Extravagance (April 3, 2022)

John 12:1-8  Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  (2)  There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.  (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.  (4)  But 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.)  (7)  Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.  (8)  You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me” (NRSV).

EXTRAVAGANCE

Text: John 12:1-8

Last week, the sermon focus was on the parable of the prodigal son and repentance. This Sunday, the focus is on Mary’s extravagant thankfulness.

Years ago, I was a student pastor of the Lynchburg Charge, (Lynchburg, St. Luke and Trinity) of the Florence District in SC from 1989 - 1993. I was soon to be appointed to my second pastoral appointment. One night after Bible study, one of my members stopped me on the front steps of the church and said, “I want to give you some flowers”. I was puzzled because I did not see any flowers. Of course, she was not talking about real flowers. She was talking about telling me how she felt about me as her pastor. She was a lot like a grandmother to me as a young pastor starting out. She wanted me to know how much I had meant to her. It was all I could do to choke back the tears. Why? Because her “flowers”---her expression of love was genuine and from the heart. Her words reminded me of some of the lyrics (just shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel) to a James Taylor song entitled “Shower The People.”

Vernie passed away back in 2006 at the age of 89. I have never forgotten the “flowers” that elderly widow by the name of Vernie Stokes gave me. I still treasure the flowers of her compliment even to this day, some 29 years later.

When Mary used that pint of expensive perfume on Jesus, she was expressing how thankful she was of what Jesus had done for her. Today, we will talk about gratitude and grace.

GRATITUDE

Why do you think Mary was so grateful to Jesus in John 12?

1) Party: In John 11 she was mad with Jesus because her brother Lazarus who had been sick, had died before His arrival in Bethany. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. There can be doubt that Mary was grateful for what Jesus had done for her and Martha in bringing back their brother Lazarus from the dead. This meal is a celebration and a tangible expression of her love and devotion for Jesus.

2) Foreshadowing: Mary’s meal seems to be a celebration but at the same time there is a foreshadowing of things to come. As someone (John Burridge) has pointed out, “Kings were anointed on their head and people normally wore perfume on their head. But Mary anointed Jesus’s feet which is incidentally the same place where “the preparation of a corpse for burial would start” (see Mark 14:1- 8). (Quoted and paraphrased from : Richard A. Burridge. Daily Bible Commentary: John. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishing, 1998, p. 153). Another clue that points toward Jesus’s crucifixion was John 11:57 because the chief priests and the Pharisees put out what we would call in modern day an A.P.B. ---an “all points bulletin” for Jesus’s arrest because they felt threatened by Jesus (see John 11:47 - 48).

How extravagant was Mary’s gratitude?

1) Priceless: Mary’s gratitude was priceless. Mary was not concerned about how much the perfume cost. Her gratitude was priceless because what Mary did had come from the heart. What Mary was doing was a blessing that was priceless. She knew that Jesus would not always be there.

2) Fat cats : I read a story about a missionary surgeon who once stopped to see one of the ladies in the village that he had once operated on. The lady and her husband were dirt poor. Their source of income was reliant upon their livestock. They had an angora rabbit and two chickens. The woman would often comb the rabbit, take is hair and spin it into yarn which she would sell to make a little money. The chickens provided the eggs that they would eat for food. Anyway, this woman insisted that the missionary stay for lunch. He accepted the invitation. He was not gone for more than an hour and a half, while he went to check on another one of his postopeartive patients. When he returned he peeped into the cooking pot to see what was for lunch. In the pot he saw a rabbit and two chickens. This woman had given up both her income and her only source for food. She had given up everything. He was so touched that he wept.