Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.Therefore Mary took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
3 sermons cite this verse
We'll be considering most of John 12 today, but I'll only read portions of it for the sake of time. So please join me as I read John chapter 12, verses 1 through 11, and then we'll skip down to verses 20 through 26. I'll be reading today from the New Living Translation. Join me now as I begin at John 12, verses 1 through 11. a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus' feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, That perfume was worth a year's wage. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor. Not that he cared for the poor. He was a thief. And since he was in charge of the disciples' money, he often stole some for himself. Jesus replied, Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. …
… Judas is the first to betray the silence with an ethical objection that clarifies his rightness in this matter. Why wasn't this perfume sold for a whole lot of money and given to the poor, he asks. John says he's a thief who uses the common purse for a common, for a personal expense account. He doesn't care about the poor, but he knows that Jesus does. So he says what he knows Jesus would have said if Jesus weren't so polite. What a waste. What an extravagance. Whatever you meant by it, Mary, this movement, it's not about us. It's about the less fortunate. Try to remember that from now on, huh? but Jesus can speak for himself he turns to Judas and says leave her alone to Judas and anyone else who might agree with him she was keeping it from my burial you always have the poor with you but you do not always have me it's an odd thing for him to say but Mary has broken more than a jar in that room she's also broken open the truth that Jesus is the first to see to speak to The poor are sturdy perennials in God's garden. …
"Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment." John 12:3. YOU will notice, if you read the narrative attentively, that the two sisters and the brother who made up the favored household at Bethany, though all most truly loving Jesus, had each one a different way of showing that love. Even so, true children of God do not always feel moved to serve the Lord Jesus in the same fashion, or to express their love to Him in precisely the same manner. Martha served. She was the housekeeper and with much diligence made Him a supper. It would have been a sad omission had there been no table spread for so blessed a Guest—and who could prepare it as well as Martha? Sometimes we have heard people speak disparagingly of Martha, but truly they mistake the Lord, who never chided her for serving but for being on one occasion so cumbered by it as to think harshly of her sister. Martha, in this instance did not fall into the fault which her Lord once so gently chided—she did her part quietly and well and, thereby, set forth her attachment to Jesus in the most commendable manner. We have Sisters in the Church whose way of serving Christ is in the household, or by caring for the sick and the poor. Like Dorcas, they make garments for them, or like holy women of old, they minister to the Lord of their substance. Their work is with temporal'things, but they are none the less approved of their loving Master. Brothers, too, as deacons, may better honor the Lord by serving tables than they could by attempting to edify saints when the gifts suitable for that work are denied them. Each man and woman must labor according to his or her ability and calling. …