When we are hiking out hiking and hear this (rattle snake rattle),we know there is danger very near.  When we see this (sign with “DANGER” on it) we also know danger is near.    This means DANGER!!!!!!

         It is a dangerous time.  For Jesus it is dangerous.  The Pharisees have been plotting for sometime on how and when to kill this Jesus of Nazareth.  It is also dangerous for anyone who would befriend and harbor Jesus.  But this night, they do befriend him.  They gather around him.    This is a time to celebrate and be joyous.  WHY?  Because Jesus recently raised Lazarus from the dead.  This dinner that is made for Jesus is to honor Jesus and to celebrate the new life he has given to Lazarus.   Yet, all who gather could be jailed and/or put to death.   Danger or not, there is reason to celebrate!  The party must go on!

         A person we will meet at this party is Mary.  Actually Mary was a common name back then, as it is now.  It seems we need a program to tell them apart.   This Mary is not Mary of Magdalene, the one referred to in the Luke 8 passage from whom seven demons had gone out.    This is also not Mary, Jesus’ mother.  This is the Mary who is the sister to Martha and also, Lazarus - the one Jesus has raised from the dead;  all three, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, are very dear friends of Jesus.   Luke (10:38-42) tells us this Mary is the one who sat at Jesus’ feet listening to the Master teach.  Martha, her sister bustled around the kitchen and house - expressing her gift of hospitality.  Martha was upset - angry - because Mary was not helping her fix dinner and serve.  Jesus defended Mary then, and He defends her now.

         Read John 12:1-8

         Though Mary enters the room where Jesus and Lazarus and other male friends are reclining on the floor, leaning into the low table to eat, she enters not to bring more chips, dip and soda- as was her sister Martha.  Mary walks behind Jesus and she sits down, once again at his feet. 

         Whew! So far, so good.  None of the men have noticed anything out of the ordinary.   Then,  she feels Martha’s eyes on her.  Now don’t be looking in your Bibles for this. It’s not there.  This is the Janet version.  But I bet it happened something like this.  Mary slowly looks toward Martha.  Mary is surprised not to see ridicule and chastisement in Martha’s eyes.  What Mary does see surprises her even more.  Mary sees approval, knowing and love.   Does she see something else?  Does she perhaps sense in Martha,  even a hint of, “I want to do what you are going to do, Mary,  but I can’t do it just now.” 

         Mary draws courage from her sister’s look.  That is when she does it.  She takes the lid off her prized possession she has been holding in her lap.   Now this prized possession is the essence of nard, a pure and fragrant, perfumed oil.  It is imported from the mountains of India.   The amount that Mary uses is worth an entire  year’s wages.  But she knows Jesus is worth it.   He has just given her back her brother. 

         She does not know that in six days time her friend,  her Lord,  will be put to death.  She does not know He needs to be prepared for his burial.  But she does know that Jesus is truly someone special, and powerful.  Someone who deserves far more than even the giving of her most prized possession.

         How did she understand this?  Our answer lies in exactly where Mary often is....She is at the feet of Jesus - listening, asking questions, learning, and now anointing him. 

         Mary is the one of these three siblings, Martha, Lazarus and herself,  who seems to always hunger for the Bread of Life.   She has grown to understand that the source of this life-giving Bread is Jesus, her Lord.  Sitting at His feet and listening to Him, the hunger and thirst for God grows in her heart.  In that she understands that she is created for God.  She exists because of Him.

         This is exactly where you and I need to be - at the feet of Jesus.  Praying, both asking questions and listening.  Learning through reading and studying His Book that He gave us and in which we find him!  Being in the small groups during our Lenten series - and throughout the year -  is just such a way to enjoy studying His Book and learning about Him.   In this way the  hunger and thirst of our inner selves will be fed by the Word of God.
 
         What Mary does next, after she removed the lid from the expensive ointment jar, is to   pour the entire contents onto the feet of Jesus.  She does not spare any of her pure and costly oil for His feet.  Not His head-but His feet.  This action in and of itself is unusual.  It was the head that was normally anointed.  But Mary anoints the feet.

         Because people in Jesus’ day did not wear socks or stockings or closed toed shoes, their feet inevitably got dirty just walking from house to house, let alone town to town.  Dave preached a few weeks ago about the washing of feet.  This task was reserved for servants or slaves.

         So, Mary, even in touching Jesus’ feet, is expressing something of the smallness of her own station, her being.  By pouring the oil onto His feet she is expressing something of the greatness she senses in Jesus.  This is carried further by her use of her own hair to wipe the oil off His feet.  We don’t know the reason she wipes off the oil in the first place-other than perhaps the amount she uses is more than sufficient, in our terms,  and it runs onto the pillows and the floor about his feet.  However, Mary uses her hair is yet another unexpected action.

         Mary is certainly not concerned with what these friends, neighbors and relatives might think.  She is caught up in her love and devotion to her Lord.  Mary is, tending to Jesus’ feet with fragrant oil.  She senses a need in Jesus that she must meet.   Mary is worshiping her Lord-our Lord, completely spontaneously. 

         Then John tells us, almost like an afterthought, something he just then remembered important to the telling of this story, “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”             This is possibly when Judas’ and the other disciples’ attention is drawn to what Mary has been doing.   Judas minces no words-nor does he think before he speaks.  How opposite of Mary is Judas.  Judas is one of the named disciples of Jesus, Mary is the model disciple.  Mary is generous.  The ointment was worth approximately 300 denarii...as I said, about one year’s wages.  Judas is greedy.   He wants to take-yet AGAIN it seems-what does not even belong to him, or any of the disciples.   Mary illustrates her faith with actions.  Judas talks piously.  He is certainly not sincere in wanting to give anything to anyone, let alone to the poor.  He is one of those people who knows what everything costs, but does not know what anything is worth.  Judas prepares Jesus for burial...by the betrayal.  Mary prepares Jesus for burial...by the anointing.

         The 12 disciples lived with Jesus day in and day out, for three years now.  He told them in many ways, on several occasions, what He will be going through.   Why is Mary the one who understands, and the others,  particulary the twelve disciples, did not understand?

         Mary somehow senses Jesus’ need and then takes action to meet that need.  Yet she could not know how meaningful and how totally right her action really was.   But Jesus knew then the hugeness of what He was about to do-what He did for you and for me. 

         In  a deeper, even more meaningful way, Jesus knows our needs.  He knows what needs we come with today.  He knows what happened at the office last week; what is going to happen there next week.  He knows about the fight with your spouse coming to church this morning.  He is aware of the strained silence between some of you young people your parents.   He knows about that place of temptation in your life.  He knows about that spot on your arm that doesn’t concern you enough to go to the doctor. 

         Certainly, Mary acted boldly and spontaneously.  More importantly she gave everything she had in worshiping Jesus.  As we come to His Table, we, too, must come with everything we have,  and give it all to Jesus.  He knows what is going with each of us. He knows what we bring to His Table.  He wants us to bring it all-everything, without restraint, holding nothing back-and give it all to Him.