It was quite a sitting. Jesus was at the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus, whom just hours before had been raised up by Jesus. Mary broke open a very value perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping his feet with her hair. Judas, the treasurer of the disciples, a thief, and the one planning on betraying Jesus at the right time, complains about Mary’s action. A large group of people were outside the home, hoping to get a look at Lazarus who had been dead but who had been brought back to life by Jesus. Among the people gathered outside the home were the chief priests who had come not only to capture and kill Jesus, but also to capture and kill Lazarus, because on account of Lazarus “many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus” (vs. 11).
What a scene. There was humble worship on the part of Mary, amazement on the part of the crowd, selfishness and deceit on the part of Judas, and the high priests with murder in their hearts. You can’t make this stuff up. It was a gathering of human beings, all living out their own agenda. Some of them were for Jesus. Some didn’t care one way or the other. Others wanted Him dead. Some were open. Some were closed. Others, just came to see the show.
In the midst of it all Jesus had set His sights on the soon coming weekend. He saw Mary’s act as a preparation for his burial. He had set His sights on Jerusalem, and nothing would distract Him from His mission.
I think it was William Temple who said this about worship,
Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of the will to His purpose -- and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.
If Mary had not done what she did, the rest of the event most likely would not have made it into our holy writings. Her worship set the stage and created the story. It makes me wonder if my worship has any real effect in the world. It makes me think that if Believers worshipped for mindfully, and with reckless abandon to God, we might be making a greater impact in the world than we now are. The truth is that worship is at the center of who we are as followers of Jesus.
In Mary's outrageous act, the stage is set for the next few days. On Friday, chaos will ensue. On Sunday, however, earth shaking news will sound forth from the empty tomb, and worship will fill the heavens.
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