The Fifth Sunday of Lent
Psalm 126; Numbers 15:1-16; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8
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I.
Let us examine this most unusual encounter between Jesus and Mary of Bethany in John 12:3.
“Mary took a pound of costly ointment 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 ointment.”
John is a difficult gospel to preach from because he is so highly symbolic. He presumes his readers will fill in the context that he leaves out.
So, the preacher’s job is both to set John in context and then to explain the text itself.
Today, we have a complicated symbol to unpack, the anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary of Bethany. It’s important, symbolically, that this act is performed by a woman. It’s important, I think, because John is making a point about the salvation of women.
In a Jewish context, the salvation of men could be assumed, but not of women.
For instance, the law of Moses made provision for the redemption of the first-born son in Exodus 13:13-16. It is silent about the prospects for redemption, if any, for the daughters.
All of this I say by way of introduction, and to say that there will be some unpacking we need to do over the next few minutes of Mary’s symbolic gesture.
With that said, there are three things to which I would like to draw your attention.
The first, is that this is an act of worship, the very first instance of worship offered to Jesus in John’s Gospel.
Second, it seems to be Mary’s intent to re-enact the peace offering that is described in Numbers 15:1-16, which we also read this morning. The ointment she pours out fills the house in Bethany with fragrance, much as the wine poured out for a peace offering was a “pleasing odor to the LORD.”
Third, in her act of worship, Mary seems to foreshadow Jesus’ sacrificial death.
It’s clear that what Mary did has profound meaning. But what does it mean?
Last week, I preached on the parable of the prodigal son, but I left you with a problem: there was no reconciliation between the younger and older brother.
The story ended abruptly, and we never heard from the older brother again.
Reconciliation was not possible because no atonement can be made for high-handed sins. High-handed sins are those done with full knowledge and intent.
The younger brother was certainly guilty of high-handed sin. His sin was no accident. He purposely plundered his father’s estate and robbed his brother of both working capital and his manual labor.
Mary’s gesture must be understood in this context, as an appeal to the possibility of an otherwise impossible reconciliation, as an attempt to give the older brother his due, to restore what has been lost.
Let us see how.
II.
Today’s reading from John is describing a symbolic gesture that took place during supper at Martha and Mary’s house in Bethany.
In the previous chapter, Jesus has retreated from public view after raising Lazarus from the dead — the same man in whose house this supper takes place and who is sitting at table with Jesus.
The chief priests and Pharisees have also given notice that anyone who knows where Jesus is must inform them, so that they can arrest Him.
This means that Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Judas, and everyone else at that supper has a religious obligation to go to the authorities, to be informants, to rat out Jesus.
It is in this tense setting that Mary makes her symbolic gesture.
Her act of worship is an attempt to give God His due.
John tells us, “Mary took a pound of costly ointment 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 ointment.”
Judas objects, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”
He cites his concern for the poor but, in fact, he is annoyed that his opportunity to steal from the proceeds of the sale has been taken away.
John tells us, “This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it.”
Jesus commands Judas to leave Mary alone. He tells Judas that he will always have access to the poor, but that he won’t always have access to Jesus.
Mary’s devotion to Jesus is superior to Judas’ treachery. At the same time, Judas and the very generation he symbolizes is about to be cut off from God.
The perfumed fragrance that fills the house does not please Judas. The pleasing odor brings no peace to Judas.
There is a reason the law of Moses provided no sacrifice, no means of forgiveness or atonement for high-handed sins.
As I preached last week, “sorry” is never good enough for these kinds of sins. If restitution can be made, the law allows for it, but in cases where the loss was permanent, where no restoration was possible, the punishment was exile, to be cut off from the land of Israel.
But that leaves a gaping hole in the human heart, an unmet need for restoring what has been lost or stolen.
If that is true for the human heart, how much more so for the heart of God?
Now, I know, God needs nothing from us. “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” Human sin cannot break His heart.
Yet how else to explain this love which comes down to us in Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to Himself? (See: 2 Corinthians 5:19.)
The fragrance that filled the house became the “odor pleasing to the LORD” from the Old Testament peace offering. It meant that coming generations could have peace with God.
When faced with a situation in which all seems lost, we can follow Mary of Bethany’s example. We can pour out our devotion to our Lord.
III.
We are in a much better position to do so as well.
Let’s go back and take a closer look at what Mary did. I drew your attention before to three things.
First, it was an act of worship.
Second, it was a specific kind of worship, a peace offering modeled on those found in the Book of Numbers.
Third, she foreshadowed Jesus’ sacrificial death, the ultimate peace offering.
Let’s go through each of these in more detail.
The first is Mary of Bethany’s unique act of worship. This is the very first instance of worship offered to Jesus in John’s Gospel.
In John’s Gospel, there are no Magi to offer gifts to the baby Jesus, no scheming Herod who would use his pretended worship as an opportunity to kill the baby Jesus.
Mary of Bethany is the first human to worship Jesus in this account of Jesus’ life. The very next day, many more will worship Jesus as the crowds gather in Jerusalem to shout “Hosanna!” and lay palms before Him, but for now, Mary is alone in her reverence.
Her worshipful anointing with oil and the wiping of His feet with her hair would be blasphemy if Jesus were not God, and it would be impossible if Jesus were not also a man.
Second, it seems to be Mary’s intent to re-enact the peace offering that is described in Numbers 15:1-16, which we also read this morning.
In the peace offering, the larger the animal sacrificed, the more grain, wine, and oil had to be offered along with the sacrifice.
So, for instance, if you offered a lamb, you only needed one-fourth of a hin of wine.
(A hin was about one and a half gallons.)
If you offered a ram, you needed to increase the amount of wine you offered along with the ram to one-third of a hin. To sacrifice a bull, you would offer one-half a hin of wine.
The rule was, the bigger the animal, the more wine you had to pour out.
The wine was poured out as a libation. It was poured on the ground in front of the altar.
Or, as Judas might have said, it was wasted. Why pour wine on the ground when you could sell it and give the money to the poor?
Mary’s offering of a pound of spikenard represents nearly a year’s worth of wages. She pours it at Jesus’ feet just as a priest would pour the wine at the foot of the altar.
Considering who Jesus is, even almost a year’s wages is probably not enough to be worthy of Him, but she is following the law of proportionality as best she can. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the amount of wine, oil, and grain that must be offered as well.
The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross will be greater than all the lambs, rams, and bulls slaughtered under the Old Covenant.
This is something that Mary seems to understand and accept.
That is because, third, Mary is foreshadowing Jesus’ sacrificial death.
Much more than a peace offering, Jesus’ death accomplishes what no sacrifice in the Jerusalem temple could: forgiveness for high-handed sins.
Paul preaches this good news in Antioch to both Jews and Gentiles who fear God saying in Acts 13:38-39, “Let it be known to you therefore, brethren, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him every one that believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.”
IV.
Moses established the peace offering after God barred the Exodus generation from entering the Promised Land.
That generation had not acted in good faith. Not only had they worshipped the golden calf, but they doubted whether God would be with them in their war of conquest.
These faithless men tell Moses and Joshua in Numbers 13:31, “We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”
Even their later repentance was disobedience disguised as an act of faith. In Numbers 14:40 they try to reverse God’s judgment against them by force. “See, we are here,” they say, “we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised; for we have sinned.”
Well, at least they admitted they sinned.
But do you see how “sorry” isn’t good enough? We need to rely on more than just our repentance if we’re to have any hope.
That wilderness generation, the Israelites who came out of Egypt, would not find peace with God, but their children would.
The peace offering was for them, for the children of the promise.
Likewise, Mary’s offering is not for the benefit of a wicked generation — a generation represented in this passage by Judas — but for the generation that is to come, the one that will be regenerated — born again — by putting its faith in Jesus Christ.
That is why we are in a better position to worship God than Mary was. Mary made her peace offering in the hope that God would accept her worship.
We offer our praise and thanksgiving to God every Sunday knowing He already has.
V.
John is consciously modeled on the Book of Genesis.
Genesis describes the Creation week, and beginning with Mary of Bethany’s worship of Jesus, John describes the Redemption week.
Unlike Eve in the Creation week, Mary gives right worship to God during the Redemption week, signaling the need women have for a sure sign of their redemption. This is because of the nature of their first sin.
Eve’s sin was rooted in deception, Adam’s in weakness. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:14, “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”
The first woman’s first sin was to believe a lie. Genesis 3:4, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die.’”
This tendency towards deceptive sin leads to idolatry in worship. Again and again in the Old Testament we see that it is women, particularly the foreign women whom the men of Israel take for their wives, who lead their husbands and all Israel into apostasy.
To this day, the name of Jezebel still stands for deception in government and idolatry in worship.
So, it is fitting that as John’s account of the Redemption week starts, that Mary of Bethany, a woman, should be the first to give right worship to Christ.
If the first woman believed the serpent’s lie, this latter woman is the first to worship Christ in spirit and in truth.
Men will receive a sure sign of their redemption when Jesus’ male body is resurrected on Easter morning, so the “pleasing odor to the LORD” that is Mary’s peace offering becomes a sure sign that not just Jewish men, but women too can be redeemed from the power of sin.
Believe it or not, whether women could be saved as women seems to have been something of an open question in the early Church.
One verse after writing about Eve being deceived, Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:15 that “woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”
Paul wrote these words years, perhaps decades before John wrote his gospel, so he may not have had the advantage of John’s insight into the meaning of Mary’s worship, but it seems he had to correct a false idea that women were unworthy of salvation.
The gnostic and non-canonical Gospel of Thomas also has something to say about the redemption of women.
Now, I realize that you may have never heard of this gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John you know, but Thomas? Doubting Thomas? Did he write a gospel?
Well, no. He didn’t. But sometime in the first or second century, someone wrote a gospel and used his name.
It’s not a very good gospel. It was rejected by the Church and not included in the New Testament, in part, no doubt because of passages like this one. This is saying 114:
“Simon Peter said to them: ‘Let Mary go away from us, for women are not worthy of life.’
Jesus said: ‘Look, I will draw her in so as to make her male, so that she too may become a living male spirit, similar to you.’
(But I say to you): ‘Every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.’”
In other words, according to this specious book, women cannot be redeemed as women. They must become men.
Do you see from this how the whole transgender debate that is tearing society apart today is really nothing new?
These bad ideas have plagued us before, but armed with the Bible, we can refute them every time they stage a comeback.
In fact, some scholars think that John’s Gospel is a point-by-point rebuttal of the Gospel of Thomas, and if that is true, it is fitting that John goes to great lengths to describe Mary’s peace offering and to show that Jesus has accepted it.
Since what I am saying is somewhat novel, at least I haven’t read anyone else who applies Mary’s worship to the salvation of women in the way I’ve just done, let me add this disclaimer.
I am not saying that Mary’s worship saves her. I am not saying that women are saved differently than men are saved. I am only saying that given the context of the time, the acceptance of Mary’s peace offering by Jesus is a hopeful sign for women — it’s a hopeful sign for men too — but it’s a hopeful sign especially for women.
What I am saying is that women, because of the unique nature of the first woman’s sin, need a special sign or token to tell the world that Eve’s high-handed sin has been forgiven. I suggest to you that Mary’s peace offering is that sign.
I think John included it in his gospel so that Mary’s gesture could be used as a word against those who would rob women of their salvation, as it seems the author of the false Gospel of Thomas was trying to do.
Both Paul and John emphasize that women can be saved as women. Their female “spirit” is redeemed. They are free in Christ to be what God made them to be.
I dwell on this point because in an age of feminism, rampant homosexuality, and now transgenderism, we are just as confused about sex, gender, and identity as the ancients were.
Mary of Bethany can help us straighten things out.
Judas, on the other hand, is that which all weak men eventually become: a thief.
Think of stolen valor, those men who make up for their own cowardice by stealing the honor due to men who fought in our nation’s wars.
The faithless men who refused to fight under God’s banner were weak. Faced with banishment, they tried to steal their way into the Promised Land. God rejected them. Neither Moses nor the Ark of the Covenant went with them into battle, and they were defeated.
So, it is also fitting that as John’s account of the Redemption week begins, that Judas Iscariot’s fate is made clear: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Poverty in Israel was always a sign of Israel’s disobedience, for God had said in His law, “there will be no poor among you (for the Lord will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess)” (Deuteronomy 15:4).
The presence of the poor meant that God had withdrawn His blessing as a judgment against His people for their sins.
Judas has no share in Mary’s worship because He has no share in Christ.
He has put his share in the money box, where he will forever have to worry about other thieves who might break it and steal from him.
Judas’ case is hopeless, but Christ is about to put things right for all who put their trust in Him: men and women, Jew and Gentile.
That is the meaning of Mary’s worship. Her faith is the symbol of a fragrant hope that spreads from a home in Bethany to fill the whole Church.
Preached on April 6, 2025 at the First Congregational Church, Woodbury, Connecticut.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
How does understanding Mary’s anointing as a peace offering deepen your appreciation of Jesus’ role in reconciling us to God? What “high-handed sins” in your life feel beyond restoration, and how does this story address that?
Mary’s act foreshadows Jesus’ sacrificial death. How does this connection change your view of seemingly small acts of faith or obedience in your own life?
Judas’ reaction reveals his heart. What can we learn from the contrast between his self-interest and Mary’s selflessness? How do we guard against similar attitudes in ourselves?
The sermon highlights Mary’s worship as a sign that women, too, are redeemed in Christ. Why might this have been significant in the early Church, and how does it speak to contemporary debates about identity and salvation?
The fragrance filled the house as a “pleasing odor.” Where do you see the “fragrance” of Christ’s hope spreading in your life or community today? How can you contribute to that?
Last week’s prodigal son parable left reconciliation unresolved. How does Mary’s gesture offer a resolution to that tension, and what does it suggest about God’s desire to restore what’s lost?
Download the sermon handout here.
Upcoming Opportunities for Adult Education at the First Congregational Church of Woodbury
Assigned reading for the class is recommended, but not required. Drop-ins are encouraged and welcome.
Christianity and Liberalism. Pastor Dell teaches through J. Gresham Machen’s landmark book Christianity & Liberalism. (Order your copy from Westminster Bookstore here. Download for free here.) We’ll review the fundamentalist-modernist debate that split many mainline Protestant churches in the United States in the 1920s, leaving both impoverished. This is the next step in understanding the Reconquista Pastor Dell preached about earlier this year. Sundays after coffee hour during Eastertide, beginning Sunday, April 27.
The Plan of Salvation. Pastor Dell teaches B.B. Warfield’s The Plan of Salvation. Warfield masterfully deconstructs three false paths to salvation: self-salvation, salvation through the Church, and salvation for all (universalism), and then demonstrates why the Reformed faith is the faith of the saints of the Bible. Buy a used copy on eBay or download for free here. Sundays after coffee hour June-July.
The Ancient City. Pastor Dell teaches Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges’s classic 19th Century study of The Ancient City. (Order your copy on Amazon here.) Understanding the religion, family, and civic life of ancient Greece and Rome is key to understanding the context of Jesus’ life and ministry, the letters of Paul, and the world of the New Testament church. As our western civilization becomes increasingly post-Christian, we stand in almost the same cultural position as the last pagans of Rome. Sundays after coffee hour in the fall.
Westminster Standards Bible Study. Pastor Dell will lead a Bible study keyed to the biblical texts for each question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Pastor Dell recommends purchasing G. I. Williamson’s The Westminster Shorter Catechism: For Study Classes (available from Christian Books here) and an ESV Study Bible. Pastor has a limited supply of ESV Study Bibles to give away, first come, first served. Wednesday evenings at 6:30 in the parsonage, beginning April 23. N.B., there are 107 questions in the Shorter Catechism, so this Bible Study should last about two years, with periodic breaks. Families with children are welcome.
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