Prepared To Die.

Fifth Sunday of Lent 2025. John 12:1-8

Transcript

Well, peace be with you. Let's pray. Father, may your will be done. Jesus, may your word be proclaimed. And Spirit, may your work be accomplished in us.
We pray. Amen. When the first act of sin was committed by Adam and Eve in the garden, God sacrificed an animal and clothed him with its skin to cover their shame and so that they can continue to walk and be in relationship with God. And this very act that God initiates becomes the very means by which God would institute this reclamation of this relationship between God and now sinful man. In order to cover their sins, they are to offer various forms of sacrifices, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the such.
And this is what is acceptable to God at the very beginning, you see, because animals at the very beginning are passed by Adam as he's looking for a suitable helper. And though they are somewhat suitable, they are not completely suitable. So God put Adam to sleep and made Eve, and now there is a perfect suitable helper. But that narrative points to the reality that animals can be substitutes. The animals, because they also are coming from the ground, born from the ground, created from the ground, and have blood in them.
That an animal can be an appropriate substitute of the real thing. And so God initiates this in the practices in the worship of Israel, prescribing to them how it is that they are going to cover their shame so that they can now come into his presence and be in right relationship to Him. One of the greatest moments in Israel's history was their deliverance from the Egyptians, right? We all remember this. This is what is referred to as the Passover meal.
And on that night God had prescribed to them that I'm going to deliver you out of the hands of Egypt. And this is what you are to do. You are to prepare a meal tonight. The spread of this meal is to be fire roasted lamb rubbed with bitter herbs and served with a side of unleavened bread. The lamb is to be of top quality, the purest of the herd and the most expensive if taken to market.
In addition, they are to take the lamb's blood and put it on the doorpost as the sign that the bill has been paid for the meal. During dinner, God's people can eat to their heart's delight, but they're not allowed to take any doggy bags home. The leftovers are supposed to be wafted and lifted in fragrant aroma to God and that he likes his lamb well done. See this meal and these sacrifices and the smells that night. Can you imagine walking through their little camp of Israel as they get and Anticipate their deliverance from this moment, from their slavery to Egypt, God is going to do a mighty act.
And he begins this mighty act. And this deed, their deliverance, their salvation from slavery into freedom begins with a meal. And this meal God takes delight in. And the smell of camp, of everybody roasting lamb and baking breads. I don't know if you've ever been to a barbecue festival, but it's kind of like that.
Smokers adorn the festivals of a barbecue and you just smell the aroma of the meats being sizzling under smoke and fire. To walk through camp. Can you imagine how God, all that smell coming up to God as he smells it and accepts it and says, this is how I'm going to redeem my people. But the substitute, the sacrifice of animals, and those offerings were never meant to substitute completely for the real thing. What is it that God really requires of us?
Does he always do these animal sacrifices always fully atone for the sins of the people? Well, we're told not as much. So what is it that God fully desires and requires of us? Psalm 51:16 17 says this for you, do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. Psalm 46 says, this sacrifice and meal offering you have not desired. My ears have been opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
1st Samuel 15:22 reiterates all of this, as Samuel said, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings as sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than a fat of rams. And then Hebrews chapter 10, verse 5 says, Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. But what does all this mean if the practice of offering animal sacrifices, of having this meal upon an altar so that we can be in relationship, cover our shame and be in relationship with God? If that doesn't suffice, ultimately, then what does?
Well, I would argue that God never intended to be worshiped with the sacrifices of dead animals, but desires to be worshiped with living sacrifice, the living sacrifices of human hearts. And this is where we meet our gospel lesson today. If God does not desire the burnt offerings or the animal sacrifices, then what is it that he desires? And what does that look like? Well, when we come to the Gospel lesson today, we see exactly what a living sacrifice offered in Fullness of life over to Jesus, over to God looks like.
This is what Mary. The center stage of what this narrative, the Gospel lesson, points to, is Mary's actions. You have Lazarus that is reclining at the table with Jesus. They're having a banquet six days before the Passover, and Jesus and his disciples are all there. But in the middle of this banquet, Mary breaks in and does something that nobody else seems to understand and actually ridicules.
And in order to break apart this act of worship that I want to teach you on this morning, it is going to be an image, a picture of what it is that Jesus asks and desires of each and every person here this morning. Mary embodies for us what the life of a true believer looks like. And that's why he will say in these other recounts of the story, he will say everywhere that the Gospel is proclaimed, Mary will be also honored, is because with the Gospel, we see how the Gospel manifests in the life of someone who truly believes it. That's what the picture of Mary looks like. The reality of the living sacrifice that God desires most of human hearts is portrayed in Mary in her acts of worship.
First, there's something you need to realize about Mary. Every time you meet her. When you first meet her in the Gospels, she is found to be learning at the feet of Jesus. Mary. There is something about Jesus feet that Mary always submits herself to.
She sits down and has her ears opened to the teaching of Jesus. This is where we first meet Mary. The next place we meet Mary is right here. And because she has been listening to Jesus, she seems to be the first person who understands that he's in Bethany and Jerusalem is two miles away, and he's been predicting his death in Jerusalem. The disciples are kind of not understanding this, but because Mary has been at Jesus feet with her ears opened, she's putting two and two together.
Jesus is going to Jerusalem and he's going to be dying. And this is when Lazarus, her brother, who has just been resurrected from the dead, becomes significant. Because Mary, who is in her own right, a true follower of Christ, one who loves Christ with the whole fiber and being, as we will quickly see, sees what he has done. She sees what he has done to Lazarus, her brother. And knowing that Jesus goes to Jerusalem and die, her actions of worship that she is about to commit are all to prepare him to go and die and to bind herself to him so that whatever he achieves can also be hers.
Essentially, what Mary is going to be doing here, as we're going to look at it is saying, jesus, what you did to my brother, raising him from the dead. And as you go to your death, I want to join you so that you can bring me back to life in your resurrection. So her ears are opened and her eyes have been watchful in Jesus ministry. And this leads her to do a great, glorious, living sacrifice to Jesus. She breaks into that banquet.
She has an alabaster vial of pure nard. Pure nard. It wasn't watered down. It wasn't diluted in any way, shape or form. It was costly.
It was expensive. So expensive that everybody in the room, including Judas Iscariot, points out the fact that it's expensive perfume. And we're told in the other Gospels that she breaks this alabaster and alabaster vial and pours it, and it pours over his body, his head, and it goes down to his feet. And John just wants you to focus in on the fact that Mary is again at Jesus feet, anointing his feet with this pure nard, this perfume. And this is where we learn that Mary is offering Jesus her life.
And this is how we come to know that. Because maybe that's something that she has accumulated that might have been her whole entire life savings that could have been her whole entire wealth represented in a bottle of perfume. And she breaks it. She says, this means nothing to me, but I give everything that I own, all that I am Jesus, I pour it on you. I give it on you.
I place my banner of life on you. I want to purchase you and everything that I can have from you. I give my life to you. This is the act of worship, of the breaking of this vial and the pouring out of this perfume. She is offering a sacrifice of all that she has living and puts it on Jesus, knowing that he's going to a cross.
But not only is she doing a living sacrifice of praise and worship of Jesus, she is also anointing him. We're told she is anointing his feet. Jesus receives her act of worship and claims in the other gospels where we learn this, because this story is in all four Gospels. And we're given little glimpses of the full picture. And so I'm just breaking that down for you this morning.
But as she breaks that vial and pours on it, Jesus receives this living sacrifice and says, you know what? She has anointed me for my burial. She has prepared me to die, and I began to meditate on this. And the fact that Jesus receives this act of sacrifice, of this living sacrifice that Mary is committing in front of everybody and she doesn't care what everybody else thinks. Matter of fact, she lets down her hair, which is a big no, no, and wipes his feet.
We all can understand the wiping of feet, right? They had open toed sandals. Their feet are dirty. Usually the servants. You would walk into a house, especially at a banquet, and your feet would be washed by servants and they would have special places for that.
And she's the one that washes Jesus feet with her tears and wipes them dry with her hair that she lets down in the front in the presence of men. She doesn't care about her dignity. All that she has is completely vulnerable and laid out bare and exposed before Jesus, offering her fullness to him. She washes his feet and he receives this as an anointing. And you know what, the next passage which we will look at next week is that after this, and he says that she has anointed me for my burial.
Guess where he goes? To Jerusalem, riding on the donkey. And guess. People chant Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest. They hail Jesus as king. And if you're familiar with the scriptures at all, we know that kings, the people that are anointed to be king, are set apart, are anointed with oil and established as king for a specific purpose. And when we come to understand in Mary's act of worship, as she offers herself in living sacrifice, then Jesus receives her living sacrifices and says, this is what I pour in my body. I am now prepared to go and die.
You have anointed me as your king, Mary, and I am going to be the king of all kings. And I'm going to enter into Jerusalem and I'm going to die as my kingly duty and purpose. He doesn't go wielding a sword, but he goes to go fall on a sword for us to cover our shame once and for all and to restore, restore us to a right relationship with him and his father. And here's where I have to go down a little rabbit trail. Because if you just put yourself and immerse yourself in the story we're told that this perfume fills up the whole entire room.
The aroma in the whole room is wafting up and it's everywhere. Everybody smells its sweetness. And yet this is exactly what's poured out on Jesus. I can't help to think that I don't think they take showers or bathe every single day, that this is six days, seven days before Jesus will go and die on the cross. I can't help but to think that some of that he wears as a cologne, that as he's being beaten and stricken on behalf of the people, as he's enduring and suffering, he can still smell the pure nard of Mary, the one who loves him, representing us all.
He smells it and he endures the cross with it. I can't even help but to, after he's resurrected, still having that cologne on, and when he ascends to the right hand of the Father, that instead of burnt offerings, of smoked meats wafting in the heavens that God delights in, he smells the pure nard of his son covered in the love of the people he died for. Wafting in the heavens, a pleasing aroma. That's speculation. I can't really offer you evidence of that.
It just makes reasonable sense.
But that's the reality of worship. Filling the air with her act. She washes and is at again the feet of her love, of her Savior, of her Lord, offering a living sacrifice not of burnt offerings, but with everything she can afford, with everything that she has. She submits. She's devoted to him.
She's humble. She's serving him. She's offering her whole entire life to Jesus. And that act is filling the room. This is why we're told Judas Iscariot can't stand it.
He's not for Jesus. Matter of fact, he's going to betray Jesus and it stinks to him. This should not be done. A different thing should have been done. Not this.
But Jesus says, let her alone. What she has done, may she keep it for the day of my burial. I am prepared to die because Mary and what she has committed to me, her worship and her devotion, her humility and her love for me, that's motivates me to the cross, I'm going for her. Matter of fact, in other gospels, the host of this party calls her a sinner. He says, jesus, if you knew, if you knew who was touching you, if you knew who was pouring and doing all these acts, you would know that she's a sinner.
He goes, I know, and I accept it. He tells a parable.
She says, and he says, she has been forgiven much and she loves much. Only those who are forgiven much love much. But we're also told something very intriguing with what she does with Jesus feet. Not just anoint them for his purpose in going to die on the cross for the sins of the world, and not just to anoint him as king of kings, but also to bind herself to him. You could be asking me, Bruce.
All right. That's a little weird. How does washing feet bind yourself to somebody? I don't know but Jesus says this because in the next few days Jesus would take what she does to him and he would go and wash the disciples feet. And this is something that he says at that moment Peter's like no, no, no, no, no, no, don't wash my feet.
In John 13:8 this is what he says. Peter said to him, never shall you wash my feet. Jesus answered, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me Peter, if I don't serve you. And if you don't accept my serving you, if you don't accept me serving you on the cross, if you don't accept me serving you and covering your shame, if you don't accept me and, and my service to you and all of humanity who will believe in me? If you don't accept me serving you and what I've come to do, you will have no part with me.
We will not be bound together.
So this informs us even more that when Mary gets on her hands and knees and lets down her hair and cleanses Jesus dirty feet from walking around being busy with her own tears and her own hair, that she is offering herself and service to Jesus, binding her life to his so that when he turns and goes to Jerusalem he will be king of kings and anointed for his purpose to die because she wants it. Whatever Jesus you're going to die for, I want it because I believe that you have raised my brother and you're going to be raised from death and I want to be raised as well with you. I want to be seated in the heavenlies with you. We get a picture of someone who desperately loves Jesus with her whole entire fiber and being. And this is what God desires.
Isn't this the summary of the law? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That's what God has been painting the picture for us stubborn and ignorant people. He had to communicate that reality through a substitute. I want you to raise up lambs and ox and rams and I want you to get to know them.
Maybe you end up beginning to love them, but I want you to pick the best out of the whole entire herd and I want you to offer it. And it's probably going to be the most expensive thing. If you can only go and sell it at the market you'd probably be very wealthy. He goes, but don't go sell at the market. Instead cook it as a meal for me and you so we can have a Relationship, take the best that you have and offer it to me.
And after years of doing this, and as we read our Old Testaments, we're like, I don't really understand the sacrificial system. Well, here's the reality. It all was pointing to the fact that God just says, give me you, all of you. Not just some of you, not just 5% of you or 95%. I want all of you.
I've done all this for you.
And all of a sudden, this Gospel lesson where we learn that we're actually coming back to the true heart of worship, that this is what God desires most. Living sacrifices, not dead ones. Hearts of his people. It's what he longs for. It's what he wants to smell.
It's what he wants to be anointed with.
That's what he wants.
Jesus is prepared to die because Mary anoints him and unites and binds her life to his. And Mary says, jesus, I'm prepared to die with you. I'm giving you my whole life, my whole livelihood. I have nothing left. You have it all now and together.
Mary goes in spirit with Jesus as Jesus holds everything about her life on him. And he goes. He dies because she prizes Christ above all things. We see in this Gospel lesson an example of somebody who embodies a person who truly, genuinely prizes and cherishes Christ. Matter of fact, our New Testament reading that we just read is Paul saying the exact same thing.
Whatever gain I thought I had, I was the best of all people. As far as righteousness, I was a Pharisee. As far as zeal and passion, I was a persecutor of the church. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was everything I could ever be in this world, life.
And I counted all as loss to obtain Jesus Christ.
Paul can say it with his words. Mary said it with her worship.
And so now we see that Mary is the vision of what we ought to be here at the church.
This is what we gather every Sunday to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to Jesus Christ. That we come out of devotion. There's nothing more important than offering ourselves to Jesus. No matter how much money I could have made today, no matter what other places I could have benefited from being today, this is the place that I need to be to present myself to Jesus and show my devotion to him. And I humble myself and I come and I confess my sin to say, jesus, I am full of shame again this week.
I have not been devoted to you, and I have been filled and riddled with all kinds of sins. And I've rebelled against you and I haven't displayed my love for you, but I confess that. And then Jesus speaks his forgiveness over you, the way he did for Mary when the leper, Simon the leper, calls her out to be a sinner. Jesus says she loves much because she's been forgiven much. And then he looks to Mary and he says, your sins are forgiven.
Go in peace. That's what the other gospel says. And we come and we intentionally confess our sins so that we can remove that shame in Jesus Christ and be bound to him. And that's why I encourage you all to kneel on your knees and get on your face. Because Mary didn't care about her dignity.
She. She let down her hair and she wiped his feet because that's her greatest love, the lover of her soul. And when we confess our sins, we're saying, jesus, I give you all of it. I lay it down. I have no dignity.
I don't care how much it hurts. I don't care what other people might think. I am bowing to you, giving you my life. As we engage in worship and then we sing praises, we lift our songs up. And the psalms talk about how we praise God and that he sits enthroned upon our praises.
We lift our voices up to God and it is a pleasing aroma to him. And then, like Mary, we find ourselves at the feet of Jesus to learn from him, to hear him speak to us. What is it that you would have spoken to your people today, man? We have eyes that are open and observant. May we have ears that are open.
Mary is that example of what we ought to be in this Lenten season. As we've been taking this journey for the last few weeks, I've been telling you there are things that we need to be ridding our life of. We need to be dying to self and living to Jesus. And for the last three weeks, we've been focusing on what we need to be getting out of our lives. But this Sunday and for the rest of the Sundays to come during the season of Lent, we're now transitioning and thinking about we're done putting away things, and now we got to start putting things in.
We're done understanding that we're saved from these things. But now we're saved to something. If I've been ridding and denying myself, I should have a lot of room in my heart and my life now to receive something. What is it that receiving and I would have you only receive Jesus Christ to gain him in every way in Every thing that as you deny yourself, you take more of him. And this is the first Sunday that we begin to experience that Jesus is Lord.
Next week you're going to see that Jesus is king. And then the last week, Easter Sunday, you're going to see that Jesus is life. That's what we are filling ourselves up with. We are transitioning from losing ourselves to gaining Jesus. And it all happens in this story.
So now the real tough questions. And I don't want to have to share these questions with you because I feel like I have, to be honest. I have not yet obtained fully devoting myself to Jesus Christ. I have not yet fully grasped just how high and deep and wide his love is for me. My life is not yet fully made of all but Jesus.
There are things that I still cling to that I need to rid myself of. But nevertheless, the gospel confronts us. How is our Lenten journey shaken out? Have you been making room to receive more of Jesus? Have you been denying yourself?
Taking up your cross to follow Jesus? Are you ready to receive more of him in your life? Are you willing to be a living sacrifice for Jesus? Offering elbow wreathing? Are there still some things you're withholding?
Is that perfume of pure nard hanging in your closet at home, metaphorically speaking, still hanging there, and you're not ready to pour it out on them? So some aspect of your life that you just like, I don't want you to have this yet. I like it too much. It's really nice and I desire it all the time. I'm not ready to give it up.
You just pet it, keep it in your pocket. So Jesus, have whatever you want. Don't have this.
Do you think our church embodies Mary's example? Are we a church that's genuinely and authentically in love with Jesus? If I were to be real honest, I don't care about programs. My number one thing and the whole motivation for my ministry, even though I'm not always good at this. If you were to sit down and say, what's the one thing, Bruce, that you hope God uses?
Your ministry and calling is like, I just want to walk side by side with a group of people to get more of Jesus and to love him more each and every day. I need that. And I just want to be with people that want that too.
I don't want to be around and worry about all the extracurriculars and all the extra stuff that people say comes with ministry. I want to be sitting at Jesus Word. I want to listen. I want to receive it. I want to apply it in my life and I want to love him more.
That's what I want and say, if somebody were to ask me what's ministry, I go to get the opportunity and the calling to lead people to love Jesus more, to get over themselves and to lose more of their life, to gain the life that Christ wants them to have and died for them to have.
What are you still hanging onto that prevents you from having more of Christ? Is there anything you value more than Christ in your life? Do you think there is a better or more helpful way than to give all your life in service and love to Jesus? Have you ignored the elephant in the room which is planted there to foreshadow the life? And that's Lazarus.
We're just told Lazarus is hanging out. Oh, he was raised from the dead. And then it focuses on Mary. When the reality that the elephant in the room is that each and every one of us are going to our death and then we're going to face judgment and without Jesus Christ, we won't experience eternal life with God. And that Christ affords us to have a resurrected life and we can begin experiencing that now by faith in him.
Does that mean anything to us? Is that our one hope in life and death, that we are not our own, but belong to God?
Do you think giving Jesus everything in your life is a waste and that using it for other things and means would be better?
I pray that we would be a people who with Mary, sing our love to Jesus in our words and deeds, offering all that we have and holding nothing back. I pray that Fairview Methodist would be a city on a hill and that its lights shine only because of our love for Jesus. Let's pray.