Introduction:
What follows below is a post that derives from a recent sermon I preached in our Sunday morning service at the church where I pastor. It is part of our verse-by-verse sermon series through Luke's Gospel ("Meeting Jesus in Luke's Gospel"). In today's post we continue on from the last post here Growing Christian Resources: What it means to abide in Jesus Christ's Presence - Character Studies On Mary and Martha from Luke 10:38-42. Our key text will be John 12:3-8.
Abide in the presence of His cross. John 12:3-8
It was to be less than months later. Jesus was five days before His crucifixion. He is at the home of Lazarus (whom He had just raised from the dead), Martha, and Mary in Bethany. John 12:3-7,
“Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, 5 ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?’ 6 Now 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. 7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.”
Mary was to Jesus like a compass to due North – pointing invariably no matter what happened. We noted before To abide in Christ is when my faith is settled in spiritual union with Him, identification with Him, and bearing fruit for Him. The paradox of one’s faith settled in an otherwise unsettling event like the cross revealed Christ’s power and preciousness.
Mary here is grasping by faith the truth about Jesus Christ – you cannot separate His majesty from the cross. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” The cross shows Christ’s power not only by the raw power of His omnipotence but by the reality of His love (see Romans 5:8).
B. His cross revealed His preciousness.
When
Mary poured out the contents of that perfume, it was a costly expression of
devotion. She poured out what was most dear to her. That perfume’s scent would
accompany our Lord throughout His final passion week, through His trials, and
onto Golgotha. That scent wafted its way through Pilate’s judgment halls, up
the road to Calvary, and hung in the air as they drove the nails into His hands
and feet. When that heavy cross was dropped into the ground with our Savior
upon it, one could have caught the very scent of Heaven itself. Its scent would
not be quenched.
2 Cor 2:14-17 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.”
We’re in a better position than the disciples ever were. They could only be with Jesus wherever He went, limited by time and place. Once He raised and ascended, He sent His Spirit so that every Christian could be with Jesus, and He with them no matter where and when they may be.
For the Christian, Jesus Christ is ever precious because of how they are ever associated, united with Him in His death and resurrection. The two ordinances or sacraments we observe, baptism of new believers and observance of the Lord’s Supper are used by the Spirit to raise our faith to understand this union.
1 Peter 2:7a “This precious value, then, is for you who believe His power and preciousness.” In 1707 Isaac Watts wrote a wonderful hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”. The 2nd stanza captures what it means to “abide in the presence of His cross”,
“Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save
in the death of Christ, my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I
sacrifice them through his blood.”
Mary never wanted to forget the cross, neither should we. More next time.
