Introduction:
Unbelievers have always had a hard time figuring out the lifestyle of Christ’s disciples. When you think about it, you can understand their difficulty. They are guided by a life philosophy that promotes selfishness (the attitude that says, “You’ve gotta look out for ‘Number One’”), a philosophy that models greed (“Take what you can get!”), and a philosophy that assigns importance in dollar figures (how often have you heard someone ask, “What do you think he’s worth?”). Guided by such a philosophy, most folks see people trying to be selfless and generous as saps. Christ-centered people in a self-centered world are difficult to understand, and some people will never be convinced it could be anything other than an act to gain others’ confidence in order to manipulate, exploit, and victimize them.
I mean, try to think about it from their perspective: Why would anybody choose to deny himself or herself of any pleasure — no matter how tasteless or vulgar — when life is so short?
Why would people whose lives are at least as busy as theirs carve out time every week for worship, for Bible study, for service projects that do nothing to advance their careers? Why would Christians get involved in the lives of those who are poor and sick, and hurting?
Why would people who are carrying their load already as tax-paying citizens give ten percent or more of their income to the church?
See what I mean? People who don’t know Jesus have a hard time figuring out why people would behave as Christians do! Our answer would be, of course, that we do these things because we love him. He loved us first. He’s done so much for us and continues to do so much for us. And the more we understand that, the greater our love for him becomes.
And because we love him, there is nothing we wouldn’t do for him. He truly is our everything! But how can an “outsider” understand what we mean when we say that?
Our story this morning -- the breaking of the alabaster jar -- shows the difficulty. It is the simple story about a woman who, in the presence of Jesus Christ, was so overwhelmed by the wonder of who he was and by the thought of all he had done in her life, that she did for one time in her life that which many present thought was a foolish thing.
This incident took place while Jesus was on his last journey to Jerusalem. He had stopped over for a few days in the little village of Bethany. While he was there, he was invited to the house of Simon the leper for a dinner in his honor. We don’t know exactly who Simon the leper was. He obviously was a healed leper, or he wouldn’t have been able to host a dinner party. Most likely, he is one of the many people Jesus touched and healed of that awful disease. I think it’s interesting that he was now “Simon the Cured,” but people were still calling him “Simon the Leper” because that’s how he had been known for so long.
Some believe that he was a friend of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Others believe that he may even have been their father. At any rate, John tells us that those three were present along with Jesus, Martha helping to serve the food. The apostles were also there and perhaps a few others who aren’t named.
But Mary is the one on whom our story focuses. John tells us that she was the one who broke the precious alabaster jar and poured the perfume over Jesus.
Oils and perfumes were used widely in the ancient world. Guests entering a house would customarily be given water and a towel to wash their faces, hands, and feet. Often there would be oil to wipe on the dry, parched skin as well. And many families would save and buy an expensive flask of really good aromatic oil or perfume and keep it stored for funeral occasions. There was no embalming among the Israelites. Burial would be within hours after a death, and the body would be washed, perfumed, and laid to rest.
So Mary came into the room with “an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard.” This expensive perfume was made from a plant grown principally in India. The jar likely as more of a flask whose neck would have to be broken to pour the oil out. So Mary broke it open and began to pour it on the head of Jesus.
Keep in mind this happened long before the time of Women’s Lib. It wasn’t this woman’s place to be where she was. Her place as a woman was in the kitchen. Mary should have been in there with Martha, helping to prepare and cook the meal, or so everyone thought. But she was so overwhelmed with love for Jesus that she just had to break tradition. So she took the alabaster jar of expensive perfume and broke it open. She poured it out until every drop was exhausted and the flask empty. John adds that she poured it not only on his head but even his feet as well — and then (although respectable women didn’t unbind their hair in public!) she used her own hair to wipe off Jesus’ feet.
I. What Mary Did Was a Giving Act
Why did Mary do what she did? This was her way of giving to Jesus. There are many different kinds of giving in the scriptures: the giving of our time, our money, our possessions. In fact, giving is the story of the Christian faith.
The Bible itself is a book on giving. It tells how God gave man life, created the world for him and gave him dominion over every other creature. He gave man a home in the garden of Eden and, when man fell, he gave him a promise of redemption. He gave the Israelites a law. He has given us the church and the promise of eternal life. But, above all else, he has given us his Son. The very essence of Christianity is the cross where God so loved the world that he gave.
The Bible is also the story of man giving back to God. Cain and Abel brought gifts to God. When Noah got off the ark, he gave an offering to God. The Jews gave tithes to God; not just one, but three different tithes plus free-will offerings. They gave as much as 15-30% of their income to God. And the church is to give. “Let every one of you lay by in store as God hath prospered him" (I Corinthians 16:2). An accurate description of the New Testament church is that we should be a fellowship of givers.
Mary gave her precious perfume. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why Mary did that. Jesus had given her brother back to her from the dead. He had restored her friend or her father Simon back to health. He had treated her with dignity and respect. And he had shared with her secrets of the kingdom of God. So she wanted to give Jesus something to let him know how much she loved him.
II. What Mary Did Was an Expensive Act
Then John writes, "Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray him, said, ’Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" (John 12:4-5). The NIV says that it was a year’s wages. One denarius was the amount of a normal working man’s wages for one day. So if this perfume was worth 300 denarii, then it was worth approximately one year’s salary for the average working man, at least 12 to 15,000 dollars in today’s money.
Now I suspect that Judas was right in his estimate of the value of that perfume. And we’re really not too surprised at his attitude because John goes on to inform us that he was a thief, stealing from the moneybag. But we are a little surprised when we read in Mark that the other apostles who were present also joined with Judas in their objection, apparently unable to appreciate the gift of love that Mary had given . They said, "This perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor." And indeed it could have.
After all, Jesus was a friend to the poor. And it was Passover week, a week in which special efforts were made to help the needy. Everyone did it. The disciples found it hard to imagine how anyone who ought to be giving alms to the poor could just throw it away like this! Just think how much good this money could have done if it had been used to feed hungry families or to clothe naked children! But instead, it was wasted through the extravagance of an impulsive woman.
And yet, it never seemed to occur to these objectors that the same criticism they were leveling at Mary could also have been said about Simon the leper who had spent a great deal of money preparing the great, generous, enjoyable meal they were about to eat. But that was different. They were going to enjoy that.
No act, no matter how lovely, is going to win the approval of everyone. It never does. So Mark tells us that "there were some who were indignant among themselves....And they criticized her sharply." (Mark 14:4,5).
III. What Mary Did Was a Loving Act
Love always seems wasteful to those who don’t love. Judas had witnessed an action of love and he called it extravagant waste. So much depends upon one’s point of view. One’s outlook is determined by what is inside of him.
Judas never really saw the gift the Mary gave to Jesus that night. The fact that he tried to put a price tag on it proves that he never really saw it. If he had seen the real gift Mary gave to Jesus that night, he would have known it was priceless.
Now Judas knew the marketplace of things. He knew a lot about perfume, but there was a whole lot more in that action that night that Judas knew nothing about. The covetous, unspiritual, stingy individual, in or out of the church, doesn’t understand actions of love.
He said, "Why this waste?" May God give us more of that waste! May God grant us more sacrificial expressions of love! Because the offerings of love are never wasted. The difference between Judas and Mary was a difference in love. Mary took the most precious thing that she possessed and spent it all on Jesus. And genuine love always contains a certain extravagance about it.
William Barclay says, in his commentary on this passage, "Love does not neatly calculate the less or the more. It is not concerned to see how little it can decently give. If it gave all it had, if indeed it gave all the world, the gift would still be too little." There is a certain recklessness in love which refuses to count the cost. You parents know what I mean. You love your child and if there’s anything he needs -- anything at all -- you’ll make whatever sacrifice is necessary to get it for him. Love is not love if it neatly calculates the cost.
Judas’ preoccupation with the cost of the perfume was the basic flaw in this man’s character which led him within a few days to make his bargain for the blood of Jesus.
IV. What Mary Did Was a Beautiful Act
What was the response of Jesus to all of this? In Mark 14:6-7, he said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but me you do not always have." Then Jesus gives perhaps what is the most beautiful description of what real Christian love and real Christian service is. He tells us what he wants of each of us. He said Mary "has done what she could".
She has done what she could. And that’s exactly what Jesus wants out of each and every one of us. She did everything she could. The Master compares us not with others but with ourselves. He doesn’t compare my $20 with somebody else’s $50. The question is, have we done what we could with what God has given us?
Mary want to show some expression of her devotion for Jesus. For Mary, speech didn’t seem to come easy. Hers was a silent nature, very much unlike her sister Martha. She probably felt that she would never be able to tell Jesus face to face about the depth of her feelings. So she took her most valued and expensive possession, the perfume that she had probably been saving for her own burial and the anointing of her body later on, and broke it and poured it over Jesus.
If Mary had done what the disciples wanted her to do, she would have poured out a little bit of the perfume, anointed Jesus and saved the rest. She certainly wouldn’t have broken the jar. "Why break the jar, Mary?" The jar itself was alabaster. "Why not pour out a little bit of it and anoint Jesus and save the rest to use for some other need?"
And had Mary done that, Jesus would have been anointed all right. The rest of it could have been used for another need or perhaps sold and the money given to the poor as Judas suggested. But had Mary done so, there would have been no story to be preserved for all generations, and all of us would have been the poorer for it.
There are always those who, like the apostles, will misunderstand. There are always those who say, "Lord, if we give all of this, then what about everything else we want to do? What about the poor? If I give so much to the Lord, how will I take care of these other things?"
I want you to listen to me. Those of us who have seen so clearly the providence of God in our own lives and in the life of this congregation, have we not yet come to realize the basic precept of Christian giving? The more you give, the more God gives back! Now, I’m not talking on a purely materialistic level, and I don’t want you to misunderstand me. I’m not saying that if you want a brand new BMW, just keep giving to God and he’ll eventually give it to you.
But I want you to listen to what Jesus says in Luke 6:38, "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." Bring God a cupful and he’ll give you back a cupful. Bring him a basketful and that’s what he’ll give back to you. You can’t outgive God! If there’s any lesson that I’ve come to learn and appreciate in my Christian life, that’s it -- you can’t outgive God.
The story is told of a beggar in India who sat by the road begging for alms. As he held out his bowl, people passing by dropped a few grains of rice into it. This was his means of providing food for himself. Occasionally someone would drop a coin in his hands. One day he saw a procession coming down the road and he thought, "This is good. It looks as if a prince is coming. Surely he will give me a gold coin today." And it was indeed a prince. He stopped beside the beggar, who held out his bowl and waited eagerly to see what the prince would put in.
But, to his surprise, the prince asked, "Will you give me your rice?" The beggar answered, "I can’t do that; it’s all I have." Again the prince said, "I want your rice." Again, the beggar said, "No, I can’t give you my rice. I’ll starve." The prince made a third request for the rice. Slowly the beggar reached into his bowl, took out three grains of rice and put them in the hand of the prince. The prince then reached into a bag hanging at his belt and took out three nuggets of gold which he dropped into the beggar’s bowl. As the beggar looked at them he thought regretfully, "Why, oh why didn’t I turn my bowl upside-down in his hand?"
And so it is with God. The more we give, the more he gives to us. But we still don’t trust him and we’re afraid of giving too much.
Four hundred years earlier, Malachi said the same thing to the Jews, "’Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ’if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be enough room to receive it." (Malachi 3:10). God says, "Test me! See if I won’t bless you."
One farmer was known for his generous giving. His friends couldn’t understand how he could give so much away and yet remain so prosperous. One day a friend asked him, "We can’t understand you. You give away far more than the rest of us and yet you always seem to have more to give. How is that?" The farmer said, "Oh, it’s easy to explain. I keep shoveling into God’s bin and God keeps shoveling into mine, but God has the bigger shovel!"
I imagine that Mary had back in her room somewhere some cheaper perfume, but she didn’t bring it out. She went for the best. She gave her best. And that’s what made her gift so beautiful.
Mary did something that will never be our privilege to do. We’ll never have the opportunity to perform the intimate, physical, personal service to our Lord that she performed. Such service is no longer possible. But whenever we do it for another or for his church, our action is accepted as if we did it for him.
We have some tremendous challenges and needs before us here in Boone. There are so many things we’d like to accomplish. But whether we meet those challenges and fulfill those needs may well depend on whether or not we’re willing to break the alabaster jar for our Lord.
V. What Mary Did Was an Immortal Act
When Mary anointed Jesus, she wasn’t looking for a place in the spotlight. She wasn’t trying to win the applause of the crowd. What she did was done because of her overwhelming love for the Lord. But her act made her name immortal. In fact, had she performed this deed in order to be remembered, she doubtless would have been forgotten, because the Bible is not given to preserving the names of those who seek the spotlight.
But Mary was assured by Jesus of a permanent place in history because she performed a deed of such selfless love. He told her that she would never be forgotten. He said, "Wherever this gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what this woman did will also be spoken of as a memorial to her." (Mark 14:9). When Mary is forgotten by the world, it will be a late day in the history of mankind. When the world has forgotten her, then it will also have forgotten the story of him who was bruised for our iniquities and wounded for our transgressions.
Jesus he commanded those of us preachers who would come afterward to be sure to include this story in our preaching texts. As I left p Mary, I wish that I had been more like her in a dozen situations that come to mind! Less logical and more generous. Less analytic and more compassionate. Less self-centered and more Christ-centered. Less concerned about what somebody might think or say and more anxious to honor the one who first loved me.
Conclusion:
We have been talking this morning about a gift of love made by Mary of Bethany to her Lord, Jesus Christ. Each and every Lord’s Day morning, we have the same privilege of bringing a gift of love to our Savior.
But, at this time, I wonder if there is one this morning here who is willing to give himself or herself totally and completely to Jesus Christ as Lord. Those who are willing to give what they have are those who have first given themselves. Giving ourselves is the key that opens all other doors.
