What Is Mary-Like Devotion?
John 12:1-8,
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
And the Lord, in verse 7, defends the way Mary of Bethany expresses her devotion to him.
What Mary does in verse 3 is good and right, and I think we can learn from her. So that’s the goal of this sermon. All last week, my prayer for today has been that through Mary’s example in John 12, the Spirit would reawaken in us Mary-like devotion to Jesus. I want us to learn from Mary how to be more like Mary for the glory of Jesus. To that end, this morning I want to show you seven truths of Mary-like devotion.
1. Mary-like devotion is surprising.
Verse 1 opens with the setting: we are six days away from Passover, and Jesus has come back to Bethany.
Now remember that Bethany is where he raised Lazarus from the dead in Chapter 11, verse 43, but then when the Jewish leaders plotted to kill Jesus, John tells us in verse 54 that Jesus “no longer walked openly” among them, because they were looking for him. The Pharisees wanted to arrest him.
So Jesus left that area and went to Ephraim, which gave him more distance from Jerusalem. (Bethany was 2 miles outside Jerusalem, Ephraim was about 15 miles). So by the end of Chapter 11, Jesus is laying low.
But Chapter 12 opens here and he’s back in Bethany, where news travels quickly to Jerusalem, which means this is dangerous — why would he do it? Why would he come back to Bethany now? It’s because Passover is six days away.
Remember Jesus has a purpose to accomplish in Jerusalem, and now he’s getting closer. But since Jesus is in Bethany they throw a special dinner for him. And because it’s Bethany, we would expect our favorite Bethany family to be there. We saw these three siblings in Chapter 11 — Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
Now, John knows we’d expect their attendance, so he takes roll in verse 2. Look what he says:
“So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served [check her name off — she’s there], and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him as table [check his name off — he’s just happy to be in the room].
And right away that’s Martha and Lazarus. Which sibling is missing?
Mary.
Now look at verse 3 (verse 2 was just a build up to this):
“Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.”
The first thing I want you to see is that this was not expected. This is a dinner! People are sharing a meal. Martha is staying busy like she does. Lazarus is at the table (you know he’s getting seconds). And then Mary, finally, enters into this dining room with a bottle of ointment (or perfume) and she does this extravagant display of worship.
Most of us had big dinners a few days ago. Imagine for a minute if something like this happened! It was not on the menu. It’s never happened before. This was a surprise! That’s the first thing to know about Mary-like devotion.
This is not what most people would expect — because it responds in the moment to the glory of Jesus regardless of the context.
2. Mary-like devotion is costly.
We can see in verse 3 that this perfume was expensive. John tells us that plainly. But he also gives us two details that explain why. It has to do with quantity and quality.
First, with quality, this perfume was made from “pure nard.” That’s a plant that’s grown in India. The root of this plant produced an oil that was collected to make this perfume.
So it’s a product derived from nature, created by a process, imported from far away — that sounds expensive. (This is why many scholars believe this Bethany family was well off — this perfume would have only been owned by the luxury class of the Mediterranean world.)
Second, notice the quantity. John tells us it was a pound — and that’s a Roman pound. The Greek word is litra — and it’s equivalent to about 12 ounces.
So imagine the American pop can. (I don’t know the last time you turned a can of pop upside down to pour it out, but it takes a little longer to empty it than you might think.)
Twelve ounces is not a little bit. And Mary doesn’t have pop, it’s perfume — 12 ounces of perfume — that’s a lot of a really nice thing. And to give us more of an idea of how precious it is, John tells us the number value in verse 5. Judas says it’s worth 300 denarii — which is about a year’s wages.
So to draw a parallel to our day, this is what we’d call an annual salary, and the average annual salary in the Twin Cities, Google says, is between $80,000–$90,000.
So translate this in your imagination... Picture this: Someone at dinner this past week walks into the dining room and pours out $90,000 on somebody else’s feet … Again, this is stunning.
And the costliness amplifies the surprise! Those two things go together in Mary-like devotion. It’s surprising because it’s costly.
3. Mary-like devotion is humble.
Now, for our imagination’s sake, it helps to know how people ate together at this culture and time. They didn’t use raised tables and chairs like we do, but they used low tables, and sat on cushions on the floor. They “reclined” on the table, like verse 2 says, and their feet were stretched out behind them, away from the table. So Mary approached Jesus, verse 3, while he was sitting like that, and she anointed his feet.
This is a key detail. Because with the extravagance of her gift, we might imagine Mary’s actions to be surrounded by pomp. Like maybe Mary enters the room and first clears her throat, and makes sure somebody’s getting the video, and then she does it. But it’s just the opposite.
Mary comes into the room, and stays at the feet’s distance away from the table. She’s not the center of attention. Nobody was probably even looking in her direction, and then she pours the perfume on Jesus’s feet and wipes his feet with her hair.
This is borderline undignified. She definitely looked a little silly. To everyone’s surprise, with likely the costliest thing she’s got, she humbles herself at the feet of Jesus in worship — but then the most vivid display of her humility is the use of her hair.
In the ancient world, a woman’s hair was her glory. It was her honor. This was Mary’s strength, but here she turns her strength into a servant’s towel … Her radiance into a rag. Her splendor into a sponge. Her crown becomes a cloth. … to wipe feet.
Which means, Mary gives the best part of herself for the least part of Jesus. The highest aspect of her presentation (hair) is submitted to the lowest aspect of his (feet).
This is profound humility.
Mary is not even audacious enough to pray here: “Jesus, take my utmost for your highest.” She just says, “Jesus, take my utmost!” — And I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I’m not concerned about appearance. It doesn’t matter what people might say.
This is all about Jesus. Mary shows us a marvelous self-forgetfulness.
Mary-like devotion is humble.
4. Mary-like devotion is fitting.
This is #4 of 7, and it really is the central truth in Mary’s example.
So far we’ve seen that Mary-like devotion is surprising, costly, and humble, but here’s where we need to be clear that the only reason any of this makes sense is because of Jesus. And Jesus doesn’t just make Mary’s actions make sense, he makes them right. Because of who he is, what Mary does is fitting.
John calls her act an “anointing,” which is something done to set someone apart for a certain office. The examples we have in the Old Testament are individuals anointed as a priest or king, and we should think especially of kings in the Gospel of John.
If you remember, way back in Chapter 1, when Nathaniel first met Jesus he confessed right away that Jesus is the Son of God and the King of Israel (1:49). Then in Chapter 6, verse 15, after Jesus fed the five thousand, the crowd wanted to take him by force and make him king.
So we’ve seen a kingship theme already.
But then right here in Chapter 12, the very next day after Mary anoints Jesus, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a young donkey, and the crowd paves the way for him with palm branches, and they say — in verse 13 — “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
So we have every reason to see that Mary’s anointing of Jesus is anointing him as King.
Because that is who he is.
It’ll be explicit and public tomorrow in this story, in Jesus’s ‘triumphal entry,’ but tonight, at this dinner, with Mary, it’s implicit and private. In the moment, even Mary doesn’t know the full extent of what she’s doing, but we as readers can see it.
In Chapter 11, we saw her fall at Jesus’s feet in grief, here she bows at Jesus’s feet in worship.
Last chapter she came to Jesus needing his help; now she comes to him just giving him glory.
This doesn’t mean we ever stop coming to Jesus for help — we do! We always need his help! But sometimes we can also just come to him in simple worship.
This is when we come to him, not to ask him for things, but to give him whatever we can because he is worthy — just because he’s our king and he’s a good king!
It is fitting to worship him!
Think about this: When was the last time your heart moved toward Jesus, not for what he gives, but for who he is?
When was the last time you were simply compelled by the worth of Jesus?
The Little Drummer Boy
Mary’s devotion here in Chapter 12 actually reminds me of what used to be one of my least favorite Christmas songs.
“Santa Baby” is dead bottom, but not far from there used to be “The Little Drummer Boy.” And the reason I didn’t like the song is because for years it didn’t make sense to me, and it was kinda irritating. The pa-RUM-pa-pum-pums are distracting. But if we can get rid of that part and focus on the real words in the song, it’s actually beautiful.
It’s a song about a boy who is invited to meet the newborn Jesus (and it’s fictional; didn’t really happen; we’re supposed to use our imaginations). The boy starts the song by saying:
Come, they told me
A newborn king to see,
Our finest gifts to bring,
To lay before the king,
So to honor him
When we come
You get it? The boy is invited to come meet Jesus, so he does. And in the second stanza he’s at the manger, and he speaks to the infant Jesus:
Little baby,
I am a poor boy too
I have no gifts to bring
That’s fit to give a King
Shall I play for you on my drum?
See, I imagine that’s what Mary of Bethany thought. While Martha was busy serving and Lazarus was sitting at the table, Mary thought: The king is here. He’s in the room. What do I have that’s fit to give a King?
And the technical answer is nothing.
Nothing we have is enough to match the glory of this King, but Mary thinks I’ve got that bottle of perfume — just like the boy thought, I’ve got this drum. And the boy says, “Shall I play the drum?” Mary thinks, “Shall I pour the perfume?”
So the boy plays his best, and Mary pours it all.
I don’t have enough to give you, but I’ll give you my best because you’re worthy.
That’s what the song is about. That’s what Mary does here. And it’s fitting because of the King!
And John tells us that the fragrance of her worship fills the entire house. Which means: her personal reverence and self-forgetfulness in recognizing the glory of Jesus becomes uncontainable. Everybody around her can literally sense her devotion for Jesus.
5. Mary-like devotion is criticized.
This is verses 4–5:
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”
Apparently, Judas caught the aroma, but instead of recognizing Mary’s act as a surprising, costly, humble, and fitting act of devotion, he criticized her. He immediately liquidated the value of the ointment in his head, and he corrected her decision. That could have been used for something better! That could have been a lot of money to help poor people! Mary is being unwise!
Now, before we look closer into the criticism, I just want to note that it happened, and right away, because that’s just how things go — even things as wholesome as Mary’s devotion.
The Bible gives us no impression that devotion to Jesus will be easy — it actually ensures the opposite. There’s a Forest Frank lyric my younger boys love. It goes:
Jesus promised that the bad would come along,
‘Cause if life is always easy
Probably doin’ something wrong.
That’s true. I want everybody to know: when your devotion to Jesus meets difficulty, that’s a good sign. The question for us is about our willingness to endure difficulty. Are we willing to be criticized?
Are we willing to express devotion to Jesus that others would call wasteful but Jesus calls beautiful?
6. Mary-like devotion is vindicated.
Let’s look closer at what Judas said in verse 5.
At face-value, we might think Judas is onto something, because what he says is not untrue. That perfume was worth a lot of money — three hundred denarii/$80–90K — that’s a lot of money you can do a lot with. Judas names one possibility. The problem, though, is that he’s thinking about it all the wrong way.
See, he’s thinking about gifts from the giver’s perspective, not from God’s perspective. He’s thinking about everything from earth looking around, not from heaven looking down.
In his mindset — the ‘Judas mindset’ — all value is monetary, and all that is monetary is a zero-sum category: which means I’m always thinking, “whatever I give here is what I cannot give there.”
And see, Judas is so caught up in this mindset — he cares so much about the optimal management of the gift — that he’s blind to the One the gift is for. That is what is most striking about verse 5 — it’s the absence of anything to do with Jesus. Judas says nothing about him. So Judas not only rebukes Mary here, but he also registers how little he thinks of Who she worships.
And if that wasn’t clear, John adds in verse 6. He wants us to know that Judas said what he said:
“…not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.”
Judas was part of a program called ‘Feeding Our Future’ …
Greed is an ancient sin — it’s the root of all evil, and it ruined Judas. (And it’s behind the ruin of our state. God help us.)
In verse 7, Mary doesn’t say anything back to Judas, but Jesus speaks up on her behalf, and he says, first, “Leave her alone.”
Which is amazing. Jesus doesn’t argue with Judas. He doesn’t explain why his mindset is wrong, he first just tells him to stop. Jesus defends Mary, and he makes the issue about himself, because it is!
With this perfume Mary has prepared Jesus for the day of his burial, because, verse 8:
“…the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
And it’s clear now, with the mention of his burial and that he won’t always be here, Jesus is talking about his death. Which raises the question for us: Was Mary anointing Jesus as king or preparing him for his death? And the answer is Yes.
Again, Mary is doing more here than she realized. She is anointing Jesus as King — it’s just that he’s a king who will sacrifice his life for his people.
He’s a King who has come to die. His reign will conquer the grave for good — remember Lazarus — but first Jesus’s reign will come through the grave.
Our triumphant King will also be a slain Lamb.
And John wants us so badly to get this! He gives us hints here in Mary’s devotion, but then later in the Book of Revelation he tells us about a vision when saints and angels together pour out their praise to Jesus, and they say,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12)
Listen: I want you to know that the final vindication of our every sincere act of devotion to Jesus will come on that day when we see him. If it’s Mary-like devotion, it is never wasted. Jesus is worth it.
And this brings us to the last point.
7. Mary-like devotion is instructive.
We’re gonna finish how we started: I think we can learn from our sister Mary. It is a gift to us to be able to see her gift to Jesus, and I want us to be more like her.
That’s been my prayer: that the Spirit would reawaken or awaken in us Mary-like devotion to Jesus.
Devotion that is surprising because it responds to Jesus in the moment, even if it doesn’t fit the setting. Costly because it brings Jesus our best, humble because it doesn’t worry about what others might think, fitting because Jesus is the King and nothing given to him is too much, criticized because it’s not supposed to be easy, and vindicated because the King who Mary worshiped is the Lamb who was slain and one day we will see his worth with our own eyes.
Mary’s devotion is instructive because it shows us what it looks like when a heart is overcome by the worth of Jesus.
And what’s incredible for us, is that we know more about Jesus’s worth than Mary does here. We already know the end of the story! That Jesus who has come will die, will be resurrected, and will come again.
So in closing, I want to invite you to ask yourself this: For Advent, in this season of waiting, what is Jesus calling you to do that would simply reflect his worth?
That’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
We come here to this Table to rest in the worth of Jesus Christ. Let his glory be your comfort by taking refuge in him. That’s what it means to trust in Jesus, and that is who this table is for. If you’re here and you have put your faith in Jesus, we invite you to eat and drink with us and give him thanks.
