Extravagant Love — Glenn Meldrum

Extravagant Love and Mary's Devotion

And I want to look at extravagant love. So we are going to look at a woman that demonstrates to Jesus extravagant love. So beginning in Mark, the 14th chapter, in the first verse, it says, now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away.

And the chief priests and teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. But not during the feast, they said, or the people may riot. While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard.

She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages in the money given to the poor.

And they rebuked her harshly. Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.

But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

And Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went to the chief priest to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to handle it. A very astounding story here, and I hope I'm able to adequately try and portray what is in this section of Scripture.

This is such an important section of Scripture, I think that we kind of miss it. We kind of read it and say, isn't that nice? But we have to understand that Jesus said something about this Mary and this circumstance that is so important that He never made this statement to another person in Scripture at all.

It is not made anywhere in Scripture. In the Old Testament or New. And He says, wherever the gospel be preached, what this woman has done to me will be told in memory of her. It is an absolutely astounding statement when we look at what Jesus said in relation to this woman.

Three of the Gospels record this account. It's interesting that this woman could do something that would move Christ that much that He would make such a statement like that. Now, this particular account is sandwiched in between two little stories, in essence, or two little statements that are brought out for a very important purpose.

Pharisees, Judas, and Mary's Extravagant Contrast

So I'm not going to directly touch on them. I'll just highlight these two things. There's two contrasts that are presented. And a contrast is presented in the beginning about the Pharisees and then Mary.

So you have these Pharisees that are plotting for Jesus to kill Him. And what is Mary doing? She is going and she is adoring Him. She is showering upon Him extravagant love. And then at the close of the story, you have another contrast that is presented, which is a contrast between Judas and Mary.

And here you have the situation of Judas where he is selling Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, and Mary that is taking a year's worth of wages and showering it upon him in an act of love. And so I think it's very interesting that these two contrasts are put there, and Mary's put right in the middle of it to focus upon the beauty of the act that she ended up doing.

Identifying Mary and the Sinful Woman

Mary was a common woman. Her sister was Martha, her brother was Lazarus. They were people who strove to follow Jesus. They were disciples of Christ. They strove to support Him in His ministry. So they may have had a little bit of money, but it doesn't seem, at least as I read it, that they were some wealthy individuals, but they strove to try and do what they could to help Jesus, to support His ministry, so they followed Him in various situations and so on.

Not a lot is known beyond Mary and the aspect of her sister and her brother. Not much is known about them. But there's a section of Scripture that I'm going to take a couple of minutes on and explain that many theologians are divided on.

Some think that this section of Scripture speaks of Mary and other ones think that they don't. I happen to believe that it is speaking of Mary, and so I'm going to approach it from that standpoint. And the reason why I think that is because there is a similarity of acts that takes place in this.

And this is the story of the sinner woman in Luke 7. And so in the story of the sinner woman, no name is given to this woman, but she has a similar act where she comes to Jesus and she anoints Jesus. In this situation, it is an act of repentance that she's doing.

But let's look at the story just for a brief moment about this sinner woman. The term sinner woman is just a very polite way that the Scriptures will use that she was a prostitute. So she was selling herself.

And so we know what that's all about. So here's this woman selling herself. And we're not told from the situation and how she became a prostitute and how she came to live that type of life, but guaranteed she didn't come by it because it was going to be fun.

She came into it somehow through misery and pain, whether it was the aspect of a young woman that went into rebellion or whether her family died in some tragedy and she was left alone and all she could do was sell herself or whatever.

We're not sure how that came about, but yet nonetheless, that was the occupation that she had picked up. That's how she was trying to put food on the table to survive. And you can just imagine the pain that this woman went through, the tremendous pain that was in her life.

Imagine all the promises that men gave to this woman. Went up to her and says, this baby, I love you, we'll be together forever, but then he's gone. He gets what he wants and he's out of there. Can you imagine how her whole life just became a business in essence?

She was selling herself just to get by and so she hardened her conscience to it. She became numb to it so she could try and cope with the pain and the sorrow of her life. Some way or the other, she heard about Jesus.

Though the Scriptures doesn't say it, what I imagine the situation to be that she went out and heard Him preach, maybe multiple times heard Him preach. I believe that when Jesus spoke, that the power of God was there in such a tangible way that conviction was so heavy upon the people that the crowd would be weeping under their sin.

And so I can just imagine Mary here, a woman so filled with pain and hopelessness and despair, feeling totally, completely trapped in her life, feeling that there was no way out, no escape from it. And then she hears Jesus.

And here is a message of deliverance, a message of forgiveness. They had to be eating at her, had to be just burning inside of her this desire for liberty, this desire for freedom to be able to escape from what she had gotten herself into.

And so for whatever brought her to that point, I believe that it was such a desire to be free from the sin that she was in. She finds out where Jesus is dining that night and He's dining at a man called Simon as well.

Another Simon, but he's not Simon the leper, he's Simon the Pharisee. And she runs into Simon's house, uninvited, runs in and falls at Jesus' feet. And I can imagine that the Pharisees wanted to take her out and throw her out of the house, but because of Jesus' request, they allowed her to stay there and she began to weep at His feet.

And she wept at His feet and washed His feet with her tears and then went and took her own hair and dried His feet with her hair and kissed His feet. She was in an act of repentance from the message that Christ had delivered that was piercing her heart and bring her to this place of surrender to Him.

And the Pharisees grew angry in their self-righteousness. They said to themselves, if He knew what kind of woman this was, that He wouldn't allow her to touch Him. But He knew what they were thinking, so He confronted them.

He makes a statement, I think, that is so interesting. He turns to Simon. He says, but he who has forgiven much, the same loves much. But he who has forgiven little, the same loves little. The whole idea that He was presenting here was this woman that was a great sinner came to the point to want forgiveness.

And because she wanted forgiveness, and she understood the greatness of her crimes against heaven that she became a woman that would want to love much. But the Pharisees, and every Pharisee in that room was just as wicked a sinner as she was, but they could not see their sin.

So they were not willing to love much. They didn't love Jesus. Jesus came in the house, and with the statements that Jesus made, they didn't wash His feet. That was a common thing. If you came into the house, they would wash your feet just out of respect.

They didn't even wash His feet. They would give Him a kiss as a greeting. They didn't even give Him a kiss of greeting. It was a statement of despising Him. Their very actions were actions that they were there only trying to entrap Him, not wanting to gain anything from Him, but they were wanting to hope to find something to accuse Him is all.

And here this woman comes in and does in a way that none of them could even imagine or was willing to do of those things of hospitality, of kindness to Christ that none of them were even willing to do.

So He who is forgiven little loves little, but He who is forgiven much loves much. And so here's this sinner woman, tremendously, wonderfully forgiven of her great crimes against heaven. And so now she became a woman that would want to love in an extravagant way.

Forgiveness, Sin, and Thanksgiving

You know, we don't have to have a filthy life to understand how evil our sins are. We have a concept that the great testimonies are those who have lived the crazy lives and shot people and done all kinds of evil.

And we go and we esteem those as the great testimonies. And people who have not had that same type of testimony can sometimes feel half a Christian. Well, I've not been that evil of a person. The issue is not how much sin we do in and of itself, it is the revelation of how evil sin is that we come to the place of tremendous thanksgiving that He would forgive us.

So the person that's been a murderer and a rapist and all the other things that could go on, he can be thankful of God and have that same concept of accepting the pardon from Christ and be extravagant in his love towards God.

And a kid growing up in the church that comes the same identical revelation of the evilness of their sins, of how it is so damnable, can come to the same place of forgiveness and thankfulness as that other individual.

Because what it comes down to be is understanding the greatness of the gift that He offers us. And so I believe Mary was a sinner woman. Let's look at the story of what we have just read in Mark, the 14th chapter.

Mary's Costly Gift to Jesus

Here's this woman that has just been wonderfully forgiven of Christ. And so now this woman wanted to do something for Jesus. What do you do for Jesus? What do you buy Jesus? I want you to think about that.

How many parents have wished for the perfect child? But you know the worst child to ever raise on this planet would have been Jesus. He would have been the worst child to raise. Can you imagine, here's mom and dad having an argument and there's Jesus looking at you.

Can you imagine being the brother of Jesus? What a nightmare to follow. What a nightmare to follow. We don't understand this. We are so flawed and here is just absolute perfection in the flesh, absolute perfection.

It would be a constant reproof. It would be terrible. I think it would be terrible raising Jesus. Absolutely terrible. So what do you buy Him? You know, just think of birthdays. What does mom and dad buy Jesus?

Well, here's Mary wanting to buy Jesus something. What do you do for Him? What do you do for Him? I mean, you know, you could go and give Him a Mercedes and He wouldn't care. He doesn't care about it.

You'd go and buy Him a Rolex watch and He wouldn't care. He's not moved by it. You could give Him a million dollar home and He'd give it away for whatever reason because none of those things move Him.

What do you buy Jesus? He doesn't care about designer clothes. He won't wear a $5 ,000 suit and $1 ,000 shoes. None of those things move Him. He's not impressed by the wealth of men. He's not impressed by the power of men.

He's not impressed by their possessions. None of it impresses Him. What do you buy Him? Well, Mary wanted to do something for Jesus. So one day she got the idea. Her heart was so filled with joy, thanksgiving of the forgiveness that she had so freely received from Him that she wanted to buy Him something.

And she went to the market to try and find Him something. Now, I've never been to the Middle East. I don't know whether I'll ever go or not. I have no idea what the Lord's plans are, but I've been to Mexico.

I've been into the markets in Mexico. And so I have seen them. I hear there's certain similarities. There's differences with it, but here you're walking down the road or the little lanes that are there and stalls are on both sides and they're clamoring and screaming and shouting at you trying to sell you their stuff.

So I can just imagine Mary walking along and as she's walking along, people are trying to sell her stuff. And so the guy that has all the Rolex watches comes out and says, oh, here, buy it. Oh, you want something for a man?

Yes, I have the best watches. Look at this one. And look at that. And she walks away and says no. She goes down further and there's the guy with the Mercedes. And he's wanting to sell her a Mercedes. And the Lexus dealers on the other side.

All these wares trying to come to go and say, oh, get the best. We've got the best. The best prices and the best product. She keeps on going. One stall after another and comes to the end of the market and there's one final stall there.

And she comes up to that stall. And he's selling perfumes, ointments. Not perfumes like what women would wear, you know, where they spray a little perfume, but it would be an ointment that would be a perfumed ointment.

It would be very strong, very pungent. And so she goes up there and out on the counter is the Walmart brands. You see back a little bit the JCPenney or the Sears brands that are a little bit better. And then you have the Saks Fifth Avenue ones.

And he has the more exclusive ones set aside because he wants to make sure those ones there aren't stolen. So she looks at him and says, well, is this all you've got? Is this the best you have? He says, little lady, what do you mean the best?

Look at this stuff. This is good. You won't find better here. She says, but is that the best that you have? He says, I have something better but I don't let people know that. He says, well, what do you have better?

I say, I have something fit for a king. But lady, you don't have that kind of money. And she says, how much money does it take? He says, well, it costs you a year's wages. Well, what's a year's wages around here?

Let's just make kind of a national average. Let's say, I don't know what the national average is, probably $35 ,000. But let's just say in the area, $30 ,000. Well, do you know how long it takes if you make $30 ,000 a year to save $30 ,000?

I mean, it takes a long time. $30 ,000 for a millionaire is nothing. But for an average individual, it's a tremendous amount of money. And like I said in the beginning, I don't believe that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were wealthy individuals.

So they were average individuals. So however she came across her money, we have no idea. We could guess at some possibilities. Maybe her parents died and a dowry was set aside by her brother so that when she got married and she was going to take her money for a dowry.

And what that meant, that if she gave away her dowry, she wouldn't be able to get married. Maybe it was money she accumulated from prostituting herself. We don't know where the money came from. But nonetheless, she went and saw this ointment.

The man took it out and showed it to her, wouldn't even let her touch it. And she says, I'll buy it. And he laughs. Yeah, right. Where are you going to get that kind of money? He says, hold it. I'll be back in a little bit.

And she runs home and gathers all her nickels and dimes together, all her denaries or whatever else makes all that, that would be a day's wages. And she comes back with a little purse weighted down with all the wealth that she owns, everything she owns.

And she stands before the man and puts it on the counter. And the man's just flabbergasted. And so he goes and he grabs this ointment fit for a king and puts it on the counter. And as she slides the money to him, he slides the ointment to her.

And can you imagine her walking from that marketplace? I mean, she would want to get to Jesus as quickly as she could. She knew where he was dining that night. And so she takes the ointment to herself and holds it very tightly but walks as fast as she dared.

That's the last thing you could imagine. What a nightmare to drop it upon the streets there to be totally wasted. And so she takes the ointment then and she comes into the home of Simon the leper. Now Mary was a figure that was always around.

I mean, she was always there. So her coming in would not have been thought of something strange. So she would come in and everybody would just basically ignore her, see Mary there. So Mary comes in and she walks around and she comes behind Jesus.

And the influence of the Greek culture into Israel is mentioned in the way that you hear it in multiple situations where they reclined at the table. That was not the original Jewish way. That was a Greek influence into the Jewish culture.

And so people would lay down when they would actually eat. They'd be laying on their side like in sofas and they'd be reclining. And she came behind him as he was reclining at the table. And she went and opened up that jar.

It says that she broke the jar. It doesn't mean that she literally broke it. It means she broke the seal and she opened it up. And she took that ointment and she began to pour it on his head. Now the moment that ointment started coming out of that jar and started falling upon his head and flowing down his head and down his face and down his beard, the moment it started coming out, all of a sudden that entire room was filled with this pungent, beautiful aroma because it was pure in heart.

It was absolutely the best. It was imported. It was not something that was natural there. They could not get it from Israel. So it was this rare imported ointment that was filling the place with this beautiful aroma.

And it only took a moment after that aroma filled that room that every head started turning around saying, where is that coming from? Where is that coming from? And they see Mary there, oblivious to them all, just pouring this on Jesus' head and Jesus just sitting there going, just literally enjoying it.

Worship Without Clinging to Possessions

Years wages. When was the last time we squandered years wages? You see, this has really little to do with money. It has to do with the attachments of the heart. She gave up easily what she was not clinging to.

She could give up a year's wages because that was not the goal, the idol of her life. That was not the prize of life. The prize of her life was the freedom that she had received and the One who set her free.

And so as a result of the great liberty that she'd experienced because of the love of the Savior, she did not know Him as who He truly and fully was. I believe that she believed that He was the Messiah, but they didn't know what Messiah was because the Jewish concept of Messiah at that time did not have the concept that He was God, incarnate in flesh and blood.

It wouldn't be until the resurrection, after the resurrection, and Jesus opened more fully to them the reality of who He was after the resurrection before He ascended to heaven and then the Holy Spirit bringing a greater revelation to them, would they begin to understand it.

Only after the resurrection. So she believed Him to be the Messiah, but it was a Jewish concept of Messiah as this reigning King that would come in and deliver them from the tyranny of the Romans, but Jesus came to deliver them from a tyranny that was worse, and that was the tyranny of sin.

And so her spending a year's wages was less about money, but it was about devotion, about the passion to bring joy to God. You see, true love never asks what will it cost. Never ever asks. You know that.

The more I fall in love with Jesus, the less I will ever ask what will this cost me. Because then it becomes irrelevant. When I love Him, if He asks of me, it's irrelevant what it's going to cost me. You want me to do it?

Yes, Lord. We stop the aspect, is this convenient, is it comfortable, is it easy? Those things are gone because love brings us to the point that we'll do whatever. Holiness is not a burden for those who are in love.

Not a burden at all. It's a joy to be holy, because we understand that holiness is the highway to His presence, such as Ezekiel 35 brings out. That holiness is a path to His presence, that through holiness we enter into intimacy with Him.

We can only be holy through relationship. Holiness can come no other way. Legalism can never give holiness. A legalistic concept of Christianity is a miserable, cruel taskmaster that can give no joy, no peace, and no victory, because it's not based in relationship.

In the Old Testament, holiness came through relationship alone. So a utensil could be holy. A building could be holy. A sheep could be holy. A man could be holy. But only in relationship to God. And so when the temple was dedicated to God, it became holy to Him.

When the utensils used in the worship was consecrated to God, they became holy to Him. When the lamb was sacrificed to God, it became a holy sacrifice. And when the man was consecrated to God, he became holy.

It was only in relationship with God. It was not centered around the do's and don'ts of the law. It was centered around the relationship. And that very concept is the same identical thing that is in the New Testament, that holiness comes through relationship.

And those who love Him love holiness because they want to be close to Him. So holiness is not a burden. It's a joy to their heart. It's a joy. So the more I love Him, the more I will love holiness. Not legalism.

Because those who are legalists have no concept of intimacy with God. Talk to those who are suffering under legalism, and you'll just see bondage. There's no concept of intimacy. But those who are in love with Him, holiness becomes beautiful.

And so the prize that He would ask, He would go to us and say, child, there's sin in your life. And we'll say, how do I get it out? Help me to get it out. No more do I want that in my heart. He could say, go and sell everything you have and reach these people, and you'll say yes.

Because love will bring about the trust that He knows best, that Father knows best. We're told from this section of Scripture that she poured perfume on Christ's head as a prophetic act preparing for His burial.

She had no idea that she was actually being led of the Spirit of God to do what she was doing. Had no idea. But she was doing it just for love's sake. She was doing it for love's sake. There's a principle here that is so interesting.

Worship as an Audience of One

Something that we need to learn in a deeper way. You see, when she came into that room, she entered that room to pour this ointment on Jesus' head, and she came for an audience of one. Worship is about an audience of one.

When we come together as saints and we come to worship God, we do it together, but yet we come alone before this God for an audience of one. If I come for anybody else, for any other reason that I'm not coming for Him, I'm coming for an ulterior motive.

If I am afraid to worship because of what people will think or what they'll say, or if they think I'm foolish or whatever, if I'm afraid to do it, it's not about them then. It's still about me. I'm still the focus of that.

When Mary went and bought this ointment and poured it on Jesus' head, she was not caring what the apostles thought, what the disciples thought, what anybody in that home thought. It wasn't about them.

It was about the Savior. She was out to love on the Savior. She was out to demonstrate the grateful heart that she had, and she was going to do it the best way that she knew to bring joy to His heart.

It was all about an audience of one. That's what worship is to be, about an audience of one. You know, that's what prayer is to be, about an audience of one. That we come before Him for Him, though we're in the midst of a people, that we come before Him to be just with Him.

Selfless Worship and Opposition to the Prosperity Gospel

But there's something else about that I think that is so interesting. And this is one of the places where Jesus really wants to take us. And it's the idea of a selfless act of worship. A selfless act of worship.

You know what Mary didn't do? I think this is very interesting. You know what Mary didn't do? She didn't go up to Jesus and whisper in His ear and says, Jesus, I'll pour this very expensive ointment on your head if you give me a hundredfold return.

I absolutely despise the prosperity gospel. I despise it. It is a humanistic gospel that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's another gospel. Because it is totally a self-absorbed, self-centered, selfish message that's all about the person and nothing to do with God.

It is, I will pour this ointment on your head if you will give me a hundredfold. People that do that don't go to the market to buy the ointment for Jesus because they want to love on Jesus. They buy the ointment because they want something back.

It's totally selfish. It's totally self-absorbed. Her act had nothing to do with whether she would get anything back from Him. It was irrelevant. She wasn't doing it to get anything back. It was just a sheer act of extravagant love.

Just she loved Jesus. And all she wanted to do was just shower Him with the love that she could as she understood it. It wasn't about getting one thing back. How many times, let's be honest with ourselves, how many times have we given to God in one way or the other and we expected something in return?

Or we're going through trials and we get angry at God. He says, Oh God, I'm just trying to serve you. Why is all this trouble happening to me? Because the moment that comes in what has happened is we are to realize that none of it has been for Him then.

It's all been for us. Now there's a growth in this and I don't want to bring us in a place where we look down upon this. Jacob is a very interesting man in Scripture. When you look at Jacob you find a very selfish, self-absorbed individual.

I mean look at the prayers of Jacob. And all the early prayers of Jacob is all about me. I'll serve you if you bless me, oh God. And God in His kindness just did, but He was in the process of changing the man.

And then you look at Jacob's final prayer. Do you know what Jacob's final prayer was? Just praise Him and adore Him. Ask nothing of this God in return. Just praise Him and adore Him. A life's journey to bring him to a point of selflessness.

Selfless Love in Marriage and Christian Life

I don't believe we have to wait until we're old to finally come to a point of some selfless love. He wants us to learn it now in our life. He wants us to learn it now in our marriage. The only way I will be able to love selflessly another person is I must first learn how to selflessly love Him.

As long as I love Him with a selfish agenda, I will only know selfish love and be able to give it to others. That's all I will have. So if I want to learn selfless love to people, I must first learn selfless acts of love to my God.

It must first be between me and Him, because when I learn it between me and Him, then I will easily be able to start manifesting it to others. But every time I find the selfishness of my love made manifest, it's because I'm lacking in that selfless love between me and God.

What health that brings to marriages. And let's just be honest here. How many times have we loved our spouses with a selfish agenda? Why do marriages break up? Because we say that there's a limit. I'll love you only so far.

Well, you don't love me anymore. Well, I'm not going to love you anymore. I mean, that's some of the attitudes we get in marriages. Well, if you're not going to be kind to me, I'm not going to be kind back.

Well, you're going to have an attitude at me. Well, I'm going to have an attitude at you then. What madness. What madness that we live out. Instead of understanding that the greatest thing that we can do is selflessly love our spouse, because even if they're being a snot, you want to know what selfless love does?

It brings change where nothing else could. Selfless. Selfless act of love. William MacDonald made this statement I think is interesting. He says, Any sacrifices we make are no sacrifice at all when seen in light of Calvary.

Besides all this, we only give to the Lord what we cannot keep anyway and what we have ceased to love. See, when we really do fall in love with Him, when we learn selfless love to God, sacrifices are no longer sacrifices.

They become easy. You know, the problem that we have is we hold on to things in this life. We hold on to our possessions. We hold on to people. We cling to things that cannot satisfy. And so we cling to them, and then God reaches down and says, This is an idol.

And He goes to grab hold of it and starts pulling it out of our hands. And it hurts so bad. We scream and shout. We claw. We fight. We drag it back down. We rip it out of His hands. When we cease loving the things and we love Him more, we hold everything in our hands, open it, and we allow Him anything, God.

You can take anything. I'll let You take anything from me, and I'll let You put anything in my hands, and I will not grab hold of it, and I will not possess it myself. I will not let it possess me. But You can come and take it if You want.

You can let me keep it if You want. That's where He wants to bring us, to a selfless love, where He is the pride. Now let's take a few minutes and look at the response of the apostles and disciples. I think this is so interesting when we look at this.

The Apostles' Selfish Response to Mary's Worship

The apostles and disciples were that far away, only that far away from being a Pharisee. They were acting like Pharisees here? Church, we really don't understand how close we are. I mean, we could become Pharisees real easy.

So they were on the way to becoming Pharisees, and thank God for His mercy, because He was going to help them out of it, but ultimately help them out of it by going to the cross and taking them there with Him.

So let's look at them. Well, when they see Mary doing this act of extravagant love, what happens? They get angry at her. Why do they get angry at her? Well, really what it comes down to being, we'll look at in just a moment, they got angry at her because she was doing something that they did not have the heart nor the ability to do, because they weren't willing to love Christ in that way.

But they got angry at her, and they got angry at Jesus. They were angry at Jesus, because guess what? Jesus was enjoying this act of devotion. So they were angry at Mary and angry at Jesus, and they tried to bring a justification for it.

It says, well, look at all the poor that could be fed. It had nothing to do with the poor. It had nothing to do with the poor. You know what it had to do? It's the act of extravagant love of Mary, reproved the selfish love of the apostles and disciples.

Rebuked them. And so what happens? And we've all done this in our own ways. You know, somebody's walking is what they should do, or loving like what they should, or giving is what they should, and we're not, and we get angry at them as a result.

And so we somehow try to ridicule them or whatever, and we go and say, well, they'll grow out of that or whatever. We somehow try to justify it, because we ourselves have the problem and not them. And so they didn't look at themselves.

They weren't willing to look at themselves. That's the thing that's so interesting. These apostles that we revere so much, and we rightly should. I mean, it was Christ's choice to pull them out of the world and to make them His followers in such a way, but they're the ones who became Pharisees in the situation, condemning Mary for her extravagant act of love.

They were not willing to look at themselves. They didn't go and say, well, why didn't we do that? Well, why didn't we love Him enough that we would take of our wealth and put it into His hands? Why didn't we think of it?

None of them did that. They weren't angry at themselves. There's a price of being a radical. Mary was striving to be a radical, though she didn't understand what that really was in that situation, but that's what she was.