Joshua 16-18

Luke 2:1-24

“At that time [Jesus] rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure.’” —Luke 10:21, CSB 

Jesus was having a meal at Simon the Leper’s home when all of a sudden, Mary of Bethany comes out of nowhere with a pint of expensive perfume that is worth a year’s wages and starts pouring it on Jesus. What Mary did with the perfume was significant because it was recorded not only in one, two or three of the Gospel accounts, but all four.

As for the reason that compelled Mary to do such an act, Jesus explained it in three of the Gospel records: “When she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial” (Matthew 26:12); “She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial” (Mark 14:8); “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of My burial” (John 12:7). From these answers we could glean two things. Firstly, the perfume that Mary brought was no ordinary perfume. Secondly, Mary was expecting Jesus to die.

Although Jesus explained to His disciples on several occasions that “He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21), no one believed Him or took Him seriously. Eventually, when Jesus was arrested and later crucified, they were totally taken aback, frightened and confused by it. Seemingly, only Mary believed what Jesus said was actually going to happen. This is interesting because the twelve disciples were the ones who had been with Jesus twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for three years. Jesus told them many things that were to come, but Mary only met Jesus on a few occasions when He stayed in Bethany.

From all this, we can gather an important insight: the things of God are not known on the basis of our intelligence, our knowledge or our information; rather, they are known on the basis of our disposition towards God. If our disposition towards

Christ is not right, we will never grasp spiritual truth. We may be able to recite spiritual truths, but we will not know spiritual truth.

Mary’s disposition towards Jesus moved her to pour out the expensive perfume she was saving. Whether or not she fully grasped the magnitude of the events that would soon transpire, she was willing to take Jesus’s Word as truth. What is our disposition towards Christ?

Dear Jesus, more than any spiritual truth that I could recite, I want to know You, God. I ask that You place me in a disposition that is ready to receive Your spiritual truths. Thank You, Lord.