Judas and Mary: A Love Story
Palm Sunday Messages  Part 6
John 12:1-11	3-24-2013
Summary: On Palm Sunday Eve Jesus was anointed for burial to show that His death was no surprise. It was on God’s timetable, and happened as planned on Passover despite the fact that the Chief Priests did not want to do it then. Mary anointed Jesus with a year’s wages worth of perfume and was rebuked harshly by the Disciples on the ground that the money would have been better spent on the poor. Jesus then rebuked them and told them not to take this away from her. The Disciples’ rebuke was spearheaded by Judas, who didn’t care about the poor but wanted it for himself. Jesus told Judas he would always have opportunity to help the poor, but now was a time for worship. Our hearts should be like Mary’s – offering effusive, costly worship, rather than like Judas’. Love of money is deadly because it blinds one to the glory of Christ. 
Introduction: Anointed for Burial
The Heart of Mary
Set the Stage
Martha
Why the Feet?
Mary’s Dignity
Mary Rebuked
The Heart of Jesus
Beautiful
For Burial
Let Her Keep It
The Heart of Judas
The Love of Money
Caring for the Poor
The Heart of Agape
Our Dignity
Our Money
Conclusion
1:25 Questions

John 12:1-11  Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.  2  Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. (Matthew 26:6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper) Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.  3  Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard (Matthew 26:7 in an alabaster jar), an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' (Matthew 26:6 head) feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  4  But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,  5  "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages."  6  He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. (Mark 14:3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.  4  Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume?  5  It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.) 7  "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. (Matthew 26:10  Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. (Mark 14: 8  She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.) "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  8  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."  9  Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  10  So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,  11  for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

Introduction: Anointed for Burial
I suppose some of you might be expecting a sermon on the events of Palm Sunday today. But I’m not going to talk about Palm Sunday. Instead I’m going to preach on the events of Palm Sunday Eve. I don’t know if you have ever heard a sermon about Palm Sunday Eve – the night before Palm Sunday, but the events of that night are very important. They are recorded in three different gospels, and all three devote a long section to it. It was on that night that Jesus was anointed for burial.
Matthew 26:12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.  
That is a little unusual. Anointing was part of the embalming process. Most people are not embalmed until after they die. Jesus is still alive. He is perfectly healthy, and He rides into Jerusalem as one having already been embalmed. Why? Because He wanted everyone to know that His death was not an accident. It was planned.
Jesus always wanted it to be crystal clear that His life and death were right on schedule with God’s divine clock. It was not just some tragic triumph of Jesus’ enemies. Just the opposite. All Jesus’ life they were trying to kill Him, even at His birth. And numerous times during His ministry they attempted to kill Him and failed every time. They failed because it was not God’s timetable. But now it is. Now is the right time according to God’s plan, but this is actually the one time they did not want to do it.
Matthew 26:4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.  5  "But not during the festival," they said, "or there may be a riot among the people."
Anytime was a great time to kill Jesus, except during Passover week. “We have to hold off at least eight more days.” But God says, “No, it will happen in six days.” They say, “Not during Passover week.” God says, “It’s going to happen right on Passover day – that is when I have it planned, that is when you will do it.” And that is when they did it. Did God force them against their will? No, it was their decision. They acted freely but ended up doing it when they did not want to do it just because of the way circumstances shook out.
Luke 22:22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!
The timing was decreed by God. And Jesus was totally in sync with the Father’s timing. But woe to the people who did it, because they acted on their own free will so they are guilty.
You do not see it in the NIV, but the very first word of verse 1 is therefore. There are no chapter divisions in the original, so the therefore tells us that Jesus came to Bethany because of what was just said in the previous verse. Look at the previous verse:
John 11:57  But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
John says, “Prior to this, the authorities had put out an APB on Jesus, He was at the top of the chief priests most-wanted list, so Jesus waited until it was time for Passover, and then He started moving toward Jerusalem – not in spite of the arrest warrant, but because of the arrest warrant. 
Earlier in the gospels it is always the opposite. They try to kill Him, and it says, “Therefore Jesus left and went to a secluded place because His hour had not yet come.” This time, because God’s timing had come, Jesus started moving toward Jerusalem. He is going to show up and force the issue right when they do not want it to happen. Again, this does not justify what the Chief Priests and Judas and the others did, because they acted freely, but in the unfathomable, mind-boggling power of God, without violating or overturning man’s free will, He is still able to bring about the events He has planned, so that His perfect timetable is never violated.
The Heart of Mary
So this anointing is significant because it is another occasion for Jesus to announce His impending death. But it is also significant for another reason. It is important because it teaches us something about worship, and that is our focus for today. This event is arguably the most beautiful scene of worship in all the gospels. I think it is my favorite event in the whole life of Jesus. Somebody finally honors Jesus with an act of worship so profound that Jesus says,
Matthew 26:13 Amen, I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.
Do we preach the gospel here? Yes. So if we are going to preach the gospel then we had better also be telling the story of what this woman did because Jesus said that will always go along with the preaching of the gospel. Part of the gospel is teaching people how to worship God, and you are not going to find a more glorious picture of the essence of pure, undefiled, Christ-honoring worship than this event. John Piper: “It is a beautiful thing when the worth of Jesus and the love of his followers match — when the value of his perfections and the intensity of our affections correspond.” And that is exactly what we see in this passage. 
Set the Stage
John starts by setting the stage.
John 12:1 Six days before the Passover (Palm Sunday Eve), Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.  
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. Bethany is very close. If we were in Bethany right now (88th and Huron), Jerusalem would be at about 92nd and Federal – just on the other side of Waterworld. It is less than two miles to the west. And it is the hometown of Lazarus, who was now famous.
9  Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  10  So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,  11  for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.
So Lazarus was a key figure at this point – he and his sisters, Mary and Martha lived here in Bethany, but this dinner does not take place at their house. According to Matthew 26:6 this dinner took place in the home of Simon the Leper. Evidently he is one of the people Jesus healed of leprosy. He would have to be a former leper or he wouldn’t be having a dinner party.
2  Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor.
Imagine yourself there. You are reclining there at the table, and you look around. There’s Jesus – all the Apostles, Mary is there – and there right next to Jesus is an ex-leper. And next to him, an ex-corpse. There may have been others as well – these sixteen are just the ones who are mentioned as being there.
Martha
Someone says, “Hey Mary, where is your sister?”
“Where do you think? She’s in the kitchen.” (Make that seventeen.)
2  Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served
This is not even her house. Praise God for the Martha’s among us. She is a guest, and yet she is running around doing all the work. Remember the time Jesus had a meal at Mary and Martha’s house? Same thing. That time Jesus had to correct Martha because she had a bad attitude about her serving. This time there is no mention of any wrong attitude. When Jesus told her last time that Mary had chosen the better thing, that was not to imply that serving is wrong. Serving is wonderful as long as it is worship. And so Martha’s attitude may have changed, but her gift and calling stayed the same, so here she is serving. This passage is about another topic, not serving. But God goes ahead and mentions Martha, honoring her for serving.
John 12:26 My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Do not ever think that Jesus looked down on Martha just because He had to correct her that one time. Jesus had a special love for both these women.
John 11:5  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Jesus loved everyone, but there is a verse in Holy Scripture devoted to just telling us about the special affection Jesus had in his heart for these two women and their brother. Martha and Mary were some of Jesus’ dearest friends.
Why the Feet?
So Martha was serving, but the main point John wants to make here is about what Mary did.
3  Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. 
In Matthew’s account it says she poured it on his head (Mt.26:6). Same thing in Mark (Mk.14:3). Why do they say she poured it on Jesus’ head and John says it was on His feet? The answer is simple. She did both, but in Matthew and Mark the emphasis is to show Jesus being treated like a king. When you anoint a king, you anoint his head. In fact any time you anoint anyone, it is always the head. So that is what Matthew and Mark mention.
But why does John mention the feet? And one other question – in the Matthew account, when Jesus refers to what Mary had done, He says, When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial (Mt 26:12). If Mary anointed Jesus’ head, why does He say body when He describes it? And how did the perfume end up on His feet? Look again at verse 3. Notice how much perfume Mary used. The NIV says about a pint. It was twelve fluid ounces. That is a can of pop. Have you ever just pictured this in your mind – twelve ounces of perfume being poured on a person’s head?
Matthew 26:7 says that this perfume was in an alabaster container. That was a container with a long, skinny neck, and a very small opening so that you could sprinkle little drops out of it. Mary does not want drops. In Mark’s account he tells us that at this point Mary just broke the neck of that jar, and poured out the whole thing on Jesus. Have you ever been around someone who put too much cologne or perfume on? One squirt too many? You can hardly ride in a car with them. Look at the next line in verse 3.
3 And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  
Jesus was drenched with this beautiful smelling nard. That is why I said the next morning, if you would have been close to Him at the Triumphal Entry, you would have smelled this on His robes.
So can you see how it is not a problem that it says she anointed Jesus’ head – and body – and feet? The perfume went on His whole body. The reason the other gospels mention the head is to show Jesus as God’s anointed king – the Messiah. But John has a different focus. He wants us to know what happened after Mary anointed Jesus’ head. Matthew and Mark’s gospels had been in circulation many years before John finally wrote his gospel. When John wrote his, the material in the other gospels was common knowledge. So in John’s gospel you see John very often filling in the blanks about things that were not mentioned in the other three gospels. So John says, “You know that Mary anointed Jesus’ head. But I want you to know what she did right after that.”
Mary’s Dignity
3 she poured (also) it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. 
Why her hair? Why not a towel? That is what Jesus used when He washed the Disciples’ feet – a towel. Why does Mary use her hair?
1 Corinthians 11:15 the glory of a woman is her hair. 
God gave women long, beautiful hair to represent that which is glorious about her. There is a lot more about women that is glorious, but the hair represents all that. Ladies, if you spent some time fixing up your hair this morning, that is appropriate. That is your glory. So Mary takes the crowning glory of her life and used it as a rag to wipe the Master’s feet. In that culture there was nothing more menial than attending to someone’s feet. It was the task of the lowest slave in the house – and even he would use a towel. John the Baptist said he was not worthy to touch Jesus’ feet. Mary feels the same way, but she wants to worship Him, so she takes her highest glory and puts it at His feet.
That is always where Mary was. Did you know every time she appears in Scripture she is at Jesus’ feet? When they had the meal at Mary and Martha’s house and Martha was upset about Mary not helping her serve…
Luke 10:39  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.
When Jesus came to raise Lazarus from the dead, Martha came to Him first.
John 11:20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.  21  "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Then Jesus asks her to go get her sister Mary. And Mary immediately comes, and she says the exact same thing that Martha said, but before she says it, watch what she does.
32  When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 
Mary just felt like, “I belong at His feet.” We cannot give Jesus the honor that He deserves, so the best we can do is place our highest glory at the lowliest part of Him – His feet.
It was considered a tremendous indignity in that culture for a woman to ever let her hair down in public. It was an extreme disgrace and humiliation. Letting your hair down in the presence of a man you were not married to was on par with appearing in public without clothes – that level of humiliation. In their legal system it was actually grounds for divorce if a married woman did it. In Numbers 5, a woman accused of adultery would have to let down her hair as part of the trial. From a human point of view what Mary did was so inappropriate at so many levels. Not only the indignity of it, but also the fact that this nard was worth so much money.
Mary Rebuked
Mark 14:4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume?  5  It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.
It was worth more than a year’s wages – three hundred denarii. A danarius was the wage for twelve hours of work. If you multiply minimum wage times twelve times three hundred, you get about $30,000. Nard was extracted from a root that grew only at high altitudes. It did not grow in Israel. It was imported from the mountains of India. So it was a very expensive commodity. Either Mary’s family was extremely wealthy, or this was a family heirloom that had been passed down to her. She dumps thirty grand on the floor on an impulse. 
And she gets rebuked. That phrase rebuked her harshly refers to an angry scolding. It is one thing to just worship in a way where you lose your dignity and it is a little embarrassing. Someone laughs at you. This is a lot worse than that. Imagine being a woman, and having a whole group of men angrily, harshly rebuking you. One starts, then some others join in, and now you have maybe six or eight men in your face, angrily rebuking you.
Why are they so upset? Well, just think of what could have been done with that money. What if someone did that here? We have needs – benevolence needs, missionaries have needs, we need a bigger building, staff – all kinds of needs. What would you think if someone did some act of worship where they took something worth $30,000, and just used it for a one-minute act of worship, and all that money is gone? So they have a point – you could really help a lot of poor people with that much money. And so they say, “Why this waste?”
The Heart of Jesus
So, do they have a point? Whose heart is right – the heart of Mary or the heart of the Disciples? Was this a good thing Mary did? Or foolish? Let’s get the definitive word from Jesus. When those men are going after Mary, what do you picture her doing? Do you think she looked over at Jesus?
“Do You agree with them Lord? Was I wrong to do this?"
That is always what you should do anytime anyone rebukes you. Let’s take a look at the heart of Jesus.
7  "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. 
There is no cause for any rebuke here.
Beautiful 
Matthew 26:10 Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 
Unrestrained worship is a beautiful thing. It is not that Mary was way out on one extreme and the Disciples were way out on the other extreme and the balance was somewhere in the middle. We hear all the time, “Moderation in all things.” Jesus does not agree. Moderation is good in some areas, but in other areas, such as worship, moderation is downright evil. Our affections and earnestness should match the worth of Christ.
This is Mary’s last chance to worship Jesus in person before He died, so she just reached for the most lavish thing she could find to express the inexpressible: a heart that matches Christ’s worth. There is no measuring the value of Jesus. There is no quantifying His worth. And so there is no way to calculate the cost of love. There is no way to put the heart on a scale and say, this much affection for Jesus and no more. Jesus is inexpressibly wonderful, and Mary is inexpressibly affectionate. They match, and that is exactly as it should be.
For Burial
Does that mean we should all go out tomorrow and dump out our whole life savings on some extravagant act of worship? Maybe, but not necessarily. God does not expect everyone to do this. In fact, not even Mary did it prior to this time. When Jesus ate at her house she didn’t do this. And when Jesus came and raised her brother from the dead she didn’t do this. This was in honor of Jesus’ burial – that is a special occasion.
8  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.
Mary seems to be the only one who realizes – this is the last chance to do something like this. This is the last chance anyone will have to worship Jesus in person, in the flesh – to literally touch His feet in an act of worship – it is the last chance anyone on earth can do that until the Second Coming. For over 2000 years millions of saints have longed to be able to do what Mary did – to see Jesus face to face and bow down and worship Him and to wash His feet – placing our highest and best at His feet in worship. If Jesus Christ were going to physically visit Jerusalem for a few days next month, and you had an invitation to have dinner with him one night, how much would you be willing to spend on a plane ticket? That is the opportunity that Mary and the Disciples both had. And Mary saw it for what it was. The Disciples did not. Mary understood – she had one last opportunity to worship the Lord in person before He would die.
So do we spend our whole life savings every time we worship? No. But should we have hearts like Mary’s in our worship? Is Jesus worthy of unrestrained expressions of love? Yes! Are any of us guilty of honoring the Lord with too much of our money? Will some of us get to Judgment Day and hear God say, “I wish you would have backed off a little on your expressions of worship”? Not likely.
The question is not so much, “What is the dollar amount you are going to use to honor Christ?” That is a question we all must answer. But an even more salient question is this: “Do I have a heart that is more like Mary’s or more like the Disciples?” The Disciples saw what Mary did and said, “Why this waste?” Jesus saw it and said, “She has done a beautiful thing.”
Let Her Keep It
Look at what Jesus says in verse 7. The literal translation would be this:
7 …Let her keep it for the day of my burial.
Let her keep what? The perfume is already gone – it has been poured out. So she can’t keep that. What is it that Jesus wants Judas and the other Apostles to let Mary keep for the day of Jesus’ burial?
Mark 14:8  She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.
Jesus had said repeatedly that He was going to die and rise again. Even Jesus’ enemies knew that much (Mt.27:62-64). Jesus had repeatedly stated that He was going to suffer and die at the hands of the chief priests. The Disciples resisted that idea, but there is no reason to assume that Mary also resisted it.
Mary knew Jesus was about to die, and this was to honor Him in His burial, but she does not want to wait until He is dead. She loves him, and they are face to face right now, and she wants to offer Him this expression of her love right now, when He is still alive.
So what did Jesus mean by Let her keep it for the day of my burial? Keep what? Keep her expression of worship. The Disciples were trying to take that away from her. What if she listened to them? What if they convinced her, and she ended up saying, “You’re right. I was wrong. I never should have done that – it was foolish. It was wasteful. I regret doing it”? If they had persuaded her to do that, they would be taking away her heart of worship. And Jesus says, “No, don’t take away from her what she has done. It’s beautiful. Let her keep it. This beautiful thing that was done in honor of My burial – let it stand.”
The Heart of Judas
Now, to drill down a little deeper, John tells us something the other gospels do not mention. He tells us who the instigator of the Disciples’ reaction was. It was Judas. He was the one who first rebuked Mary, and then the others followed his lead. But Judas’ reason for doing it really had nothing to do with caring for the poor. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit John lets us know what his motive really was.
4  But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,  5  "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages."  6  He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.  
John shows us the contrast between the heart of Mary and the heart of Judas. I titled the sermon today, “Judas and Mary: A Love Story.” It is a love story, not about love between Judas and Mary, but a love story that contrasts Mary’s love with Judas’ love. Mary loved Jesus; Judas loved money. John wants us to see what a heart of worship looks like, and the clearest way to do that is to contrast it with a heart that loves money. To Mary it is worth it to dump $30,000 on the ground just to express her love for Jesus for twenty seconds. Judas is just about to go out and sell Jesus for about $1000. Thirty pieces of silver – the price of a slave. The difference between Judas and Mary has nothing to do with money management or stewardship. It is about how much Jesus is worth compared to how much money is worth. Mary has her eyes on the worth of Jesus, and Judas has his eyes on the worth of money.
The Love of Money
And having your eyes on the worth of anything other than Jesus is suicidal. In a matter of days, Judas will be dead - by his own hand. That money he thought would make him happy didn’t.
1 Timothy 6:9  Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  10  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Judas wandered from the faith, pierced himself with many griefs, and plunged into destruction – losing his life and his eternal soul, all because he fell in love with money. Money is deadly. We have to handle it, but it is like fire in our hands. It can be used for great things, but if it gets too close and touches your heart it is lethal. You have to keep it away from your heart. You have to keep luxury away from your heart. You have to keep new cars, and shopping malls, and electronics and vacations and nice houses away from your heart. If they get anywhere near your heart they will clamp down on it like a bear trap, and your life will be ruined. It will be ruined because it will cripple your heart and render it incapable of seeing God’s glory.
We look at Judas and see a monster. We are no more afraid that we are going to become like Judas than we are going to become like Hitler. Prior to going into this study this week, the idea that I might be like Judas was the farthest thing from my mind. But when John forced me to examine myself in some hard ways. All he gave me was Mary and Judas. And he left me to figure out which one I was more like. I don’t feel like I am really caught up in the love of money, but when I look at the heart of Mary here and the heart of Judas, I cannot escape the fact that my heart is dangerously far from being like Mary’s and sickeningly close to being like Judas’.
I come here to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and sometimes I am just appalled at how dull my affections for Him are. I am so easily distracted, and when I compare my excitement over His glory to my excitement about earthly pleasures, there is a lot to repent of. Loving the stuff of this world blinds us to the glory of Christ. When your heart attaches to stuff, then you become blind to anything that might threaten your enjoyment of stuff. And following Christ most certainly does threaten that. Maybe none of us has gone to the extremes that Judas went to, but is the DNA of the sin of Judas’ heart present in some measure in my heart? Yes, it is.
And whatever the degree of the sin, it is just as ugly. Think about this. Jesus is right there, and they say, “Why this waste?” It is interesting – it didn’t bother Judas that she had this nard. He did not rebuke her the day before saying, “Why didn’t you sell that nard and give it to the poor?” It is perfectly OK for her to keep it for herself – just don’t waste it on Jesus. Keeping it for yourself is fine, spending it on the poor is fine – but using it for the glory of God? That is a waste. That shows the same priorities we talked about last week: People – high, the glory of God – low.
Caring for the Poor
But isn’t it a good thing to care about the poor? Helping the poor really is a priority for anyone who loves God, right? So why is Jesus so quick to say that Mary did the right thing? Why not use that money to help the poor instead? Jesus has a wonderful answer to that.
8  You will always have the poor among you
Jesus knew Judas’ heart. He knew Judas did not care one bit about the poor. He just wanted the money in the bag so he could skim some of it for himself. And Jesus could have exposed that right here, but He doesn’t. He just responds to Judas according to what Judas said. Judas, you are concerned about the poor? Great – you are perfectly free to spend the rest of your life helping the poor! Right now is time for worship. But the rest of your life you have My permission to help all the poor people you want.
And Judas said, “Oh, thanks for that insight, Lord!” and went out and devoted the rest of his life to helping the poor. Right? No. He sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and did not even give that to the poor.
The thing about people like Judas – they are really big on helping the poor with other people’s money. He has got great ideas for how Mary’s money could help the poor. What about all that money you have stolen from the bag, Judas? Why not use that?
This is a good lesson for those people who think it is the Christian thing to vote for government programs to help the poor. And of course the government does not earn any money – they only get it by collecting taxes. Take money from people by force, and use that to help the poor. That is not the most compassionate approach. The most compassionate approach is take your own money and help the poor. That is the lesson Jesus is giving Judas here. You are free to help the poor all you want Judas, but don’t get on Mary’s case about helping the poor. What she did with her money was a beautiful thing. It was beautiful not just because she gave up her wealth, but because her heart corresponded to the worth of Jesus. Judas’s heart contradicted the worth of Jesus.
The Heart of Agape
Well, we have seen the heart of Mary compared to the heart of Judas. Mary loved Jesus; Judas loved money. And we have seen the heart of Jesus – He affirmed Mary’s heart as being beautiful. One more heart for us to examine – how about the heart of Agape? How do we as a church stack up against the heart of Mary? Mary gave two things to Jesus: her money and her dignity. Do we worship like that? Does the Lord see our faith and our joy and the costliness of our gifts each weekend and say, “Father, they have done a beautiful thing to Me”?
Our Dignity
Let’s start with dignity. What Mary did seemed inappropriate from a human standpoint, but from a spiritual standpoint there is nothing more appropriate and fitting than that a woman or a man should regard the honor of Christ above their own dignity.
2 Samuel 6:16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.  …  20  When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-dressed in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"  21  David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD … -I will celebrate before the LORD.  22  I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes."
Are you dignified in your worship? Do you always maintain your cool? Does the Bible talk about shouting, clapping, kneeling, laying down prostrate, lifting your hands – even dancing? 
“Yes, it does, but I can’t do anything to embarrass myself.”
Worship is kind of like when a guy is with a bunch of his buddies and he gets a call from his girlfriend, and at the end of the call she says, “I love you.” What does he do? If he says, “I love you,” back to her he’ll get teased by his friends. But if he doesn’t, his girlfriend will be disappointed. What does he do? It depends on whether he actually loves her. When you really love someone, you are proud to express it. Mary loved Jesus, and she did not care what her expression of that love looked like to people. She took her hair down and laid all her dignity right there at Jesus’ feet to honor Him.
I told the Agape 101 class last week – maybe some of you hold back on expressions of worship because you do not want to be a distraction during the worship service. Was Mary a distraction? Yes – a beautiful distraction.
2 Samuel 6:5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals. 
How far should you go in expressing your love for the Lord publicly? How about this – would you all agree that as wonderful as the praise time is here at Agape, we are not quite there yet when we compare ourselves to the worship of Mary… or David, one of the greatest worshipers ever? We still have progress to make. Would it help us if someone started doing backflips all the way down the aisle? We may not be ready for that quite yet. But how about this – what if those of you who have such passionate love for the Lord and know how to be expressive in your love – how about if you help the rest of us along? Whatever the most expressive thing you see going on during worship – what if you took us just one small step further? Just a little bit more. That is not going to distract us from worship; it will enhance our worship. It will inspire us and free up others to be expressive. Can we all just make a decision right here and now: When it comes to worship, maintaining my dignity is not important? Our goal is not to get to Judgment Day and hear God say, “Wow, during worship you were so cool. Not one hair was out of place. You were like Fonzi on Happy Days.” I would rather I was like David or Mary, wouldn’t you?
Our Money
And how about our money? Mary’s worship was costly. Is ours? Or are we careful and measured in our expressions of love to God?
“How much can I afford to give? All I’ve got on me is a $20. I would be embarrassed to make change out of the box. I suppose I could swing $20 … although, I do need to get some gas … God doesn’t want me to be foolish, and it’s the heart that counts anyway…”
And we are so careful never to overspend on God. We do not hesitate to overspend on ourselves – even getting into debt. We will borrow money and pay interest to get ourselves a nice vehicle, and we spend money we don’t have on credit cards for appliances or TV’s. And if it is our birthday, or anniversary or Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or Valentine’s Day or any kind of special occasion – then we splurge even more on ourselves. When do we ever splurge on Christ? “I’ve got to have a big, flat screen TV so that my movies are exciting,” and we will spend hundreds of dollars for that, and then when it comes to our worship, “I just can’t afford more than a few dollars.” We splurge on food, splurge on clothes, splurge on entertainment, splurge on transportation, splurge on vacations, and skimp on worship. Whenever you read of people in Scripture who really love God, you can see it in the offerings they give in worship to God.
2 Samuel 24:24 I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. 
Why? Why give God money? He does not need any money. That is true – He doesn’t need it. But we need to give it. We need to give enough to reveal whether it has clamped down on our heart. And we need to give enough to express effusive love. God calls us to love Him with every part of our lives, and so when someone says, “I am willing to love God in several areas, and serve Him and give my time and energy to Him, but I draw the line when it starts hitting my wallet” – that is a sign of a person who loves money. One of the most valuable things about money is it gives us a window into our heart. And a heart that clutches on to earthly stuff, and is unmoved by the glory of God is a Judas heart that is clutching on to death. When the stuff of this world grabs hold of my heart, not only will I not be able to follow Mary’s example, because I will be blinded to the worth of Christ.
Conclusion
You can tell by the way John writes that he was an eye-witness. He was there, and he can still remember the aroma. It filled the room and John remembered that the rest of his life.
Oh Father, make our worship like that – a pleasing aroma emanating from Christ. Let our praise draw the world’s attention to Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His death and burial and resurrection and ascension. Tear from our hearts the love of stuff and replace it with pure, undiluted love for our Savior. For we pray this in His holy name, amen.

Benediction: 1 Chronicles 16:29  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

1:25 Questions
1.	In your life, which earthly treasures are the greatest threat to begin to blind you to the glory of Christ?
2.	In your progress toward more lavish, more expressive, more exuberant worship, what do you see as the most important next step you should make at this time toward that goal?