... But You Will Not Always Have Me

John 12:1a Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany,

- Ex 12:21-23 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. 22Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 23For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.

- Six days before Jesus' death

- Lamb of God, killed to save us

John 12:1b the home of Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead.

- John 11, the chapter just before today's

- 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

- 35 Jesus wept

- 43 “Lazarus, come out!"

John 12:2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.

- grateful for raising their brother from the dead

- When Jesus met Mary and Martha, she was distracted by her many hosting responsibilities (Luke 10:38-42)

John 12:3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

- Anointing

- Messiah

- King

John 12:4-6 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)

- Matthew 26:14-16 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

John 12:7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial."

- Not now

- Timing

Matthew 25:1-13 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

John 12:8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

- Time for reverence, time for social service

- Matthew 25:40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Anointing

- Christ is present in our neighbors

- Anoint them!