“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”
John 12:1-3

After the amazing miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus returned to Bethany, where the family hosted a dinner for Jesus and His disciples. It was to be a joyful family celebration. Deeply moved by the miracle of life her brother received, Mary took a vial of perfume (nard), her most valued possession, and broke it over Jesus’ feet in an act of true worship, releasing a wonderful fragrance throughout their home.

This pound of nard, worth 300 denarii or about a year’s wages, was a great treasure indeed! Jesus had said earlier, “Your treasure is where your heart is!” (Matthew 6:21). So with great love and humility, Mary gave Jesus her best gift. She held nothing back, giving with joy and abandon.

Understanding the heart of extravagant worship comes:

• when we gratefully acknowledge our own personal experience with Jesus. v1
• when we realize that Jesus is our whole life and healing; He is our all-powerful Savior! v2
• when we give from the best that we have, not just a portion of leftovers! v3
• when our worship comes 100% from within ourselves—lavished and poured out, leaving a deep “fragrance” upon the lives of others! V3

Though others, like Judas, were sitting close to Jesus at the dinner, they were not touched by His presence. They’d had religious experiences, not a deepening relationship with Jesus.

Watchman Nee, in The Normal Christian Life, likens the breaking of Mary’s jar of fragrant oil to the “breaking” that occurs when a disciple of Christ suffers and allows that suffering to deepen their faith and to witness to others. The fragrance of an offering of worship, many times, can come from a deeply broken heart offered to God.

Nee says, “Mary’s fragrance never passes. It needed but one stroke to break the flask for the Lord, but her action—that unreserved giving and the fragrance of that anointing—abides.” We can imagine Jesus walking the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the rugged cross upon His shoulders, while a fragrance lingers over the crowds as He passes—a fragrant testimony of Mary’s heart of true worship.

When true worship becomes lavish, it doesn’t always make sense by the world’s standards. But lavish worship requires that we personally and regularly come into the presence of Christ, being 100% available to Him and willingly made broken bread and poured-out wine.

“Yet God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers that He uses to crush us with.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, September 30.

“But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.” John 12:4-6

Immediately, Mary was deeply criticized by those around Jesus whose hearts were unmoved by the joy of her worship. Judas was a trusted disciple, but his heart was hardened and stony toward the Lord Jesus. He appeared righteous by covering up his objections to Mary’s worship with false religious fervor for the poor. Though Judas spoke of his concern for others, he had a worldly, unbelief-filled sense. We know that Judas was not truly concerned for the poor, but for the money! He was using his resources to bless himself, while Mary used hers to give herself to Jesus. May we never find our hearts protecting “what is ours” when nothing truly is. And may we find a lavish joy in giving true worship to our magnificent Savior this Christmas season and all year long.

“The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion” …and the fragrance of true worship.
—A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Winter 2019/2020 – Ron Wells – Centrepoint Ministries