Mary's Extravagant Act of Worship

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This past week, we took the opportunity to celebrate the wonderful time of Christmas. As long as I can remember, Christmas has always been a special time to make tender memories with our loved ones, to which, I have many fond memories and know that you do too. It’s just a wonderful time to slow down, take a deep breath, reflect upon His goodness, His grace, His faithfulness, and His mercy. How blessed we are, that God has placed so many special people in our lives.
In this season, we picture in our minds, a baby born in Bethlehem of Judea, peacefully lying in a manger, with the virgin Mary and Joseph, her betrothed husband. We envision the three wise men, being guided by His star to the place where the Child was. When they saw the star, Matthew says that “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy!” (think about this…they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy!” ) Because hope had arrived!
Now I want you to notice Matthew 2:11, it says...
Matthew 2:11 NASB95PARA
11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Mary was the mother of the only begotten Son of God! Can you imagine the expression on Mary’s face, when the entourage showed up, and the first thing they do is fall to the ground and worship her Son?
The right response to entering the presence of the Son of God, is to humble ourselves, submit and worship Him... and that is demonstrated in the actions of the wise men. The “wise” will worship Him! And that is the FIRST thing that these men do!
The passage before us says, then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts…these gifts are precious and costly.
The first gift they presented to Him is gold. Gold was the metal of royalty in the ancient world. Gold was fitting as a gift for a king. And these wise men were paying homage to this Child as unto a king.
The book of Matthew presents Christ not only as King but as Priest. The second gift presented to the Child as you can see is frankincense. Frankincense was used in the temple, on the altar of incense, by the priest to offer up a sweet aroma and fragrance symbolizing the prayers of God’s people. Jesus is our mediator. The Book of Hebrews presents Him as our High Priest.
Hebrews 5:7–10 NASB95PARA
7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
The gifts brought by the Magi or Wise Men, provides a had a great deal of symbolism.
The third gift is the one that I want to draw your attention to this evening.
The third gift presented is myrrh. Myrrh is a really strange gift to give a child, just beginning in life. Why? because the chief use of myrrh among ancient people was for anointing a dead body at the time of burial.
Since the Son of God, took on flesh, took on human form, He could rightfully relate to the frailty of fallen humanity.
We see here, Gold for His royalty, frankincense for His Priesthood, and myrrh for His humanity. We are not told what become of these gifts, but we might assume that they were used to help support the family financially while they Joseph and Mary fled Bethlehem with the Child to Egypt, to escape the decree of murderous Herod.
The life of Jesus, even as a baby was threatened and under attack by evil.
Matthew 2:16 NASB95PARA
16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.
We find here two groups of people. Those who loved Christ, and those who hated Him.
The wise men came from afar rejoicing exceedingly with great joy, seeking the Messiah to worship Him.
By contrast, King Herod and his men were so determined to kill Him, that they slaughtered all the male children two years old and under, living in the vicinity of Bethlehem.
Can you imagine? And unfortunately, the vicious hatred toward Jesus, is still alive and well today! That is one thing that my eyes have really been opened to, in the year 2020, is the blatant effort to wipe the Son of God, completely from society.
We have arrived at another passage of scripture that contrasts two individuals in close proximity to Jesus. The one has an extravagant love for Christ and other who loves himself, the one is a giver of their best and the other is a thief, take what is not his, the one is devoted to Christ, the other will prove to forsake Him. READY? HERE WE GO! John Chapter 12.
John 12:1–8 NASB95PARA
1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people? 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. 8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”
In Chapter 11, the miraculously resurrection Lazarus from the tomb, cause quite a stir among the Jews. John tells us of the response by the on lookers, that some of the Jews “believed" in Jesus, “BUT” there were some of them who did NOT “believe” so they went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Caiaphas, the high priest that year, advised the Jewish leaders to kill Jesus. Knowing of their determination to murder Him and not only Him but Lazarus as well, Jesus withdrew from the Jews, and went to the city of Ephraim and stayed there with His disciples.
All through the scriptures we see themes of belief and unbelief, we see love and hostility toward Jesus. We certainly see this in the text before us.
John 12:1–2 NASB95PARA
1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.
In a move from Ephraim, Jesus and His disciples came to Bethany, a village on the Mount of Olives, close to two miles from Jerusalem. They met in the home of Simon, who had been healed of leprosy.
They had made a supper for Jesus, and Martha was serving; among them sat Lazarus as well as the Jesus and His disciples and perhaps others not specifically mentioned.
During the meal, in a startling, spontaneous outpouring of her love for Him...
John 12:3 NASB95PARA
3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, took a pound of very costly perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus.
Mary acted out of great devotion and humility toward the one who had just brought her brother back to life. No doubt Mary and Martha looked at their brother in a more appreciative way. He was dead, but now, because of Jesus, he sits here at the table, alive and well.
Mary was so broken hearted, that she had previously criticized and accused Jesus of neglecting her family when He had not come sooner to the aid of her dying brother.
A pound of pure nard in Roman measure, is equivalent to about twelve ounces by today’s standard, valued at a years wages in that day.
The perfume was inside of an expensive alabaster vial according to Matthew.
Mary broke the vial, pouring out all of its content, according to Mark.
We find here, in unrestrained love, Mary completely repenting for criticizing Jesus.
According to the other gospel accounts, Mary poured the perfume on Jesus’ from His head to His feet. To Eastern women perfume was the most precious thing, yet Mary takes it and pours it all out at one time.
If that were not enough, she wiped His feet with her hair.
For a Jewish woman to do such a thing in public would have been considered indecent. She had not shame.
How prideful and embarrassed most others would be in the presents of other to express their love for Him. But not Mary, she abandoned all for her love for Christ. She gave the most precious possession she had and was not ashamed to express her love for her Lord and Master.
John 12:4–5 NASB95PARA
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?
Talk about a wet blanket! Judas Iscariot could not stand it any longer. All of this affection and worship of Jesus was more than he could take.
You might ask, why was Judas following along with the other disciples, yet his heart was not right? Judas had cast his lot with Jesus, in hopes that He would usher in the political, earthly messianic kingdom that most Jewish people were looking for. We was expecting an exalted position in the new kingdom, but for him, that dream was vanishing away. Jesus had anger the Jewish leaders to the point that they wanted Him dead. When the Galilean crowd sought to crown Jesus, as the earthly king Judas thought He would be, the Lord refused to cooperate with them. As a result of at least wanting some financial compensation for the three years he had wasted with Jesus, Judas whines up the ultimate betrayer. He had heard the teachings, he had seen the miracles, he had been privileged to be in the inner circle, yet he would not genuinely believe.
He put a dollar value on the perfume and quickly determined what the loss was.
John clarifies plainly in this next verse...
John 12:6 NASB95PARA
6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.
Yes sir, Judas was in charge of the money-bag and he was a thief and would often steal part of the money that was put into it.
Judas’s concern was not for the poor, for the needy, for the widowed or the orphaned. He was a self-seeking thief!
Sadly, self-seeking, thievery is a common place characteristic among humanity today!
But Jesus defended Mary’s selfless faithful worship, by rebuking Judas!
John 12:7 NASB95PARA
7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.
Put in an even more accurate way, speaking directly to Judas, He said “YOU, leave her alone”
She had already spilled out all the perfume from head to foot on Jesus, as a symbol of His soon coming death and burial. In six short days, he would be crucified and the smell of this perfume would still be on His body.
Her anointing prefigured the anointing that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus would later perform on His body.
After taking Him down from the cross, they would take a mixture of myrrh and aloes and wound His body with linen cloth and 65 pounds of spices. This amount of spices would have been used to anoint the body of a king.
John 12:8 NASB95PARA
8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”
In every generation, there have been and will continue to be the poor. All who without Christ, though they may be financial rich, are the most poor of all. Those without Christ are to be pitied the most.
The opportunity to do something for the Lord will not always present itself. Mary had only a short time, for Jesus would be soon be gone.
What a lesson for the church today! Give our all to Christ. The servant of the Lord must love and act while it is still day. The night will come when no man can work.
Time is of the essence… I will leave you with this...
Romans 13:11–12 NASB95PARA
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
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