read this first from the voice translation:
John 12
six days before the Passover feast, Jesus journeyed to the village of bethany, to the home of lazarus who had recently been raised from the dead, where they hosted Him for dinner. martha was busy serving as the hostess, lazarus reclined at the table with Him, and mary took a pound of fine ointment, pure nard (which is both rare and expensive), and anointed Jesus' feet with it; and then she wiped them with her hair. as the pleasant fragrance of this extravagant ointment filled the entire house, judas iscariot, one of his disciples (who was plotting to betray jesus) began to speak.
Judas: How could she pour out this vast amount of fine oil? why didn't she sell it? it is worth nearly a year's wages; the money could have been given to the poor.
This had nothing to do with Judas's desire to help the poor. the truth is he served as the treasurer, and he helped himself to the money from the common pot at every opportunity.
Jesus: leave her alone. she has observed this custom in anticipation of the day of my burial. the poor are ever present, but i will be leaving.
last week during the service, the pastor told this story of mary and martha. i have heard it a million times. it is still a great story, and i always understood that story to mean that we should abandon the busyness of life in order to sit at His feet... but that isn't the part that struck me the most this time. he, the pastor, had a very small bottle of the oil described in this passage, when mary anoints Jesus's feet with nard... a precious and very expensive oil... the pastor, just to demonstrate the potency of the fragrance, poured some of it onto a plate in the front of the congregation; it could be smelled all the way in the back of the room.
but then, there was an invitation to just touch the tip of one finger into the oil while passing it on the way to take communion. he warned us that the smallest amount, would probably stick with us for a couple of days... and then as we, the body of Christ, filed by, passing, touching the oil, taking the elements of communion, returning to our seats, one after the other... the aroma of this anointing oil, this precious ointment, began to permeate the entire room... (by the way, as Jesus talks about very briefly, mary was anointing Him for burial... ) and the smell of death filled the room... this is when it hit me. the body of Christ, we are dead, yet alive. in fact, we are most alive, when we are dead. the walking dead.
listen to the message here: Ecclesia podcasts (under 'mary got it'
