On the last week of our Lord’s life on earth, Jesus spent Wednesday in Bethany with friends. He was honored at a dinner that evening, at the home of Simon the Leper. Simon apparently had been a leper Jesus had healed. John says Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead were there, and Matthew says the 12 were there, too.
John tells us that the woman who anointed Jesus was Mary, the sister of Lazarus. This fact has led some to suggest that this dinner hosted by Simon was a “thank you” dinner put together by Mary and Martha to thank Jesus for raising their brother from the dead. John says Martha served, while Mary presented this special gift to Jesus out of gratitude for what He had done in brining Lazarus from death to life.
Those who have been born again through faith in Jesus, should never forget how like Lazarus, we were spiritually dead in our sin. But just as Jesus called Lazarus to life from the dead, He has done the same for us.
“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” - John 5:24 (NLT)
“I am thankful that God would save me and give me new life. I know me well enough to know that I do not deserve to be saved and yet He saved me. I know that my salvation was born in His heart, not mine! I realize that the salvation I have is not performance based. It is a free gift of a good God. I know that I am saved because He is good not because I am good. I know that the Lord Jesus has taken care of all my sins already, the past ones, the present ones, and those yet to come. He paid all of my debt. I know that His love is stronger than my weakest moments and when I fail He just loves me more. I know that even when I have been unfaithful He has been faithful still. I know that He is the author and the finisher of my faith. I know that salvation starts with Jesus, goes forward with Jesus, and ends with Jesus. It is all Jesus. God’s grace is my song. He is my Lord and Savior and it is totally all undeserved by me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Thank you for loving me!” - Austin Gardner, Vision Baptist Church, Alpharetta, GA
It has been said that eternal life is God’s gift to me; and how I live my life is my gift to God. So as one who is concerned with how to live in such a way as to express my thankfulness for my salvation, I must ask the question, “How can I make sure I am living my life in the best way possible? How can I make sure I am doing all I can with my life?”
This passage teaches us the answer to that important question.
At one point in my life, I was wrestling with this very question and felt led by God to this passage to find the answer. When I read this story in Mark 14, what Jesus said about this woman’s action in verse 8 leaped off the page at me, “She did what she could.” Why did Jesus say this about Mary and how can I make sure He will make the same statement about me when I come to the end of my life? There were three things Mary did and enabled Jesus to declare, “She did what she could.”
1. She used what she had.
“What an astonishing moment! Mary, who loved to sit at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:39), unexpectedly approached her reclining Lord, bearing a priceless alabaster vial of imported Indian perfume (very likely a family heirloom), snapped the narrow neck of the flask, poured a generous portion on Jesus’ head, anointing Him, and then poured a generous portion on His feet - humbly, worshipfully, wiping His feet with her hair.” - R. Kent Hughes
Think with me about this perfume.
A. It was priceless - some present said if it had been sold, it would have brought a price that would be more than a year’s wages (v. 5).
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the average U.S. annual salary in 2023 was $59,384. Can you imagine giving Jesus a gift of $60,000? That’s what Mary did.
B. It was precious - something that valuable had to be special and above average in terms of quality. It was something to be used carefully, not wastefully (v. 4).
C. It was personal - This was something that belonged to Mary or to her family, possibly a family heirloom, as Hughes suggests. Something one would not surrender lightly or easily.
Yet, Mary used what she had, as priceless, precious and personal as it was, she used it in service to her Lord.
“Be still, and know that I am God!” - Psalm 46:10a (NIV)
The Hebrew word translated “be still” actually means “take your hands off.” God is saying to us, “Take your hands off, and let Me be God in your life.”
It is only as I take my hands off my life that I will be able to see God’s hand at work in my life. God was able to work through Mary’s life to accomplish things greater than she could ever imagine or comprehend (vs. 8-9), and He will do the same with us.
Jesus said Mary did what she could because she used what she had in service to Him. We need to be willing to do the same.
2. She used what she had in the opportunity given her - vs. 4-5
Some criticized Mary for not selling the perfume and giving the money to the poor (John says it was Judas John 12:4). But that was not the opportunity given to her. The opportunity she had been given to honor the Lord was that Jesus was a guest in the same house where she was.
What will God hold us accountable for? Is it the talent, time, or treasure of someone else? Is it the opportunities presented to someone else? Or is it for what we possess and the opportunities given to us?
We are each responsible before God for making the most of the opportunities given to us, not the opportunities given to others. So, what opportunities has God given to me? As the old saying goes, “We need to bloom where we’re planted.”
In the parable of the Sower, Jesus speaks of the fruitfulness of the seed that falls on the good soil. Jesus says, “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear,” (Matthew 13:8-9 NIV).
Jesus is emphasizing here the importance of the condition of men’s hearts when it comes to receiving a Word from God. The parable makes it clear that God speaks to everyone, but not everyone’s heart is ready to receive what He has to say. But the heart referred to as “good soil” is the heart of one who has “ears to hear.” And because this is so, God’s Word bears fruit, some 30 fold, some 60 fold, some 100 fold.
This parable tells us that the opportunity for fruitfulness will vary from person to person. My opportunity might be to bear fruit 60 fold, while yours might be to bear fruit 100 fold. But what God will hold us accountable for is whether or not we had ears to hear what He had to say to us about making the most of the opportunity we were given.
Mary was faithful with the opportunity God had placed before her to honor the Lord, and as a result, God enabled her to bear fruit that Jesus said would be remembered through the ages (v. 9). And if you or I would leave a lasting legacy of fruitfulness from the life we have lived, we need to make sure we faithfully seek God’s direction with a heart that is ready to respond to honor the Lord in whatever opportunity He has given to us.
3. She used what she had in the opportunity given her to honor the Lord - v. 3
In John’s account, we are told, “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume,” (John 12:3 NIV).
Mary wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair is a beautiful picture of what must be true of us if we are going to truly honor Jesus with our lives.
Jewish women saw their hair as their glory. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:15 that “if a woman has long hair, it is her glory.”
So Mary letting down her hair and drying Jesus’ feet with it meant that her focus was entirely on giving Christ glory. She had no concern for her own glory.
John tells us that Mary’s desire to bring glory to Her Master resulted in the house being “filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” Shouldn’t that be your desire for your life, for your church? To see this house with the fragrance of devotion to the glory of God?
Then we must be willing to set aside our pride, our “glory” in the effort to see to it that only God receives the glory.
Conclusion: So there you have it. How can I make sure that when I come to the end of my life Jesus will be able to say of me what He said of Mary, that “she did what she could?” I can know I am doing all I can with my life if I am using what I have in the opportunities given to me to honor God. And all this is only possible due to the condition of my heart. It is only when I am willing to lay aside concerns for my glory that I will be willing to use whatever I have in service to God in whatever opportunities He has given me, to honor Him,
And when I stand before the Lord one day, I can know I will be greeted with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You did what you could.”
