Enter John 12. We are coming to a pivotal point in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is divided into two main sections. John 1-11 covers about three years of Jesus' earthly ministry. John 12, to the end of the book, through chapter 21 deals with about one week of Jesus' life. And so we are starting John chapter 12 today, and everything from this point on is just moving to the cross. Chapter 1 through 11, again, spanning three years of Jesus' earthly ministry, focused on his miracles. John presented signs, and each of these signs signified something about Christ, pointing to the fact that He's the Son of God and the sole source of eternal life. That's the point. And so that's happened in chapters 1 through 11. From this point on, however, what we're going to find is that the narrative becomes quite intense. Everything at this point is moving to the cross. There's a rapid journey towards the crucifixion and towards the resurrection. This looming crucifixion then, and all these accounts we're going to see from now on, that looming crucifixion kind of casts a shadow of foreboding over everything that we're going to read. This infuses these texts with sort of a palpable tension because we know the cross is coming. There are times, like in our passage today, where we encounter a tender, intimate scene, moments between Jesus and his disciples, which are just wonderful to read. But these kind of serve almost like a calm before the storm, a calm before a devastating storm and the chaos of the crucifixion and Christ's betrayal comes. But on our passage this morning, we find one of those sweet, tender moments, intimate moments. It's six days before Passover. John likes to present his timeline connected to their relation to the feasts. And so it's six days before Passover, and Jesus has returned to Bethany. And you remember Bethany, that is where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. This is a quiet village about just 2.8 kilometers from Jerusalem. And so as people are arriving for the Passover, it makes sense that many of them would be in Bethany, where they have friends, where they have relatives, where they would be hosted, and then they could travel to Jerusalem for the Passover. So Jesus comes to Bethany, and there the hustle and bustle of the Passover is beginning. And there he has friends, obviously, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and they host a dinner for Christ to welcome him. So, we don't quite know if you compare the parallel accounts, we don't know if this is in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, or whether it's Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in the home of a man named Simon, not quite sure, but this is where the scene unfolds. And what we're gonna see is that this is a scene steeped in love and gratitude, and as we're going to see even Worship. So John chapter 12 verse 1. Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus has raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 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. But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag, he used it to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. And so Jesus arrives in Bethany in preparation for the Passover. And notice in verse 2, there's a so there. Because Jesus is in town, and because he recently raised Lazarus from the dead, it seemed very appropriate that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus prepare a dinner for him. And this is a dinner driven by their gratitude to Jesus. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are undoubtedly filled with immense thanksgiving towards Jesus. a gratitude deepened, a gratitude which deepened the bonds they already had. We already know that they were very, very close friends. This is what kind of drove Jesus' grief as he sympathized, empathized with Mary and Martha upon the loss of Lazarus. So Jesus is a dear friend. They love Christ not only as their Messiah, but as a close, intimate, almost family-like member. And so they welcome him in and they say, we're going to have a dinner for you. I think to understand the depth of love and appreciation coming from Mary and Martha, we have to understand a little bit more about the culture of the day. And that it appears that Lazarus was the only male figure in their home. And so the loss of Lazarus would have had far-reaching implications for Mary and Martha at the time, which I think helps us understand the deep appreciation that we find here. Mary and Martha and Lazarus seemed like they were probably somewhat well off. But even those who are well off, having lost the sole male relative in the home, means that those women would have been in a very tough situation. In a patriarchal society like this, the women actually obviously were of a lower social standing. For instance, they weren't allowed to testify in court, as an example. They couldn't own property outright. All this had to go through either their father or their husband, or even maybe a close, or maybe even a brother. And so when Lazarus died, Mary and Martha really lost their protector, kind of lost their social standing. In fact, they may even have felt pressure at that point, maybe even to maybe pursue marriage where they hadn't before, just so that they could have a male figure in their home. So the restoration of Lazarus was not just giving them their beloved brother back, but also Jesus saved them potentially from some social difficulty. And so there's all kinds of layers of gratitude here for Mary and Martha and Lazarus to Jesus. Remember, beyond the practical concerns, when Mary and Martha lost Lazarus, Jesus came and he wept with them. He felt their grief. It was very clear that he could feel their sorrow. And so the intimacy and the relationship that existed between them was very, very clear. And so they throw a dinner for him. They want to express their love. They want to express their gratitude. And this is deep. And I don't know if you have relationships like this or maybe there's someone in your life where you just love that person. I mean, you love them with a deep abiding love, deep appreciation for this individual. And this is how Mary and Martha and Lazarus feel towards Jesus. And again, interestingly, as I said, maybe you have someone in your life like this, you're probably thinking of a family member, and they have these deep abiding thoughts and feelings towards Christ who is not family. So we come to John 12 and a dinner's taking place. And the Bible says that Martha was there serving, and that reminds us of another occasion. Remember when Mary and Martha were hosting Jesus and Martha was serving while Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus as He taught? And it says there in John 12, verse 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. This is a stunning scene. Probably after dinner, we don't really know, probably after dinner, Mary goes and brings some oil and anoints the feet of Jesus. If you look at the parallel accounts, it appears that she probably anointed his head and his feet. It wasn't just his feet, judging by the parallel accounts, but John hones in on the fact that she anoints his feet. because of the fact that she also wipes the oil off with her hair. And it says there that this oil or this ointment that Mary is using is made from pure nard. I'm going to read you something that is an excerpt from Leadership Matters. This is something that I've written previously about this passage. In the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India blooms a pink bell-shaped flower not too distantly related to the honeysuckle. Although the flowers are pleasant enough, the real treasure of this flower is hidden beneath the soil. When distilled, the roots and the rhizomes of the plant give up an amber-colored oil with a distinct fragrance, variously described as sweet and woody and earthy, spicy. The precious perfume culled from the plant can be recognized as the very aroma of luxury. The scarcity of the plant, the transportation costs from India, and the difficulty of the extraction process made the price of the resulting spike nard, or nard, really out of reach for the average household. Even a vial of just a few ounces would have been handled with extreme care. When Jesus and the others had finished dinner, Mary went and retrieved one of her most valuable possessions. It was 12 full ounces of nard, and John's sure to tell us that it is pure nard. It's not diluted. Such a quantity of the precious perfume would cost the equivalent of a laborer's annual wage. And so put it in modern terms, what's the average wage of a laborer today? Whatever that annual wage is, As far as purchasing power goes, that's about how much this was worth. How did Mary come to possess it? We don't know. Is it because they were a family of means? Was it because it was a family heirloom? We don't know. But what we do know is it wasn't meant to be used all at once. It was meant to be a precious family heirloom or a precious possession only to be used on special occasions and even then only to be used a little dab here and a little dab there. In Mary's heart, however, she knew that there would come no other day like this day. She knew there would never be another setting as fitting as this one for the extravagance of this sort of worship. In her mind, this was the perfect time to expend all of her precious perfume. So she pours out this oil upon the feet of Jesus. Now, imagine the response of all the guests there, because it's not just Jesus there, it's the disciples. He always has an entourage with him. And so maybe, so the disciples, maybe a few others, it's probably 12, 15, 17 people there. What she was doing here was not subtle. She pours out this oil and you can imagine, I mean, it's made just to be a little, have you ever been around someone who wears too much perfume? Right? Generally it's people with a bad sense of smell. They don't know that it's really strong. And so they put it on and they come into a room and you know if they were there a half hour ago. And that's just a little bit of perfume. This was meant just to be used a little bit at a time. It was very potent. She pours out the whole thing and just it's filling the entire house to the point where it's overwhelming the guests very likely. Again, it's meant to be used sparingly, not extravagantly. Yet she pours out the full pound of it. The sheer volume and the resulting potency would have served as a powerful testament to the depth of Mary's gratitude towards Jesus. It would have signified the heartfelt sincerity of her worship. And make no mistake, what we're seeing here in John chapter 12 is worship. Mary is a genuine believer in Jesus. She has come to understand that he is the sent son of God. We saw that when she confesses Jesus as the Christ, the son of God, as Jesus asks her if he believes that Lazarus would raise from the dead, she makes that confession. So she is a genuine believer. Christ is friend, as we heard this morning in equip class, but he's also the sent son of God and only source of eternal life. He's God in the flesh. His act of raising Lazarus from the dead was an act of divine compassion, communicating God's love directly to Mary, and now Mary is commuting her love back to God through Christ. But there's something else going on here. Not only is Mary worshiping Christ with such extravagance as she pours out the entire vessel of her oil, but look in verse 3. It says, 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. If you were to come into a house in that culture, I mean, you're wearing sandals, you're walking through the dusty roads, you come in, your feet are caked with dust. And so it was the task of a household servant to come in to wash the feet of guests. That was normal practice, but that's not what's happening here. Mary, who's one of the hosts, not the servant, Mary, who's one of the hosts, probably a woman of means, judging by the fact that she owns this pure nard, a whole pound of it, she anoints the feet of Jesus. She's mimicking the service of a lowly house servant who had washed the feet of a guest, but instead of washing with water, she washes with oil. Instead of drying with a towel, she dries with her hair. What's going on here? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 14, Paul, in a completely different context, speaking to the Corinthians, says this, Does not nature itself teach you that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory, for her hair is given to her for a covering? In that culture, a woman's hair was a symbol of dignity. It was extremely humbling for a woman even to let down her hair in public. But Mary goes far beyond unbinding her hair. She uses her hair, we could say her glory. She uses her glory and her dignity to wash the feet of Jesus. You can even almost think of it like a queen who has a crown and takes the crown and lays it at the feet of Jesus. Through this act, Mary is confessing that Jesus is worthy of all honor. That she is prepared to lay down all of her personal worth, all of her dignity. She's willing to lay all that down so that He can be glorified through her. That's what she's communicating. There's really no better way for Mary to communicate that she's wholly devoted to Jesus. And that she recognizes Him as worthy of even extreme worship. Earlier, I mentioned that this was a patriarchal society. Men and women had very distinct roles. And for a man or a woman to violate social convention where gender roles were concerned risks ruining their reputation. What Mary is doing here is quite unconventional. This is going to make us feel uncomfortable, but I mean, in that culture, you know, woman is there. She's not really called upon to make herself the center of attention. Martha's there serving. You might expect that Mary would just be there serving as well. That's why the other account of the two is very interesting where Martha's serving and Mary's willing to sit at the feet of Jesus to learn. Mary is pushing social convention here by making herself the center of attention and she's raising eyebrows. But why is she doing it? This is not an act of pride. This is not a matter of wanting all the attention. This is an act of humility that raises the eyebrows of the other guests. This is an expression of lowly worship. This is an expression of selfless adoration. So she lays down her own pride, her own status, and her own reputation at the feet of Jesus. She humbles herself to exalt Him. She lowers herself to lift Him up. She surrenders her honor in order to honor him. And she's willing to break social convention to do that. She's willing to push social norms to worship Jesus. She's willing to attract the judgmental eyes of others by her full devotion. She's willing to make sacrifices shocking to any onlookers. And as we're going to see in a moment, she was even willing to offer this extravagant worship against the backdrop of other uncommitted disciples. which is a contradiction in terms. Again, from Leadership Matters, it continues, Mary poured every last drop of her oil onto the feet of Jesus. However, even expending an entire pound of pure nard wasn't enough to capture the heart of worship that she had towards her Lord, so she proceeds to wipe the oil with her hair. She lays her treasure, her pride, and her very person at the feet of Jesus as an act of holistic worship. Like incense wafting upward in the temple, the aroma of her worship was acceptable to the Lord and wholly appropriate." Jesus is not going to rebuke her. Jesus is going to protect her against criticism for her act of extravagant worship. And so, Mary's extravagant worship does what? It sacrifices her material goods, but it also sacrifices her personal pride. In other words, she just lays it all at the feet of Jesus. What Mary was doing was an act of, I'm gonna say holistic worship, whole person to worship. Overcome with a sense of love, gratitude, indebtedness, and worship, she presents everything she has to Jesus. She previously sat at the feet of Jesus to learn, and now she's anointing those same feet, confessing her devotion to him. Now, we're gonna read that, many of us, and say, Isn't that too much? I mean, that's extreme. I think we would agree that's radical. Some might look at it a little bit more negatively and say, well, that's a bit absurd. It's easier to imagine the whispers of the people around her. It's easy to imagine even modern sensibilities kind of chiming in here, like, come on, Mary. Have some self-respect, Mary. Get off the ground, Mary. And put your hair back up. Mary, where's your dignity? Mary, did you really have to use a whole pound? I mean, what's an annual wage today in Canada in 2025? That's how much this costs. Really, you could have used, I mean, even if you used half of that, even if you used a quarter of that, it would have been an amazing sacrifice. But you're going to expend 300 denarii a year's wages? Come on, let's be more reasonable. And why your hair? I mean, had you poured out the oil and just used a towel, it still would have communicated something similar, but why your hair? You could have done all this and kept your composure. Why unbind your hair? Why reveal the glory? Why do this? Why drag your honor through the dust for Jesus? This is extreme, some might say. Like, let's be measured, Mary. Let's be reasonable about this. You can say there's a line between devotion and excess, and you've crossed that line. You've made a spectacle of yourself. They might say, couldn't you honor Jesus in a way more restrained? Couldn't you honor Jesus in a way more socially acceptable? Couldn't you honor Jesus in a way that didn't give us secondhand embarrassment? If you find yourself thinking that way when you picture Mary with her hair unbound, covered in oil and dirt, having wiped the feet of Jesus, you may relate to someone else in our passage, and his name is Judas. It says in verse 3, the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? Now, at this point, the disciples don't know that Judas is going to betray Jesus. They think he's just a legit disciple like everyone else. So, when he makes this statement, I'm sure that others, in fact, parallel passages indicate it wasn't just Judas who was kind of grumbling about this. Others might have thought he was quite reasonable. Others would have looked at Judas and said, well, I mean, even that he's somewhat altruistic. I mean, he's caring about the poor here. That seems reasonable. Hey, let's exercise some moderation. He may have been the one against Mary who's coming out of this thing looking like the reasonable one. And you might be familiar with similar arguments to this. Have you ever heard people say, like, there's some validity to this. We're going to say, but hey, why don't you sell the church building so that you can feed the poor? Have you heard that before? Things like that. And they hold some merit when you see these lavish church buildings that, I mean, all this money in these things is just for nothing, just to make them ornate and things like this, and congregations who have no desire, no help towards the downtrodden. There's some validity to that. But those arguments are often made by people who are not at all driven by a care for the poor, but who are driven by an apathy towards Jesus. They have no sense of the worth and the priority of worshiping Christ, and that's Judas here. Judas is an apostate hiding behind calls for moderation and reasonableness. The sincere, sacrificial, and selfless worship of Mary was distasteful to Judas. It's an embarrassment to Judas. It's a waste. He's that guy who says, I believe in God too, but I think you're a bit too extreme. I mean, you're going to church every Sunday. I mean, you're going to a small group in the middle of the week. You actually read the Bible yourself at home? You have a prayer life? You try to share the gospel with others? I mean, I believe in God too, but I think maybe you're part of a cult. Judas was an apostate hiding behind calls for moderation and reasonableness. This is a call for moderate worship from one who doesn't worship at all. And you may have faced those same calls in your life. People trying to tone you down, people trying to quench the fire, people trying to moderate you. But in reality, again, there's calls for moderate worship coming from those who don't worship at all. On the contrary, this is the kind of devotion that we are called to. Matthew 22, Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. That's holistic worship. It's everything that we are to God in worship. That's what we're called to. Luke 14 says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, just even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. That is, Christ must be preeminent in your life above every other relationship. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple," he says. In Luke 14.33, he says, so therefore, anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. So tell me again about moderation and reasonableness. Philippians 3.7, Paul expressed that level of devotion. He says, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. So again, talk to me about moderation and reasonableness. The voices of those that are, those voices chirping in your own life, saying you've gone too far, this is too extreme, and hey, let's moderate a little bit. Again, I would say our calls for moderate worship from those who don't worship at all. The worship and devotion that Mary was expressing was not unreasonable or over the top. It was not extreme faith, it was just real faith. It wasn't radical discipleship, it was just genuine discipleship. This is the kind of humble devotion that all followers of Jesus are called to express. This is the same sort of whole person worship that all Christians are called to offer to Jesus. Not because he raised someone from the dead like Lazarus, but because he died for us on the cross and has secured our future resurrection. And so there has always been, and there will always be, voices like Judas. And sadly, voices outside and even within the church. Voices eager to quash the zeal of men and women who are fully devoted to Jesus. Voices that, in order to protect their own lukewarmness, decide to quench the fire of others. These voices often echo Judas' protests, draping their criticism in the guise of practicality, in the guise of moderation, saying things like, again, isn't this a bit too much? Let's not get carried away. They point to social norms. They point to financial sensibilities. They point even to noble causes, like Judas' feigned desire for the poor, to temper the fervor of those who, like Mary, are willing to break the whole bottle and pour it all out for Jesus. But again, in reality, those types of calls for moderate devotion often mask a deeper truth. Those critics are seeking to hide their own lack of devotion. They're trying to hide their own willingness to fully surrender to Christ. They're saying, hey, let's keep it moderate so that we have a lowest common denominator kind of faith, because you know what? If you start excelling, if you start getting on fire for Christ, you're going to make me look bad, so I'm just going to pull you down instead of me pursuing greater devotion. When your worship is extravagant, when your light shines brightly with the intensity of true commitment, it puts the dimness of others into perspective. The brighter your light shines through bold acts of sacrifice and unashamed adoration and fearless obedience, the more their lukewarmness is laid bare, revealing spiritual apathy. So, I mean, we could make this very practical. And say, in this situation, Mary pours out her ointment, the nard, the costly treasure. We could say, well, what is it in our lives that maybe might parallel that treasure? We could say, what is it that we're holding back from Jesus? and justifying holding it back in the name of moderation or reasonableness, whether it be our time, whether it be our money, whether it be our reputation, whether it be our comfort, we can say, what norms are we clinging to to keep us from worshiping Christ fully? It's always wonderful in a church, you know, when things kind of I use the term lowest common denominator, but I mean like when things kind of reach a plateau in a church and it just kind of seems like my apathy is justifying your apathy and your lukewarmness is giving my lukewarmness cover and so on, but then somebody comes in the church who's actually on fire for Christ. And just to see how that kind of stirs things up and kind of raises the bar and kind of encourages others to grow, that's an amazing thing, and that's the grace of God. Who's not going to allow a church just to settle down into this mediocrity of cultural Christianity? And so we can say, well, what is it in our lives that, frankly, we've been convinced is too extreme to give to Christ? When in reality, when we see the biblical picture of discipleship, it looks like, no, that's just what being a disciple is all about. So when you see someone in your life who's on fire for Christ, I mean, someone who has a vibrant prayer life, someone who's worshiping Christ, someone who's in the word, someone who's sharing the gospel, how do you respond to that person? Oh, you know, they're young, they'll get over it. Is that how you respond or do you find ways to encourage? Do you look and say, you know what? I've lost some of that fire. One of the strengths of a church is that anytime in a church culture, you have people at all stages of Christian growth. And so you might have the father of the faith or the mother of the faith. They've been saved for a long time. They've been a Christian for a while, and they have wonderful wisdom. Oftentimes, they're very measured in their responses. There's a lot of humility there. And then you might have a young man who comes in. I mean, he's like a bull in a china shop. I mean, he's all about truth. He's about the authority of the Word of God. He's very evangelistic. He's very zealous. Maybe sometimes he looks down upon those who don't seem to have the same zeal that he has. Okay. But the reality is in the church at any given time, there's people at all stages because they all contribute something to everyone else. mature man or the mature woman in the faith can maybe help temper the impertinence of that young believer. Might help them take the edge off some of their language or their approach. But that young man in the faith also encourages the person who's been saved for a long time to say, hey, remember the fire? Remember the zeal? In what way have you allowed yourself to slide into apathy, which caused you even then to look down upon those who come with this fiery zeal of devotion? And so we're to encourage one another that way. So do you cheer such individuals on who are zealous in the faith, or do you, like Judas, kind of feel a twinge of discomfort? Maybe a twinge of discomfort that reveals your own dimness. Those questions aren't meant to shame us, they're just meant to draw us closer in devotion to Christ and to teach us how we can appreciate one another. So now, back to the text, because we have a statement here about the poor that might raise some questions. Wasn't Judas' objection legitimate? What about the poor? Well, I mean, John helps us. We don't have any question here. John helps us because like, what's the motivation of Judas? We can start there. Certainly wasn't a care for the poor. First he's shamed by Mary's wholehearted worship. I mean, that's plain. If you're the imposter and you're faced with an example of genuine heartfelt worship, you're going to feel like you're going to get exposed. I mean, her light is shining so bright that Judas is feeling like he's got nowhere to hide. He's afraid he's going to be exposed. Beyond that, again, he doesn't really care for the poor at all. It says in verse 6, he said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in. He was the treasurer of the group. And there's the truth. He doesn't care about the poor. When he saw the ointment, and he's doing the math, right? You know he's doing the math instantly. He's saying, that's like a year's wage. And the Bible says that he would help himself to what was in the money bag. I mean, he was embezzling money. And he's saying, if I could get the equivalent of $100,000 in the bag, how much of that could I skim off the top for myself? So behind these calls for moderation, let's be moderate in your worship, was a total and complete insincerity. This is a feigned altruism meant to mask the lack of love for Jesus and his supreme love for money. So Judas' response to Mary's worship here, I think, again, should put us in mind of those Christians even. who scoff at their fellow believers who show greater acts of devotion than they do. Think about that couple who's willing to sell a house and go in the mission field. That's extreme. Think about the man who's willing to, like, mid-career, say, I feel called to the ministry and I'm going to go away to seminary. I mean, that is extreme. Think about the family who says, we want more disposable income so we can give to ministry, so we can give to missions. And so we're just going to consciously lower our living standard for that purpose. I mean, that is extreme. Think about the employee who says, no, I'm not going to work overtime. No, I'm not going to take extra shifts. I'm going to protect Sundays. I'm going to protect my ability to contribute to the church community. That is, at times, extreme. These individuals who are willing to offer a whole person to worship in a way that pushes social norms and even, I would say, the norms that sometimes can develop within a church that we would call moderation. How do we respond to these? Not all of us are called to sell our homes and go to the missions field. Not all of us are called to go to seminary mid-career. But we are called to live lives of extravagant worship. Sometimes it's seen in small ways, sometimes it's seen in big ways. But as we're talking about the extravagant worship, I think it also should bring into perspective how we are to be faithful to Christ, even in the small things that perhaps we're neglecting. What does it look like to prioritize Christ in our daily lives? We prioritize His word and we prioritize His community that he's built, which is the church. We prioritize relationships. We prioritize prayer. We prioritize the kingdom of God by sharing the gospel. We prioritize all these things, which should just be the basics of the Christian life. And some of us, even far from the extravagant and extreme expressions of real discipleship, just need to get the basics right first. So again, I'm not saying that everyone who calls for moderation is a Judas. But what I am saying is that believers who say such things need to pause and consider who else has made similar calls. As for us, we need to know how to respond when those voices that try to moderate our worship begin to chirp. When someone questions our worship, maybe a family member who thinks we've gone a bit too far, maybe someone who thinks we're a bit too generous, a coworker who mocks our commitment to Christ and church, a friend who calls us over the top, How do we respond? How do we respond when those are coming from fellow Christians? Well, we don't shrink back. We remember that although Judas and others call for practical and calculated and socially-minded and respectable approaches to following Jesus, Jesus himself calls us to a whole person's radical, counter-cultural, norm-breaking devotion. When criticism comes, we should hold fast to our devotion, knowing that Jesus sees the heart. We should respond with grace. Again, not defensiveness. We should share why Jesus is worth all. We should invite others to the same sort of worship, to the same expression of faith. And above all, we just keep worshiping. We keep serving. We keep shining, because the one who died for us deserves it all. That's what Mary's communicating. So back to Mary. Mary's worship was not efficient. So it certainly wasn't wasteful. It was extravagant. Her worship wasn't conventional. It was disruptive. It wasn't cold and calculated. It was intimate and offered with abandon. And so how does Jesus respond to Mary's worship? Mary's a bit too much. I appreciate it, but you know, a little bit too much. Well, verse seven, Jesus responds to Judas's calls to moderation. Leave her alone. Leave her alone. I hope there's no one here as a believer who has uttered words like this to their fellow Christians. Come on now. You're a little too carried away. I think I want to serve God with my whole life. I think I want to be a missionary. I think I want to go to seminary. Whatever it may be. Oh, come on now. Just find somewhere to serve in the church and, you know, attend every week and you'll be fine. You know what Jesus is saying? Leave them alone. Leave them alone. That's right. Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. Jesus is not diminishing a care for the poor here. His entire earthly ministry was characterized by a love for the castoffs, the downtrodden, and the poor. He announces his earthly ministry by saying that God has anointed him to preach the good news to the poor. And he goes about healing, and oftentimes you heal a blind man, you're not just healing his blindness, but now you're delivering him from poverty, because now he doesn't have to be a beggar, now he can actually enter the mainstream of society. Jesus is always caring for the poor. He's not denigrating that, and he calls his followers to care for the poor. So that's not what's happening here. But he says, leave her alone. He comes to Mary's defense. He's shielding her act of extravagant worship from Judas's insincere calls for moderation. But then he says, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. Now, this is hard. There's some translational questions here. And so I'm going to read you what a few other translations say, which I don't usually do. The New English translation says, so Jesus said, leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial. The KJV says, let her alone against the day of my burying, hath she kept this?" The NIV says, leave her alone. Jesus replied, it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. And I offer those three because I think that those make a lot more sense in the context here. The idea isn't that she's going to She's going to hold this oil for the day of my burial because she's just used it all up. So it can't mean that. The idea is that she has kept the oil for this very day. She's kept the oil for this very purpose. She's using the oil for God's intended purpose, a preparation for Jesus' burial. Not that Mary had that in mind. Not that Mary thought, oh, I'm going to save this up for the day of Jesus' burial. That's not the point. Jesus is saying there's a divine purpose here that even Mary is unaware of. She means it as a wonderful expression of worship and gratitude, but he says this is like the anointing of a body in preparation for a burial. God the Father has taken her expression of genuine worship and he has given it a prophetic meaning. It anticipates Christ's burial. God has smiled upon her expression of love and devotion and used it to prophesy. And she doesn't know it. But God has used her to prophesy of Christ's impending crucifixion and coming burial. He continues in verse 8, And again, the emphasis is not to downplay a care for the poor. Far from it. Rather, the point is, there's a time and a place for everything. There's a time and a place for everything, and in all things, a love for Jesus must reign supreme. The disciples had only a brief window of time with Jesus in their midst. His earthly ministry was only three years. The day was coming when he would die, and he would rise again, and he wouldn't be with them anymore. This was a singular, unrepeatable event. And so they stood at the threshold of that pivotal event. It would never repeat itself again in all of human history. And so this is appropriate for the moment. While there would always be opportunities to care for the poor, honoring Jesus in this way, by anointing Him in preparation for His death, was a once-in-a-lifetime act. Besides this, it is from a love for Jesus and a desire to follow Him that a care for the poor actually flows from. So put Jesus first and all other priorities fall into place. And so we don't worship Jesus so that we don't care for the poor, but we worship Jesus so that we can care for the poor from a proper motivation. Jesus' point is that when we put him first, everything else falls into proper priority. We see a similar contrast in priorities in Luke 10, again, which we referenced earlier. The other account with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It says in Luke 10 38, now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Like poor Mary, right? Martha and Judas here. Uh, and so Martha serving and saying, Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. Like she thinks she's a disciple. And again, here's Mary pushing social norms. Generally, it's the male disciples who are sitting listening to the teaching, but she puts herself there with the men, is listening to the teaching, and Martha's becoming better, saying, here, I am serving, slaving in the kitchen, and she's just listening to the teaching. So Martha wants Jesus to rebuke her. Lord, do you not care? What an accusation. Do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. And he answers, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen a good portion. which will not be taken away from her. Again, there'll be time to serve. There'll be lots of dinners. Service is great, but not at the expense of worship, not at the expense of devotion, not at the expense of spiritual growth. So love Jesus first, and then love and service will naturally flow, not from some feigned compassion like Judas, but from a sincere love for Jesus. And so that's true of the Christian life in general. Our good works flow from a gratitude and thanksgiving for what God has done for us. In Titus chapter 3, it says, remind them to be submissive to rulers and to be obedient, to be ready for every good work. That includes caring for the poor, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy towards all people. It says, for This is why we should do good works. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another. That's what we were before Christ. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us. not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. And so you have good works as the book ends there. Be ready for every good work, devote yourselves to good works. Why? What's the motivation? He saved us. While we were sinners, while we were going our own way, while we were captive to sin, He saved us, He regenerated us, He washed us by the Holy Spirit, and from that, from a gratitude for what He has done for us there, we serve. And we care for the poor, and we do good works. So a focus on Jesus and worshipful gratitude for the salvation he's provided for us is not a distraction from good works, but fuels them. A wholehearted, radical devotion to Jesus is not at the expense of social issues, but gives us the proper motivation to tend to those issues. The point is, for the Christian, there's no priority greater than loving and worshiping Jesus. When he is first, everything else falls into place. So what does that look like in practice? I mean, we've already talked about some of the practical applications. The point is, our lives ought to be marked by a character and a devotion that can even be witnessed by others, whether it be in our home, whether it be in our school, whether it be in our workplace, whether it be amongst our extended family, whatever it is. We ought to be living a lifestyle that maybe could raise some questions in those who observe, like those that arose in Judas's mind. We ought to be worshiping and serving Christ in such a way that maybe others will look at us and say, that seems a bit extreme. So in conclusion, the sweet scene in Bethany prior to the Passover was kind of like a fragrant prelude to the storm of the cross. It was an example of whole person devotion, and devotion that Jesus commended, that the Father turned into prophecy. Mary pours out everything, her resources, her pride, herself at Jesus' feet, trusting that He was worth it all. even when others called it waste. And so we learned that true worship isn't measured or moderate or mindful of norms. Instead, it is extravagant and it is selfless and it is all in because Jesus, the one who gave us life, deserves nothing less. So we could ask the question, as we posed earlier, what is the treasure in your life that you're holding back under the guise of simply being moderate and reasonable in your worship? Maybe that's the basics of the Christian life, those spiritual disciplines that you haven't yet implemented in your life. Maybe beyond that, maybe you've even considered some seriously life-altering commitments to Christ. Maybe you've considered, as we said, becoming a missionary. Maybe you've considered preaching, giving your life to preaching the Word of God. Maybe you've considered becoming an evangelist, preaching the gospel to others. honing your ability to share Christ with unbelievers. Maybe you've had thoughts, I want to give myself to Christ more fully. But then there's voices, whether in your head, whether in the church, or even outside the church, saying, hey, let's be more reasonable. And I would say, answer back to those voices. I'll give you a way to answer back to those voices as we close. In Matthew 26, a parallel passage to this, Jesus responds to the criticisms of Mary. It says, But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you trouble this woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. That's a wonderful answer. When you feel motivated to give your life to Christ in extravagant ways, we can answer back to those voices, whether they're internal or external, and say, why do you trouble me? What I want to do for Christ is a beautiful thing. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. And we confess this morning that Jesus Christ is worthy of extravagant worship. We pray that you'd forgive us for our apathy, forgive us for our lukewarmness. Whether it be a Western thing, whether it be just a human nature thing, we sometimes allow the standard of devotion to fall to a place that looks a lot like lukewarmness, like apathy. And so we pray that as a church you would encourage us, shake us out of a mindset that does not put Christ above all, that does not seek to give ourselves wholly and entirely to Christ. We pray that the standard of discipleship within this community would be high, not beyond Scripture, but at the level that Scripture presents it. Wholly devoted, daily taking up a cross, giving ourselves as disciples of Jesus who have taken on His identity, understanding that our lives are wholly and fully ransomed by Christ. We pray that you would help us to be fully devoted to Him, in an effort to gain His acceptance, but because we are accepted in Christ already through faith and out of a love and a gratitude for all that He's done for us. So we pray that you'd help us to encourage one another, to stir one another up to love and good works. And so help us when we see others who are zealous in the faith to help fuel that zeal. Help us to see the sparks of zeal in others and to try to fan it in the flame instead of putting a wet blanket on it. Pray that you'd help us to want to be the encouragement, help us to want to be the spark that could ignite the zeal of others through our own zeal. So we pray you'd help us as a church to be genuine disciples of Christ. When we find ourselves criticizing others or being negative towards others who want to make radical decisions for Jesus in service to him, If in our minds we react with negativity, cynicism, I pray that you'd rebuke us, convict us over those things and show us ways that instead we can be an encouragement. So we pray that Calvary Baptist Church be a place where people make life altering, extravagant decisions for Christ and that you'd use those decisions for your glory, just as you turned Mary's offering of her ointment into prophecy. Lord, we thank you for this, and we pray this morning, lastly, for those who are with us who have not yet come to see Jesus as the sent Son of God and only source of eternal life. We pray that they'd see their need for Jesus, and we pray that they could become sincere worshipers of Christ, just like Mary. We thank you for this in his name. Amen.