"Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair." - John 12:3
Mary did what? She took a liter of costly perfume and did what with it?
She anointed Jesus’ feet? Then she proceeded to dry them with her hair?
Say what??
Yes, that’s exactly what she did. She took something costly and poured it over Jesus’ feet. She didn’t care about the value of the perfume. She cared about the person before her. She cared that God was before her.
But how could she have done this? Jesus was there reclining at table with his friends and she just got up and started pouring oil over His feet? How did Jesus feel about this? Was he uncomfortable? Was she uncomfortable? A woman approaching him? Pouring oil and then drying his feet with her hair!!! Wow!
Mary, you didn’t care. You didn’t care about what others would say. You had one person in mind and that’s it-Jesus. He held your attention. You sat by his feet before and now you would anoint His feet. His friends weren’t there to you. The onlookers weren’t there to you. He was there. And soon He wouldn’t be there.
“You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” John 12:8
In just a few days his friends would have wished it was them who anointed Him, who didn’t leave him. In just a few days His feet would be “anointed” in blood. In just a few days her hair wouldn’t be long enough to clean his feet of the blood shed for us.
So you didn’t wait Mary. You knew this was the time, and you anointed His feet. You poured that costly oil and revered your King. You embraced His feet and dried them with your hair. You didn’t hesitate but cared.
How many times are we prompted by the Spirit to say or do something radical? How many times are we faced with a decision that may never present itself to us again. Mary didn’t know that in just a few days Jesus wouldn’t be with them. She didn’t know what was to come. She acted out of love, and she acted with courage. This was what the Spirit prompted her to do, and she did it. Forget Lazarus, Martha, Judas and anyone else that was there. Jesus was there, and that was all that mattered.
I can just image in her looking at Him and smiling. There was Jesus. There was her friend. Her friend who would soon no longer be with them. Her friend who had raised her brother from the dead. “Who cares what they think. This is Jesus and I love Him.”
Mary, of Bethany, pray for us. Pray that we may be radical disciples who won’t be afraid of displaying extravagant acts of love. Who won’t be afraid of what others think of us.
And thank you God. Thank you God for those radical witnesses you have placed in our lives.