A Tale of Two People - John 12:1-11

Defining worship is a difficult question for many Christians. Which is somewhat ironic when you consider the fact that ‘worship’ is a Christian word that is used all the time. But now, it’s a vague, broad, difficult to define thing that everyone seems uncertain of. There is little to no consensus.

To put it simply, I think that there are three pieces that must be included in one’s definition of worship: first it must be Christ-centered. Next, worship is a corporate activity. It’s something that Christians come together to do which is the apex of worship that’s been directed to us by God. But there’s also private or individual worship as well. I think all three of those things are necessary for a good definition of worship.

But what about this word as a descriptor for worship: divisive?

And no, I’m not talking about the worship wars centered around contemporary vs. traditional music styles. What I’m referring to is the mere fact that you’re sitting here in this room right now is divisive. To put it more clearly, the mere act of worship is controversial.

I bring that up, because I think it’s exactly what we see in this passage. A wonderful act of true, authentic act of worship that becomes divisive, doesn’t it?

And it’s from this passage that we learn why worship can be so divisive.

First we see that true worship is focused on the worthiness of Christ. Second, we see many don’t believe that Jesus is worthy of worship. And lastly, we see many will go so far as to try and remove the potential worship of Jesus.

Last week, we looked at the plot to kill Jesus and how the high priest Caiaphas prophesied of Jesus’ death for the nation and understood it to be necessary in order for them to maintain power, however, his prophetic word was a proclamation of the gospel.

And in case you're wondering, the rest of the book of John is the passion narrative. Jesus is making his way toward Jerusalem, and next week is the Triumphal entry. So everything is beginning to gear up for Jesus to go to the cross.

True worship is focused on the worthiness of Christ (vv. 1-3)

For many of us this is a familiar story, because Matthew and Mark both record this particular event as well. Ironically, Luke records a similar event where a sinful woman used her hair to wipe off Jesus’ feet, but that’s actually a different story from the one we just read. We’re told in Luke that the sinful woman wipes off Jesus’ feet at a Pharisees house, while we’re told in Matthew and Mark that this particular event took place at Simon the Leper’s house.

All that to say, this event and the sinful woman event in Luke 7 and this passage are best understood as two different stories.

And again, the cross is quickly approaching, and Jesus is in Bethany which is on the outskirts of Jerusalem with his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

And Jesus is attending a dinner that has been put together in his honor. Lazarus is reclining at table with Jesus, Martha is busily working, and once again, Mary does something, well, out of the ordinary. It’s a familiar scene with Lazarus, Mary and Martha isn’t it?

But verse 3 tells us what Mary did, “[she] took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.”

According to Matthew and Mark’s account she breaks the alabaster flask of pure nard and pours it all over Jesus’ body including his feet. In case you’re wondering, nard is a perfume that’s only found in India, so in order for Mary to have it, it would have had to travel thousands of miles, which is in part what made it so expensive. It was incredibly rare!

Judas values the perfume at 300 denarii. One denarii was a day’s wage, there’s a little bit of math involved here, but if you subtract the Sabbath days, (because obviously they weren’t working on the Sabbaths) and suddenly Judas’ valuation makes sense. He values Mary’s perfume at approximately one year’s salary.

I’ve seen people value her perfume somewhere between $30,000-$50,000. All that to say, it was super expensive!

Out of curiosity I looked up what are the most expensive perfumes in the world today. Apparently there is one called Shumukh. This is a description of Shumukh:

“It's made with rare oud oil from India, amber, sandalwood, patchouli and pure Turkish rose oil, among others.” Impressed? Well, for a cool $1.29 million it can be yours! To be fair, the bottle is encrusted with diamonds, but nevertheless, it’s worth a lot of money.

But just imagine for a second, taking a bottle of Shumukh and pouring it all out at once. Most of us, especially the Dads in this room would say, only use a drop for the most special of occasions.

My Dad’s side of the family is from Grundy, VA, which is a coal mining country full of hard working people that did whatever it took to avoid spending a dime. One of the legendary stories about my great grandfather is one time he asked my Dad to do some weed eating around his house and so my Dad was doing it and about halfway through it, he stopped him and said that’s good enough, he was going to get the rest of the grass with a cy. And my Dad was like, why? He said, because he didn’t want him using up all the gas in the weedeater.

That’s my background. My family are the type of people that would freak out if you broke a bottle of Shumukh and poured it all out at once. But I imagine most of you would not be comfortable with that sort of thing.

Not to mention, just the awkwardness of the whole thing. She walks up behind Jesus and pours it on his feet, but really, she pours it out all over his body.

And just to help further set the stage here: when the men would recline at table, they’d be sitting on the ground with their feet behind them. She pours it all over Jesus, including his feet, she unbinds her hair which was scandalous at that time in order to wipe off his feet. There’s really nothing culturally appropriate about what Mary does… it’s all strange and inappropriate!

She pours out this incredibly expensive perfume on the nastiest part of Jesus’ body: his feet. People’s feet are generally nasty even now, but you can only imagine how nasty a man’s feet must have been that has been walking miles and miles and miles in sandals.

Mary demonstrates incredible generosity, devotion, love, gratitude, and thankfulness to Jesus all in one fell swoop. You could summarize all of this with one word: worship. It’s an act of worship that is focused entirely on Jesus Christ.

The object of her worship isn’t a building like the temple, it’s not an experience of some sort, no her worship is focused on Jesus Christ.

And the same should be true for us in our worship: it should be focused on Jesus. It should be centered upon him, magnifying his name. Because so quickly church and worship can become about a whole host of other things. Worship can quickly become synonymous with programs, music, and events. Then one day you begin to realize that so much of it is Christless.

Our worship must be focused on Christ. It must be centered on him.

Expressing our devotion, love, and gratitude for Jesus Christ should be the focal point of our worship. Isn’t that why we’re all here? Lord’s Day worship should be an opportunity to express our love, gratitude, and thankfulness to Jesus for what he has done for us on the cross in the most concentrated form possible.

Because apart from Jesus we have nothing.

It reminds me of those lyrics from the hymn Rock of Ages Cleft for Me:

“Nothing in my hand I bring,

simply to thy cross I cling;

naked, come to thee for dress;

helpless, look to thee for grace;

foul, I to the Fountain fly;

wash me, Savior, or I die.”

So why did Mary pour out her entire bottle of $50,000 perfume on Jesus? Because he's worthy of it. He deserves it.

Jesus deserves our very best, praise, honor and glory! Amen?

Many do not believe Christ is worthy of our worship (vv. 4-8)

One of my core memories from middle school boys locker rooms was Axe Body spray. And let’s just say, 7th grade boys were notorious for applying that stuff liberally.

Middle school boys would basically bathe in Axe body spray. Some of y’all know exactly what I’m talking about too! In the minds of middle school boys there was no sweeter smell than Axe body spray. But to adults, it was a horrendous smell because it meant you were about to have an asthma attack.

I bring this up because Scripture regularly describes worship as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. In fact, the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 15 that, “we are the aroma of Christ.” This is sort of the idea that John wants us to see in verse 3 when he tells us, “​The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

But like Axe body spray, to some people there is no sweeter smell, but to other people, it smells terribly. And isn’t that what we see in Mary and Judas?

John really sets up this comparison for us between Mary and Judas.

Because on the one hand you have Mary who believes that Jesus is worthy of the most expensive perfume that she owns. But on the other hand, Judas does not.

You can almost see it, can’t you? Mary poured out this incredibly expensive perfume on Jesus and Judas sitting in the corner watching this whole thing, shaking his head.

Judas objects in verse 5: “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

In other words, why pour this incredibly expensive perfume out on Jesus when it could have been sold and the money distributed to the poor. Judas wants people to see him as this great humanitarian, who only thinks about the poor!

It sounds great doesn’t it? You might even say it sounds pious or righteous. Giving to the poor, who can fault that?

But John reveals Judas’ real motives in verse 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.”

He wanted it for himself! He was a thief. But mentioning the poor is such an easy guilt trip. It’s like when you throw a bunch of food away and someone says, “it’s not like there’s kids starving in Africa.” And of course, it’s all true. There really are people hurting out there and the Bible tells us that we should be concerned about their welfare.

But my point is, this wasn’t what Judas was concerned about. It was a way to score a cheap rhetorical point.

We’re sitting here analyzing it 2,000 years later and so we know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is, but it wasn’t quite so clear at the moment? Because for all intents and purposes, what Judas was suggesting was culturally normative, while Mary wasn’t! What he said was appropriate, while Mary’s behavior was culturally inappropriate.

You might think had you been there you’d given Mary a standing ovation but at the moment it wasn’t clear.

Interestingly, both Matthew and Mark in their parallel accounts of this story tell us that it wasn’t just Judas that objected to what Mary was doing. There was a group of people that didn’t think what Mary was doing was right. So most commentators think that Judas led the charge, but there was a contingency of people who took his side.

There are two sides to this story, but here, only one person’s actions are justified. Jesus had to step in to tell us how to best understand what’s going on.

But notice that Jesus corrects Judas in verse 7: “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.”

This is a profound statement, because what verse 7 reveals is that Mary, even at this point, understood that Jesus would eventually die for the sins of the world. He had predicted his death many times up and to this point. And so, what she was doing was rather than waiting for his death, she took the initiative of preparing his body right at that particular moment!

As one commentator put it in the mind of Mary, “it was now or never!”

But there’s something very nefarious about Judas’ suggestion: he very subtly tried to shift the focus of Mary’s worship away from Jesus Christ and on to public welfare. You see, Judas is indicating something that many professing Christians are troubled with even to this day: that true worship is doing good deeds.

That the apex of worship is working in a homeless shelter, mowing your neighbor’s lawn, or volunteering at the soup kitchen. The Christian should be concerned with those things, but it’s not the apex of our worship. Jesus is the apex. He’s the focal point.

The Christian’s concern for public welfare flows out of or downstream from our love and devotion to Jesus Christ. Getting that ordering correct is absolutely necessary.

And this is really what Jesus is getting at in verse 8, “For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” Of course, Jesus isn’t encouraging us to neglect those in poverty, or giving us an out for stinginess, but rather, Jesus is telling them that he will not be with them much longer. Poverty has always been around and will always be around, but the same wasn’t true for Jesus.

In the gospel of John, Holy week, or passion week is quickly approaching. The cross is becoming more and more of a reality.

But what Jesus is saying is, “while I’m here, focus on me.”

Isn’t this precisely the way the Devil works? It’s never obvious. It’s always subtle reordering or misprioritization of things to turn your attention away from Jesus Christ and on to something else.

At some point you have to pull back and simply ask, why would Judas object to Mary expressing her devotion to Jesus through an extravagant act of worship? Mary’s act of worship was a giant waste to Judas because he didn’t think Jesus was worth it!

Many will try to remove the potential worship of Jesus. (vv. 9-11)

But a denial of Christ’s worthiness rarely stops there, because it eventually develops into hostility towards him. And I talked about this last week, but more often than not, it doesn’t end there. It often extends to the wonderful things that point people to himself. Any vestige, reminder, indication, reflection, or sign of Christ will also become a point of conflict.

Isn’t that exactly what we see in verses 9-11? Look at them with me.

“When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.”

Folks were coming to faith and following Christ because of the fact that Lazarus was alive. That his life had been miraculously restored!

You see, Lazarus’s life pointed people to Jesus. And because Jesus’ fame and influence was growing, that meant not only that he needed to be destroyed, but anything that pointed to him needed to be destroyed as well. And obviously, that included Lazarus. Lazarus was a living and breathing emblem for the work of Christ.

Isn’t it true that symbols can often invoke incredibly strong responses? Wear a Steelers hat in Philadelphia and you’ll figure out what I’m talking about. Or wear a Virginia Tech t-shirt in Charlottesville.

Just the wrong images, the wrong paraphilia can evoke strong emotions. And the same is true for people as well? A person is sometimes the face of a sports team or a political party.

And that’s what Lazarus was to the Jews. He was a walking talking symbolic reminder of Jesus and was actively pointing people to him.

But what’s so remarkable about Lazarus, is that he hasn’t done anything wrong! He simply received something wonderful didn’t he? It wasn’t like Lazarus was Jesus’ hatchet man. No, he was the recipient of an incredible miracle and for that reason, the Jews wanted him dead as well.

And what you begin to see is the Jews are growing more and more hostile not only to Jesus but also towards the good things he’s done. It’s how someone can look at a man whose life had been restored and think he’d be better off dead.

But for the Jews it was devolving into a desire to prevent the potential worship of Jesus.

Conclusion:

You see, worshiping the Lord is a lot of things, but it’s never time poorly spent, and it’s never careless. When Jesus corrected Judas, he was essentially telling him, “Mary isn’t irresponsible because pouring out extravagant worship on me is never wasteful.”

There’s no better way for Mary to pour out her perfume because Jesus is worth it. He’s worth every drop of Mary’s perfume.

If you dive even deeper below the surface here, for the Christian you believe that Jesus is worthy because he’s atoned for your sins. You see, he’s done something specifically for you!

You’re not an object of condemnation, but an object of his grace, mercy, and forgiveness. You’re an heir to the King. And a recognition of this truth should of course produce in each of us a heart of gratitude. Every Christian in this room should be willing to pour out every drop of your Shumukh perfume in worship to Christ.

Because if you fundamentally believe that Jesus is the Lamb who was slain and took away the sins of the world, specifically, your sins, then you have something to be grateful for, don’t you? You have something to praise him for! You have something to rejoice over! Because you believe he is worthy.

If it’s poured out for Christ it’s never a waste! It’s never irresponsible, misused, or recklessly spent! Jesus is and will always be worth it! “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”