SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/8/2016 8:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Humble Sacrifice of Mary
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 12:3
Message of the verse: “3 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.”
Dr. Wiersbe
has written some very insightful comments on this particular verse and as
mentioned many times before he puts the cookies on the shelf where you can
reach them.
“The
account of Mary’s anointing of her Lord is also found Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark
14:3-9. But it must not be confused with
the account given in Luke 7:36-50, where a former harlot anointed Jesus in the
house of Simon the Pharisee. Mary was a
virtuous woman, and she anointed Jesus in the house of Simon the (former) leper
(Mark 14:3). The Luke 7 event took place
in Galilee, while the account we are now considering occurred in Judea. The fact that there are two ‘Simons’ involved
should not surprise us for Simon was a common name in that day.
“When you
combine all three accounts, you learn that Mary anointed both His head and His
feet. It was an act of pure love on her
part, for she knew her Lord was about to endure suffering and death. Because she sat at Jesus’ feet and listened
to Him speak, she knew what He was going to do.
It is significant that Mary of Bethany was not one of the women who went
to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus (Mark 16:1).
“In a
sense, Mary was showing her devotion to Jesus before it was too late. She
was ‘giving the roses’ while He was yet alive, and not bringing them to the
funeral! He act of love and worship was
public, spontaneous, sacrificial, lavish, personal, and unembarrassed. Jesus called it ‘a good work’ (Matt. 26:10;
Mark 14:6) and both commended her and defended her.
“It would
have required a year’s wages from a common laborer to purchase that
ointment. Like David, Mary would not
give to the Lord that which cost her nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). Her beautiful act of worship brought a fragrance
to the very house in which they were dining, and the blessing of her deed has spread
around the world for centuries to come!
“When she
came to the feet of Jesus, Mary took the place of a slave. When she undid her hair (something Jewish
women did not do in public), she humbled herself and laid her glory at His feet
(see 1 Cor. 11:15). Of course, she was
misunderstood and criticized; but that is what usually happens when somebody
gives his or her best to the Lord.”
We will
look at this more in our next SD, but for now I want to talk about something
that I have been thinking about as I go over this passage and it has to do with
how the fragrance of the perfume permeated the room. I suppose that one could look at many
applications of this, and also one could compare it with what comes next in the
chapter, what Judas said. I was thinking
more along the line of Mary herself bringing a great fragrance to the room
herself with her selfless deed. As Dr.
Wiersbe said the reason she knew what was going on was because she sat at the
feet of Jesus, as we have seen on many different occasions. Can we do that today when Jesus is in heaven
sitting at the right hand of the Father?
First of all Jesus is everywhere just as the attribute of omnipresence
shows us, but how can we sit at the feet of Jesus now is the question we need
to answer so that we can be like Mary who did this when Jesus was on the
earth. My thoughts go to Romans 12:2 “And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so
that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect.” I have actually preached
on this verse along with verse one eleven years ago while living in Aruba and
it is a verse along with verse one that I recite to the Lord most mornings as I
give myself to the Lord for worship and service each day. However we must understand that in order to
set at the feet of Jesus now in our day and time we need to be in the Word of
God each day to read it and to study it and to meditate upon it so that we can
have our minds transformed as Mary did when she sat at His feet. I have mentioned that the word transform in the
Greed is the word “metamorphoo” which we get the word metamorphosis from and as
we look at that word we know that it can be seen as a worm turning into a
beautiful butterfly. That is what
happened to Mary when she sat at the feet of Jesus and that is what can happen
to believers today as they study and memorize and meditate upon the Word of
God.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can see that wonderful things happen when
we sit at the feet of Jesus, that by doing this we can get the sweet fragrance of
the Word of God as it comes into our lives.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I desire to do a better job
meditating upon the Word of God.
Memory verses for today:
(Romans 6:8-10) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall
also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is
never to die again, death no longer is mater over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin
once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Rebekah” (Genesis 24:44).
Today’s Bible question:
“Where was Solomon when he dreamed and God said ‘Ask what I shall give
thee’?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/8/2016 9:45 AM
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