WHAT A PARTY!

Please read with me John 12:1-8: “Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 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. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ‘Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.’ 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.  ‘Leave her alone,’ Jesus replied. ‘[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.’”

 It was as if Peter Jennings was reporting: “Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived....” This was news.  In fact, it was big news. The events that were to transpire over the next 144 hours would make for one of the greatest stories of all time. The account captured here in these eight verses somehow sets in motion the concluding events of our Lord's life.  Mary's actions serve as a finger pointing to the looming cross.

 Now, you have heard of Bethany before. It was but two miles from the spot where Jesus' enemies were plotting to kill Him. It was also the home place of Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus. Our Lord often visited there. Bethany was the place where the Savior raised Lazarus from the dead as told in John 11. Jesus was still there following this grand miracle.

 The purpose of His visit is seen in verse two: “Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor.”  At least 17 people were present for the party. A feast was actually being served.

 Let’s take a moment and look at some of the guests.

The twelve disciples were no doubt present.  

Then too, the Bible says that Lazarus was there. Again, this was the same man that Jesus had brought back to life in John 11. He was also one of the Lord’s dearest friends. Due to the miracle, the Jewish leaders had put out a contract on his life.  They may well have been successful in their efforts for this was the last time that the brother was mentioned in Scripture. 

 According to Mathew and Mark, Simon the Leper was hosting the party. We have reason to believe that this was the last enjoyable meal that Jesus was to have prior to His death.  There were at least nine different Simons in the Bible. This one though had the peculiar nickname “The Leper.” Why? We can’t be sure. However, we do know that he was not a leper here in John 12. If he would have been, no one would have been able to eat with him, fellowship with him, much less touch him. It is thought that he had been afflicted with leprosy at one time, however Jesus had healed him.

 We know that Martha was on the guest register as well. In fact, it seems as if the party was Mary and Martha's way of saying thank you to the Lord for giving Lazarus back his life. If you know anything about Martha, you would know that she was busy, as usual, in the kitchen. That was just the way Martha was. She was a detail person. Every time this lady was mentioned in the Bible, she was always running here or running there -- busy, busy, busy! 

 She reminds me of the woman who would get up and make the bed every time her husband would go get a drink of water in the middle of the night.

 Luke 10:38-42 adds, “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

Different event; same woman. I feel with Martha, don’t you? Really! (Act out Martha – with apron -- running back and forth, clanging dishes, while Mary sits on the floor looking up in worship at Jesus.)

 Again, Martha's are important. They are needed. But they must ever be attentive less they get their priorities out of order. Martha was guilty.

 Now to Mary. Again, a number of Marys are listed in the Word of God. As Simon was nicknamed “The Leper”, so Mary could have been nicknamed “Mary, the Worshipper.” You see, each of the three times that we see her in the Bible, she ends up sitting at Jesus' feet in worship! Martha saw the Lord only as someone to be served, Mary saw Him as someone to worship, to love and to cherish! Martha missed this important point, Mary didn't.

 Because Mary’s brother and sister are mentioned, but never a husband, she may well have been single. Nonetheless, we have no reason to believe that her relationship with Jesus was a girl-friend, boy-friend type thing. There is never an indication of sensuality in the relationship. Rather, we see in her pure, worshipful, adoring love.

·        The love found between a woman and her savior.

·        The love between a person and her Lord. 

Suddenly, in the story, Mary was overcome with what my family would call  “A love gush.”

·        She could not contain herself any longer. 

·        Something had to be done.

·        Words were no longer sufficient. 

·        Worship demanded form and sacrifice.

·        Her love for the Messiah required action!

 Let’s look at the gift.

Is it not yet the custom of today to give the guest of honor at a party some gift; some token of appreciation? The Scriptures here though only tell of one gift that was given to Jesus that day. Were there others? We don’t know. If so, this one so overshadowed the others that they were never recorded.

 John 12:3 notes:  “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.”

As Mary listened and worshipped, she remembered her most prized possession -- an Alabaster jar of precious perfume. A flask of fragrance would normally contain not more than an ounce, however Mary’s held maybe as much as 12 ounces. It had, no doubt, been imported from  India. She had probably kept the jar and it’s contents as a status symbol. She added to it as finances would allow. It represented her life savings. 

 Look with me at the jar. Today we have all kinds of jars and bottles.  Milk bottles, baby bottles, antique bottles and the like.  The jar spoken of here was different -- much different.  Such a container was usually made of gold, glass, ivory, bone or even shells. This one though was made of Alabaster. Alabaster is a very delicate and beautiful stone. Archaeologists have discovered some of these jars which were hundreds of years old, and yet, the jar still retained the aroma of the precious ointment which had once been inside. 

 Teresa Deiler, from our congregation, is studying to become a gemologist. She has some beautiful rocks in her collection. Anyway, I told her about this message and she brought me these pieces of Alabaster. This large rock is from Israel. Again, you can see the beauty of the stone. (Hold stones up.)

 The point is, Mary was tremendously extravagant here in our story. The value of the jar and it's contents would be equal to a common laborer's wages for an entire year.

 How much money will you earn over the next twelve months? What do you have that would be equal in worth to that amount?

·        A car?

·        Maybe your retirement account?

·        Then too, a house can easily match or exceed one’s annual income. 

·        Maybe some jewelry?

·        Few of us have anything else that might be that expensive. 

Nonetheless, Mary took her most treasured possession and lavishly used it to express her love for Jesus.

 Hallmark Cards used to have a very effective slogan that went, “When you care enough to send the very best.” That was Mary. Nothing less than the best could or would do. After-all, she was giving the gift to:

·        Jesus, the Savior.

·        Jesus, the Lord.

·        Jesus, the long awaited Messiah.

·        Jesus, the lover of our souls.

·        Jesus, God in flesh!

 I used to have a small collection of guns.  I was very proud of it and truly enjoyed the weapons a great deal.  Would you like to know what happened to my collection? I sold them!  Would you like to know why I sold them?  I wanted the money to support a habit -- my dating habit.  I was going with Marilyn at the time. I was also putting myself through college. I didn’t have much extra money so I sold off my assets – my guns. She didn't know it, but I was helping finance my dates with the money I made off of my weapon sells. 

 Ask me, would I rather have the guns or my wife? That is a seriously dumb question!  Now, don't get me wrong. Marilyn didn't ask me to sell them. She never sought to be treated in the sometimes excessive ways that I treated her. It was my doing! I wanted to do it! I was in love! My love demanded a greater expression than mere words. 

 What did Mary do with the perfume?

Now, please understand that it was the custom of that day to pour a few drops of perfume on a guest whenever he or she arrived at a house and/or when the guest would recline to eat a meal.  (Can you imagine the repercussions if we were to reestablish such a custom today? "Hello Joe, forgive me, but before you come in, please allow me to spray some perfume on you---no offense intended.") Likewise, when guests prepared to eat a meal, servants customarily washed the guest's feet and dried them with towels. Since the people then wore no shoes, or at best, maybe something akin to our sandals today, this was a very acceptable and appreciated practice. 

 Mary knew of these traditions. But, once again, she knew that this situation demanded more, much more than the customary! So her took her valuable perfume and poured it on our Lord's head and then she poured the remainder on His feet as well. Notice, please, I didn't say that she poured out a drop of two, no, she poured out all of it!  Nothing was held back! 

 The Gospel writer Mark records that after doing this, she broke the expensive Alabaster jar. Why? We do not know for sure.

·        Some think that it was a way of saying that she had used up all that had been in the vessel.

·        Then too, there was an ancient custom that demanded that after a distinguished guest had used a jar, it was to be broken so that it might never be touched by the hand of some lesser person.

Regardless of the reasons, Mary's love was so great for Jesus that she spared no expense to express it! 

Friends, if love is true, it will manifest itself with a certain extravagance. It will not seek to get by as cheaply as possible, rather it will be reckless at times in it's generosity

 O Henry, the master of the short story, has a moving tale called The Gift of the Magi. There was a young American couple, Della and Jim, who were very poor but very much in love.  Each had one unique possession.  Della's hair was her glory.  When she let it down it almost served her as a robe.  Jim had a gold watch which had come to him from his father and which was his pride.  It was the day before Christmas, and Della had exactly one dollar and eighty-seven cents with which to buy Jim a present.  She wound up doing the only thing that she could do; she went out and sold her hair for twenty dollars.  And with the proceeds she bought a platinum chain for Jim's precious watch.  When Jim came home that night and saw Della's shorn head, he stopped still as if he had been shot.  It was not that he did not like it or love her any less, she was lovelier than ever, but it was his gift.  He slowly handed it to her.  Oh, what was it?  A set of expensive tortoise-shell combs with jeweled edges for her lovely hair.  He had sold his gold watch in order to buy these for her.

 Each had given the other the very best he or she had to give. Sound familiar? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 Paul likewise wrote that “Jesus loved the church and gave Himself up for it....” 

The law of loving is, you can give without loving, but you can't love without giving! Mary’s devotion encourages us to love and serve Jesus with our very best.

 NEXT, PLEASE NOTICE MARY'S WORSHIP

In looking at our Lord's life, one can not help but notice that people were drawn to Him for a variety of reasons.

·        Some were simply curious.

·        Others were drawn by the loaves and the fishes.

·        Many wanted to receive a healing touch from this physician from Galilee.

Mary could not be found in any of those groups. She sought Him only so as to worship Him.

 One of my favorite authors has to be the late A. P. Gibbs.  I especially love his book entitled Worship, The Believer’s Highest Occupation.  As Gibbs dealt with this passage that we're looking at this morning, he noted several things about Mary's coming to Jesus that bear repeating.  He observed that:

1.         Mary did not come to hear a sermon.  This was true even though Jesus was the greatest preacher that ever lived.  The Bible declares of Him; “Never a man spake like this man.”

 2.         Mary did not come to meet with fellow believers.  Oh sure, they were there.  Peter was present as was James and John as well as the other disciples. Nonetheless, Mary desired to be occupied with Jesus only -- to the exclusion of every other person on earth.

 3.         Mary did not come to make a request.  Her desire was not to get, but rather to give. 

 4.         Mary did not come to be refreshed by Him. Worship is not intended to primarily produce self-satisfaction but to give satisfaction to our Savior.

 5.         Mary did not come because it was the "in" thing to do. Again, this was only six days prior to the crucifixion. At this time Jesus was a hunted man. He was literally “despised and rejected of men.” The time of His popularity was now past.  The Jewish leaders were plotting at that very hour how to capture and kill the Lord!  If Mary had wanted popularity, public acceptance, high approval ratings in the polls, she would have passed on by the Lord at this time.

 6.         Mary did not come so as to make a token contribution.  The Bible has numerous token saints.  Those who love the Master, but only within certain limits. 

·        Ananias and Sapphira pretended to give their all when they were, in fact, holding back a sizable portion.

·        Demus held back on his affection for Jesus for, you see, he was really in love with this present evil world. 

·        Then, too, there were those disciples who followed afar off or who would only come to Jesus under the cover of darkness.

Lukewarm devotion, half-hearted praise, and divided affections are all nauseating to the Savior!.

 7.         Mary did not come so as to boast in fleshly pride.  Hear me, saints. What she did that day was an act of great humility. She wasn’t going to wait for some servant to wash His feet prior to the meal – no she would do that. Nor was she going to allow mere water to be the substance that would wash the dust away -- she would use the perfume instead. Then too, may I remind you, that the glory of a woman, according to Scripture, is her hair. Thus Mary, by this grand act of devotion, literally brought her glory down to the very feet of the Master in humble, lowly, adoration and she dried His fee with her hair.

 Isaac Watts wrote so long ago:

When I survey the wondrous cross,

On which the Lord of Glory died;

My richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride. 

Forbid it Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the cross of Christ, my God;

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood.

John 12:7 now, from The Living Bible, “Jesus replied, ‘Let her alone. She did it in preparation for my burial.’” Mary knew that Jesus was to die soon.  He not only predicted His death, but He said that He was going to be crucified. 

·        Thus she decided to anoint Him without any farther delay.

·        She was determined to bless Him then and there.

·        Somehow she understood that if she waited much longer to express her feelings, she might never get another opportunity.  She proved to be one of the most spiritually sensitive women in all of the Bible. 

I want to now share with you a story about the great writer/thinker of the last century, Thomas Carlyle. In October 1826, Carlyle married Jane Welsh. He dearly loved her but had a difficult time expressing that love. He was very high strung and most intense. Jane only saw her husband as irritable and cross. He never made life enjoyable for her or anyone else. Then, one day, unexpectedly, she died.

A friend wrote of Carlyle's feelings when he lost his wife. "He was looking through her papers, her notebooks, and her journals; and as he did so old scenes came back mercilessly in the form of mournful memories. In his long sleepless nights, he recognized too late what she had felt and suffered under his childish irritabilities. His faults rose up in awful judgment... Oh, he cried again and again, "if only I could see her but once more, were it but for five minutes, to let her know that I always loved her through it all.  She never did know it, no never!"

It is interesting to note that although his works became classics, he wrote no important works after his wife’s death. He lived quietly in London, devoting himself to various memoirs and articles.

His is one tragic instance of how a man realized a little too late the things he should have said or the words he should have spoken.   

Someone wrote: "Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, what might have been."  There is wisdom there my friends.

 Mary determined not to let her chance pass. 

·        Rather, she expressed her love and worship to Jesus in a way that has been captured for the ages.

·        She expressed her devotion as did no one else. 

·        She shared her love only six days prior to Calvary! 

 Notice now The Lord’s reaction

Mark 14:6 captures it in The Living Bible: “But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why berate her for doing a good thing?’”

 In the original language, we find two words for good:

·        One describes something that is morally good or nice while

·        The other describes a thing which is not only good but also lovely and beautiful. 

You see, something can be good but given in a hard, stern, or insensitive manner. Then, something can be good but given in a charming, lovely or beautiful way. 

 Notice this illustration: Let's say that you ask your child to clean his or her room. The child obeys, but before he or she does, the kid throws an ever-loving fit! Tears flow. Harsh words are exchanged. Threats are made. Then, finally, the child holds his or her breath until he or she nearly passes out!  Did the child clean the room? Yes.  Was the behavior lovely and beautiful?  Hardly!

 On the other hand, what if you ask the child to clean up his or her room and the kid does it?  In fact, while you were away at work, the room in question is not only cleaned, but the rest of the house is also vacuumed, dusted, the dishes washed and the trash is carried out. You didn't threaten, yell or discipline.  The child didn't scream, cry or hold his or her breath. The work was simply done and more! That is not only good, but it is good and lovely.  It is good and beautiful!

 Mary's deed, according to Jesus, went beyond good, to the good and lovely.

 As a result of her act of devotion, our text notes that the whole house was filled with the fragrance of her sacrifice.  There is always a beautiful aroma that goes with pure and true worship:

·        It is the aroma of peace. 

·        The aroma of love. 

·        The aroma of unity. 

·        The aroma of the presence of the Lord!

Oh may it ever be said that such an aroma is sensed in this place! 

 Some have also taken this verse to mean that the whole of Christian history since that party so long ago, has been filled with the sweet memory of Mary's lovely deed! Listen again to the Lord’s words in Matthew 26:13, “I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” 

 Thus far I have mentioned Jesus, Simon the leper, Martha and Mary. However someone else was at the party. His name was Judas Iscariot

John 12:4-6 tells us, “But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ‘Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.’ 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.”

·        Judas was one of history’s all-time losers.

·        He was not only a traitor and a betrayer of a friend, he was also a thief!

·        He pretended to care for the poor while he was only interested in padding his own packets.

While Mary gave Jesus the very best that she had, Judas was busy playing the role of the hypocrite!

 The party ends with Judas leaving to betray Jesus for a mere thirty pieces of silver – the average price of a slave.

 Jesus once called Judas the “Son of Perdition” which in fact means, “Son of waste.”  Judas criticized Mary for “wasting money,” but he ended up wasting the opportunity of a lifetime!

 In the end the story reveals to us three very different expressions of love:

·        Mary expressed worshipful love as she poured forth the perfume and brought her glory down to the feet of Jesus.

·        Within days, Jesus expressed redemptive love as He gave His life on the cruel cross at Calvary.

·        Judas, on the other hand, expressed self-filled love that prompted him to betray the Savior of the World. Within days he too would be dead as he went out and hung himself.

 Friends, Judas was as bad as Mary was good.  His being in the story provides us with a vivid contrast between:

·        Love and hate,

·        Truth and hypocrisy,

·        Worship and abomination.

 As strange as it sounds, this story of a party two thousand years ago seems to capture the major feelings towards Jesus yet today:

·        There are the Marthas. They believe, they serve, they simply miss God’s best.

·        There are the Marys. They know Him for who He is. Therefore they worship Him and love Him deeply. No sacrifice is too great to offer Him.

·        There are the Judas’. They reject Him and all that He stands for. They simply chose to walk away from His grace and eternal salvation.

If this party were to be held today, which role would you play?