Explore the Bible: Why Wasn’t This Sold?

• The Explore the Bible lesson for March 5 focuses on John 12:1-11.

As the undoubtedly delightful fragrance of Mary’s perfume filled the home, at least one party guest regarded it as a stench. Namely, Judas was not fond of Mary’s display of devotion.

I have never been much for cologne, myself. It always seemed like a waste of money to mask myself with expensive odors. There are far better things to spend my money on. Yet, every year for Christmas throughout my teen years, I was gifted a bottle of Polo Blue by Ralph Lauren. I much rather would have been given the cash it took to purchase that tiny royal blue bottle.

My father, on the other hand, would get the far more sophisticated scent of Polo Black. What made his cologne superior to mine? I did not know, nor did I care.

These jars of liquid worth their weight in gold came from a dear elderly couple in the family. They would remind me every year that I was not ready for Polo Black, because I had not yet matured into my father’s caliber of musk. They assumed my envy for the Polo Black, but it was all I could muster to offer a polite gratitude for yet another bottle of Polo Blue to accumulate on my closet shelf alongside the other barely used bottles of Christmases past.

I see now that my discontent for this special gift lacked imagination. The bottle of cologne offered more than a pleasant—and expensive—odor. It also offered symbolic value from a loved one to myself, designation of familial honor, and a rite of passage for youngsters such as me. I completely missed the point.

Judas also lacked imagination. He misconstrued Mary’s symbolic gesture of pouring expensive perfume onto Jesus’ feet, wiping them with her unbound hair and, thus, ceremoniously anointing Jesus as King in humble priestly fashion, while also preparing his body for the dawning sacrifice of Messianic proportion. The expense of the perfume was rich, but the symbolic value in her devotion was much richer.

Mary’s act of worship was a vulnerable attempt to express gratitude for Jesus. She lavished Jesus’ feet with extravagant and luxurious nard as a profession of his worthiness, and she did so in the manner of a humble servant. She even went as low as to undo her hair to wipe Jesus’ feet, an epithet unbefitting of women with higher social standing. This pomp and circumstance was not Mary’s attempt to impress others with her own means or to seek attention for herself in any way. Rather, this act was a proclamation of who Jesus is—Lord and Christ.

It Was Intended (John 12:7)

Judas distracted the party from Mary’s heartfelt devotion to challenge the ethics of her display: “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?” (John 12:5). Why would she waste the perfume on Jesus when we could sell it and use it for something good?

There are a number of problems with this line of thinking: (1) there is no limit for devotion to Jesus, for he is worthy of our greatest affection; (2) service to Jesus through worship is in and of itself good and does not diminish other acts of service; (3) Judas’ rebuke of Mary is hypocritical, for he would often sneak money for himself and, by the end of this week, would betray Jesus for a trivial amount of silver (John 12:4, 6; 18:2; Matthew 25: 15).

I also wonder if this perfume were to have been sold, what chap would have been fortunate enough to wear the nard meant to adorn and worship Jesus? What true loss Mary’s perfume would have been if wasted on some happenstantial consumer of rare fragrances. Instead, Mary’s laudation lives on with the legacy of the gospel (see Mark 14:9).

You Will Always Have the Poor (John 12:8)

Here, we must not get swept up in a false dichotomy of service—that should we devote ourselves to service of God through costly offering or should we devote ourselves to service of neighbor through costly charity, then one will become the hyperfocus of our activity and the other will become neglected by necessity. Both are noble pursuits, worthy of our efforts, and ought to continually build upon one another in healthy, ongoing ministry.

This conundrum will, at times, raise the question in our own congregations about how earnestly we are stewarding our money. Hopefully, the intent of these questions will not be like that of Judas. Instead, may we prepare ourselves for the genuinely concerned church member who is troubled at heart by the expensive equipment and adornment of our worship facilities as there are, indeed, poor among us.

But rather than shrug off this concern with vague platitudes, may we use these circumstances as opportunity for imagination and growth. Yes, the poor are indeed of interest to God, and the problem of poverty is an issue God desires to overcome with his kingdom (Leviticus 19:9-10; Deuteronomy 15:7; Isaiah 58:10; Matthew 25:34-36; Mark 10:21-22; Luke 4:16–21). However, devotion to Jesus is the very thing that propels us to serve and love others (John 13:12–17, 34), and Jesus is always worthy of all our praise (Revelation 5:12).

Jordan Davis is NextGen pastor at First Baptist Church in Plano.