Anointed Feet
“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint[a] 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.
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.[b]” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you,[c] but you will not always have me.” John 12:1-8
Intro: Mary is a popular name in the bible.
As a matter of fact, it was the single most popular name in the first century Palestinian culture.
One in every five girls born was given the name Mary.
That’s 20% of the women named Mary!
The fact that it was such a popular name
makes it a lot more difficult to keep up with the “Mary’s” we find in the New Testament.
The name appears 61 times in 53 different verses,
with each reference…, providing only the bare minimum of information…, about which Mary is who.
Even scholars have a hard time pinning down who the authors are talking about at times.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the easiest one to identify.
Then, there’s Mary, the mother of James and Joses.
And Mary, the wife of Clopas.
We can’t forget Mary, the mother of Mark.
And in the later New Testament, Mary of Rome.
And don’t forget Mary Magdalene—you know, the woman of the night, the demon-possessed Mary
—don’t you remember Jesus casting seven demons out of her?
Then, there is Mary of Bethany, whom we meet here in John 12.
She is the sister of Lazarus, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, who had two sisters named Martha and Mary.
It is her story we tell today.
It is from her that we learn a lesson of deep devotion and real commitment to faith if Jesus.
It is from her that we learn what the model disciple looks like.
If I were to ask you, “What have you done this week that a disciple would do?”
Could you name three things a disciple would do? That you have done this week?
Mary of Bethany…, is the one we get to know…, a little better than the other Mary’s in the Bible.
We are first introduced to Mary, in Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus shows up at their house for a meal.
Her sister Martha is busy showing hospitality
Martha has the gift of hospitality.
The gift of hospitality is one thing a growing church congregation has.
The gift of hospitality is so close related to the gift of salvation.
I am convinced that every Christian has the gift of hospitality.
It is just like any other gift.
Some use their gifts and spiritual gifts more and so the more you use your talents, gifts and spiritual gifts
The more you receive.
The strong they become.
Out of your genuine experience and relationship with the loving and forgiving and saving Saviour Jesus Christ
You now have love for others.
That experience you had results in you wanting others to meet and know Christ in a saving way.
So you begin the journey of taking the initiative to invite, welcome, include, and support new people.
You have this fire of desire inside you, called the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit lives and dwells in you.
The Holy Spirit helps you grow in faith.
The Holy Spirit revives our passion want to serve and work and nurture and love and help the congregation
as well as those outside the church.
Martha represents that part of you that serves, works, and volunteers.
Martha is in the kitchen, working, preparing the meal.
After all these are preachers,
can eat a lot of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and biscuits and green beans.
Everyone of you have some Martha in you.
Martha is what keeps the church going.
Martha comes early and leaves late.
Martha changes the par aments, the colors on the communion table and pulpit
Martha changes the flower arrangements throughout the different seasons.
Martha comes to the office and gets the upper rooms and takes them and hands them out.
Martha bakes cookies and bread for the Children and Youth meetings.
Martha works the Apple Day Booth
Martha sets up tables for funeral meals and fifth quarter parties
Martha volunteers to teach a class
Martha puts together Christmas plays and Easter programs
Martha sings in the choir and the praise team.
Martha serves on the trustees and helps keep the building maintained.
Martha serves on the administrative council and does planning for ministry and oversight of the church
Martha attends the women’s guild.
Martha makes prayer shawls.
Martha changes the light bulbs when they go out.
Martha trims the shrubs and mows the church grass for free.
Martha sweeps the Family Life Center and takes out the trash after an event.
Martha puts up tables and chairs.
Martha serves a meal to the community who are underprivileged.
Martha leads a prayer team who prays for the pastor and church leaders
Martha is part of small group who meets and goes out and takes Home Communion to shut-ins.
Martha buys donuts for Social Minutes
Martha teaches a Sunday School Class
Martha volunteers to take a Sunday to lead Children’s’ Church
Martha puts on an event for Young Adults at her house.
Martha goes to the nursing home and makes house calls to the Senior Citizens
Martha plans and organizes activities for Family Life Ministries of all ages.
Martha volunteers to come and read books to children in the Preschool
Martha serves on the finance committee and plans fundraising for missions and ministry
Martha works on the church website and keeps the face book pages going.
Martha organizes events for the Methodist Men.
Martha organizes support for the United Methodist Children's Home
Martha volunteers to mentor a young teenage who is nearing the age of Confirmation.
Martha volunteers to help in the Community Christmas Dinner
Martha sells tickets to the Sweets for Sweets Valentines Dinner
Martha gets a group of people together who plan the Ash Wednesday Service and leads in Worship
Martha gets a group of people together and organizes Holy Week and Easter Services
Martha buys eggs and organizes the Children's Easter Egg Hunt
Martha meets once a week and sends out cards to the sick and visitors to the church.
Martha finds the names of families who are hosting Foreign Exchange Students and has an International Night
Martha goes out and gets businesses and people in the community to sponsor a child for Christmas for Children
Martha organizes activities for children and teens
Martha puts together a banquet for school students in the community.
Martha promotes a Quartet Gospel Singing
Martha plans a fundraiser for the Ministerial Alliance
Martha has a yard sale and takes pizza to Big Sandy College and serves the community.
Martha volunteers to work a table at Trunk or Treat
Martha comes in the office every week and works on the Goodwill Program
Martha organizes a Church and Community Revival
Martha puts together a Family Movie Nights
Martha goes out and Volunteers on Mission Work Days Projects
Martha organizes an Summer Ice Cream Social
Martha gets a group together and plans and does VBS
Martha volunteers to help when the church is Hosting Mission Groups
Martha puts on a Church-Wide Picnics and Hayrides
Martha gives money and helps put on a fundraiser for the Youth to go to Winter Jam
Martha meets once a week with a pray group and then goes door to door inviting people to church.
Have I made the point? (I am sure I have left some things out.)
Everyone of you have some Martha in you.
It takes more than one Martha.
It takes many, many, many Martha’s.
Francis Chan Clip Simeon Says.
We don’t just show up and church happens.
Making disciples and believer don’t just spontaneously appear.
Church and being a disciple takes a lot of preparation and hard work by a lot of people.
How much preparation time do you give to the Lord?
All us have to work together. We all have to do our part.
It is not equal giving but it is equal sacrifice.
You have some Martha in you.
Martha's work is just as important, as Mary's worship.
We see Martha working and serving.
Then we see Mary worshipping.
Everyone of you have some Mary in you.
Mary is in the living room.
Mary is worshipping at the feet of Jesus.
Martha represent the physical food
Mary represent the spiritual food.
You can’t be healthy and have one without the other. You must have a balance of both.
The physical service and the spiritual service.
Notice even in the Spiritual Mary doesn’t just sit and listen to Jesus.
Mary is active in the worship service.
Mary is not a passive bystander she is an active participant.
She doesn’t just sit and do nothing.
She gets up. She goes and retrieves…
Worshipping for a lot of people is like playing Simon Says.
Simon says flap your arms.
The person says, “I am flapping them --- but on the inside in my heart.”
Jesus doesn’t just want us to be flapping on the inside in our heart.
He wants us to be both.
Internal and external.
Physical and spiritual
Body and Mind
It is when these are out of balance that we are weak and unhealthy.
Mary of Bethany is at the feet of Jesus.
Jesus sees the cross and his crucifixion is coming very soon.
He knows where he’s going.
Mary of Bethany is at the center of this pivotal moment in Jesus life.
Half of his life has lead up to teaching his disciples in the classroom.
The second half of his life will be the practical of going out and actually doing what disciples do.
There are a lot of classroom believers.
But not every has graduated the classroom and goes out and puts into practice the being a disciple
And even farther yet obeying the commandment of Jesus to make other disciples.
There they were…, gathered at dinner.
Can you imagine what kind of dinner guest Jesus must have been?
Consider the possible guests at this dinner in John 12.
Mark’s Gospel account tells us more about who was there.
If we add them all up, there's at least 17 people there, including the disciples,
and a leper named Simon, in whose house this is held. Many more are also gathered around.
We’ve got Simon who has been healed of leprosy
and Lazarus who has been raised from the dead.
Can you hear Simon? “Yeah, it was amazing.
Jesus reached out and touched me, and immediately the leprosy was gone!”
And Lazarus chimes in, “That’s nothing, I was dead, wrapped in grave clothes for four days
when Jesus showed up and called me out of that grave!”
The men were busy swapping war stories,
trying to one-up each other in their relationship with Jesus,
but it’s Mary of Bethany who teaches us the greatest lesson—the extravagant nature of worship.
Mary took a 12 ounce jar of expensive perfume.
Other translations call it pure nard, meaning it wasn’t watered down.
Nard was a rare and expensive scent imported from northern India
that smelled like gladiolas and was red in color.
It was used for medicinal purposes, as an scent in wine, a breath mint and as perfume for the body.
Our text says it was worth a small fortune, it was part of the family inheritance.
It was worth at least a year’s salary.
So take whatever amount you earn in money for a year
and go and pour it out at the feet of Jesus in worship.
This certainly reveals the wealth of Lazarus and his family.
Lazarus wouldn’t be there without Jesus…, literally.
Lazarus would still be dead.
Everything Lazarus was and had already belonged to God.
Martha and Mary would not be cooking a meal in honor of Jesus.
They would be cooking a meal in memory of Lazarus death.
But they have been blessed so much.
And their gift back to Jesus is also much.
Mary practice extravagant generosity.
Let me ask you the question: “How good has God been to you?”
Has anyone here stood in front of this church and had your infant baby baptized?
Or have you been baptized in this baptistery or out at the lake?
I say, “God is good all the time” --- You say, “All the Time God is Good.”
“God is good all the time” --- “All the Time God is Good.”
Is there anyone here who has been married in this church or your children or grand-children have had a wedding or a shower at this church?
“God is good all the time” --- “All the Time God is Good.”
Is there anyone who has had a loved one pass away.
There funeral was led by the pastor of this church.
Your church family surrounded you with love and prayers and food?
“God is good all the time” --- “All the Time God is Good.”
God has poured out extravagant generosity upon us.
There is nothing more extravagant as what Jesus did for us on the cross.
“God is good all the time” --- “All the Time God is Good.”
In the early church the followers of Jesus would sell their possessions and goods
and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Acts 2:45.
The bible describes generosity as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22
The church doesn’t have a financial problem the church has a spiritual problem.
Because there is more than enough money in the church to meet all the needs the church has and then some.
But it is still in your hands.
I want to keep giving away the church to the poor and the underserved.
But the reality is right now in the short term we can no longer afford to keep doing that.
We must be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted us with
You have a fiduciary responsibility
You have a sacred trust to manage God’s household.
and a spiritual responsibility to put paying the bills on time.
without having the embarrassment in the community
and without the struggle of owing bills we cannot pay.
When the ushers walk the offering plate down the aisle and passes in front of you.
It feels good to put something in.
It feels great to give what already belongs to God anyway.
How much do your hands put in the offering plate?
Lead with your heart---give compassionately
Lead with your head---give wisely as good stewards of God’s gifts to you.
Lead with your hands---give generously and extravagantly
Lead with your feet---give for the glory of the anointed King
Everyone of you have some Mary in you.
The extravagant nature of the gift is underscored by the fact that as Mary Anointed the feet of Jesus
Mary anointed Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
And the fragrance filled the entire house.
Mary’s is an act of total commitment and dedication to Jesus.
For Mary, Jesus was worth more than all her perfume.
This jar of perfume was perhaps the most precious item Mary owned.
Perhaps it was part of her dowry she had been saving for her marriage.
Perhaps it was a family heirloom, passed from her mother to her.
We don’t know how she came about the perfume, but it was precious and costly,
yet she “poured it freely” on Jesus.
Anoint the hand of a person with oil and have them pass it on anointing the next person.
Martha is in the kitchen, working, preparing the meal.
Since these are preachers, we can assume it is fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and biscuits and green beans.
Mary is in the living room, worshipping at the feet of Jesus.
Make it your number one priority as a Christian to meet Jesus every day
and sit at His feet, listening, and soaking it up.
This will bring the intimacy and relationship with God that your heart longs for and your soul needs.
It will energize you for the work and worship God is calling you to.
The bible says, “Where ever the gospel is preached the memory of what this woman has done will be told.”
You have some witnessing to do.
Lazarus is with all the men at the table, witnessing,
answering their questions about whether he saw a tunnel or a bright light.
Her brother Lazarus sits around talking to Jesus.
Her brother Lazarus has died and been buried.
Lazarus is witnessing what has happened to him in his life.
Martha and Mary had called for Jesus, but he didn’t come in time.
Martha has gone down to the tomb,
but Mary sits at home mourning her brother’s loss.
Jesus finally arrives at the tomb, encounters Martha, offers words of encouragement and hope,
and then sends word for Mary to come, too.
Martha goes to get Mary and upon hearing that Jesus wants to see her,
she runs to the tomb, and what does she do?
She falls at his feet.
It is then that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
Everyone of you have some Lazarus in you.
Has Jesus raised you from the dead?
You who was once dead in your trespasses.
You who was buried under the weight of your sin.
You who was shrouded by rotten habits and foul thoughts and deeds.
But Christ came to your tomb and spoke your name come forth.
That which was dead is now alive.
Everyone of you have some Lazarus in you.
Put all 3 together Martha, Mary, Lazarus and you have a balanced Christian.
Working, Worshipping and Witnessing.
