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Mary of Bethany – A Wasteful God?
Pre-Easter 2006 • Chris Rowney
These messages are also available as audio podcasts at www.tcfnet.org.au/podcasts
“1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.
3 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.
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.”
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, but you will not always have me.”
9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,
11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
15 “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.
18 Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!””
John 12:1-19, NIV.
VIDEO CLIP from DVD Gospel of John
Explain each Gospel records an anointing with similarities & differences –
In Matthew Mark and John it is in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, and the onlookers complain of the waste that should go to the poor, and Jesus answers about it being an anointing for his Burial.
In Luke it is also a house owned by a Simon (but that is a common name) and he is a Pharisee, the woman is not named as Mary, the complaint is that Jesus shouldn’t associate with such a woman, and his response is that she washed his feet and anointed him in for the banquet, which his host should have done.)
SO in MY VIEW – two different anointings!
People confuse Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany (explain why this cannot be so…)
THEN they confuse the two anointings and come up with the theory that Mary must have been ‘the sinful woman’ (TRUE – all women are sinful .. so are all men!)
Summarise Today’s story..
Mary – sister of Lazarus, who has been brought back from death!
(summarise from John 11:1 to 44
key verses 11:17-20
“17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,
19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.”
John 11:17-20, NIV.
11:28-33
“28 And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.”
29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.
31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.”
John 11:28-33, NIV.
Is it any wonder – her dear brother is no longer dead, but alive AND with them at the meal! Martha, the very practical one was serving the tables, where was Mary – I imagine she was standing and just watching, overwhelmed at the change of emotions she has felt
Concern at her sick brother, but hope that Jesus could come and heal him!
Devastation that Jesus didn’t arrive in time and her dear brother had died!
Anguish at her loss, confusion at the thing Jesus says – then wonder at what Jesus does!
And now – such gratitude, thankfulness and love… things are ‘back to normal’ but they are far from normal – her dead brother is alive, talking, eating, maybe laughing
And her eyes are open to who this man among them really is – the expected Messiah – the Saviour – the Lord come to live and love among them
And she responds
This wasn’t just any perfume, not something bought to dab about before going to Bethany’s night spots for a romantic meal…
It was worth a years pay for a field worker..
People say that perhaps it was an inheritance, something valuable handed down over generations and kept in a way as their life savings…
She knew its value, but she also knew Jesus’ worth – and the depth of her response was great.
Funnily, we don’t know if it was just hers, or was it jointly owned by Lazarus, Martha and herself?
But her action is controversial..
In Matthews Gospel we are told the disciples were indignant, annoyed, in Marks just that the people there were annoyed, and here in John it foccusses on Judas.. all complaining that it was ‘WASTED’
“It could have been sold and the money given to the poor..”
Do you know something.. it could have been sold two weeks earlier, 6 months earlier, and the money given to the poor too… they didn’t seem to complain so much then.,
But they do now.. IT IS NOT REALLY THE POOR they have cared so much about, but it is the idea of WASTE!
SO WHAT ABOUT THE POOR?
There can be no doubt that one of the basic DUTYS of believers is a generous attitude to the poor.
The OLD TESTAMENT makes that clear in Deuteronomy..
“11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed towards your brothers and towards the poor and needy in your land.”
Deuteronomy 15:11, NIV.
Jesus says something here that echos that, ‘there will be poor with you always”.. BUT there won’t always be a chance to anoint his body for his coming death!
This doesn’t belittle the poor – it doesn’t cancel the command of Deuteronomy, I think Jesus deliberately uses the same phrase to remind them of this verse, and to challenge those who complained -- that the poor are ALWAYS there to be helped and that in everything they must be open handed, generous in helping…
A bit like people who complain about the church – it has all that wealth, all those bvuildings, why doesn’t it help the poor! (well the church often does far more than anyone else TO HELP the poor… ) often far more than the person making that accusation!
Mary’s motive was not to deny the poor – her heart can be seen to be a generous heart,, her motive was to honour Jesus, and both can go together.
What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment?
Love the Lord Your God with all your heart soul mind and strength, and love you neighbour as yourself… to do either one without the other is to miss the point and to fall short of the expectation of what an authentic Christian life should be!
Mary took the opportunity to express her deep love and thanks to her Messiah, to Jesus.
Some opportunities look wasteful. But need to be taken when they arise..
In fact, it may seem that this passage is contrasting waste with helping the poor.. but I have often encountered allegations of waste in the very acts of helping the poor!
A church in Orange where I grew up now runs a Christmas Day lunch, and they give out hampers to each family..
Some families that came sent every member up to get more boxes of goodies, and some complained about that as being unfair or wasteful – but in a way it reflects the giving nature of God – if you come to him he will give to you ..
You can end up trying to limit things so much that you end up not helping some who need it, which is surely a worse problem than helping someone else twice!
The same can be said of activities designed to help others come to know God… But we can’t predict who will respond so energy, activity, even money goes to a broad group.. but is any of it wasted?
Have you ever heard the famous comment about advertising in general.
“I know half my advertising budget is wasted, just not which half!”
If you ever look at things this church, or any church does and feel it is wasteful, think twice before being too quick to judge it – and look to the motive first.. then the practicalities!
Judas, and the others who grumbled missed that key - in the first place they could have been heldping the poor already – and in the second they might think they are being wonderfully practical – but they miss the motive behind Marys devotion.
They don’t get it, they don’t see that of competing claims for what the alabaster jars of perfumed oil could be used for.., more than one might be a good choice.
And Jesus says Mary has made a good choice..
Because he knows what is to happen – I don’t think she intended to anoint him for burial, but maybe she did know, perhaps she did have greater insight than is let on.
But whatever may be, She wanted to show her love and gratitude and to express that to any degree of accuracy, took a great cost.
Jesus knows about great costs – he is about to pay the greatest price – his own life for yours and mine..
Mary may have been ‘wasteful’ in the eyes of those that watched
Well, Often God might be thought wasteful too!
There are some Christians who look at Jesus death, and believe that his death was only for those who actually end up saved and restored to God. That he didn’t die for all mankind, but only for those chosen to be saved.
The thought is that his death cannot be wasteful – that if his death was for someone who ends up (to be blunt) in Hell – then that was wasted.
They idea is that if He paid the price for THEIR sin, then why should they pay the price as well by ending up in hell – it is a logical thought… but one I personally don’t buy into
I am happy that God might be wasteful!
I mean look at where we live..
Take in the big picture
How big is the universe (well, our galaxy has over 100 BILLION stars, and based on how many galaxies they have counted with the Hubble Space Telescope in the small areas of sky they have mapped, they estimate at least 100 BILLION galaxies in the visible universe, and who knows beyond that.. ) Counting them at ONE A SECOND would take over 300 BILLION years!.. SO it is Big place!
We don’t know if there is life anywhere else – some people say there must be, or that there must NOT be a God, because how WASTEFUL of a God to make such a universe, if we only live in this small corner of it.
How Old is the universe? (best scientific estimates are 14 Billion Years.. with the earth about 4.5 billions years old) and that humanity, homo sapiens might have been around only for 100,000 years, which if you put the age of the universe as a day, humanity has only been around from half a second to midnight…
Some Christians worry about that and think it cannot be true because if what some scientist say is right, then God has wasted ALL THAT TIME! So how could we be at all important to God!
(My answer is what is time to be wasted when you exist outside of time anyway?)
A WASTEFUL GOD.
BUT really not a wasteful God – just an EXTRAVAGANT God.. a GIVING God
I have no fear about the size or age of the universe as scientists talk of them, they don’t diminish God, they just highlight his extravagance!
SO DOES that mean we can be extravagant too??
YES, ---- in the right way!.. Mary didn’t pour all that Nard on herself! She didn’t sell it and use the cash to get a better wardrobe, or all the ‘consumer items’ she wanted from the junk papyrus that was pushed through her letterbox..
Her extravagance was directed to others.. yes she enjoyed the fragrance,, she participated in what took place, but it was focussed on Jesus.. in an act of worship.
Sometimes we need to be more extravagant in our worship.
_____Poured out… what a lovely phrase..
Mary did that with the perfume.
The Old Testament tells many stories of offerings, oil, wine, water being POURED OUT to God..
They aren’t placed on an alter to look nice, then taken by the priest and used, or back by the giver for them to use. With the offering being some kind of ‘token’ act..
The act of pouring uses them up… it ‘wastes’ them!
How often have we ‘offered’ ourselves to God – but then taken ourselves back?
Rather than that kind of offering we need to begin to look at ‘pouring ourselves out’ to God.
“17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.”
Philippians 2:17, NAS95.
There is another significant use of ‘pouring out; in the Bible THE SPIRIT OF GOD..
“3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”
Isaiah 44:3, NIV.
“28 “And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
Joel 2:28, 29, NIV (ALSO IN ACTS)
“45 All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.”
Acts 10:45, NAS95.
“5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,”
Titus 3:5, 6, NAS95.
AND ALSO THE LOVE OF GOD
“5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Romans 5:5, NAS95.
AND THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
“28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”
Matthew 26:28, NAS95.
God is generous, liberal, effusive, extravagant, profuse, abundant in the pouring out of His Spirit, his love and his very self for us.
Next week is the observation of ‘EASTER’ of the time when Christ poured our his blood for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Can you look on him with the same eyes as Mary, eyes of gratitude, of thankfulness, of wonder and find something in you that can be poured out in worship of Him?
Lets Pray.
COPYRIGHT AND OTHER INFO
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Cheers! Chris Rowney
