By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10:45am Service, 2009-09-06

Text: John 12:1-11

A study was done in Britain last year to determine how much food the British public throw away into their trash bins every day - not food that has been partially consumed, but food that is completely untouched. The study revealed that each day people were throwing away (among other things) 4.4 million apples, 1.6 million bananas, 1.2 million sausages, 660,000 eggs, 440,000 ready meals, 220,000 loaves of bread and 5,500 chickens. All this adds up to 6.7 million tons of wasted food a year, which is worth about 10 billion pounds. That's not all. The study also revealed that it costs local authorities 1 billion pounds a year to dispose all that wasted food. These results were shocking, to say the least, especially when millions of people in the world do not have enough food to eat. 

I do not know what the results would be if the same study were done here in Singapore, but I suspect that we may not be too far behind Britain because of the wasteful, consumerist mindset that many Singaporeans have today. And perhaps I can ask: What would you consider to be a waste? - spending $700 to stay at Raffles Hotel for one night? Or spending $1,000 for a ticket to watch the F1 Night Race at the end of this month? 

How about spending $6,000 on a bottle of top grade perfume and using it all up at one go? Would you consider that to be a waste? Many probably would, without the least hesitation. But today we are going to look at one instance where this really happened and it was not a waste. This event where Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus is recorded not only in John 12 but in two other gospels as well - Matthew and Mark. You may notice some minor differences between John's account and Mark's account. This is due to the different perspectives of the witnesses. For instance, Mark records that Mary poured the spikenard on the head of Jesus, whereas John records that she anointed His feet with it and wiped the feet with her hair. So which one is correct - Mark's account or John's account? Actually both are correct. 

Mark records only the beginning of her act when Mary poured the spikenard on the head of Jesus. But since she poured out not just a few drops but the entire contents of the alabaster flask (about 500 ml), it flowed all the way down to His feet. And then according to John's account, she wiped away the excess from His feet with her hair. But why did John record only the end of her act? It was probably because he saw much greater significance in Mary's act of wiping the feet than in her act of pouring on the head. You see, it was the custom in Israel for the host of a feast to anoint the head of his invited guests with some perfumed oil (cf. Psalm 23:5), just enough for them to apply on their hair and face. This was very refreshing after coming in from the hot dry streets outside the house. So Mark's record of Mary's act shows that it was in line with the usual custom of providing refreshment for the head of the guest.

John's record on the other hand, shows that Mary's act went way beyond the usual custom of the day. Her anointing refreshed not only the head, but the whole body of Jesus and more importantly, His feet. And no host would ever do what Mary did - which is to wipe the feet of his guest. That was considered to be too demeaning for the host and something that only household slaves would do. We will see more of this in the next chapter of John's gospel, which records how Jesus took on the role of a slave by washing the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper. 

But for now we want to note that what Mary did to Jesus at that meal was so unusual that it caught the attention of everyone there and evoked an immediate response from some of them. Unfortunately the response from everyone except our Lord Jesus was one of anger and rebuke.

I. What a Waste!

In order to understand this response, let us attempt to reconstruct what took place at the event. It was evening time in a village called Bethany. Jesus and His 12 disciples had just arrived at the home of Simon the leper for a special supper. Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were there. You may remember from a previous sermon that Jesus was a very close friend of this family, and that He had raised Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11. Well, Lazarus was now alive and well, and he was about to enjoy a good meal with Jesus. Martha was busy shuttling back and forth between the kitchen and the dining table, loading it with food and drinks. Warm fellowship and lively conversation fills the room. And then, as the meal is just about to begin, Mary comes quietly into that room. 

She is carrying with great care a sealed flask made of alabaster, and she goes directly to where Jesus is seated. When she breaks the narrow neck of the flask to open it, all heads turn to see where the breaking sound came from, and silence fills the room. And now, as Mary pours out the contents of the flask they see a clear amber-coloured liquid flowing upon the head of Jesus, running down to His beard and down to the skirts of His garments (cf. Psalm 133:2). Then the whole room is filled with the unmistakable fragrance of pure spikenard. 

Spikenard was one of the most costly perfumes available at that time. It had to be purchased from merchants who had sailed all the way from India. This exquisite perfume was made by distilling the dried roots of the jatamansi plant that grows high up on the slopes of the Himalayan mountains. Because of the dangerous terrain and climate up there, the roots could only be harvested during the months of October to December, and a large amount of roots would only produce 3% of perfume after 18 hours of distillation. 

But despite its scarcity, spikenard was in great demand. The ancient Egyptians imported it. King Solomon wrote about it, and rich Roman women loved it. Besides being fragrant it was known to be very good for skin care and for certain ailments. But all these benefits carried a heavy pricetag. A month's salary of an ordinary worker could only buy 40 ml of pure spikenard. It would take an entire year's salary to purchase the amount that Mary had just poured out on the head of Jesus. 

And now the mood at that supper becomes very tense. Some people shake their heads in shock and disbelief at what she is doing. As they watch, Mary shakes the last few drops of spikenard out of the flask, she unties her hair to let her long tresses down, and then she gently stoops down to wipe the feet of Jesus with them. The silence is broken by sounds of murmuring that swells into a tirade of angry words 'Why all this waste? Why was this fragrant spikenard not sold and the money given to the poor?' (Mark 14:4)

If you had been there, how would you have responded? Would you have said, 'What a waste this is! One year's hard-earned salary all gone down the drain'? Without understanding why Mary did what she did at that moment, we all would probably have joined in the chorus of disapproval, thinking of all the possible good things that could have been done with such a precious commodity. If converted into cash (about $6,000), it could have provided food for many hungry people. 

Think of all the clothes and shoes it could have provided for the needy children of that time. Think of all the medicines it could have purchased for the sick. Think of all the precious lives it could have saved from death and disease. After all, isn't it part of good stewardship to avoid wasting any resources that God has blessed us with? It is! Proverbs 18:9 says 'He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.' In other words, those who waste what they have, deserve the same condemnation as those who refuse to work for their own living. Wasting is obviously sinful under normal circumstances.

II. What a Worship!

But the circumstances here in Mary's act of anointing were not normal. There was actually much more to it than meets the eye. What Mary did, was not a great waste at all. There are two clues for this in the first verse of our text 'Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.' 

Firstly, the latter part of this versekstates that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. You may remember that when we studied the previous chapter of John Mary was very distraught at the death of her brother. Even after he had been buried for 4 days she was still weeping and grieving for him. And when Jesus came, Mary quickly went to Him and wept at His feet saying, 'Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.' (John 11:32) And Jesus was moved to restore her brother's life. How grateful Mary must have been to 2eceive her brother back alive! Now we can understand why her pouring of expensive spikenard on Jesus was not a great waste, if we see it as a thanksgiving offering to the Lord for bringing her brother back to life. 

I am sure any of us would be just as grateful to the Lord if we had prayed earnestly for a loved one who is dying, and the Lord mercifully delivered him from death. It would be quite natural for us to show our gratitude to God with a costly gift. And so it is very likely that Mary's anointing was an act of thanksgiving to the Lord.

Secondly, the same verse tells us that this anointing took place 6 days before the Passover. That Passover would be the time when Jesus would die on the cross of Calvary to make atonement for sinners. Mary might have known by now that Jesus had come into this world to die for sinners and resurrect on the third day. She may have heard of this from Jesus Himself during the many hours she spent sitting at His feet, and listening to every word that He taught her (Luke 10:39). 

Mary may also have sensed that His death was coming soon because the authorities had already sent out a warrant for His arrest. According to John 11:57, �the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him.� The chief priests and Pharisees had always been against Jesus because He had spoken against their sins, but His miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead was the last straw. It brought matters to a very critical point. Now they were more determined than ever to put Jesus to death, and it was only a matter of time before they would succeed. 

Knowing all this, Mary probably wanted to do something for Him - the very last thing she could ever do for the Lord Jesus before He died. But what could she do? One good thing that she could do was to prepare His body for burial. This is confirmed by what Jesus said in v.7 of our text 'against the day of my burying hath she kept this.' One of the things which the Jews did to prepare a dead body for burial was to anoint it with oil and costly embalming spices (cf. John 19:39,40). And they gladly this did even at great expense because they firmly believed that the body will one day resurrect from the grave. Perhaps Mary anointed the Lord Jesus with costly spikenard not only because He was going to die soon, but because she believed that He would also resurrect from the dead. And since Jesus had resurrected her brother from the dead recently, it stands to reason that He can surely resurrect Himself from the dead. Her act of anointing Jesus can therefore be seen as an act of faith in His word. 

Thus we have seen that there are at least 2 probable reasons for Mary's act of anointing Jesus. It is not a waste if we see it as an act of thanksgiving to the Lord, and an act of faith in the Lord and His word. But perhaps the best way to understand what Mary did, is to see it as an act of worship. The costly spikenard that she gave to Jesus was a present fit for a king (cf. Song of Solomon 1:12 'While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.'). At the time of His birth, Jesus had been honoured by the wisemen who brought costly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Him. Now, nearing the time of His death, He is honoured once again with a gift which was just as costly. 

We should not imagine that Mary so rich that she could well afford to buy the most expensive gifts for all her friends and loved ones. If that were true, there would have been no reason for anyone in that room to complain that she should have given her money to the poor instead of spending it on spikenard. For, if she had been rich she would easily be able to do both. But Mary was not rich. The money she spent on the flask of spikenard could have been all her life savings. Therefore her anointing of Jesus was done at great personal cost to herself because He is worthy of it. It was her act of worship.

And Mary's worship of Jesus can also be seen in the way that she served Him with her gift. She anointed His head, following the customary honour that was usually given to special guests at a feast. But she went beyond that custom, to wipe His feet, which is something that only the household slaves would do.

And besides that, she used her hair to wipe His feet. Had she forgotten to bring a towel and had to improvise? Note likely. I think it is more likely that she deliberately used her hair to do this because a woman's hair is a symbol of her glory (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:15) and Mary would most willingly lay down her glory at the feet of her king. When we all get to heaven, one of the ways that we will worship the Lord Jesus there is to cast our crowns - which are our glory - at His feet (cf. Revelation 4:10). 

Now that we have seen that what Mary did to Jesus can be understood as a selfless act of thanksgiving, faith and worship, let us draw some applications from it. First of all, we ought to express our thanks to the Lord for all that He has done for us, because we owe Him a very great debt for our salvation - one which we can never repay. How can you show your gratitude to the Lord? By giving Him what He desires most - your heart.

Secondly, we ought to live by faith in the Lord and His Word. And that obeying His commands and resting on His promises. To know what these are, please take time to sit at the feet of Jesus each day like Mary of Bethany. Read His Word daily with a readiness to obey whatever He tells you to do.

Thirdly, we ought to give Christ the worship He deserves as our Lord and King. Worship is a heart that expresses itself regardless of the cost. The more you love the Lord, the more you would want to give to Him of your time, talents and treasures in worship. And please do not think that God only accepts things that are expensive. Although Mary gave a very costly gift to Jesus, what He took most delight in was not how much the gift had cost her, but her love and attitude of sincere sacrificial giving from her heart. 

Jesus also took more delight in the 2 small coins that a poor widow cast into the Temple treasury than in the large sums of money the rich had cast into it. (Luke 21:1-4). So do you want to know how can you worship the Lord as you should? Give Him that which is most precious to you - your life! Let the Lord use your life as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), and you can rest assured that it will not be a wasted life.

In 1904 a young 16-year old man named William Borden gave his life to the Lord. When he was in college he started an early morning prayer group for students. This gave rise to a movement that spread across the Yale University campus. By the end of his first year 150 students were meeting regularly for prayer and Bible study. By the time he graduated, 1,000 students were doing it. Borden also started an outreach ministry to rescue drunken men from the streets and rehabilitate them. 

After doing graduate studies at Princeton seminary William Borden left the U.S. as a missionary to China. But he never reached his destination. On the way there he contracted spinal meningitis and died. In the Bible he left behind he had written these words: 'No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.' Do you think his life was a waste? Not in God's plan. Long after his death, the impact of Borden's life continued to be felt as other young men and women gave their lives to servekthe Lord and souls were saved. 

Only the Lord knows what your life can accomplish for His glory when it is fully surrendered to Him. He is able to use whatever you surrender to Him for His glory. Our Lord Himself surrendered His glory above, and gave His own life to accomplish God's most glorious work - the salvation of sinners. 

We end our message with this thought: That alabaster flask which was broken speaks to us of Jesus Himself. Just as the flask of spikenard was a very costly gift that was not poured out in vain, the life of our Lord Jesus was God's most costly gift, which was not sacrificed in vain. And just as the fragrance of the spikenard could only fill the room when it was broken an$ poured out, the sweet blessings of salvation could only fill the earth when Jesus was crucified and His blood was poured out for our sins. May the Lord bless His Word to our hearts as we meditate on these things.

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