Opening illustration: Some of us may feel pressured to be perfect when we go to church so that people will think well of us. Metaphorically speaking, we work hard to make sure we have every hair in place. But a healthy church is a place where we can let down our hair and not hide our flaws behind a façade of perfection. In church, we should be able to reveal our weaknesses to find strength rather than conceal our faults to appear strong.
Worship can be an intensely personal and yet very corporate experience. We can worship alone, with a small group of friends, and with our local body of believers. Some of us dance, others raise their hands, some close their eyes and bow heads in reverence. There are many ways in which we can praise and worship God.
Worship doesn’t involve behaving as if nothing is wrong; it’s making sure everything is right—right with God and with one another. When our greatest fear is letting down our hair, perhaps our greatest sin is keeping it up.
Introduction: Shortly before Jesus was crucified, a woman named Mary poured a bottle of expensive perfume on His feet. Then, in what may have been an even more daring act, she wiped His feet with her hair (John 12:3). Not only did Mary sacrifice what may have been her life’s savings, she also sacrificed her reputation. In first-century Middle Eastern culture, respectable women never let down their hair in public. But true worship is not concerned about what others think of us (2 Samuel 6:21–22). To worship Jesus, Mary was willing to be thought of as immodest, and in another text, perhaps even immoral.
Mary offered her financial stability—pouring a very expensive perfume over Jesus, her physical being—using her own hair to wipe His feet, and her reputation—letting hair down was not something a “respectable” woman did in ancient cultures. Mary worshiped Jesus with everything she had. She knew who Jesus was and what He had done for her (He had just raised her brother from the dead; see John 11). Her worship was a response.
That’s what worship is—responding to who Jesus is and what He has done. How do you worship? How can you share your worship with another?
How can our worship to God be anointed?
1. Approach God in Brokenness (v. 3a)
Brokenness is not a feeling; rather, it is a choice, an act of the will. It is not primarily a one-time experience or crisis (though there may be crisis points in the process of brokenness); rather, it is an ongoing, continual lifestyle. Mary had to break the alabaster jar to approach Jesus and pour it all over Him as her act/response of worship.
Brokenness is a lifestyle of agreeing with God about the true condition of our heart and life, as He sees it. It is a lifestyle of unconditional, absolute surrender of our will to the will of God—a heart attitude that says, “Yes, Lord!” to whatever God says. Brokenness means the shattering of our self-will, so that the life and Spirit of the Lord Jesus may be released through us. It is our response of humility and obedience to the conviction of the Word and the Spirit of God.
Many believers fail to consistently rely upon the Lord. Their independence often manifests itself in various ways—self-reliance, self-righteousness, self-centeredness, or some other sinful attitude. It’s also possible that such people might seem outwardly godly, while remaining inwardly rebellious against the Spirit. Unless we come to the end of ourselves and learn to allow Him to work through us, we will never reach our full potential in Christ.
Brokenness is never weakness. It is coming to the end of one’s self-life. Jesus said that the broken man is truly a blessed man (Matthew 5:3). Through brokenness we comprehend that we are finite people in tremendous need of a Savior. A person will throw himself at the Redeemer’s feet only when he grasps the reality that he deserves divine judgment for his sin and that his sole hope is Christ’s mercy. This is where a life of brokenness begins. The broken man, observed William MacDonald is quick to repent. He does not try to sweep sin under the carpet. He does not try to forget it with the excuse, Time heals all things. He rushes into the presence of God and cries, “I have sinned” (MacDonald, 121).
God requires us to be contrite, humble, and broken. This stands in stark contrast to proud, haughty, and hardhearted. There are numerous books available that tell us how to become proud, haughty, and hardhearted, but the Bible tells us how to become contrite, humble, and broken. God operates on a wholly different value system than we have become accustomed to. God operates far above our mundane, human need system. God works in our brokenness as it is pleasing to Him. He is interested in our eternal character.
Nothing there moved the heart of Jesus except the brokenness of this woman and her response to her worship. Young men are you trying to impress the heart of some young lady or young women, are you trying to impress a young man or Are you really moving the heart of God? Only your brokenness in worship will do it.
2. Offer our Savings (v. 3b)
As we sniff our way into this story, the first thing we detect is that the fragrance of love smells like worship that is worthy. You could say, "worship that is over-the-top expensive or extravagant," but I think worthy is a better word. In John chapter 11, Jesus had come to the aid of Martha and Mary. Jesus had raised their brother Lazarus from the dead. Jesus had called him out of the tomb and restored him to life. So, it was understandable that Mary would have been grateful to Jesus in a way that would have gone above and beyond the normal expressions of gratitude. Jesus had done something for her family that was far greater than anything anyone could have expected. And so, of course, Mary wanted to thank Jesus in a highly meaningful way. She wanted her act of gratitude and praise to be worthy of what Jesus had done for them.
Few of us could afford to give away anything worth a year's wages all at once. Over a decade or a lifetime, however, many of us give tithes and offerings that are equivalent to more than one year's wages. And some people do give large gifts all at once, while they are living or through their will at the time of their death. Why do we do that? Because we want to offer worship that is worthy. We are so thankful for the salvation we have received through Jesus Christ that we want to express our praise in a manner that truly honors God. Like the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3, we count everything we have accomplished and earned as nothing compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. The worth we have, comes not from the dollars in our bank account, the size of our house, or the number of toys we park in our garage, but from the worth we place on our relationship with God.
So why not praise Jesus with a valuable gift? What better thing could we do? From the fragrance of love, we learn that it is good to offer worship that is worthy.
From Jesus' teachings in other places, we know that Jesus cared about the poor. Surely he saw some validity in Judas' concern that Mary was being wasteful--that the expensive nard could have been of benefit to many disadvantaged people. Maybe under other circumstances, from someone else, or at another time, some other behavior would have been a better gift. But at that particular moment, Mary had given what she had. She had given what she was able to give. She had done what seemed right to her. And Jesus appreciated it.
I think many of us are not skilled at appreciating what others offer. We often undervalue the talents and perspectives of those who are different from us. We forget that not everyone sees the world or God in the same ways, and not everyone has the same skills and abilities. And yet,
as the Apostle Paul reminds us in First Corinthians, every part of the body of Christ is essential and valuable. Every part plays a role. Every part has a contribution to make. Therefore, we should appreciate what others can and do offer--whether those gifts are given to us or to God-because those gifts carry with them the fragrance of love.
It’s not just about money though. This is not a sermon about paying the bills or building a new church building. This is a sermon—a worship service—about the attitude of our hearts, because this kind of apathy spills over into everything. Do we give God our best at work? “But Pastor, I don’t work for the Lord like you and Becky do.” Don’t you? Our jobs and our means of income are blessings from the Lord. You may not work for the church, but you still serve the Lord every bit as much as Becky and I do. So does your work, does my work, always reflect the God whom you serve? Do you always give 100%? Do you always display a humble and loving Christian attitude?
3. Be Unashamed (v. 3b)
Mary’s act is radical because she bowed low before Jesus and wiped his feet with her unbound hair. Jewish women did not let their hair down in public. This action would have been completely inappropriate, even overtly sensual, just as it would be inappropriate in our cultural contexts today. Mary’s act is significant in part because it foreshadows the foot washing that Jesus does for his disciples shortly afterward. He will also ask his disciples to perform this kind of service for each other (John 13:1-20). In this way, Mary is portrayed as a true disciple whose actions exemplify the commitment to loving service that is central to John’s gospel. The actions of both Mary and Jesus for the sake of others point to the abundance of love shared between Jesus and his followers, a relationship that continues between God and believers. God is generous and self-sacrificial, and God’s people may also love God generously in return.
Only her husband should see her hair, yet without shame she exposed her glory before the gathered disciples and wiped the perfume away, and the whole house was filled with its fragrance. There was an element of sensual love in her behavior, yet pure, in that it could never be.
Our affection toward Jesus is something that can involve the whole person: body, mind and spirit. He is my Lord and God; he is my best friend; he is my lover (in the pure sense of the word). Our affection toward those within the Christian fellowship will also cover the same bases, in varying degrees: There is the unity, the spiritual bond, we share in Christ; there is the "being of the same mind", compatibility; there is the sensual touch. The love of the brotherhood will include one or all of these elements.
When you love Jesus like Mary did, what other people say doesn't matter. All that matters is that you demonstrate the love you have for Jesus from your heart.
Folks, we need to quit worrying about what others think. There are a lot of churches today that have altered their worship services so as to "not be offensive to the lost." How ridiculous! Worship is not for the lost because they don't know the One we worship. Worship is the song of the redeemed, sung to the Redeemer. It is the praise of the saints to the One who has made them Holy. It is something we do for God's pleasure, without respect of what others might think of us or how they might judge us.
Mary did not put Jesus on her day timer, she did not have to schedule some time in her otherwise busy day specifically to honor Jesus. She did it when the opportunity presented itself. She was ready and eager to honor Him and was thus able to do so at a moment's notice. While others around here were serving food or simply enjoying our Lord's company, Mary was absorbed in worship.
God wants our love and our worship to be spontaneous; He wants us to be passionate about honoring and loving Him; He wants it to become a magnificent obsession. While there are many good things about solemn and formalized worship, that which comes as a natural response to our love for Him is usually most heart-felt. The honor Mary gave to Jesus was authentic and natural. She honored Jesus when the opportunity was at hand.
That's what I love about Mary. She doesn't care what others think, she doesn't care how public it is, or how much it might humiliate her. She is there to worship Jesus and she doesn't let anyone get in her way.
But there is one other thing you should notice about Mary's worship, about her act of honoring Jesus. It is also found in verse 3, the Scripture says that the odor filled the house. The ointment got into everything. It saturated her hair, it filled the house with its sweet aroma. That's what true worship does: It leaves its indelible scent on you and one everyone around you.
People, when you're in love with Jesus, the aroma of that love, of that reverence, of that fellowship bleeds out all around you. Even as the aroma filled the house where Jesus was, it will fill the place wherever you are. We must worship our Savior from our hearts.
Impact: Fills the room and impacts everyone present.
Application: Does Jesus get honor and glory from your life? Is He honored in your home? Would He feel comfortable at your dinner table? Or would He feel at home with what you watch, read and listen to? Do you honor Him from your heart? It's easy to put on a show for others to see but is your worship heartfelt? Are you preoccupied with this idea that Jesus must be exalted through every facet of your life?
