John 12:3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair… What a remarkable company was here gathered together! 1. Jesus, within about a week of his death, and distinctly apprehending what was before him. 2. His host, Simon the leper, not mentioned here, but mentioned by Matthew and Mark - a man who, in all probability, had his own occasion of gratitude to Jesus. 3. Lazarus, just brought back from the grave, and in company with Jesus, who was going down to it. 4. Martha and Mary. 5. The disciples. So the company was neither a small nor a commonplace one, and in its midst there was done a deed which Jesus said should be told as a memorial of the doer wherever the gospel was preached. I. MARY HAD THE VERY STRONGEST REASON FOR DOING SOMETHING. No doubt Mary had done all she could in the way of words. But just because words are so easy and inadequate, the real grateful heart wants to do something in addition. Araunah offered David a place for an altar, and oxen for burnt offerings; but the king replied in a way that was kingly and right: "I will not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing." And so Mary seems to have said, "I will not offer to my Master and Benefactor thank offerings which cost me nothing." The occasion, the raising of a brother from the dead, certainly was not beyond the deed. And we too have occasion for something great in the way of thank offering to Jesus. Doing nothing, or next to nothing, for Jesus, we give a pretty clear proof that Jesus has not been allowed to do his great work for us. Mary had yet a richer thank offering to make for a greater service. Jesus had to bring back Mary herself from another death, even her own death in trespasses and sins, and in due time she would learn to present her own self a living sacrifice, a reasonable service. II. THE FAULT FOUND WITH MARY'S THANKSGIVING. Judas, it is very plain, looked upon Mary's act as one that had robbed him of a fine chance of thievish gain. But at this time the disciples had not found him out. We read in Matthew, that the other disciples had indignation, and said, "To what purpose is this waste?" Judas was doubtless the leader, and the others readily chimed in. As it has been said, "Censure infects like a plague." Nor must we look only at the positive fault-finding. If no fault had been found, still there would have been lack of appreciation. The absence of blame is not the presence of praise. It was peculiarly a woman's way of showing gratitude. It took a Being like Jesus, who understands all the movements of the heart, in woman as in man, to appreciate the gift and act of grateful Mary. Even Martha would hardly understand Mary, though it was not an occasion for her to say anything. III. MARY FINDS A MIGHTY DEFENDER IN JESUS. "The Lord God is a Sun and Shield." Jesus had risen, a true Sun of quenchless light, on the dark, dark night of Mary's sorrow - a night that seemed without a single star; and now he comes as a Shield, to shelter her from the darts of an avaricious foe. Mary did her best, according to knowledge and opportunity. Jesus eared very little for the fragrant spikenard in itself; the perfume from a thousand gardens is his. The fragrance was not in the gift, but in the giving. And who can tell but what Mary was really helping the poor? If she spent three hundred pence and more with the growers and makers of spikenard, that would help to prevent them getting poor. It is better to do this than help the poor when they are poor. But Mary was also doing more than she knew. The deep impulse of love was also an impulse from above. Jesus indicates how we are to show our gratitude. Judas helped him to the hint. We can do nothing for Jesus according to the flesh. Gratitude to Jesus is now to be service to men. The One that could be anointed went from the earth long ago; but the One that can be served and pleased in a thousand ways is here still. - Y. Parallel Verses KJV: Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. |
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