Mary

Service With a Smile

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Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served.  John 12:1

At the first time when Martha had Jesus in her home and she began to complain about her sister Jesus corrected her. Yet Jesus didn’t say, “Stop what you are doing and sit down with Mary!” Jesus said, “Stop being anxious in the midst of all your activity.”  Each of us have different days that lie ahead. Some will have a quiet day listening. Some will have pain, problems and unanswered questions to deal with. Some of us simply feel like we are drowning in busyness.

At their second encounter Jesus meets Martha outside of Bethany. She had sent for Him when Lazarus had been sick. Lazarus had grown weaker and weaker then died and Martha had buried him and wondered why Jesus had not come. In her grief-stricken state she met Jesus as He after He finally showed up saying what many of us tell God today, “If you had been here my brother would not have died!” But there in her sorrow, her brokenness and even a touch of anger Jesus gave her the words, “I Am the resurrection and the life!” Those words were given only to Mp1030030artha. They were the special message Jesus had just for her! So if you wish you could be more like Mary or Lazarus and even your best efforts seem a failure don’t give up. In each of our lives Jesus comes with the words we need. Mary hears them at the feet of Jesus. Lazarus listens quietly at His side and Martha smiles and remembers them as she sets the food on the table, filled with gratitude for all He has done!

 

 

The Fragrance of the Perfume

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Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled withoctober-04-assorted-001 the fragrance of the oil          John 12:3

While Hollywood has generally given us the impression that Mary was a young beautiful woman, that may not have been the reality. In that time even poor young beautiful women would have been married and Mary was not poor. While we do not know Mary’s age it seems possible that she and Martha were both widows, living with their brother Lazarus. That would give us an entirely different view than the film version. In this scene we meet a Mary who kept all her savings in that perfume jar. It acted as something of a retirement account. As she grew older with no marital prospects, no way to work or even the right to own property that perfume was all she had besides the kindness of her brother. She was presenting  that gift in a single defining moment as her worship and expression of love to the Lord Jesus.

As the fragrance filled the room people began one by one to realize how exorbitant and yes even a little crazy what Mary was doing really was! Her family and friends were shocked but silent. Then one by one the disciples, beginning with Judas,  began to protest. “Why wasn’t this sold …and given to the poor?”

But Jesus knew Mary’s heart and while she remained silently at His feet He defended her. Today we have little to describe how Peter or John, Andrew or Phillip worshiped, but Mary’s act remains as the Bible’s best example of how we should be after 2,000 years. In a way that costly perfume continues to fill each of our rooms with its fragrance!

Darkening Horizon

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…Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews whoimg_4333 came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.  John 11:31b-34a

We often think of Mary as the ideal believer since she had chosen the good part listening at the feet of Jesus. But at the feet of Jesus is a place to learn, not a place to pose for pictures. Mary was in the good place but she soon faced the ultimate test just like we do. Lazarus, her brother died and he had died while Jesus had purposely delayed his coming. “If you had been here Lord!” , her heart broke trying to fit together the puzzle pieces of the harsh finality of death with the loving promises of the master. Mary could not see beyond her tears, yet Jesus was touched by her weakness just as He is today by ours.

We do not need to reach some ideal level of always joyfully believing the best when the worst has fallen in on our world. Our Savior is touched by the feeling of our infirmities, our hopeless state and our tears. He is not a demanding master but a master who takes the terrible demanding circumstances upon his shoulders and carries them to the cross.

What is your greatest sorrow? How heavy is the weight of your load? How long is your night that never ends? Jesus at your most vulnerable moment weeps and asks, “Where have you laid him?” No matter our darkening  the horizon of our world our Jesus sees beyond!