John 12. Since we'll be celebrating Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday, I'll save that and just talk about his anointing at Bethany in today's post.
It's six days before Passover, and Jesus is right outside of town. Note in terms of time, John has covered three years or so of Jesus' ministry in the first half of the book, and will take the second half just to cover the last few days. These few days are what his life is all about, and John is going to give it to us in much greater detail than we've seen so far.
Chapter 11 was a departure from the previous chapters in that it focused on Jesus' relationship with an inner circle of friends, particularly Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. In this chapter, Jesus is at their home in Bethany, at a dinner in his honor. Do not skip over the significance of this. Repeatedly in the gospels, Jesus has dinner with certain people in their homes; sharing the table always means that those at the table value each other and care about each other. Jesus often has dinner with marginalized people, imparting value to them. But in this instance, it is a dinner of close friendship. Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead only recently, is reclining with Jesus at the table. Their tables were not generally surrounded by chairs like ours; the table was low, and people sort of laid around it, which is much more intimate than our tables.
Undoubtedly it is an emotional night; Lazarus has been brought back from the dead, and the Son of God is dining in their home. Mary, moved by this scene, decides to express her love to Jesus in a very intimate and extravagant way. She pours an entire jar of very expensive perfume on Jesus' feet; normally it would have been applied to the head, but Mary attends to his feet as an act of further humility. Then she wipes his feet with her hair rather than a towel. I want to be careful here, so don't take this too far, but you can't avoid the sensual nature of this act. A respectable woman in this culture would not let her hair down in public, let alone caress a man's feet with it. It is not a sexual act, but it is a radical expression of intimacy and love.
One of the things that strikes me about this event is that women and men love Jesus and worship him in different ways. This was obviously true in John chapter 12 and it is today. Men don't respond to Jesus this way, and Jesus doesn't respond to men this way either. Soon we'll see Jesus humble himself and serve the disciples, but in a way more fitting for men's relationships with each other; no less intimate and no less extravagant, but distinctly masculine. This is largely lost in the church today, and most men I know struggle to see worship and devotion to Christ in masculine terms. This was not a problem in the first century, and it should not be today. Women, pursue your devotion to Jesus with your whole heart, but make sure you leave room for men to express their devotion to Christ in their way; the church has really hurt itself in our lifetime by depicting faith in primarily feminine terms.
Worship is "wasteful," like fireworks shows, huge birthday parties and wedding receptions. It's the reason for the celebration that justifies the expense, and the importance of the person that merits the extravagance. If you've got the money, you don't buy your future wife's engagement ring in a vending machine. So don't bring the King of Kings small worship either. Worship is a core practice at the Springs. Click this link to learn more.
It's six days before Passover, and Jesus is right outside of town. Note in terms of time, John has covered three years or so of Jesus' ministry in the first half of the book, and will take the second half just to cover the last few days. These few days are what his life is all about, and John is going to give it to us in much greater detail than we've seen so far.
Chapter 11 was a departure from the previous chapters in that it focused on Jesus' relationship with an inner circle of friends, particularly Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. In this chapter, Jesus is at their home in Bethany, at a dinner in his honor. Do not skip over the significance of this. Repeatedly in the gospels, Jesus has dinner with certain people in their homes; sharing the table always means that those at the table value each other and care about each other. Jesus often has dinner with marginalized people, imparting value to them. But in this instance, it is a dinner of close friendship. Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead only recently, is reclining with Jesus at the table. Their tables were not generally surrounded by chairs like ours; the table was low, and people sort of laid around it, which is much more intimate than our tables.
Undoubtedly it is an emotional night; Lazarus has been brought back from the dead, and the Son of God is dining in their home. Mary, moved by this scene, decides to express her love to Jesus in a very intimate and extravagant way. She pours an entire jar of very expensive perfume on Jesus' feet; normally it would have been applied to the head, but Mary attends to his feet as an act of further humility. Then she wipes his feet with her hair rather than a towel. I want to be careful here, so don't take this too far, but you can't avoid the sensual nature of this act. A respectable woman in this culture would not let her hair down in public, let alone caress a man's feet with it. It is not a sexual act, but it is a radical expression of intimacy and love.
One of the things that strikes me about this event is that women and men love Jesus and worship him in different ways. This was obviously true in John chapter 12 and it is today. Men don't respond to Jesus this way, and Jesus doesn't respond to men this way either. Soon we'll see Jesus humble himself and serve the disciples, but in a way more fitting for men's relationships with each other; no less intimate and no less extravagant, but distinctly masculine. This is largely lost in the church today, and most men I know struggle to see worship and devotion to Christ in masculine terms. This was not a problem in the first century, and it should not be today. Women, pursue your devotion to Jesus with your whole heart, but make sure you leave room for men to express their devotion to Christ in their way; the church has really hurt itself in our lifetime by depicting faith in primarily feminine terms.
Worship is "wasteful," like fireworks shows, huge birthday parties and wedding receptions. It's the reason for the celebration that justifies the expense, and the importance of the person that merits the extravagance. If you've got the money, you don't buy your future wife's engagement ring in a vending machine. So don't bring the King of Kings small worship either. Worship is a core practice at the Springs. Click this link to learn more.
Jesus accepts this act of worship from Mary, defends her and encourages her. It is a quality completely unique to Jesus that he can accept being worshiped, but not be an egomaniac. This same quality is on display as Jesus enters Jerusalem, and we'll take a high-def look at it on Sunday.
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