ON THE EASTER ROAD (5) "Lotion Devotion”

Reading: Isaiah 43:1-21, Psalm 126, Phillipians 3:4-14, John 12:1-8
Preached at Baldwin Presbyterian Church on March 21st 2010

How do you define success? Is it what kind of car a man drives, what kind of clothes a woman wears, or what kind of house a family lives in? With God, it’s not what kind of car a man drives; it’s what kind of man drives the car. With God, the issue is what kind of woman wears the dress and what kind of family lives in the house. 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us, people look on the outward appearances, while God looks on the heart.

Our reading from John’s gospel gives us an instance where outward impressions and spiritual integrity are sharply contrasted. On the positive side we have Mary, whose understanding of what Jesus was to face and selfless devotion to Him stand as a testimony to faithfulness. On the negative side stands Judas, who gave the appearance of being a disciple yet many times actively opposed the work of God.

There are two people in Scripture who kissed Jesus. Judas kissed His face and then betrayed Him (Luke 22:48). Mary kissed His feet (Luke 7:38) then served Him. The genuine sacrifice and service of Mary was a stinging rebuke to the selfishness of Judas (John 12:3-6). Immediately after his sanctimonious statement of concern for the poor Judas went out and agreed to betray the Savior for the price of a slave.

A recent book “The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene” (by Doug Batchelor) contrasts the stories of Mary and Judas. This is how he pictures the events: -

“Because all eyes were transfixed on Jesus as He spoke, no one noticed when Mary softly slipped into the room and knelt quietly by the Master’s feet. She had been breathless with fear, but now kneeling at His feet, a familiar peace settled over her. She sensed that she was safe under the everlasting wings of the Almighty. Mary silently prayed that Jesus would approve of her deed of love. What the others thought was of no consequence to her

With loving tenderness, she broke the seal on the alabaster flask and poured some of the contents of precious oil liberally over Jesus’ feet. Jesus did not even flinch. He simply paused in His discourse, smiled to acknowledge to Mary that He was aware of her act of service and sacrifice, and then continued His conversation.

As the fragrant oil ran down Jesus’ feet, a drop spilled onto the tile floor. Realizing that in her haste she had forgotten to bring a cloth or towel to evenly spread the ointment, Mary removed the shawl covering her head and, without a second thought, released her long, luxuriously rich brown hair from the ties that contained it. Then she began wiping His feet, spreading the oil with her hair”

“Judas, pretending to be indignant, protested under his breath-just loud enough for those seated nearby to hear. “What a tragic waste of resources!” he exclaimed. “Why, this oil could have been sold for more than three hundred denari.” Then, as an afterthought to cloak his own greedy designs, Judas added: “Of course, the proceeds could have been donated to the poor!” Some of the other disciples nodded in agreement. What Judas’ peers didn’t know was that his selfish heart had felt keenly rebuked by Mary’s liberal generosity.”

Isaiah 43:18 tells us “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

Plainly, Judas did not perceive it. But Mary did, and how! Most scholars suggest that this is the same Mary that Jesus had delivered from seven demons in Luke 8:2. Before she met Jesus, Mary had a life that was broken, and helpless. Like a senseless monkey caught in a trap, her choices had held her captive. But Jesus had set her free!

John tells us that in the house that day, sitting at the table was Lazarus, the one Jesus had bought back from the dead. Mary had been a witness of that amazing event. She knew the power of Jesus to save her from her own circumstances and knew He was so much more than that.
She knew that God was doing a new thing and that events were taking place around the life of Jesus were authenticating the claims being made about Him, that He was the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Indeed the Hebrew word “Mashiyach,” which is translated Messiah, and the Greek word “Christos,” which is translated Christ, mean “The anointed one”.
In ancient times, Israel’s priests and kings were ceremonially anointed with oil as a sign of official appointment to office and as a symbol of God’s Spirit and power upon them. Moses anointed Aaron with oil to consecrate him as Israel’s first high priest (Leviticus 8:12-13), and the prophet Elisha commanded his servant to anoint Captain Jehu with oil to seal him as king (2 Kings 9:3).

When Mary took a pound of costly perfume, made of pure nard, and daubed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair it was an act of tremendous significance. We read that, “The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

It was an act that could be not ignored by any of those present. In Marks account of the events Jesus explains, “She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her." (Mark 14:8-9).

As he headed towards Jerusalem, the betrayal and the cross, Jesus was being ceremonially anointed as King, Priest, and Sacrifice!

There are numerous lessons from Mary’s life we could draw from this story. In order that we see the challenge, allow me to present some of the issues by way of a couple of questions.

Is our devotion to Jesus Christ cheap or expensive?

There have always been those within the Christian Church who want it all for as little as possible. There have always been those who consider that they are adequately expressing their faith to God by giving to God their leftovers rather than their first fruits. For them Church = Charity = Cheap.

Such are worthy spiritual descendants of Judas who considered Mary’s worshipful, lotion devotion an unnecessary infringement upon their personal finances. In a way such are even worse, because they do not consider the money they withhold from God should be given to the poor, they spend it on themselves.

In Britain, when somebody went on an extravagant spending spree, we used to call it ‘Splashing out’. People would splash out on an extravagant gift for their partner, or some surprise for somebody that meant a lot to them. They would spend more than was logical or reasonable, because their motivation was one of love. Have you ever done that for somebody? You have?

Ever done it for God? Is your relationship with God of such a nature that you are prepared to extravagantly throw your whole self into it, no matter how much it costs? That’s how it was for Mary. She splashed out that rich ointment all over Jesus feet, rubbed her hair in it, “Hang the expense, I love this guy!”

We can sing all these hymns about our devotion and thankfulness to God for His amazing Grace, our gratefulness to Jesus for dieing on the cross for us, but it’s all just cheap little empty words about our commitment to God until it costs us something. So I ask again, “Is our devotion to Jesus Christ cheap or expensive?”

This leads me to a second question.

Have our lives really been touched by the Grace of God?

Mary’s extravagance stemmed from her experience. Her experience of God’s deliverance was a rich one, and she expressed it through a rich act of devotion. She knew she had been saved. She could look back and say, “You know people, if Jesus hadn’t broken into my life, I would still be in a living hell”. She knew the destructive power of evil upon her own life, first hand. She’d been abused, demonized, treated as a nothing… and then Jesus had come along and she was free.

She was so free that she didn’t care what anybody thought of her lotion devotion. She knew this was something she was doing for God, and if you didn’t like it, that was your problem.

Traditionally Presbyterians shrink back from emotive displays of faith. We don’t do altar calls. We don’t go in for tearful testimonies and tambourines. We put a lot of stress on decency and order. We are people of the mind… maybe more than we are people of the heart.

We believe, and I think rightly so, that God is to be worshipped with brainpower and conscience and understanding and through practical service, not in blind faith and ignorance. As we observe some of the abuses and emotional manipulation by which some are coerced into religious dependence within other branches of the church, we believe we have rational reasons for our religious reticence.

But heaven help us if those reasons are simply a cloak for a lack of a genuine experience of the Grace of God. Heaven help us if there is never a tingle or bubble of excitement in us as we consider the work of salvation that Jesus died for us to receive upon the Cross of Calvary. Heaven help us if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a power that is outside of our lives and has nothing to do with the decisions we make in our daily lives.

It need not be so. As we approach Easter we are reminded that we have the greatest message in the world, and the greatest Savior in the Universe. The love of Jesus Christ has not lost one drop of it’s power to renew and recreate, to take what is empty and make it full, to take what is broken and make it whole, to take what is ugly and make it beautiful, to take death and turn it to life.

Mary knew that. Her life was truly touched by the Grace of God. She could give so much, because she knew she was loved so much. Such knowledge, such experience is not for Mary alone, but can become ours as we consider the witness of the cross, as we throw our lives upon the mercy of our Savior, as we seek for our lives to be renewed and energized through the work of the Holy Spirit.

If we realize just how much God has done and is prepared to do for us, then we will see that even the most extravagant act we could dream up, would just be a pale shadow in comparison to the blessings we have received.

Have our lives really been touched by the Grace of God?
Is our devotion to Jesus Christ cheap or expensive?

Such are just two of the challenges that Mary’s act of lotion devotion places before us.
May the Spirit of God act within our lives as we consider such things.

Adrian Pratt