Scripture: John 12:1-19
Some of you might have noticed that the title of today’s sermon comes directly from the mission statement of the new Global Methodist Church… And that mission is, “to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.”
And we see these three actions—worshiping, loving, and witnessing—lived out in a dramatic fashion by Jesus’ disciples in today’s scripture. Hence my original sermon outline on back of your bulletin. But my sermon today will mostly focus only on the motive underneath these three actions—especially as we see it in Mary of Bethany… with the active support and approval of her sister, Martha, and her brother, Lazarus.
So… please make note on your sermon outline… Point Number One: What’s the “therefore” there for? Point Number Two: Christ is the true Passover Lamb. And Point Number Three: Mary, along with Martha and Lazarus, “treasure Christ above all,” and so should we.
But first, what’s the “therefore” there for?… Verse 1: “Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” One good rule of Bible reading is to pay attention to words like “therefore.” What’s the “therefore” there for? The author of this gospel, John, is saying that something that he’s just finished saying is connected what he’s about to say.
And what has he just finished saying? In the previous chapter, Jesus went to Bethany, the hometown of three of his closest friends—the siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Jesus went there because Lazarus fell ill and died. Jesus went there in order to raise Lazarus from the dead. And Jesus went there with his eyes wide open: He understood how dangerous it was for him to be so close to Jerusalem—less than a couple miles away, within easy walking distance. Jesus had stirred up so much trouble with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he knew he was risking his life returning to the capital city. He knew that the authorities were looking for reasons to arrest him… and execute him, if possible.
His disciples—not exactly famous for their great courage at this point—also knew how dangerous it was. They didn’t want to go down south to Judea; they wanted to stay up north where the coast was clear. When Jesus said they were going to Judea, they objected: “But, Jesus, the authorities are looking for reasons to stone you.” Thomas even said—probably with sarcasm—“Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”
But they went to Bethany, a couple of miles from Jerusalem, and Jesus performed this great miracle…
But Jesus knew that by rescuing his friend Lazarus from death, he would also be signing his own death warrant: he understood that by raising Lazarus, he was setting into motion the chain of events that would lead to his death on the cross. The cross was the main reason that God became incarnate in the first place: As Jesus says later in chapter 12, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” 1
With that in mind, at the very end of the John chapter 11, in the very last verse before today’s scripture begins, we are told, “Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.” 2 And then, in the very next verse, in verse 1, “Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.”
Does that “therefore” make more sense now? “Therefore” means, in order that these religious authorities would arrest Jesus… Because the Father has revealed to Jesus that this will be the last week of his life.
That’s Point Number One…
Point Number Two: because it’s Passover week, Jesus will be fulfilling John the Baptist’s prophecy to his own disciples way back in chapter 1, when John saw Jesus coming and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” 3The primary reason that God gave his people, Israel, the Passover in the first place was to point to the fact that one day God’s Son Jesus would be the ultimate Passover Lamb; Passover is a sign pointing to Christ’s atoning death on the cross.
Because let’s remember for a moment what the Passover lamb accomplished for the people of Israel. Of course most of us remember that God sent Moses to free his people from slavery in Egypt. Through Moses, God sent a series of ten plagues on Egypt, culminating in the most terrifying plague of all: God sent an angel of death to strike down the firstborn sons among all the families of Egypt—and you may say, “Well, sure! This was the ultimate punishment against Pharaoh and his kingdom for the sin of enslaving the Israelites and refusing to set them free.”
But the Passover wasn’t only punishment against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Why do I say that?
For one simple reason: Unless God’s people Israel took the blood of a spotless lamb and sprinkled it around the frame of the door, the angel of death would come for the firstborn sons of Israel too. (And the firstborn son here, biblically speaking, is meant to represent the entire family.)
But think about that… The land of Goshen—the region where the Israelites lived in Egypt—had previously been spared the effects of many of these ten plagues… but not this one. Unless the people of Israel heeded God’s warning and availed themselves of the blood of the lamb, their firstborn sons, like the sons of the Egyptians, would also have been killed.
See, God was judging not merely Egypt’s sin of slavery and its mistreatment of Israelites; he was judging sin, period.
And when God judges sin, you can be sure that everyone is guilty: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand.” Psalm 130:3. Answer: No one!
So with that in mind, God wants the Israelites to understand that even his people are not off the hook, either. The only way to “get off the hook” is through the blood of the lamb… And the world’s one true Passover Lamb—for which the lambs of Passover meals are merely a type or shadow—is Jesus Christ. Only his blood atones for sin. And the first Passover was mostly a way of looking forward in history to the coming of the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” on the cross.
This brings us to Point Number Three: Mary of Bethany, along with her siblings, “treasure Christ above all,” and so should we!
Mary likely understood that Jesus would soon die on the cross. Unlike the twelve disciples, she understood what Jesus had been saying about his upcoming death and resurrection. We infer that she understood because of those confusing and hard to translate words of verse 8, after Judas Iscariot objected to Mary’s pouring out this expensive perfume: “Leave her alone,” Jesus said, “so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.” Now… the day of Jesus’ burial is six days from now… And Mary has already poured out the perfume on Jesus’ feet and on the floor… and broken the jar… there’s no keeping it at this point… It’s all gone—which is what Judas was complaining about in the first place.
No, a translation that makes more sense comes from Tom Wright’s “Bible for Everyone” translation: There, Jesus says, “She’s been keeping it for the day of my burial!” So Mary understands that his burial will happen soon… and today—at this dinner held in Jesus’ honor—today will likely be her only chance to use it. So it’s for Jesus’ burial, even though that burial is several days away…
Something like that…
But you know what else we can infer about Mary’s sister, Martha, and her brother, Lazarus?
We can infer that, unlike Judas, they approved of what Mary was doing.
Why?
Because, for instance, we know that Martha isn’t reluctant to speak her mind with Jesus. In the previous chapter, for instance, we’re told that she rushed out to meet Jesus before he arrived at their house in Bethany. And she had a complaint to share with Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
She speaks her mind… And we know she speaks her mind especially because of that very famous episode of Luke chapter 10. Most of y’all remember it: Mary and Martha are hosting a dinner party in their home for Jesus and his disciples. And Martha is cooking and cleaning and getting everything ready for dinner… We all know how stressful that can be. And Mary, meanwhile, isn’t helping her. She’s sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to her master teach.And Martha sees this, and what does she do? She complains… to Jesus again… “Can’t you see how busy I am… and all my sister Mary is doing is, well…. sitting there doing nothing! Tell her to come into the kitchen and help me.
And Jesus refuses: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” 4
My point is, if Martha objected to what Judas believed to be an extravagant waste of money in today’s scripture, well… we have every reason to think that she would have spoken up. Same with her brother Lazarus. This jar of nard, an expensive perfumed ointment, was worth three hundred denarii. One denarius was a day’s wage for the average laborer. Three hundred denarii, therefore, would be about a years’ worth of wages—probably around $35,000… A crazy amount of money! It’s likely that this jar was the most precious, the most expensive thing that Mary owned… It’s likely that this jar of nard was a family heirloom that was passed from mother to daughter, possibly for generations. And as best we can tell, neither Martha nor Lazarus had a problem with what their sister was doing!
And what is Mary doing? She is showing our Lord Jesus, “You’re more precious to me than the most precious thing that I possess. You’re worth more to me than the most expensive thing I own. I treasure you more than any worldly treasure. It brings me great joy to show you how much I treasure you.”
And she isn’t just showing how much she treasures Christ with this jar of expensive ointment. She is also letting her hair down… which was considered scandalous in the ancient world. In his commentary on this passage, New Testament scholar Tom Wright says that “that’s roughly the equivalent, at a modern polite dinner party, of a woman hitching up a long skirt to the top of her thighs… [Dinner guests might have thought,] Had she no shame?” 5 Not to mention that in anointing Jesus’ feet, she’s doing work that only the lowliest slave might be required to do.
I like the way pastor John Piper describes Mary’s actions… He says, it’s as if Mary were saying to Jesus, “Cleanness and sweetness befit you and your purity and holiness and grace. My hair is the most beautiful and the most clean thing I have. But if it could serve to magnify your purity and your sweetness, then it would be my honor to turn it into a rag for your feet.” 6
For Mary, Jesus was worth suffering this or any indignity… he was worth possibly ruining her reputation… to show Jesus how much he was worth to her! Jesus is worth so much more than other people’s opinions of her!
To show Jesus what he’s worth to us is at the absolute heart of what it means to worship. Worship is literally “worth-ship”: “I’m showing you what you’re worth to me. I’m showing you how much I treasure you.”
Most of you know that our church’s vision statement is, “Treasuring Christ above all, and helping others do the same.”
We adopted it as our vision statement back in 2020, and I still just really love this vision. I hope you do. I’m trying to convince you to love it. Because the great thing about treasuring something or someone is, you don’t have to fake it. Either you treasure something or someone—and it shows through the way you live your life—or you don’t.
What I mean is… Imagine a vision statement that said something like, “Serving Christ above all…”
“Serving? Does that mean, like, getting up earlier than I want to get up, on one of my precious few days off, and doing some thankless task, probably sweating in the hot sun at my own expense without any recognition or compensation.” That sounds hard. I may end up doing it anyway, probably out of guilt or a sense of obligation or duty, but I sure don’t want to.
But that’s hardly what “treasuring Christ” means… if you treasure something or someone above all—if it’s not just words, but it’s what you feel in the deepest recesses of your heart—what wouldn’t you do to have more of this person or thing that you treasure most of all? What wouldn’t you give to have more of this person or thing that you treasure above all?
If this thing or person is what your heart treasures, no one has to convince you to work to receive more of it. You may be lazy about everything else in your life, but literally no one is lazy about the thing that they treasure most of all! You’ll to do anything to possess that treasure! It’s like that great Foreigner song. The singer treasures this woman he loves so much, he says to her, “I would climb any mountain,/ Sail across the stormy sea./ If that’s what it takes me, baby/ To show how much you mean to me.” He would do anything for this woman he loves, because he treasures her!
That’s why I love Jesus’ two short parables in Matthew 13 about treasure… Matthew 13:44-46. This is where our vision statement comes from:
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. 7
And the question I want to ask is, Was it hard for the man who found the treasure hidden in the field to literally sell everything to acquire this treasure? Was it hard for the pearl merchant to sell all he had to acquire this pearl? Did any part of these people’s hearts resist… Not according to Jesus. What’s the motivation? See those four great words in verse 44: “Then in his joy.”
I want joy… And so do you! I want the kind of deep and lasting happiness that doesn’t wax and wane depending on my mood or my circumstances; it doesn’t depend on my bank account, or the economy, or my relationship status; it doesn’t depend on my success on the job or in the classroom or at the ballpark or the stadium or the golf course; it doesn’t depend on whether “my guy” wins the upcoming election or what the talking heads are saying on cable news; it doesn’t depend on what I read as I “doom-scroll” on social media; it doesn’t even depend on whether I’m healthy or sick, or prosperous or poor.
If there’s a kind of happiness or joy that’s immune to these kinds of fluctuations in fortune, then sign me up. By all means! How much does it cost? I’ll pay for it… I’ll pay a lot… I’ll give everything I have!
That’s what Mary’s doing in today’s scripture… Remember what Jesus said about her to Martha in Luke chapter 10: “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” 8 Same thing is happening here. This “good portion” that Jesus refers to is literally one’s deepest treasure.
It’s what the psalmist refers to when he asks,
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 9
In Luke 10 Mary was finding her “good portion” by sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him teach; in today’s scripture she’s finding her “good portion” by worshiping Christ in this profound, intimate, completely un-self-conscious sort of way…
But in either case, it’s not burdensome for her to do what she’s doing. It’s more like… try and stop her from doing what she’s doing. Christ is her good portion, her deepest treasure, the One whom she loves more than anything or anyone… So if Jesus is here, you better believe she’s going to show up for Jesus!
If Jesus is here, she’s going to show up for Jesus! Try keeping her away from Jesus!
Now, guess what? Jesus is here, brothers and sisters… He’s here… at Toccoa First Methodist… He’s here! Where even “two or three are gathered in his name,” 10 not to mention many more than two or three, he is here among us.
When we “address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with [our] heart,” 11 he’s here.
When we partake of the meal we call Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, or, if we’re really fancy, the Eucharist, he’s here.
When we listen to the proclamation of his Word—which is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart”12—this word which “shall not return to [our Lord] empty, but it shall accomplish that which [he] purposes, and shall succeed in the thing for which [he] sent it”13—he’s here.
He’s here—or anywhere else—that we give food to the hungry, or water to the thirsty, or we welcome the stranger, or we give clothing to the naked, or we visit the sick or those in prison. He’s here…
He’s here—or anywhere else—that we do it to one of the least of these [his] brothers… because we really do it unto him.14 He’s here…
He’s here to satisfy us with “a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” and to feed us with the “bread of life that comes down from heaven”15 and the food that comes from doing his will and accomplishing his work. 16
Jesus Christ is here…
And like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, we want to be where Jesus is… We want to show up for him… We at Toccoa First Methodist Church want to show up for Jesus!
We want to worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly for him. We would do anything for Christ our “good portion.” We would do anything for Christ our greatest treasure!
Do you want that portion? Do you want that treasure? Do you want it, church?
What would you give in order to receive it? Will you give your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness?
As that great old hymn puts it:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.
This invitation to join the new Toccoa First Methodist Church is only for those of you who are willing to show up for Jesus…
- John 12:27 NIV
- John 11:57 ESV
- John 1:29 ESV
- Luke 10:41-42 ESV
- N.T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part 2, 20th Anniversary Ed. (Louisville: WJK, 2023), 35.
- John Piper, “Leave Her Alone, Judas—This is For My Burial,” 5 November 2011, desiringgod.org
- Matthew 13:44-46 ESV
- Luke 10:42 ESV
- Psalm 73:25-26
- Matthew 18:20
- Ephesians 5:19
- Hebrews 4:12
- Isaiah 55:11
- Matthew 25:35-36,40
- John 6:33,35,41
- John 4:34
Great sermon! Very convicting! My only “caveat” would be that I don’t think Thomas was possibly being sarcastic in saying, “Let’s go so we can die with him.” It’s like Peter saying he would rather die for Jesus than deny him. Both Thomas and Peter meant what they said–the fact that they did not follow through just shows our human weakness “when push comes to shove.”
Maybe so… scholarly opinion is divided. Given his later skepticism, however, I think it’s sarcasm.