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Extravagant Love
John 12:1-8
- Two weeks before Good Friday, before Easter
- Jesus and the disciples are in Bethany
- At the house of Simon the Leper
- Martha was serving (but not grousing)
- Lazarus was eating
- Mary showed her (and possibly her family’s) devotion and gratitude
- What is the greatest gift you’ve ever received, or given?
- Have you ever poured out a year’s wages on a loved one’s head and feet?
- An Extravagant Gift
- 12oz spikenard
- Imported from India (the Himalayas)
- 300 denarii (a year's wages of a working man)
- Probably used as an investment; possibly her (and her family’s) life savings
- Econ 101: When you spend something, you have not just lost its value, but all the other possible uses of it
- Pension? Unemployment? Food in a famine?
- Their little bit of hard-earned security?
- An Anointing:
- Of His head as King before a Triumphal Entry
- Of His feet as her savior, showing Mary’s humility
- She could not know it was also the only burial anointing He would ever receive
- She was only opposed by false piety
- Judas (and others?) tried to tarnish her gift
- What Mary did was astounding, and beautiful
- Makes me feel a little cheap
- This was the kind of action you must be CALLED to do.
Not every person has every calling, but if we stay in love with Jesus, we will find that answering His specific call upon our lives leaves our hearts at peace and our souls filled with Joy.
