John #59 Link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2012.1-11&version=NIV&interface=print
podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/2d85fa28/love-like-crazy-john-59-john-121-11 Have you ever loved like crazy? I mean, have you loved someone so much that you expressed it in a wild, extravagant way? O, the thought of it makes me smile. That’s what happens in today’s Scripture. But first, look in the rearview mirror a minute ~ we see Jesus walking back with Mary, Martha and Lazarus to their Bethany home - Lazarus rubbing oily spices off his arms. What must their conversation be like with Lazarus rescued from the dead, fresh out of the tomb? Crazy! One thing we know and Jesus too: As of Lazarus’ raising from the dead, Jesus has a target on his back. The Jewish leaders could not let him gain any more influence. John chapter 12. And now we’re back in Bethany again at a dinner given in Jesus’ honor. It seems he finishes eating and is reclining at the table with the same close friends when Mary does something very unusual...crazy actually. She gets up from the table, kneels down and breaks an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, pouring it on Jesus’ feet and in her own kind of shock and awe, takes down her long hair to wipe his feet with it. Judas speaks up to say what everyone else is thinking—‘that is such waste when there are many poor to feed!’ And then, Jesus-- “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” Jesus knows that Judas speaks out of his self-centered, dark heart while Mary gives out of her extravagant, crazy love for him. What a contrast! Mary expresses a courageous love for her Lord, giving the most precious material gift she possesses. Jesus says of the act, “wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” And then, Jesus would be reminded of her gift over and over in the next six days after that Bethany dinner, as the perfume would linger on his body all the way through his arrest and crucifixion. O, Jesus . . . that I might love you and desire to give to you like Mary! Open my small heart to a crazy, extravagant love for you. Amen. Do you think perhaps you could love him a little more extravagantly in light of what he has done, in light of who is to us now and always will be? Hmmm. Christine