The fragrance of Christ (John 12:1~8)_Missionary Kyoungho Park

(The audio recording of this sermon will be uploaded here after the Sunday service.)
Today, I am gonna share with you about Mary. As you know, there are many Marys in the Bible. For example, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and much more. But I am gonna talk about…. Guess who? Which Mary? Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived in Bethany. Bethany was a small town. It was about two miles from Jerusalem. The Bible tells us that they had their own house. And they lived together in that house as a family.

Several times, Jesus and his disciples were invited over to their house. And Jesus loved to stay there because they were very special to him. Jesus knew them well. And he loved them. Jesus even called Lazarus “our friend.” It means that they were very close to each other.

In today’s passage, Jesus came back to Bethany for the Passover. Again Jesus went to their house with his disciples. Martha and Mary prepared a special meal for Jesus. Probably, they wanted to thank Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead a couple of days ago.

Martha was busy serving them food. Lazarus was sitting at the table with the people who were eating with Jesus. And then Mary came into the room with a jar of perfume. And guess what happened next. All of sudden, Mary broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’s feet. And then she wiped his feet with her long hair.

What Mary did was something very unusual. She uncovered her hair and she wiped Jesus’ feet with it. Some of you might know that Jewish women always covered their hair in public. Only prostitutes did not cover their hair. So her action would have offended the people in that room. Of course, she was not a prostitute. But she didn’t care what other people would say or think about her. Instead, Mary just focused on Jesus. She just did what she thought was right.

In addition to that, this perfume was not a cheap and ordinary perfume. This particular perfume was worth as much as some workers earned in a year! Maybe it costs more than 3 million yen for today. Anyway, as a result of breaking the jar and pouring the perfume on Jesus’ feet, everyone in the house could smell the fragrance of the perfume.

At that moment, Judas Iscariot said, “What a waste! Hey, Mary, why didn’t you sell the perfume and give the money to the poor? Didn’t you know how much it is? It’s more than three hundred silver pieces. With that money, we can live well for one year!”

Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. She did what she could do. And you will always have poor people around you. You can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.”

In today’s passage, we can notice that to give our time, our talents and our material things to God is not a waste. It is not a stupid thing. It is quite opposite. It is… a beautiful thing. We may call it “a holy waste.” But when we do such a beautiful thing, when we do such a holy waste, we should be careful. You know what… There are some people who give God their leftovers, their second best. They give God their leftover time or money.

How would you feel if someone gave you their leftover bread? The same is true for God. He wants our best in everything and He wants to be our first love so we cannot offer him our leftovers. So, give your best to God! Fresh and new ones, not your leftovers!

In today’s passage, Mary gave Jesus the best and most precious thing that she had. She broke a jar of very expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair, risking her reputation. Her expensive perfume shows how much she loved Jesus. I think that Mary didn’t necessarily have to break the jar. She could have tilted the jar like this and poured a little bit of perfume on Jesus’ feet. But Mary did so as a sign that she was using all the perfume. She wanted to show her love by giving as much as possible.

Brothers and sisters, give our best to God! And God wants the best and the most precious from us. Do you know what that is? Our hearts! Especially our broken and contrite hearts. In other words, our tender and responsive hearts, not our stony hearts.(2 King 22:19)

I don’t know how tender or how stony your hearts are. Some of you might have lost your tender hearts. You might have left your first love for God. So, your hearts have become hardened. But the truth is that God can’t use your cold and lifeless hearts.

Brothers and sisters, you’ve got to break your stony hearts. If you can’t break your stony hearts on your own, then let the Word of God break your hearts. Let the Holy Spirit break your hearts. The power of the Word, the power of the Spirit can break your stony hearts into pieces and grind them into powder so that they can be molded and shaped into tender and responsive hearts.

Brothers and sisters! Break your hearts! Let the Word of God break your hearts! Let the Spirit of God break your hearts! And then pour out your hearts to God so that “God will remove from you your hearts of stone and give you hearts of flesh.”(Ezekiel 36:27) Do you really want to get tender, sensitive, and responsive hearts? Once again, break your hearts before God and pour out your hearts to God.

And I believe that each one of us has a jar of spiritual perfume in us. Just as Mary did, if we break the jar and pour it like this, the place around us will be filled with the fragrance of the perfume. We may call it “the fragrance of Christ.”

If you have broken and contrite hearts, if you have tender and responsive hearts, you can be perfumed with a sweet smell of Christ. As a result, the fragrance of Christ will fill your homes, fill your church, fill your work places, and fill your lives. The people around you can smell the fragrance of Christ in you. Let us pray.