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Word from Scotland
by Sandy Shaw
Jesus Christ and his disciples are in a home in Bethany some two miles south east of the Temple area in Jerusalem. They are out of sight of the city and out of the reach of the Temple Police. We are reading and studying John Chapter 12, but it is Mark who tells us that they are relaxing and having a meal in the home of Simon the leper. Had Jesus healed this man? We do not know, but what we do know is that he had been a leper and now he is a normal member of society, and he has Jesus Christ in his home, and he is ministering to Jesus.
We have really moved on now, time wise, and we are a week or so away from Passover.
We have moved from the Feast of Tabernacles through the Feast of Dedication (Hanukah) in December, and now it is around March.
Lazarus and Martha and Mary are there and Martha is serving the food. It looks like a normal mealtime at which nothing significant was going to happen and when Jesus Christ is around you can never tell.
When Jesus Christ is around anything can happen.
With the crucifixion of Jesus a week or so away, everything takes on a new meaning – a new significance – and with fresh urgency.
Mary comes and approaches Jesus with a pound or a pint of very precious ointment. We know that it was a most expensive perfume made from Himalayan herbs, and Mary begins to anoint Jesus with this expensive precious ointment.
It was the custom to anoint guests with a few drops, just as we would like to ask people if we could take their coat, or if they would like to wash their hands, but, Mary poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. The value of the ointment was around a year’s wages. She is so grateful to Jesus for raising Lazarus, and this gratitude is expressed in sheer devotion. Is she being too extravagant? No!
Her love for her Lord is lavish and she lashes out in love. In all Jesus’ dealings with people, Jesus was so generous and so we see Mary here being so abundantly generous, in the way she worshipfully anoints Jesus.
Will our worship anoint Jesus today? Will our singing and praising be like anointing oil in the heavens? Love is not niggardly and mean.
Mary so loved and so appreciated Jesus that she wants to give and give and give, and pour and pour and pour, until it had all been spent on Jesus.
She is saying, “My most valuable possession is yours.” Faith is an act. This is faith in action.
The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. The whole house was filled with a most beautiful fragrance.
What kind of fragrance do we leave when we express our worship and praise? What kind of atmosphere do we contribute to the fellowship around us, as we sing and praise and worship and participate?
This fragrance would be clinging to Christ for the remainder of his earthly life.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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