And we who are in Christ receive that fragrance. We are to be living sacrifices unto the Lord, according to what is said in Romans 12 one. So we don't die for God, at least not physically.
We're not laying our lives down for him, but we are to be living sacrifices. As Steve Lawson has said, in order to be a living sacrifice, you must die daily. And that's a metaphorical death in the sense that we take up our cross daily, putting our own fleshly desires aside.
And instead, we desire with our whole lives to commit ourselves unto the Lord, serving him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Everything that we are unto the Lord, our God. So we are living sacrifices.
Christ became a sacrifice unto death. We are living sacrifices to God, but still metaphorically laying lives down daily that we might commit our full self unto God. Not unto ourselves, but unto the Lord.
And so, as a living sacrifice, we have that fragrance upon us. Being clothed in the righteous robes of Christ, he has shared some of that fragrance with us. It's gotten on us so that we might be pleasing sacrifices unto the Lord.
And so this is kind of indicated here with Mary, with this wonderful thing that she has done with Jesus. That the ointment gets on her hair. She has anointed his feet, wiped with her hair, and now she's covered with that fragrance from head to toe.
You see kind of the picture there. So then the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?
300 denarii, a year's wages. You think of the average American salary as somewhere like $50 ,000 or something like that. It would have been that much for this wonderful, fragrant perfume that Mary has anointed Jesus with.
But Judas said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself into what was put into it. You know, a lot of the things that liberals or social Marxists or those who are flirting with socialism, the things that they're saying today, they don't really care about the poor.
They don't care about people who don't have health care. They don't care about what's happening down on the American border with Mexico. They don't really care about any of those things. It's virtue signaling.
So they'll put out there, I think this is bad, but they don't actually want to do anything about it. They expect the government to make these kinds of changes where people have been given the responsibility to love one another and care for each other.
So they're not actually showing any of this care and affection for anyone else. They're just virtue signaling. And that's what Judas is doing here. He's virtue signaling. He's saying, hey, this perfume should have been sold and given to the poor.
But Jesus says, the poor you're always going to have with you. Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. What was going to be left over in the flask would keep until Jesus was going to be buried, which was coming up six days later.
So the poor you will always have with you, he says in verse eight, but you will not always have me. And again, all of this foreshadowing to the fact that he was going to be turned over to be crucified and Judas was going to be the one to do it.
So even he plays a role in this particular sacred and symbolic act. The poor you will always have with you. There will always be poor. There will always be people who are in need of help from others. And we should show our love and care and affection for those who have little.
If the Lord has given us much, may we use it to help those who are more in need. But that doesn't mean the government has the right to forcefully steal from people so that they may allocate it the way that they want.
What the government's going to do with the money is fund programs like Planned Parenthood, who are killing children. So the money is not used for noble causes. We do have an obligation to pay our taxes.
But it's not that we should be passing laws for the government to seize from people so that they can allocate it in whatever corrupt way they're going to. Now, I was going to include in the lesson today what we're reading in verses 9, 10, and 11, the plot to kill Lazarus, not just to kill Jesus, but to cover up the fact that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
And people are starting to believe in Jesus because of that. So the Pharisees, instead of believing it, they want to put Lazarus to death. We're going to come back to that tomorrow. That's where we will begin.
John 12, verse 9. Let me conclude with a quick prayer. Our wonderful God, we thank you for giving your Son as a fragrant sacrifice, an offering on our behalf, dying for our sins so that all who believe in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.
May we live as living sacrifices unto you today. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.
Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word, when we understand the text.