Jesus Returns To Bethany.

JESUS RETURNS TO BETHANY.

John 12:1-11.

As the Passover drew near, Jesus set out once again towards Jerusalem, and stopped awhile in Bethany. This was the place, the writer reminds us, “where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom Jesus raised from the dead” (John 12:1).

The ever-busy Martha served a supper for Jesus, “but Lazarus was one of them that sat at table with Him” (John 12:2). Lazarus is mentioned particularly as evidence that he truly was alive again from the dead. Lazarus was not a ghost, but had a real physical body.

In a singular act of devotion, Mary took a whole bottle of expensive Indian perfume and lavished it upon the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair (John 12:3). The sweet aroma of the ointment filled the house.

The treasurer, one Judas Iscariot, was incensed at this apparent waste! After all, he argued, it could have been sold for a year’s wages and the proceeds given to the poor (John 12:5). Yet the evangelist John is at pains to inform us that this particular church officer, who would later betray Jesus (John 12:4), was cross for another reason: he had his hand in the bag (John 12:6).

Again we see something of Mary’s humility and spirituality. Jesus said that she had got the rights of the matter because she had the insight and precognition to thus anoint Him for His burial (John 12:7). All of Mary’s service commences, as should ours, at the feet of Jesus.

When our work does proceed out of a devotion to Jesus, we will find ourselves criticised, sometimes even by our fellow-believers. Yet our heart’s extravagance is a sacrifice of a sweet savour to the Lord. What Mary did was accepted as part of her reasonable service because her motives and her motivation were sound (cf. Romans 12:1).

This is not to undermine the place of alms-giving in Christian service. Jesus said that we will always have the poor (John 12:8), and we should always minister to them appropriately. This is taught throughout the Bible.

Word of Jesus’ arrival at Bethany reached the crowds beginning to congregate towards Jerusalem for the Passover feast. The evangelist John informs us that some of them came to Bethany, “not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead” (John 12:9). Some were genuinely interested in Jesus, but some came merely out of curiosity, fascinated at the sheer novelty of Lazarus having been raised from the dead.

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, the chief priests were consulting “that they might put Lazarus also to death” (John 12:10). This demonstrates the hardness of heart, and downright spiritual wickedness of these religious leaders! Their prejudice, it seems, knew no bounds.

They were troubled at the deep and lasting effect that the raising of Lazarus was continuing to have on the people. Many of the Jews, they complained, “went away, and believed on Jesus” (John 12:11).