Mary’s Singular Focus
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:3-5
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:
1 Peter 3:8-9 (NLT)
“Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love one another as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil.
“Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. This is what God has called you to do and He will bless you for it.”
Today we will be reading from Mark 14:1-9 & Luke 7:36-50
(Illustration from Sermon Central -
“One night a wife found her husband standing over their infant’s crib. As she watched him looking down at their very first baby, she saw on his face a mixture of emotions: disbelief, doubt, delight, amazement, enchantment, skepticism. Touched by this unusual display and deep emotions, with eyes glistening she slipped her arm around her husband. "A penny for your thoughts," she said.
"It’s amazing" he replied. "I just can’t see how anybody can make a crib like that for only $46.50."
What’s that saying? Some people can’t see the forest for the trees. Sometimes when you concentrate on the details of a problem, you lose sight of the overall picture; in other words you focus on the unimportant, rather than on the important things. You miss the big picture.”
The passages we will be reading today include events recorded in all four of the Gospels and they all have one thing in common; The Anointing of Jesus.
The accounts of this event are found in:
Matthew 26:6-13 / Mark 14:1-9 / Luke 7:36-50 / John 12:1-11
First let’s read Mark 14:1-9
OK, now let’s turn to Luke 7:36-50
(Prayer for help)
All of these are the accounts of Jesus being anointed by a woman during a dinner given in His honor.
Who is it that anoints Jesus?
It is interesting to read these accounts and to see the differences.
- In Matthew and Mark, Jesus is anointed by “a woman”
- In Luke Jesus is anointed by “a woman … who lived a sinful life …”
- In John Jesus in anointed by Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus
Where are the dinners held?
In Matthew and Mark, Jesus is at the home of Simon the Leper
- Apparently Simon had been healed from leprosy otherwise he would be outside the village yelling out “unclean, unclean” whenever anyone would come near and he would not be allowed in a house in the town or village
In Luke, Jesus has been invited to a dinner in the home of Simon who is a Pharisee
- Is this the same Simon found in Matthew and Mark? Probably not …
- According to the rules of the Pharisees a leper could never be a Pharisee even if he had been healed of the disease
- FYI - there are nine men in the Bible named Simon and at least six women named Mary and this is all in a relatively small pool of names found in the New Testament
In John there is no indication of where the dinner was held but it indicates that Martha is serving while Mary is anointing Jesus.
What about the timing of the events?
- Matthew and Mark say that the dinner took place two days before the Passover began
- In Luke the dinner seems to be early in Jesus’ ministry as it appears that John the Baptist is still alive and sending some of his disciples to ask Jesus if He is the Messiah or not.
In John it doesn’t say exactly when the dinner takes place.
- Some seem to think it took place six days before the Passover
- Other’s seem to believe that the Scripture does not say exactly WHEN the dinner took place
- What the Scripture DOES say is, “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor.”
- All we can draw from that is that Jesus arrived in Bethany six days before the Passover and sometime between then and the Passover a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor …
So, what happened at these dinners?
- In each dinner Jesus is anointed with “very expensive perfume” from an “alabaster jar” or simply “expensive perfume” from “a jar”.
- In John it says that, “Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’”
- From there it seems that it escalated so that others were complaining as well.
- Mark says, “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 and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly.”
- And Matthew says, “When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. ‘Why this waste?’ they asked. ‘This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.’”
- And in Luke, there are multiple issues.
o Jesus allows a sinful woman to touch Him
o And, of course, people will spend countless hours trying to figure out what her sins were …
o Simon the Pharisees, in his mind, accuses Jesus of not being a prophet at all because otherwise, “… (Jesus) would know who is touching Him and what kind of woman she is - that she is a sinner.”
o Jesus then tells Simon a parable about forgiveness and the love that comes from forgiveness
o Jesus then accuses Simon of treating Him with disrespect by not showing Him the courtesies normally given to a guest and yet, this sinful woman has gone far beyond the normal courtesies
o And then Jesus forgives the sinful woman’s sin and that causes a stir as well
I am sure that entire volumes have been written about these dinners answering questions such as:
- Why is it mentioned that the jars were made of alabaster?
- Why did she have the perfume in the first place
- Why the differences between the anointings?
- How many disciples were at the dinners, just the twelve or the twelve and Lazarus or were other unnamed disciples there as well?
- How many Pharisees were there?
- Wasn’t Jesus concerned about the poor when He said, “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me.”?
Yes, there is so much to think about when reading these passages but, what is REALLY going on here? Is there something we are missing?
For simplicity sake, let’s just refer to the woman in both accounts as being named Mary.
What about Mary? What do we see about Mary in all of these accounts? Mary has a singular focus. There is only one thing important to Mary and that one thing is a person and His name is Jesus!
The Mary in the Gospel of Luke knew exactly what her sins were. She had lived through them and she was repentant.
The Mary in the Gospel of Luke knew exactly what the people of the town thought of her and she didn’t care.
The Mary in the Gospel of Luke knew what the Pharisees thought of her and she didn’t care.
The Mary in the Gospel of Luke knew what Jesus thought of her and THAT was the ONLY thing that mattered to her.
We see that Mary cared about showing an all consuming love for Jesus.
Everything else COULD have been a distraction. Everything that was thought about her could have kept her from going to the dinner.
The immense cost of the perfume could have kept her from offering such a generous gift to her Lord.
In the accounts from Matthew, Mark and John, Mary must have heard the murmuring about the cost of the perfume. She must have heard as the murmuring turned into a loud complaint, but, she just didn’t care. Their thoughts were irrelevant to her.
Mary had a singular focus and that was Jesus and her love for Him.
It wasn’t the love for a man, it was the love for a Savior, a forgiver of sins.
I believe that Mary could have been threatened with torture and martyrdom on the spot but it would not have altered her actions at all.
Why? Mary had a singular focus and all else was irrelevant.
What about us?
Are you a sinful man or a sinful woman? We all were in the past.
Some of us may still be if we haven’t come to Christ as our Savior. What is the remedy for a sinful life?
Jesus is the remedy.
Titus 3:3-5 says,
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
Now, there are people who know the sins of your past and there are those who do not. Either way, what have we learned from Mary?
If Jesus is our singular focus it does not matter if they know about our past or not.
What matters is that they now know that your life has a singular focus and that is living for the honor and glory of Jesus your Savior.
When you come to have that singular focus you will find that Jesus may call you to give up the “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume” in a way that will honor and glorify Jesus.
Of course, that “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume” may be one thing in your life and something else in another person’s life.
When you do make that sacrifice, people may complain and criticize you. They may say, “That’s too much”, “That’s too extravagant”, “You need to be realistic”. And, from the world’s point of view they may be right.
But, if Jesus is the singular focus of your life, it will only make sense to be obedient, to pour out your offering on His feet and wet them with your tears of thanksgiving.
Others, who may consider themselves to be more righteous than you may think that you do not deserve salvation just like Simon the Pharisee thought of Mary but they would be wrong.
They would be wrong if you have laid down your life for Jesus and He has become the singular focus of your life.
What would the world be like if all of us who claim the name of Jesus as Savior would have Him as the singular focus of our lives regardless of what others may think?
This does not mean that we would all quit our jobs and confine ourselves to a monastery where we would wear holes in the floor with our knees in prayer.
It would mean that everything in our lives would be given over to Him.
When we decide on something as simple as the hours of our sleep, whether we go to bed early and get up early or whether we go to bed late and get up late it would be based on what would honor Jesus the most.
When we decide what goes into our mind through the news or through TV or through our computers or our radio or what we read it would all have the singular focus of honoring Jesus.
The same goes for what we eat or what we drink or what we wear or whatever!
Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
If the glory of God is our singular objective our lives will have this as a benediction, a final closing prayer written by Jude, the half brother of Jesus Himself …
Jude 1:24-25
“To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy
“To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
Let us all be challenged to look for the “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume” that represents something in our lives and offer it to Jesus this week.
Final thoughts and closing prayer
