Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. (As we begin to prepare for the celebration of Jesus' death and resurrection, we can follow His journey as He approaches the place and time of His destiny in which He provides us with redemption and salvation that He and the Father had written into history before history began. Jesus begins His entry into that arena and this part of His life in the very place where, just a short time earlier, He had shown the people the truth of life coming out of death through raising His friend Lazarus from death.) Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (Although she herself remained unknowing and unaware of what lay before Jesus, Mary broke the seal of the expensive perfume and poured it over His feet, anointing Him for His future burial. The two women, one who served Him and one who worshiped Him, show us clearly how we interact with our Savior. As our tears of gratitude and reverence for Jesus pour over Him with a greeting and welcome that is due the Savior, as we welcome Him into our lives, as we fellowship with Him, we are given the high honor to serve and minister to Him as Martha does and to adore and revere Him as Mary does.) 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. (Sounding righteously and justifiably indignant and appalled, we, like Judas, often carefully wrap our self-righteous and impure motives in right-sounding words, acting as if our intentions are purely altruistic when, in fact, they are self-serving and expedient for us and only spring out of an inner life of sin.) "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of My burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me." (When we pour out the perfume of our lives at His feet, He takes what we give Him and turns it into a sweet fragrance that rises up before Him as our act of worship. Jesus sees into our very hearts and knows exactly who and what we are. He knows our past, our present, and our future, and claims us as His Own, receiving what we offer in love to Him. In this season that God has set aside to commemorate His Passover and deliverance and salvation, He invites us to pour out our gratitude and reverence to Christ, to pour out our acts of service to Him, allowing them to be a sweet-smelling fragrance of worship.)
