Mary’s Extravagant Worship — John 12:1-11 (07.26.2026)

And when I finish reading, I will say this is the word of the Lord,

if you'll respond by saying thanks be to God.

Jesus therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany,

where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

So they made him a supper there, and Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one

of those reclining at the table with him.

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.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was intending to betray him,

said, Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?

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.

Therefore Jesus said, Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.

The large crowd of the Jews then learned that he was there, and they came,

not for Jesus' sake only, but they might also see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

But the chief priest planned to put Lazarus to death also, because on account

of him, many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, good morning. Go ahead and be turned in your Bibles to John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

And as you do, let me pray for us one more time.

Father, we thank you for this story, this incredible display of extravagant

worship and love from Mary.

Lord, help us today to see what she saw.

We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

So when Tiffany, my wife, Tiffany and I were in high school, we met ninth grade.

We met 10th grade. We started dating and I'll never forget the early on in our friendship.

She took me out on a ride on her four-wheeler. She had some property and she

was showing me around her property and she knew it like the back of her hand

and she was flying and I was holding on for dear life.

And she i remember her like taking me around through this these thick patches

of woods and like heaven and she'd say duck and i'd have to duck and if i didn't

i mean it would have knocked me off the back of this thing anyway,

i fell in love i mean in in that in that moment of like adrenaline and fear,

i fell in love we we paused there's this like clearing and we stopped and the

sun was setting. We admired it for just a minute.

And while I was sitting there, I kid you not, I, as a, as a 10th grade boy.

I determined, I committed, I am going to marry this girl.

And I, and, and, and I, and I never veered from that.

At that moment, from that moment, I was captivated.

I was captivated. And I wonder if you've ever experienced something like that.

Maybe it was in a relationship. Maybe it was with a sport that you played and you thought,

I'm going to go pro in this thing or a job that you started that just pulled

you in and you just fell in love with it or a hobby.

But I think all of us have experienced that before where you become captivated.

To be captivated means to be enthralled or mesmerized.

To be enthralled or mesmerized. And this is a story.

This story in John chapter 12 is a story about being captivated.

John 12 · chapter mention

The goal of John's gospel, we've been seeing, we've been working our way through

the gospel of John, the goal of it is to help us to see Christ and to believe

in him that we might have eternal life by believing in his name.

And throughout the gospel, he's been showing us examples of genuine faith.

And then he's also showing us contrasting examples of insufficient faith or

of those that reject Christ.

And that's exactly what we have here in this story this morning.

Both Mary and Judas are captivated by something. Mary is captivated by Jesus.

Judas is captivated by sin.

And Mary's captivation is no schoolgirl crush. That's not what's happening here.

She is captivated by the unthinkable grace and mercy that has been shown to her by her Lord.

Judas's captivation with sin is a terrifying warning for us all.

His blindness to the immeasurable worth of Christ led to his destruction and damnation.

Because we were made in the image of God. We are worshipers.

It's fundamental to who we are.

We worship. And that means that something always has your heart. Always.

You right now, whether you realize it or not, you are captivated by something.

Today, we're going to see how vital it is that we're captivated by Christ,

by the grace that he's offered us through the gospel.

In verses one and two of this passage, we get the context. Jesus's friend, Lazarus, had died.

We studied this the last two weeks. He died. He was dead for four days, buried for four days.

And Jesus, in an incredible display of power, raised him back to life.

Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha. And so the three of them invite

Jesus and his disciples and crowd of people to celebrate what Jesus has done and to thank him.

But this miracle that Jesus did, the seventh sign that we've seen in John's

gospel also was the nail in the coffin. It was the thing that sealed Jesus's fate.

The religious rulers saw it and they said, this is it.

We cannot let him go on anymore. and they decide they're going to kill him.

John tells us when this dinner takes place, it's six days before the Passover.

The Passover is the day that Jesus will be betrayed by Judas and arrested.

So he is a week away from his crucifixion and he knows it.

If you look at verse one, you see it says six days before the Passover,

Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was.

He makes the intentional decision to go to Bethany where Lazarus is,

where all the stir is happening because of him being raised from the dead.

Now he's going around telling people about it, obviously.

And the crowd that saw it, many of those saw it, believed in Jesus,

and they're going around and telling people about it.

So he's walking into the storm, essentially.

Knows that he's walking into his own death because Jesus is captivated by the

glory of his father and therefore is bound to do his father's will.

His heart overflows with a costly obedience.

And the point that I want us to see today is that whatever captivates you will

determine what overflows from your heart.

So we're gonna see what's overflowing from Mary's heart in this extravagant

act of worship, and we're gonna see what's overflowing from Judas's heart because

of what has them captivated.

We'll look mostly at Mary's worship, and then we'll look briefly at Judas.

So if you're a note taker, let's dive into looking at Mary captivated by grace.

So when a guest comes or came to your home in first century Israel,

it wasn't unusual to have a servant wash their feet and to put a dab of oil on their head.

That was nice smelling.

That wasn't unusual.

But what Mary does is shocking for everyone in the house. Look at verse three with me.

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed

the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

So Mary takes a pound of very expensive oil, anointing oil.

She breaks this bottle open and she pours it out, all of it out,

saving none for herself on the feet of Jesus.

She doesn't just wash Jesus's feet and put a dab of oil on his head.

She gets down at his feet, the place reserved for servants, and she pours out

the most expensive thing she owns on his dirty, dusty feet.

And then she takes her hair, her glory, and she wipes his feet clean with her hair.

This is worship, and it is the overflow of a heart captivated by Jesus.

I want to look at some very specific things we can learn from her act of extravagant worship.

First, her head was involved.

Her head, her mind, her worship was thoughtful. Look down at verse 5,

what Judas says. Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

This denarii was a day's wages for a laborer.

So according to Judas's comment, this anointing oil was worth nearly a year's

wages, something like the equivalent of $50,000.

And we don't know why she had this very expensive oil. It could have been an inheritance.

It could have been something that was given to her for a dowry for when she met a man.

We know she's holding on to this for some future thing. We don't know why she had it originally. And.

She doesn't offer something so valuable impulsively. I do not believe that this

was unplanned. I think that she knew exactly what she was going to do when they invited Jesus over.

I think she prepared for this act of extravagant worship. And it was not an

ounce too extravagant for Jesus.

It was a gift fitting for Jesus.

If I was invited to, let's say you

were invited to a neighbor's son's three-year-old birthday party. Okay.

So you're invited to a neighbor's child's party. You're going to go to Target

or Walmart or wherever, and you're going to get something suitable for that

occasion and for that recipient.

You're going to get, you're probably going to spend 15, 20 bucks on a Lego set,

or something like that, right?

And if you're going to ask a girl to marry you, you're going to save up for a,

probably multiple months, every penny that you can, and you're going to get

a very expensive engagement ring, right?

Because the gift is determined by the occasion and by the person that you're giving it to.

And Mary's no different here. She considers who it is that she is giving this

gift too. She considers the occasion and she decides, I am going to give him

my most valuable possession.

I think she's thoughtful about her gift. So her head is engaged.

Secondly, we see that her heart is engaged.

She's doing this out of love for Jesus.

Jesus said to the Pharisees back a couple of chapters before in John 8, 42.

If God were your father, you would love me.

In other words, when God adopts a person into his family, he gives us the gift of saving faith.

He gives us a new heart, which sees Jesus not as a mere free ticket out of hell, but as our treasure.

That's the parable of the treasure hidden in the field, right?

For the joy before him. He sells everything that he owns so that he can buy

the field so that he can have the treasure.

That is what this is talking about. It's treasure in Christ,

seeing Christ as worth everything you own, more than everything you own.

And so scripture is very clear. There's no such thing as saving faith that does

not include love for Christ.

Paul describes believers in Ephesians 6 as those who love our Lord Jesus Christ

with love incorruptible.

This extravagant gift is a clear response of a genuine love in a heart that

has been transformed by grace.

Despite Judas's complaint that this gift is uncalled for or is a waste,

Mary's affections matched Jesus's worth.

Her affections matched his worth. This was appropriate. it.

Mary's heart isn't worshiping mechanically. She's not going through the motions.

She is engaged. She is overflowing with love and gratitude.

And so our hearts, when we worship the Lord, our hearts need to be engaged.

Yes, we need our heads engaged. We need to think about what we're doing.

We need to consider what we're doing, but our hearts also must be engaged.

There are terrible consequences for those who do not love the Lord.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.

So Mary worships with her head and her heart. And next we see that her worship is humble.

John's focusing on Mary pouring this costly offering out, not on Jesus's head, but on his feet.

She's at his feet. She is in the place of a servant.

Bible commentator Charles Erdman points out, the life of Mary is painted for

us in three memorable pictures, in each of which she is at the feet of Jesus.

In Luke 10, 39, Mary sits at Jesus' feet to learn.

In John 11, 32, Mary falls at Jesus' feet in surrender.

And here in John 12, 3, Mary is anointing Jesus' feet in worship.

Mary is humble. She's been given a gift.

She knows she does not deserve the brother that she loved had died.

And Jesus brings him back. She knows she doesn't deserve that.

And this gift of grace invokes humility in Mary. And any true comprehension

of grace invokes humility in us.

When we understand how truly undeserving we are of God's grace,

of his kindness, of his mercy, it invokes humility in us. It humbles us.

So Mary's worship is engaging her head and her heart. It's humble.

Finally, her worship is helpful.

It says the fragrance filled the house. No one in that house missed what Mary did. No one.

And it impacted everyone there. It couldn't be ignored.

It elicited a response. First, it gets a response from Judas,

and then Jesus comes and defends her.

And then we have the record of this act of worship in at least three Gospels.

Mary's extravagant worship is helpful because it forces those who look on to

examine their own hearts.

We look at her example and ask, do I love Jesus with that kind of love?

What is it that Mary sees that maybe I'm not seeing if I don't feel the way that she feels?

In Mark's account of the story, Jesus says, Mark 14, 9, Truly I say to you,

wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what Mary has done will be told in memory of her.

Her worship is helpful. Here we are today, 2,000 years later,

still considering what she did that day.

Mary's worship of Jesus engaged her head. It engaged her heart.

It was humble. It was helpful to others.

So what about you let's think about this just briefly it's let's apply these

things to ourselves is your worship,

is your worship thoughtful in order for your in order for you to worship from

the heart you must begin with the mind you got to start with your head you got

to you have to think right thoughts you have to

focus on the lord or do you rush into his presence,

without giving any thought to the significance of the occasion,

the privilege that it is to come into his presence.

Dallas Willard once said, the first act of love is attention.

And I heard another pastor say, whatever has your attention has your affections.

There's a lot of truth to that.

What you focus on shapes you.

And genuine worship that overflows from the heart begins with the head.

How often do you fix your mind on the Lord?

Do you take time? Do you silence the noise around you long enough to fix your attention on Him?

I believe one of the most common causes of a numb heart is a lazy mind.

We don't take the time to focus on the Lord, to spend time reflecting on the

gospel, on what He's done for us.

Secondly, do you worship from the heart? Do your affections for Him match His

worth? When you sing to Him, do you consider all that He's done?

Does it produce a love for Him?

If you do not love Jesus, you do not know Him. That is the clear teaching of Scripture.

Saving faith involves a change in what you love.

John's gospel makes it clear, if you still love darkness, if you still are pursuing

and loving darkness, you're not loving Jesus.

You've not been born again if you do not love him.

Point number three, are you humble in your worship?

Do you consider how unworthy you are to receive such a kindness from one so high above you?

True comprehension of the gospel produces humble worship. Number four,

does your worship help those around you?

If you're captivated by Jesus and the grace that's been given to you,

then your life will be one of extravagant, loving worship that will impact everyone around you.

Believers will be encouraged, taught, and strengthened by your example.

This is just a side note, one of the reasons here at Christ Church that we emphasize

congregational singing. We want to hear each other sing.

We want to hear the voices of our brothers and our sisters who also had a hard week.

Come together and lift high the name of Jesus.

It matters to us. Our worship has a vertical component. Clearly,

we're singing songs and praises to God, and we're also singing to one another.

Ephesians 5, 18 through 20 says, do not get drunk with wine for that's debauchery,

but be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

It is horizontal and vertical.

And when you hold back your song of praise in church, you're hurting the person next to you.

Your brother, your sister is deprived of hearing you sing.

So let's learn from Mary's example of worship that's engaged,

engaging the head and the heart that's humble and that's helpful to those around us.

So now let's briefly turn our attention to Judas, who was captivated not by

Jesus, but instead by sin.

Let's read verses four through six again. But Judas Iscariot,

one of his disciples who was about to betray him, said, but why was this ointment

not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.

And having charged the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

There are many things that we could say about Judas, but this morning I want

to focus on three things that Judas loved that led him to destruction.

Self, wealth, and the world.

First of all, John points out that Judas was one of Jesus' disciples.

He's reminding us of Judas's proximity to Jesus.

He has closer access to Jesus than almost anyone.

And remarkably, only Jesus knew that Judas was a fake because he played the

part of a devoted follower well.

But Judas was motivated by self-interest. He was in this thing for what he could get out of it.

He was still all about his desires.

He's thinking about what he can do with that offering if she doesn't pour it out on Jesus' feet.

And this, friends, is a stark warning that sometimes those involved in Christian

community can be the most deceived and lost.

We have to look at these examples that we have in Scripture and tremble before them.

Judas demonstrates that there is a path to hell that passes closely by heaven's gate.

Do not think that because you simply said a prayer one time or affirm intellectually

certain truths, that that automatically means you've been given a new heart that loves Jesus.

Despite Judas' proximity to Jesus, he has no love for Jesus and is accursed, as Paul said.

He's not truly captivated by Jesus because he remains preoccupied with himself.

Secondly, he's in love with wealth.

What is it that's in his heart that's keeping him from seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ?

He's blinded by the love of money.

Judas loved and therefore served money. Jesus said, you cannot serve God and money.

It's an impossibility. And Judas is serving money.

And so he cannot serve Jesus. Likely Paul had Judas in mind when he wrote in

1 Timothy 6, 9 through 10,

but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare,

into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

Who does he say this is? People who desire to be rich.

Then he says, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.

It's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced

themselves with many pangs.

Through a craving for wealth, through a desire for wealth, people have plunged

themselves into ruin and destruction, have wandered away from the faith.

That's Judas.

He has a desire to be rich and it leads him to ruin and destruction.

His heart is captivated by money.

So we have to examine ourselves. Do you crave money? Do you want to be, do you desire to be rich?

You don't even have to be rich. It's just the desire for it that leads people

into ruin and destruction.

This is a massive idol in our culture.

Judas loved self. He loved wealth. And finally, he loved the things of the world. Judas was worldly.

Worldliness is the influence of the culture and its values.

It's one of those difficult things to pinpoint because you don't do worldliness.

You're influenced by it.

It's the influence of the culture and its values.

Pastor and theologian Tim Chester says, most of our sinful desires are fed by things in our culture.

The lies behind our sins are lies perpetuated at a communal level.

The Bible calls this influence the world.

These lies resonate with and reinforce the sinful desires of the flesh.

I think that's a huge part of what's going on with Judas.

I think he's influenced by worldliness.

It's that subtle and insidious influence that's reinforcing the sinful desires

of our flesh, the things that are in us.

It's our desires, but worldliness is fueling it.

And 1 John 2.15 says, Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

So what had Judas' attention? I think his own advancement, maybe getting a piece

of property, maybe getting some better clothes, whatever it was that he was

after, he thought, money can give that to me.

Money can satisfy me. And isn't that the lie that our culture tells us?

Constantly, constantly, it's pounded into our heads.

Paul's co-worker Demas fell in love with the world and abandoned him, he said.

Of worldliness, that influence, that subtle influence that comes at us from so many angles.

Jesus, I think, is warning people of worldliness when he says that there are

many who will profess faith and the gospel will fall away because the cares

of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desire for other things

come in and choke out the word in their hearts.

So, worldliness, is it impacting you right now?

Is it influencing you? Worldliness will cause a numbness to come over you.

It'll cause you to be blind to the worth of Christ, to look at the gospel and shrug your shoulders.

Judas, like so many examples of people in the Bible who plunged themselves into

ruin because of sin, is meant to serve as a warning to us.

It doesn't feel good to ask ourselves these questions. is worldliness creeping

in, my loving self, my loving money.

But we have to, friends, we have to.

We're meant to look at characters in Scripture like Judas and realize how easily we can be lured away.

We're not meant to look at Judas and think, I would never do that.

I'd never be so foolish, I would never betray my Lord.

Each one of us is prone to sell our Lord for the fleeting promises of sin.

Each one of us in our flesh are more like Judas than we'd like to admit.

Given the chance and without the gracious restraint of God's hand,

we would sell our birthright for a moment of pleasure like Esau,

or for 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold like Achan, or for a night with

Bathsheba like David, or for 30 shekels of silver like Judas.

These examples are in Scripture to make us tremble, to produce a fear in us

that when we find ourselves becoming captivated by sin, because though Judas

regretted his treachery, he never repented of his sin.

He died apart from Christ and he spent eternity.

He is spending eternity in hell.

That's the hard part. We have to look at Judas. We have to tremble at what happened

to Judas, what captivated Judas.

But the point of this sermon is not be like Mary, don't be like Judas.

That's not the main point of this sermon. Apart from God's grace,

we have Judas in us, in our flesh.

And if you walk out of here this morning and you think, I just gotta be more

like Mary, and that willpower will not get you to tomorrow morning.

The message of this sermon is to look at the grace of Jesus Christ offered to

you at the cross and to be captivated by it.

The base word in captivated is to be captive, captive.

To be captive is to be held in its grip.

Mary was held in the grip of Christ's love for her and it led to joy and life

and overflowing worship. Judas was held in the grip of self,

wealth, and the world, and it led to sorrow, tears, and death.

Again, because you were made to worship and it's fundamental to who you are,

you are captivated by something this morning.

Something has your heart.

If you're not captivated by Jesus, then you are in the right place.

This is where you need to be.

You need to right now turn your eyes upon him.

Look at him. Look at what he did through his death in your place.

Let's consider just for a minute. Let's put ourselves in Mary's shoes.

If your brother, who you love very much, had died, and for four days you grieved

and mourned and cried until you couldn't cry anymore, and then Jesus went to

his grave and brought him back, you would be so overwhelmed.

You'd be so overwhelmingly captivated

by the grace shown to you that it wouldn't matter what you owned.

No gift would be too great for Jesus.

You would suddenly see all of life through a new lens. But don't miss John's real message here.

Jesus has shown you a more remarkable kindness than bringing your loved one back from the grave.

In fact, I think what really captivated Mary was far deeper than the gift of

Lazarus for a few more years.

I believe what actually motivated this extravagant worship was that Mary now

knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that what Jesus said to Martha in John 11, 25 was true.

Jesus really was and is the resurrection and the life.

And anyone who believes in him, though he die, will live.

She knew that now. She knew that. And so Lazarus would die again.

She would die, but she knows now.

But we will live.

Turned from sin, if you've turned to Christ and you've put your trust in him,

then he's not just giving you a new lease on life.

He has given you eternal life.

He has taken the sting of death away.

He has reconciled you to God. He's given you life forever in the presence of God.

Means that you'll never receive the judgment your sins deserve.

And he didn't do it merely by calling you out of the grave like he did Lazarus.

He did it by entering into your grave himself.

He traded places with you.

He allowed himself to be killed so that you could breathe the air of heaven.

He was wrapped in graves clothes so that you could be unbound.

He was buried so that you could be raised. He bore the just wrath of God for

your sins so that you could wear a robe of righteousness.

So because of that, you can be clean, forgiven. You can have a clear conscience.

You can know God.

Not because you're without sin, but because he's provided the perfect sacrifice for it.

So let's look at this kindness, this grace that has been given to us and stand in awe of our Savior.

And if you don't see it, if you can't see what all the fuss is about,

then pray, pray, plead with God that your eyes would be opened,

that you would be captivated by Christ. Let's pray.

Lord, you are worthy. You are worthy of our lives, of everything we have,

of every breath in our lungs, of every heartbeat.

You have shown us unthinkable grace and mercy by your death on the cross in our place.

And we thank you. Lord, we thank you. Help us. Help us to see it.

Those of us that are seeing it, help us to see it clearer, Lord.

What would overflow from our lives would be heartfelt, humble worship.

Lord, I pray for anyone in this room that hasn't seen it, would you open their

eyes, that they might turn from sin to you, believe in your name, be forgiven,

and be given eternal life. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.