Today, we return to our study of the day when Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus anointed the Lord Jesus six days before His crucifixion. Previous to this, the Lord Jesus had told the disciples three times that He was going to Jerusalem to die, but, they didn't believe Him. In today's text, we learn that Mary of Bethany believed Him. For Mary, it made sense that the Lord Jesus was heading to Jerusalem to die. So, she anointed Him with the most expensive perfume, similar to the way the sacrificial lamb's were anointed six days before they were to be sacrificed in the Old Testament.
In v.6-7 of todays passage we read, "6 Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me."
The disciples felt that Mary's choice to pour the expensive spikenard on the Lord was a "waste," saying, "We could have used that to help the poor." But as the Lord Jesus said, "The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me." In saying that, He was actually saying, "It is in your most vulnerable of moments that your heart is closest to me, make sure you act on that because that is worship."
In v.8 of today's passage we read, "She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial."
The Lord Jesus equated Mary's worship with preparation for His burial. The recording of this act of worship was not shared by Mark in its chronological order. Due to that many miss the fact that it happened six days before the Lord Jesus was crucified. In John 12:1 we learn this incident happened six days before the Passover. This anointing happened on the Saturday before the following Friday when the Lord Jesus was crucified.
The Lord Jesus equated Mary's worship with preparation for His burial. The recording of this act of worship was not shared by Mark in its chronological order. Due to that many miss the fact that it happened six days before the Lord Jesus was crucified. In John 12:1 we learn this incident happened six days before the Passover. This anointing happened on the Saturday before the following Friday when the Lord Jesus was crucified.
This anointing of the Lord Jesus by Mary paralleled the anointing of the Passover lamb which was annually prepared for the Passover sacrifice. The anointing of the Passover lamb annually took place six days before he would be slaughtered. The anointing in those days was a way of inspecting the Passover Lamb before each Jewish family would bring it into their home to care for it and keep it blemish free. When Mary anointed the Lord Jesus six days before Passover, she drew attention to the many Passover lambs that had been faithfully anointed since the night of the Passover in Egypt so many years before. It also highlighted the fact that the Lord Jesus was the Passover Lamb who took away our sin once and for all.
Mary's many years of biblical training served her so well that she knew exactly what she was doing that faithful evening at Simon's the ex-leper's house. In addition, her pain served her in that monumental moment. When her brother, Lazarus, died, Mary experienced excruciating pain that informed her actions that night. In fact, before she arrived upon such good theology, Mary indirectly blamed the Lord Jesus for her brother's death. When the Lord Jesus had arrived in Bethany four days after Lazarus had died, Mary brought attention to His late arrival. This served her in her memorable actions many days following.
Our pain always speaks, and sometimes, the message doesn't make sense to us in the moment. Whatever our beliefs are, they are best recognized as we deal with our pain. It was at that point of greatest pain and confusion that the Lord Jesus came to Lazarus' tomb and asked that the stone covering the tomb be removed. When they removed the stone and the Lord Jesus called Lazarus to come forth, it was at that moment that it all began to make sense to Mary. It was on the heels of that most horrific experience that Mary began to truly worship the Lord Jesus. This led to Mary expending all she had to anoint the Lord Jesus with this most expensive spikenard perfume.
Our pain always speaks, and sometimes, the message doesn't make sense to us in the moment. Whatever our beliefs are, they are best recognized as we deal with our pain. It was at that point of greatest pain and confusion that the Lord Jesus came to Lazarus' tomb and asked that the stone covering the tomb be removed. When they removed the stone and the Lord Jesus called Lazarus to come forth, it was at that moment that it all began to make sense to Mary. It was on the heels of that most horrific experience that Mary began to truly worship the Lord Jesus. This led to Mary expending all she had to anoint the Lord Jesus with this most expensive spikenard perfume.
There is a clear connection between our pain and our worship of the Lord Jesus. We have all been drawn to C.S. Lewis and his perspective on pain. Lewis had tasted pain in ways that few can relate to. He lost his mother at an early age, saw his dad emotionally abandon him, suffered from a respiratory illness as a teenager, fought and was wounded in World War I, and finally had to bury his wife, Joy. Through all of this, Lewis wrote about all of his heartache in his work, The Problem of Pain. In that work, Lewis penned one of his most famous lines ever. He wrote:
"Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
Locating and listening to God through the pain in our heart is a major step to getting to the place of worship. Instinctively, we avoid pain. To get to reality, we must visit our pain and let it do its work deep within us. It's design is to prepare our heart to experience God. We ordinarily do not do this because it hurts too much. So often we run from our pain, not realizing that it aids us in our pursuit of our Heavenly Father. It is through our brokenness that we see God’s true strength as He meets us right where we are in the moment. God uses our hurts so that He can clearly write the lessons of His grace on our hearts and set our affections on Him.
Once we locate the pain, we must visit it. We must feel it again and again, and, allow God to do His deepest work in us. Then through that pain, we must run to Him over and over and over. There is never a cry that the Lord ignores. Our pain aids us at anticipating and recognizing and hearing His voice. Our pain helps us feel, it helps us to be human, it helps us meet God, it helps us to know God more deeply. Pain unlocks our hearts to be embraced by God.
When we live life by going through the motions, we do not feel. Our hearts remain locked up and the danger is that they may become cold and steely. I’m convinced that brokenness of heart yields a tenderness and a vulnerability that enables us to see God like never before.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
And here we are some 2,000 years removed in time, thousands of miles removed in geography. And, here we are in another culture, another language honoring this woman who gave, because her story with the Lord Jesus is included in this gospel.
