His Final Steps Led to a Dinner Celebration
John 12: 1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money-bag and would steal part of what was put in it. 7 Jesus answered, “Leave her alone; she has kept it for the day of my burial. 8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” 9 Then a large crowd of the Jews learned he was there. They came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests had decided to kill Lazarus also, 11 because he was the reason many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.
John 12:1-11
Jesus was invited to quite a few dinners, meals, and banquets over a three-year period. Some by friends, like the one in our text. And some by those not his friends, like Pharisees and scribes. Whether it was friend or foe, there were some common themes to many of them: The Pharisees and scribes would complain Jesus was eating and hanging out with sinners, and Jesus would either state or demonstrate that these are the very ones he came for: the lost, sinners, the sick and disabled (due to sin), especially those who were repentant; and that he would find them, forgive them, make them whole, save them.
This meal in our text (also recorded in Matthew 26 and Mark 14) is different than the others. For one thing it was a celebration of Jesus having just raised Lazarus from the dead.
But first, who was there: Jesus and his twelve disciples, Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. And then in Matthew and Mark we find out it was hosted at the house of Simon the leper. Those were the invited guests. Other than providing his home, all we know about Simon is his name: “Simon the leper,” a name by itself was not anything to be proud of. He might as well have called “Simon the ugly,” or “Simon the outcast,” or “Simon the filthy,” for that is what lepers were: ugly, cast out of their homes and villages, and ceremonially and hygienically unclean. They were not allowed to be in the presence of others and often lived in leper colonies.
And yet Simon is here at his home, with all these other people, hosting this meal. What this means of course is that he had been healed of his leprosy. And the one who healed him would have been Jesus. Lepers were one of those classes of people that Jesus specialized in healing, along with the sick, the blind, the deaf, the mute, the paralyzed, and the demon possessed (Luke 7:22; Matt. 11:5). So this man Simon you might say was wearing his name, “Simon the leper,” as a badge honoring, recognizing, thanking, and praising Jesus. But at this time, he was hosting this meal for what Jesus had done for Lazarus.
By the way, one commentator mentioned that Simon the leper perhaps was the father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It kind of makes sense: it took place in Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were from; Jesus had been at their home before; Martha is now serving as the hostess; and this was Simon’s home – he was the host. If he was the father of these three siblings, this was a great family celebration: first, some time earlier, the father had been perfectly healed of his leprosy and reunited with his family, and then Lazarus – son and brother – after dying is brought back to life. Wow, a wonderful family celebration, all to the praise and honor of Christ! But again, this is speculation.
It does remind me of the journey of many families. One family member is delivered from eternal death, having been saved by the grace and power of Christ. And then over time, maybe years, other family members are brought into the Christian church as well. I know of one family where a son was delivered from spiritual death through repentance and faith in Christ, and joined a church where the Word of God was taught in its truth and purity. His parents, on the hand, belonged to a church where the truth of God’s Word was ignored at best and trashed at worst – a church where his parents likely would have lost their faith if they had remained there. But then by the grace and power of Christ, they are led from that church to a church like that of their son’s, where Christ, his forgiveness, his grace, his truth, and his saving power were found. That was a celebration, a family celebration. Do not give up praying for your loved ones who have gone astray.
I want to go to Mary now. She has a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, it is called. And she has it in an alabaster jar, a marble jar, which also would have been expensive. Notice how much it is worth: 300 hundred denarii. We’re talking about a year’s wages. Why was it so expensive? Partly because it was imported all the way from northern India, which sounds strange to us because many of the least expensive things we buy come from not too far from there. But also, this pure nard could have been used for medicinal purposes, for cleansing purposes, for commissioning purposes, and for helping to create a beautiful and wonderful atmosphere, kind of like scented candles do for some of you. Its fragrance made such a deep impression on the gospel writer, John, that he remembered years later when he wrote about it. But most importantly here, this nard was used for a body that was to be buried. Mary was using it to prepare a body for burial.
John tells us that Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with the nard. In Matthew and Mark we are told that she poured it on his head. Which was it? Both. She first poured it on his head, and then on his feet. Is there significance to this? Yes. Mary is making a confession here, a threefold confession. By anointing his head with this most expensive perfume and oil, she was confessing Jesus to be the Anointed One, the Messiah, the long-awaited Christ, the Son of the living God. By anointing his feet and then wiping his feet with her hair, she was humbling herself, confessing that she was a poor miserable sinner, who would be blessed, be given mercy, be acceptable to God, only because of this one she had confessed to be the Messiah and Savior. Third, since, as Jesus said, this anointing was for his burial, Mary was confessing that Jesus, true Man and true God, would die very soon. She was confessing his death, just a week away.
She did not deny that this death would or should happen to him, as the disciples tried to deny earlier. Jesus had repeatedly told his disciples, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised up.” (Matt. 17:22-23). Mary knew and believed what the apostles had been told but they refused to accept and believe. Mary not only accepted it, but anointed it, adorned it, embraced it, even though there would be great suffering and sorrow. Mary was way ahead of the apostles. Why? Because she was the one, we read in Luke 10, who sat at Jesus’ feet listening to him, digesting his every word, and who, according to Jesus, “made the right choice”: she chose “the one thing needed” (Luke 10:42). That one thing needed was Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross, because only there is forgiveness for the humble and repentant sinner.
There is something else fascinating at this dinner where Mary is acknowledging his upcoming suffering and death. The day after this dinner – Sunday when Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey – is the day the Passover lambs are chosen, those lambs who several days later would be sacrificed, would have their blood shed and die. The lambs were chosen the next day.
Mary got it right. Her understanding of where Jesus was going and what he would do is where our hearts and minds should be. That’s the purpose of Lent. Lent is a reminder of where we should go every day.
Let’s talk about the end of our text. Keep in mind this is a celebration dinner, celebrating Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. Jesus was the guest of honor, but Lazarus had become quite famous now also, and understandably so. We read a large crowd gathered at the home “not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead.” Perhaps the healing of Simon the leper was also being celebrated at this dinner. But it was this miracle performed on Lazarus that was the center of attention and impacted the crowd. Lazarus “was the reason many of the Jews were deserting [the chief priests] and believing in Jesus. The crowd was saying, “We have to see this guy who was dead but now alive. And if it is true, why would we not believe in Jesus as the Christ, contrary to what our Jewish leadership is telling us?”
So these two men: Simon the leper and Lazarus. Simon who was perfectly healed of a disease that wreaked havoc on his body, a disease that reflected the ugly effects of sin and was actually a picture of who we are by nature: sinful and unclean. And the other man, Lazarus, who had received what his sin had earned him, namely death, (for “the wage of sin is death,” Rom. 6), but then who experienced that death did not hold him, could not hold him. Jesus, the Son of Man performed both miracles of restoration by his mere words, proving what? That he was the Son of God. This is why John wrote toward the end of Gospel, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (20:30-31)
But we must never forget what Mary knew very well. Life in the name of Jesus, deliverance from an ugly and sinful life, deliverance from eternal death, ultimately comes about because this powerful Son of God, “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:7-8)
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