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The first 11 chapters of the gospel of John describe the entire 3-year ministry of Jesus from John's perspective.
But the second half of the book from chapter 12 to the end covers only one week. What you see in the final chapters is the polarization of love and hate. That should come as no surprise because Jesus Christ divides everything.
Everything before Him is B.C. and everything after Him is A.D. He also divides humanity. All people are either for Him or against Him. He divides destiny. He divides families. He divides marriages. He divides friendships. He divides associations.
There is no one like Him that evokes antithetical extremes of love and hate, devotion and rejection, worship and blasphemy, faith and unbelief. He divides believers from unbelievers, sheep from goats, wheat from tares, children of God from children of the devil.
Unbelief and belief are extreme reactions to Christ. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is so extreme it leads to eternal life in heaven. Not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is so extreme it leads to eternal death in hell. When we come to the 12th chapter of John, those extremes become crystallized through two characters, one is Mary and the other is Judas. They are symbolic of those two extremes.
In chapter 11 you have the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the word has gotten out and that miracle transcended the villages, the towns and the cities. Chapter 12:9 says large crowds were coming not only to see Jesus but to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
That miracle was highly disturbing to the religious leaders and they could not deny it so decided to do some damage control. Chapter 11:53 says from that day on they planned to kill him. So v.54 says Jesus went away from there to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. But now the interlude is over and in spite of the intention to kill him, v.1 says goes to Bethany.
Up till this time they wanted to kill him but it was not God's timing, it was not his hour. Now it is. He will die at this Passover on Friday at the very time the Jews are slaughtering the Passover lambs. He will die as the God's chosen Passover Lamb to satisfy God and to provide the sacrifice for the sins of his chosen people.
So we come to chapter 12 and as it says we are 6 days before Passover. This would be Saturday, the Sabbath. And it is the last legitimate Sabbath in the old covenant because on Friday, Jesus will die and ratify the new covenant and then the church will gather itself on Sundays. The symbol of the Old Covenant was the Passover in Egypt, the symbol of the New Covenant is the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week.
So in our text this is the last official authorized Sabbath. What we find in our text from verse 1-11 is the division that will occur simply because of the presence and ministry of Jesus Christ. He causes faith in Martha, Mary and Lazarus and another person and he causes the severest kind of hateful, venomous apostasy in the man Judas. There is also this level of hostility among the leaders of Israel and the sort of indifference among the crowd and at the end there are those who believe.
They paint a picture for us of our world today in which there are the Mary's and Martha's and Judases, hostile leaders, indifferent crowds and believers. I wondered how this one man's life and teaching and testimony, how can this produce a Mary and a Judas side by side. But Christianity still does that even to this day. So as we look at this story, I want to look at the characters. By the way, the incidents reported here are also in Matthew, Mark and Luke, so if you want to get the whole picture of this meal you need to read all of those accounts. First, The heartfelt service of Martha.
That comes out of the account in Luke 10. On another occasion our Lord came to Bethany and Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary who was seated at the feet of Jesus listening to his words while Martha was distracted with all her preparations. She approached Jesus and said, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." The Lord answered and said, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." The truth that Mary was listening to was forever, the meal and stuff in the kitchen has a short shelf life. So the point is that worship should be a priority. Based upon that story we sort of degrade Martha a little, but I think we need to lift her back up.
She served and service is regarded nobly in the scriptures. In fact, the word serving used in that passage is 'diakoneo', from which we get the word deacon. Servers in the church are a very important part of the life of the church.
This time when Jesus comes back to Bethany they made a supper for him. That is the evening meal, the prolonged meal, the meal at which you recline. One relaxes and enjoys the conversations around this U-shaped table in a reclining position. They made supper for him and Martha was serving and Lazarus was there. This did not take place at the home of Mary and Martha because Matthew 26 and Mark 14 tell us it happened at the house of a man named Simon the leper. We should call him the ex-leper because if he was still a leper they would not have been in his home and he would have been excommunicated from society. So he too had this miraculous restoration like Lazarus did. I can only imagine the conversations that took place around that table. Pretty incredible meal, but it wasn't in honor of Simon or Lazarus but in honor of Jesus. Now we find Martha once again serving.
This is a noble service. Somebody has to do this. It is a God honoring service because Jesus said in Matthew 20 if anybody would be chief among you let him be your servant. The Bible honors service. Martha will always be remembered for her service. That was how she was hard wired, as a doer. And we could use more people like that in the church.
It is true that Mary was more contemplative, more reflective, maybe even more spiritually minded but thank the Lord for doers, for those willing to serve. Even our Lord said he was among us as he who serves. The nobility of service is best expressed in Luke 12 where Jesus said that when he comes again he will put on a slaves apron and have his own recline at a table and he will serve us.
So it is very important for us to see the nobility of service in Martha. She does it because she loves the Lord and she loves the people she serves. That is the heartfelt service of Martha. Secondly, The humble sacrifice of Mary. I don't think it is something calculated or premeditated. This is just the heart of Mary bursting. It says she took a pound of very costly perfume or pure nard.
The term 'myron' is a term for oil. Mary was a very rare herb grown in the high pasture lands of China, Tibet and India. It had to be carried to Bethany by camels and because it came from so far away it was very valuable. Judas named the price in v.5 as 300 denarii. A denarius was a day's wage. That's 300 days of work. So essentially she took a year's work of perfume. Matthew 26:7 says it was in an alabaster jar. Alabaster is a white translucent stone. That was probably how it was shipped or carried. I wondered why Mary would have this. For one reason this kind of oil was used at a funeral service. Since there was no embalming, they used it to lower the stench of a decaying body.
Remember, Nicodemus did it to the body of Jesus. It was also used just for the ladies to enjoy the fragrance. So Mary's heart is just bursting with love and she rushes to find this jar hidden in a safe place. She can't restrain herself and just smashes the jar and poured it on the head of Jesus and it just runs down to his feet. Then she loosened her hair to wipe his feet. That was a radical thing for a woman to do in front of men, that is, to loosen their hair. Also, foot washing at a meal was part of the meal because feet got dirty in sandals and it wasn't very tasteful to have dirty feet when reclining at a table and eating. This was a lavish and amazing expression of love.
Interestingly, it happened once before in Luke 7 in Galilee in of all places in the house of a Pharisee. A woman who was a prostitute brought an alabaster vial of perfume and began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair and kissed his feet while anointing them with oil. Imagine what that Pharisee thought who would not even allow himself to be touched by a prostitute. But both Mary's and the prostitute's actions was a love that knew no limits. It was extravagant and humble and generous. Third, we see the hypocritical self-interest of Judas in v.4 This is the man of whom Jesus in John 17:12 calls the son of perdition. Of who Acts 1:25 says he went to his own place. He was the son of perdition and his own place is perdition or eternal hell, he is a son of hell.
What a horrible interruption to such a lavish expression of believing love and devotion. But this is his epitaph. He is identified as greedy, ambitious, worldly, consumed by self-interest, and it was driving him to a frenzy. He cast his lot in with the disciples thinking it would make him wealthy. He thought he would be elevated to some position of power and authority.
While everyone else was growing in their love for Jesus, he was growing to hate him more. There was this growing resistance and rejection because instead of gaining wealth he got nothing but the basic necessities of life. Everything was going wrong but he had to keep up the façade so he asks, why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor people? That sounds noble but John tells us that he said this not because he was concerned about the poor but because he was a thief and as he had the money box; he used to pilfer what was put into it. He embezzled their money. He knew the end was near, for Jesus had kept telling them he was going to die so he would not be in the position to have that money box much longer.
The sad part of this is that the other disciples jumped on the bandwagon and also protested. Judas had a lot of influence and he had that money box because the other disciples trusted him.
Not only was he the son of the devil but Thursday night the devil entered into him. His first words were why was this perfume not sold and the money given to the poor; His last words in Matthew 27 were, I have betrayed innocent blood. That's Judas, for 300 denarii he would rob Jesus the gift of Mary's love, later he would sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, 4 months' worth of work. So as Mary's perfume filled the house with its fragrance, the poison of Judas' words turned the event toxic and contaminated the air. The life of Judas is without question the greatest human tragedy in human history because of his proximity to the truth. The closer to the truth you are and reject it, the more severe your eternal punishment. The safest place to be if you believe is in the church.
The most dangerous place to be is in the church if you don't believe. Why? Because if you ultimately reject Christ, you will be held accountable for the knowledge that you had. To whom much is given much is required. What is an apostate? It is someone who defects from the truth once they know the truth. I am amazed by how many people came from Christian backgrounds, went to Christian schools, were raised in Christian churches, had Christian parents and grandparents and defects from the truth.
There have been many Judas kisses, those who have been close to Christ and kissed him goodbye. Jesus responds in v.7, Let her alone! And then he connects what she did out of an expression of her love for his burial. What she had done was symbolic of his coming burial according to Matthew 26:12. Mark 14:8 says she has done what she could by anointing my body beforehand to prepare it for burial. Then I love Mark 14:9 where Mark says something John doesn't include, "Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world going forward, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her." This would be a permanent, everlasting memorial to the love of this woman. Then at that moment the jig was up for Judas, Mark says, and then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve went off to the chief priests to betray Him to them. So while Mary overflowed with extravagant, sacrificial love, Judas overflowed with a bitter, greedy, murderous hate. Two extremes. The story closes with two other groups. Here we see the hollow superficiality of the crowd in v.9. They came because they were curious about Jesus. They came because they were curious about Lazarus. The next day as Jesus entered the city they yelled Hosanna to the Son of David. By Friday they would yell and crucify him. That was the hollow superficiality of the crowd. Finally, the hostile scheming of the leaders v.10-11. The chef priest planned to put Lazarus to death. Talk about destroying the evidence. Kill the man who was raised from the dead.
That gives us an idea of the extreme hatred they had for Jesus. It was never about the evidence, they never denied his miracles. They never denied the resurrection of Lazarus. They wanted to kill them both because many of the Jews were leaving the temple to believe in Jesus. The resurrection of Lazarus allowed the surfacing of these hostile, scheming rulers and leaders to reach its pinnacle. So you have the service and love of Mary and Martha. You have the selfish sin and apostasy of Judas. You have the indifference of the crowds who end up shouting and crucifying him. You have the hatred of the false leaders of Israel threatened by the truth who end up executing Jesus.
But that is not the end. The end is that you have people who believe in Jesus, and that's how it is in the kingdom, isn't it? There are those who love him, who hate him, who are indifferent to him, who want to destroy everything about him. Against all of that you have people believing in him. There's always going to be a remnant who believes. That's why we preach and that is why we are waiting for his return as we fulfill the Great Commission.
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The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.