The Anointing of Jesus and What it Means to Us

Matthew 26:6-13
⁶ While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had a serious skin disease, ⁷ a woman approached Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive fragrant oil. She poured it on His head as He was reclining at the table. ⁸ When the disciples saw it, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. ⁹ “This might have been sold for a great deal and given to the poor.” ¹⁰ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a noble thing for Me. ¹¹ You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me. ¹² By pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she has prepared Me for burial. ¹³ I assure you: Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Introduction:

•          As we follow the footsteps of Jesus toward the cross, at one point we find Him in Bethany.
•          Jesus visited Bethany at least five times during His earthly ministry.
•          It was the home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, who were close personal friends of Jesus.
•          Bethany was located near Jerusalem and historical records reveal that there were three “homes” that took care of the poor and sickly, including one specifically for lepers.
•          These three “homes” were probably more like group homes than private homes, but there is no way to know for sure.
•          In addition to those three homes for the poor and sick, there were many private homes in Bethany, at least one of which still stands after 2000 years and tradition says is the home in which this story took place.
 
Verse 6 - … Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had a serious skin disease.
•          Simon had leprosy which was a terrible skin disease and made Simon ceremonially unclean according to Jewish tradition.
•          “Good Jews” did not go to the homes of lepers.
•          But Jesus was there because He cared about people more than he cared about tradition.
•          As we consider what it takes to reach our nation for Christ, we must follow Jesus’s example of spending time with those whom our religious traditions might shun.
•          People often gave Jesus a hard time about this, and the same might happen to us, but it is part of the cost of being on mission for the Lord.
 
Verse 7 - a woman approached Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive fragrant oil. She poured it on His head as He was reclining at the table.
•          While Jesus was visiting with Simon the Leper, a woman came up to Jesus.
•          Though Matthew does not tell us who the woman was, the Gospel of John reveals that Lazarus, Mary and Martha had been invited to the dinner that Simon was hosting for Jesus and that Mary was the woman.
•          Mary anointed Jesus’s head with expensive oil. The Gospel of John says she also anointed His feet.
•          According to John, Mary used a pound of oil, which was far more than the ritual amount normally used when a person wanted to show someone honor.
•          Mary was trying to demonstrate extravagant love.
•          The Gospels of Mark and John tell us that the oil was worth 300 denarii, which was a year’s wages for a common man.
•          Mary made this great sacrifice as a sign of her love and devotion to Jesus.
•          Mary’s love for the Lord was not stingy.
•          Far too many Christians have never made any significant sacrifice for Jesus.
•          In fact, in our consumer Christianity culture, increasingly we rarely make even minor sacrifices for Christ.
•          We have become people who want to be served by the church of Jesus instead of serving Jesus through the church.
•          This cost Mary a great deal of money, a year’s wages.
•          Missions is going to cost a lot of money, especially in places like New England where the cost of living is very high.
•          This cost Mary time that she could have been relaxing.
•          The Gospel of John says that Mary’s brother Lazarus was reclined at the table having a meal while Mary did this.
•          Mary had to get out of her recliner and sacrifice her time to do this for Jesus.
•          According to the 2011 American Time Use Survey people age 25-54 who were employed spend 7.6 hours sleeping, 8.8 hours working, 2.5 hours in leisure activities every day.
•          The same survey revealed that retired people age 65 and over spend 7.7 hours EVERY day in leisure activities, which includes 4.5 hours watching TV.

Verse 8-9 -When the disciples saw it, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This might have been sold for a great deal and given to the poor.”

•          This cost Mary some of her reputation.
•          As soon as Mary did this, the nay-sayers started complaining.
•          They said she was wasteful.
•          If we start spending significant amounts of money, time and energy on missions, we can expect some complaints.
•          This was not just some grumbling under their breath, the disciples were angry about it.
•          It is interesting how God’s people forget to be godly when money is involved.
•          The disciples said the reason they were upset was because the money could have been given to the poor.
•          It is important to remember that Jesus DOES expect us to help the poor, and this passage in no way undermines Jesus’s commands to help the less fortunate.
•          But the problem in this passage is that the hearts of those complaining were not really interested in helping the poor.
•          John 12:6 reveals that they did NOT really care about the poor; instead, one of those complaining wanted to use the money for himself.
•          When it comes to missions, we often use fancy talk as a way to convince ourselves that our time, money and energy are best spent on ourselves.

Verse 10 – But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a noble thing for Me.

•          Jesus knew their hearts, and confronted them about it.
•          Jesus knows our hearts, and what will we do when He finally confronts us about it.
•          Jesus said Mary had done a noble thing, something worthy of remembering.
•          Have we ever done a noble thing for the Lord that will be remembered after we are gone?

Verse 13 - I assure you: Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told in memory of her.”

•          Jesus said that anywhere the Gospel is proclaimed; Mary’s noble act would be remembered.
•          What a legacy to leave behind!
•          We can spend our time, money and energy golfing, shopping, going out to dinner and building our dream homes, or we can do something noble for the Lord.

The Cost for Winning the World to Christ includes:

•          Spending time with people our religious traditions normally shun.
•          Investing significant money in missions.
•          Giving up some of our leisure time to volunteer.
•          Giving up some of our reputation to serve in ways that others will not understand.

THE RESULT: the salvation of the lost, the planting of new churches and the glorious Gospel being proclaimed in noble ways that leave a legacy for future generations.