Joshua 19-21

Luke 2:25-52

“Then Mary took about half a litre 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.” —John 12:3

How extravagant is our love for Jesus? Sometimes, our love for Jesus can be purely sentimental, where we love to sing about it in song but that is the extent of it. For some of us, our love for Jesus is like a boy with a new girlfriend and he writes her a note saying, “I love you with all my heart. You are so wonderful. In fact, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can’t wait to see you soon.” But on the bottom of the note beneath his signature, he adds, “P.S. I’ll see you on Saturday afternoon if it’s not raining.”

Yet, Mary of Bethany’s extravagant love for Jesus was put on display when she took expensive perfume, worth a year’s wages, and poured it on Him. In John’s account of the event, he writes, “Mary took about half a litre of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair” (John 12:3). The fact that Mary poured the perfume on Jesus’s feet showed her humble disposition. Had she anointed Jesus’s head, like the psalmist experienced in Psalm 23:5, “You anoint my head with oil,” it would have indicated a status on her part. Although Matthew and Mark’s accounts say that Mary poured the perfume on Jesus’s head (Matthew 26:7; Mark 14:3), it actually goes on to say that Mary poured the perfume on Jesus’s body.

Mary gave sacrificially. Even though she may have thought it was just a natural response of her heart, the perfume was worth a year’s wages, which is a lot of money to spend on one person. In the Old Testament, there was one occasion when David wanted to offer a burnt offering to God and a man named Araunah was willing to give David anything he needed to worship God. But David responded, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing” 
(2 Samuel 24:24). While we are recipients of God’s grace and kindness in so many ways, we also need to be in a relationship with God where we are willing for it to be costly.

Returning to Mary, what was the result of this extravagant love on display? John tells us, “…the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:3). Mary’s life, symbolized by the pouring out of the perfume on the feet of Jesus, went on to be a pleasant aroma that filled the home and other people’s lives because she brought everything and gave it to Jesus.

Dear Jesus, thank You for demonstrating extravagant love to me by the giving of Your life. I want my love for You to be like the perfume that Mary poured, a fragrant offering that will point others to You.