Saturday Supper with Lazarus, Martha and Mary

On the night before Palm Sunday, Jesus arrived in Bethany, a town two miles from Jerusalem.  He was invited to supper at the home of his friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.  He had raised Lazarus from the dead just a few days prior to this.

And Mary does something in love, appreciation, and grief, that is still talked about in the Easter season today.  

This is that story...

Transcript

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Hey, everybody, I know that you're probably getting a little stir crazy right now. I know that I am. But in an effort to make your upcoming Easter Week meaningful, I decided to do something different for you and frankly, for myself. I took the gospel accounts of Jesus life from his last week to all the resurrection appearances and his ascension and built a harmony of Jesus last days. I'm going to talk through them, teach through them each day as they occurred 2000 years ago. So, for example, tomorrow it's suppertime. You are to listen to this particular podcast about the supper, in which Mary anointed Jesus feet with oil and wiped it with her hair. Then on Sunday and then on Sunday, we'll have a message about Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem. From there we'll go in tow Passion Week, and each day there will be a different podcast made available about the things that happened during that particular week of Jesus Passion. Now, keep in mind, as I teach that I don't intend to go deep into the weeds and explaining every detail of the account, I want to essentially answer questions that keep you from understanding it. I want you to get a sense of how this story fits into Passion Week, and I want you to be spiritually enriched by its truths. So keep your eyes open for those podcast, I will title each one says, You know, when this event happened and can, if you care to, you can play it in the actual time frame of when it would have taken place. God bless. Saturday evening, the ninth of Nice on 30 a. D. Jesus has been marching decisively toward Jerusalem. Scripture had declared that he must be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted grief. And we hit as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him. Not that he must bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, and that we would esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. So he's marching to his own death, and he knows it. John, 8 23 It says of Jesus that he knew that he would be lifted up. He said to his opponents, When you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing of myself, but as my father has taught me, I speak thes things. In John 12 Verse 23 through 24 Jesus answers, saying the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. And he says, Verily, verily I say to you, except a corn of wheat fall in the ground and die. It abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. So Jesus is heading toward his own death, and he's going to a specific place because his crucifixion must occur outside of Jerusalem. And he's going at a specific time, the exact time prophesized by Daniel that would bring Messiah the prince. But before the people shout, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord on what we know as Palm Sunday before they shout, Crucify that we know of as good Friday before anyone. But Jesus understands that he will be the final Passover lamb that takes away the sin of the world. One solitary woman receives that insight from the spirit of God. She gets it. She has come to the destination that the Lord would have us all arrived. That destination is the understanding that Jesus death on the Cross was not an unfortunate event of history. It was the fore ordained plan of God from eternity past. And this is how it happened. I'm reading today in my Bible in John, Chapter 11 versus 55 through Chapter 12 verse 11. So if you want to turn in your Bible and read along with me, you're welcome to do so. Verse 55 begins by saying, And the Jews Passover was nigh at hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. Now, as we open, it is helpful to understand what the Jewish Passover Waas, the Jewish Passover, is an annual feast of the Jews that commemorates God's delivering them from slavery in Egypt. And it is an important event in Christian history as well. You see, on the first pass over, God told Israel lights to kill a spotless lamb, and it put its blood on the door of their house. And if they did so in the final plague against the Egyptians, would not hurt them. The final plague was the death of every firstborn child in the Egypt, so if they would apply the blood to their home, no death would come to that house. Well, about 1500 years later, Jesus is called by John the Baptist, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And on this date in 30 a. D. Jesus would be slain so that those who fear God's judgment for sin could have his blood applied to their hearts and have spiritually eternal death has over them. This is the feast that Jesus is going to attend in Jerusalem. So as we continue in John, Chapter 11 56 then sought, they for Jesus spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, saying, What do you think that he will not come to the feast? So as Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem, curiosity was building in the city. For three years, Jesus had traveled from town to town across the nation of Israel, teaching, preaching, raising dead people and healing any person who asked. He had visited Jerusalem during the feast days on two previous occasions during his ministry, and each time that he went to Jerusalem. He had encountered fierce opposition from the political and religious leaders of his day. Well, it was no different at this time. As he approaches the city, it tells us in verse 57 that both the chief priests and the Faris ease had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were, he would show it that they might take him. He was becoming too popular. He was gathering crowds of thousands, and they had heard rumors of his healing. And twice they heard that he miraculously fed groups of upward to 20,000 people by dividing up a few loaves of bread and some fish. They were concerned that he may claim to be the scripture promised Messiah and lead the people in revolt against Roman rule and worse in revolt against them. They wanted him arrested so they could trump up some charges in orderto have and put to death. They hated and feared him, so they wanted to do it away from the crowds, less the crowds get violent against them. Well, Chapter 12 continues with the story by saying then Jesus. Six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus Waas, which had been dead, whom he raised from the day he goes to Bethany. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem on the southeastern slope with the Mount of Olives. Now one of the most astounding types of miracles that Jesus ever performed was to raise the dead. But in most cases, the person that he raised had just died. But in the case of Lazarus, he had been dead for four days, and his body was already decaying in the tomb when Jesus called him back to life. This had happened just a few days prior to this event. So the family of Lazarus, his sister's Martha and Mary and Lazarus himself are very grateful to Jesus. And they invite him to eat supper with them the evening before what we call Palm Sunday. And there were others who came as well. 1st 9 in this chapter says that much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there, and they came not for Jesus sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, also whom he had raised from the dead. There, they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. So here's the scene. Martha setting out food and cooking. Their curiosity seekers are there to talk to Jesus about his raising Lazarus and about who he is there there as well, to speak to Lazarus, who had been dead for four days and been brought back to life. Lazarus is sitting at the table with Jesus, and at least his disciples air there. But where is Mary Lazarus? Other sister? Well, it tells us in verse three, then took marry a pound of ointment of Spike Nard. Very costly, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. She took a pound of ointment of Spike Nard. Spike Nard was an oil that was distracted from the root of a plant in India. It was used as a perfume and by biblical waits she had about 12 ounces of that oil. Why would she have it? Well, it was sometimes bought as an investment where might be passed down as an inheritance and would have been a sealed bottle or container. So it was intended to be opened on Lee once. So what does she do? She comes to the gathering of the men at supper, and these men are arranged around a low table on the floor, the way in which first century individuals eight I was in a different fashion than the way we do. If we look at them today, we would say that they were laying on the floor around a very short legged table. What they would do is lean on one elbow near the table with their feet extended out away from the table. In order to allow more people around that table, everyone would have removed their shoes and even possibly had their feet washed as they came in the door, removing the grime of the dirt roads. It would have even been customary in some places to anoint people's head as they entered. All this was done as an honor as a welcome to guess, to refresh them after their journey. So the disciples and Jesus and others are around this table. Jesus feet are extended out away from the table, and Mary quietly goes to another part of the house and retrieves this container of Spike Nard and slowly goes to Jesus feet. And while the conversation and eating or taking place at the table. She opens the container and pours its contents on Jesus feet and wipes his feet with her hair. Needless to say, the conversations came to a standstill. This did not go unnoticed. The room was filled with the smell of the perfume because she didn't just dab it on she she used all of it. And though she likely had planned to do this, maybe from the time that Jesus raised, if your brother from the dead. At this moment, her impulses take over. She's poured a lot of oil on Jesus feet, and now it's riling down onto the floor. She has no cloth to catch it, so she takes down her hair and uses it to continue wiping the oil on Jesus feet. A woman did not take down her hair in public and in the quiet of that moment. Nobody knows what to say or how to respond. But one person among Jesusdisciples is disgusted by this act, says in Verse four, then said one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon son, which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? The word for pence. Here is a first century coin. Other places called the denarius. It was a Roman coin originally minted and worth 10 donkeys or or, as the name would imply in Latin den Nass's. Its value deteriorated significantly until Jesus day, when the Bible describes it as worth about a day's wage for a common labourer. So Judas indicates that this container of costly oil, which she had poured on Jesus feet, could have been sold for 300 days wages about a years wage for a working man. Now that's a lot of money. Several $1000 and one might agree with Judas that that would help quite a few poor people. But Judas doesn't really care for poor people, the scripture continues by saying in Verse six This, he said not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and add the bag and bear what was put their in. What outraged Judas wasn't that an opportunity to help poor people was missed, but because he imagined that the perfume might have been given Jesus as an offering to support his ministry, and therefore he, Judah's, the treasurer, might have been able to sell that perfume and steal some of the money from that sale. But it was an extravagant gesture. What was Mary thinking? Well, Jesus tells us Verse seven, he goes on to say, then said, Jesus let her alone against the day of my burying. Has she done this for the poor? Always you have with you but me. You have not always, Jesus says. They're always be poor people to help. And by this he's not denigrating the poor or providing aid to the poor. Rather, he's elevating something else. You see, we think that the highest virtue that a human being can achieve is to help people by giving to them by serving them, helping them. We think that the best people in this world, or those who dedicate their lives to care for the sick or for poor people. But Jesus said that there's something even greater, and that greater thing is loving him. Jesus says about her. She knows something that you all have missed. She knows where I'm headed. I'm on my way to Jerusalem to be arrested, humiliated, tried and beaten with whips and nailed to wooden cross all to bear the sins of the world to take the punishment for man sent on myself so that if anyone placed their faith in me, they won't have to be eternally punished for their sin. Mary sees his death coming when no one else does. Not even Jesus disciples understand when he told them what was about to happen. So in that moment, overcome by joy that Jesus raised her brother from the dead and overcome with grief that Jesus was headed to the cross, she breaks open her treasure to offer to Jesus as an anointing for his burial, she has found Jesus the priceless pearl, and she is willing to sell all she has to obtain that pearl. This story illustrates how people have reacted to Jesus throughout history. Some are just curious, like the crowds who gathered to see Jesus and to talkto Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead somewhere. His followers like the disciples but still unaware of his true purpose in coming to bring salvation to the world. Summer hypocrites like Judas who would eventually betray him, and even some are like what's described in verse 10 the chief priest who, after they heard of Lazarus being raised from the dead consulted not only that, they would put Jesus to death, but also Lazarus as well, because they saw how many Jewish people were beginning to follow Jesus. Based on the story of Jesus Resurrection of Lazarus. They hated Jesus so much that they wanted to kill him and erase any evidence of his power even by destroying him, whom he had raised from the dead. So the question for us today is Who are you in this story? Let's pray, Henley. Father, I pray that as we begin remembering this the most sacred of weeks, that its significance would be more than just a gathering of followers and hypocrites that it would be an occasion where we clearly see why Jesus went to the cross. And we pray, Lord, that we will turn from our sin that put Jesus on the cross and turned to him in love and appreciation for his sacrifice. We pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.