Break Your Perfume for Jesus?
John12:1-8 (March 21, 2010)
If you open the previous chapter of today’s text which is the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John, you can find a miracle story that Jesus brought Lazarus from the dead after 4 days of his death. Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” after he had prayed to God (John 11:43). And the dead man walked out of the tomb while his hands and feet were bound in grave clothes. Try to imagine a dead man who passed away four days ago, walking out of the tomb by himself! And his entire body was still wrapped with strips of linen and even his face was covered with a cloth. It must be quite a shocking scene to see, isn’t? Those who witnessed what Jesus did to the dead man were amazed and did put their faith in him (John 11:45).
However, not all the people who were there and those who heard about the miracle put their beliefs in Jesus. Some of them had more anger against Jesus because of that miracle and wanted to kill him more than ever. They were the chief priests and the Pharisees who called a meeting of the Sanhedrin and discussed about the happening in Bethany and finally came to the following conclusion: “One man should die for the people in order to save the whole nation from the Romans.” (John 11:50). The high priest of that year was Caiaphas. He made that suggestion to the Sanhedrin and the whole body of the group agreed with it. So from that moment, they began to plot Jesus’ death. So when Jesus learned about the decision of the Sanhedrin, he stopped his pubic ministry among the people and went to a place near the wilderness, to the village of Ephraim (John 11:53, 54).
Now it was almost time for the Jewish Passover festival. In order to go through the purification ceremony before Passover began, many people from all over the country arrived in Jerusalem several days earlier. Most of the visitors to Jerusalem were still attracted to the opportunity to meet Jesus during the celebration at least once, and they asked to each other with curiosity, “What do you think? Do you think Jesus will come for Passover this time also?” It proved the popularity of Jesus among the people in those days. However, unlike the public, the chief priests and the Pharisees were busy to find a way to find and kill Jesus. They had publicly ordered that anyone seeing Jesus must report it immediately. They had put Jesus on their “most wanted list.”
Now it was six days before the Passover celebration began. Jesus, who had found a hiding place in Ephraim, was coming toward Jerusalem. However, he didn’t go to Jerusalem directly but first stopped by Bethany where his close friends lived. As soon as he entered the village, Lazarus and his two sisters welcomed him and prepared a great feast for him. By the way, who was Jesus to them? He was the one who had raised Lazarus from the dead. Therefore, by offering a great feast to Jesus, they tried to show their gratitude for what he had done for them.
During the dinner, Martha was busy serving Jesus and others who were invited. Lazarus was sitting among the guests and enjoyed the food and talks. The party was still on going. All the people at the place enjoyed their food and talks. Perhaps the main topic that they enjoyed the most was about the miracle that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead a few weeks or months ago.
However, there was something so strange happening. From a certain moment one important person in the house was missing from the scene. She disappeared without any notice and didn’t return for a while. It was Mary, the youngest of the family. And when she came back, she was holding a twelve-ounce bottle of expensive perfume which was made from essence of nard. As she entered the room, she came to Jesus and knelt before him. Then she broke the container of perfume, anointed Jesus’s feet with it, and wiped his feet with her hair. When she was still wiping his feet with her hair, the house was filled with the fragrance.
Dear brothers and sisters, what do you see from the action of Mary who broke the bottle of an expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet? What do you see from her tears that were flowing from her eyes constantly when she was wiping his feet with her hair? First of all, you may find her gratitude for her brother’s return from death. As a matter of fact, Lazarus was the only brother she ever had. But Jesus brought that precious one back to her. Her gratitude toward Jesus was beyond description, so she tried to express her grateful heart to Jesus with her body, with her expensive waste of expensive perfume.
That was not all. Her action to break the expensive perfume and pour it on Jesus’ feet and wipe his feet with her hair represented her personal confession of Jesus: ‘He was my Lord, the God-Sent Messiah, and the Son of the Living God.’ Indeed, it was what Martha had said earlier (John 11:27 – “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”) However, even though she had said it with her mouth, she didn’t quite put her belief in the words that she had spelled out. She couldn’t have quite understood in Jesus and have put her faith in him yet (John 11:39). But as she saw her dead brother walking out of the tomb, she finally came up with full knowledge of Jesus and put her unshakable faith in him. I think it happened to Mary the same at that moment. Anyway, through the great dinner on that day, the two sisters well presented their full knowledge of Jesus, their faith in him and their gratitude to him once again.
One more thing we have to notice from this story is that Mary went one more step further than her brother and her sister in showing her gratitude to Jesus. She didn’t mind to break the precious and expensive perfume for Jesus. It represented her sacrifice for Jesus. She knelt before him and wiped his feet with her hair. It represented her humility before Jesus and her adoration of him.
In the old days, anointing with oil has always had deep religious significance. It was performed at the coronation of a monarch. In the Jewish world, it was a symbolic action which announced that the person anointed was especially favored by God. In the Old Testament, therefore, prophets anointed future kings. For example, Samuel anointed the future King David. In this sense, when Mary anointed Jesus, she may have been anointing him as a king, the Messiah.
When I thought of Mary who broke the expensive perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet with it and wiped his feet with her hair, I threw these questions to myself: “Who is Jesus to me? What is my understanding of him? What sacrifice do I make for him? What cost do I pay to serve him as my Lord?” I have no doubt that I will eventually be able to show my gratitude to Jesus and to sacrifice myself for him only after I fully understand what Jesus has done for me. Don’t you think so? In this sense, I want to throw to you the same questions: “Who is Jesus to you? Do you know what he has done for you? And then how do you express your gratitude to him and what do you sacrifice for him as your return?”
Until we know him, we can’t show proper respect for him. Until we know what he did for us, we can’t express a deep gratitude to him. Until we love him deeply, we can’t sacrifice anything for him. The worth of the perfume that Mary wasted for him represented her understanding, love and dedication to Jesus. In the same manner, the worth of our sacrifice for Jesus represents our knowledge of him, our love for him and our dedication to him. So we better not say that we know him, we love him, we thank him and we sacrifice ourselves for him, but we better speak it with action that costs. “We get what we pay for.”
When Mary broke the perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet with it and wiped them with her hair, on the other hand, one voice broke the graceful mood of that night, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” (John 12:5) That voice came from Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples. He was the cleverest and had the best academic career among the twelve. He was so talented at calculation that he was appointed to the head of the finance by Jesus. When he smelled the fragrance, he immediately came up with the value of it. He assumed it could be worthy of 300 denarii. In those days, a denarius was equivalent to a laborer’s full day’s wage. Therefore, the perfume was for quite an amount of money.
“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” When Judas said it, there’s nothing wrong with his saying. However, even though it had no fault in it, it didn’t mean what he said was all true. The Bible describes a sad story about him, “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.” (John 12:6) A good deed is not carried out by word but by action. What I have found until now is that those who love to criticize someone or his/her good action hardly serve the needy.
When Judas harshly rebuked Mary for her reckless waste of expensive perfume, Jesus stopped him by saying, “Leave her alone! It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” (John 12:7, 8)
During my meditation on today’s text last week, I was overwhelmed by the uneasy and sorrowful heart of Jesus found in this passage. All the people at the party were enjoying the moment, but Jesus couldn’t. Of course, he tried his best to enjoy the moment for the sake of the generous hosts - Lazarus, Martha and Mary who prepared that dinner for him. However, he couldn’t help himself but kept thinking of the horrible happenings that would strike on him in Jerusalem a few days later. Nobody understood his troubled heart for they didn’t know what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem. So what they did was to fully enjoy the party. Poor Jesus!
But there was one person who knew his heart was in trouble and tried to comfort him. It was Mary. Well. I don’t think she knew that Jesus would carry a cross for the redemption of humanity and die on it. However, her action to kneel before him, anoint his feet with oil she brought with her and wipe his feet with her hair was good to give comfort to him. Jesus could think, “At least this woman knows my heart!”
If each one’s heart is connected, they can communicate without words. Even though Jesus didn’t tell anybody about the imminent dangers to him, Mary could feel the agonized spirit of Jesus. Somehow her heart was so moved that she suddenly stood up and went to her room and brought out the perfume that she had kept for the first night with her future husband. She anointed the feet of Jesus with it. Once again let me repeat that I don’t think she knew all the things that would happen to Jesus in Jerusalem and she poured the perfume on his feet for his burial. However, Jesus interpreted her action as the preservation of his burial. “Leave her alone! It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.”
If she had a perfume that was more worth than 300 denarii, she wouldn’t mind to waste it for Jesus at that night. Nothing was more precious valuable than Jesus to her. As a matter of fact, he was the dearest to her. She was so happy to do something for him. Her heart (love) for Jesus brought her to gladly yield everything for the sake of Jesus.
I need that kind of heart that Mary had for Jesus. We all need that kind of heart. We need a heart that helps us to understand the things in Jesus’s mind. We need a heart that makes us gladly give away anything for Jesus. If we have that heart, we would need a thousand bottles of expensive perfume to pour out on the feet of the Lord anytime our hearts are telling us.
Jesus first showed his love for us. He first gave up all he had for us. And then he calls us to show our love for him. He calls us to give away anything that we value for him. Brothers and sisters, what would be your response to his call? Are you going to break your expensive perfume for him now?
