Jesus had just revealed Himself as the Resurrection and the Life at the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Tonight we are going to look at four of the people’s reactions to this resurrection.
READ 1-2. I thought about this scene and wondered how I would have felt dining with a man who had just been dead a few days before. Jesus dined in a home in Bethany. Matthew and Mark record this anointing of Jesus in Matt. 26 and Mark 14. John says it actually took place six days before the Passover. Matthew and Mark say that Jesus was in the house of Simon the Leper, and john says that Martha served. Apparently Simon the Leper was the husband of Martha.
But the stress of the Scripture is that Jesus was with Lazarus, the young man who was raised from the dead. And Jesus was facing the Passover. He was only six days away from becoming the Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. (Answers Ray’s question from last week of how long before the crucifixion did chapter 11 of John take place. A couple of weeks.)
READ 3. Here we see the reaction of the supreme believer. The supreme believer is a person like Mary who loves the Lord with her whole being, sacrificing all that she is and has. Mary gave herself out of a heart of pure love for the Lord. Does that describe your relationship to Jesus? Are you a supreme believer? Let’s see.
1. The supreme believer expresses a repentant love. Mary had criticized and accused Jesus of neglecting her family when He hadn’t come sooner to the aid of her brother Lazarus. Here she is seen repenting of her sin. Is that something you still need to do? 100% repentance.
2. The supreme believer expresses a sacrificial and costly love. Note the word “expensive” in v. 3. The ointment was a perfume or oil. The perfume was worth about a year’s wage. Just imagine the scene! A bottle of perfume worth a whole year’s wage being poured on the feet of Jesus. Think of the costly sacrifice being made. Perfume was the most precious thing to Eastern women. Mary was taking her most precious possession and giving it to her Lord. Do you love Jesus enough to sacrifice like that?
3. The supreme believer expresses a believing love. She honored Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One. Mary’s anointing was an act of love and faith in the Lord Jesus. Very simply put, Mary anointed Jesus to show how deeply she loved Him and believed Him to be the true Messiah. He had done so much for her and her family that she wanted Him to know how much she appreciated and loved Him.
Something else needs to be noted. Mary sensed something within Jesus; a heaviness of heart. Here heart reached out to Him and wanted to encourage and help Him. Being a young woman in the presence of so many men, she wasn’t allowed to vocally express herself that much. Such a privilege wasn’t allowed women of that day, so she did all that she could.
She acted by arising and going after the most precious gift she could think of—a very expensive bottle of perfume. She gave it to Jesus in such a way that He would know that at least one person truly love Him and believed Him to be the Messiah. Her hope was that such worship and love would boost His spirit.
Note how May demonstrated her love and faith. She gave the most precious possession she had to the Lord. She publicly demonstrated her love and faith in Christ.
What would we do to show our love and faith to Christ? Imagine how difficult it was for Mary to do what she did in the presence of so many men. She set aside pride and embarrassment in order to demonstrate her love and faith in Jesus. How fare are we willing to go in order to show our love and faith?
READ 4-8. So we see the hypocritical, unbelieving disciple. This was Judas. A study of Judas’ character in these verses reveals what it is that often causes a disciple to become hypocritical and unbelieving. Listen up! This next portion is for all of the hypocritical Christians.
Judas followed Jesus, but he criticized other believers. He was a professing believer, but when he disagreed with others, he criticized them. He criticized even those who had great devotion and love for the Lord, and those who repented to the point of making great sacrificial gifts.
Mark pointed out that Judas was especially strong in his criticism. He says that Judas was indignant, growling, rebuking, and scolding. Here’s the point:
Criticism is a sign of hypocrisy. Don’t we all stand in need of repentance and devotion? Don’t we all need to give more and more? When we come so short ourselves, how can we possibly criticize what we consider to be the mistakes of others?
Judas expressed concern for the ministry, but he had an ulterior motive. Imagine the scene; a bottle of perfume worth a whole year’s wage was being poured over the feet of Jesus. Common sense would say, “Sell it. Use the money for the poor, the hungry and the homeless.” This is just what Judas did say. He questioned the act, what he considered a waste. After all, if Mary wished to anoint Jesus, she could have used a less expensive perfume.
But Judas’ motive was impure. He was the treasurer of this small band of disciples. But he was a thief; he had been swindling some of the money. A gift of a year’s wages would have allowed him the chance to steal quite a sum. Deep within he was angry at the lost chance to enrich himself. He was angry at Mary, but even more he was angry at Jesus for allowing such wastefulness.
Now think about people today. How many express concerns for the ministry but do so in order to gain from it? Their concern is shown by joining a church and making some contribution, or by showing interest in some venture or need. But their real motive is to be socially acceptable, to be recognized and honored, to please some family member, to gain some credit with God, or to get a tax write-off from the government.
Judas worked for Jesus, but he didn’t love Jesus. Jesus was strong with Judas saying, “Leave her alone.” The reason for this sharp rebuke was that Judas didn’t understand, and the reason for that is that he didn’t love Jesus.
Just because someone works for Jesus doesn’t mean that he loves Jesus. Jesus said that Mary’s anointing pointed toward His burial, His death. Some commentators feel that Mary knew what she was doing and she understood what Jesus had been saying when He predicted His death. They feel that Mary grasped the fact when others didn’t. But this is unlikely.
The atmosphere surrounding the whole scene was that the Kingdom of God was about to be set up and Israel was about to be freed from Roman domination and set up as the center of God’s rule upon earth. But where Mary knew what she was doing or not, Jesus took her act and applied it to His death.
He said that her love and faith, the anointing of His body, pointed toward His death. In simpler terms, Mary’s love and faith and her gift and anointing were a witness of anticipation. She was witnessing to the Lord’s death by looking ahead to it.
Judas lost the opportune time; Mary grasped it. Mary loved Jesus and Judas didn’t. Jesus made a significant point that is often missed; opportunities come and go, and once they are gone, they are gone forever. Mary demonstrated the difference. The poor would always be present for believers to help, but the privilege of ministering to Jesus would not always be available. So if His disciples were to minister to Jesus, they had to grasp the opportunity while He was with them.
What a lesson that is for us. The presence of Jesus—a sense of His presence of His Word—is not always pounding away at the mind and heart of man. We have to grasp the opportunity to show our love and sacrifice for Christ when it presents itself. The opportunity will pass. The servant of the Lord must love and act while it is still day. The night will come when no man can work.
READ 9. Here we see some half-sincere seekers. A person who is only half-sincere has three clear traits. We see these 3 traits in this crowd.
1. They came to see Jesus. They wanted to see for themselves what was going on and causing so much conversation across the country.
2. They came to see the spectacular; to see Lazarus. They came to see if it was true and if this resurrected man was any different.
3. They came to a social occasion. Wherever Jesus was there was action and things were happening. Again, this was just prior to Passover, a very festive week. Even though this was a sacred event, half-sincere seekers always add to the carnality of a worldly atmosphere.
How many sitting in the presence of the Lord and His church are only half-sincere? How many come to church just because it’s the thing to do, the place to be, the place where everyone else is? How many seek the spectacular signs only?
READ 10-11. Again we see the fearful, self-seeking religionists. They sought to kill Lazarus also. They probably thought Jesus and Lazarus were collaborating to deceive the people. But the miracle had a great impact. So many people were affected by the miracle that the authorities felt they had to destroy Lazarus in order to prove that Jesus couldn’t raise the dead.
Lastly, many of the Jews (v.11) who formerly opposed Jesus were now beginning to believe in Jesus. This is significant. It shows that the impact upon the nation was enormous, affecting even the religious leaders.
