Mary of Bethany and the Final Missions Movement

We are walking together through Passion Week as the Body of Christ around the globe ponders together the days leading up to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Many, however, are unaware of the prophetic significance of this week. The events that unfolded that first holy week in Jerusalem not only inform us of what Jesus has done, but they also inform us of what Jesus is yet to do. Passion Week is profoundly prophetic. This day was no exception.

At some point during Passion Week, a dinner was held at Simon the leper’s house in the town of Bethany right outside of Jerusalem. John seems to place the event when Jesus first arrived in Jerusalem the Saturday or Sunday before. Matthew inserts it between the Olivet Discourse on Tuesday discourse and the Last Supper on Thursday. Exactly when it happened during Passion Week is of less significance than what happened and why it happened. This holds profound and prophetic significance for us today and for a generation coming. 

We read the account in Matthew 26:6-13. (Parallels in Mark 14:3-9 and John 12:1-8)

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. - Matthew 26:6-7 

This seemingly abrupt and impetuous action actually had much more time and reflection behind it. Three times leading up to this moment, Jesus had explicitly told the disciples He was going up to Jerusalem to be handed over and crucified. 

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. - Matthew 16:21 

The first time Jesus opened His heart to the disciples about the Father’s plan, Peter proceeded to rebuke him for being so negative. The Second time, it says the disciples were lypeō, in Greek. Some translations will translate that as distressed. But it actually has a connotation of being personally offended or having your feelings hurt. In other words, when Jesus told the disciples where He was going and what would happen, they got their feelings hurt and made it about themselves. The third and final time Jesus let them in on where they were traveling to and why, they responded by arguing over who was the greatest disciple and who would get positions of authority. Clearly, they neither heard nor understood what Jesus was saying to them. There is a big difference between hearing the words someone is saying and listening to them. They were not listening. 

But there was someone else who was listening…A young woman who sat at Jesus’ feet in Luke chapter 10 and chose the one necessary thing above all others. We get introduced to Mary as the one who sat at Jesus' feet and listened to His words.

And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. ... But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." - Luke 10:39, 41-42

Mary had chosen the One Thing that King David had chosen.

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. - Psalm 27:4

One year later, the week Jesus was going to the cross, Mary came into the room where Jesus and the disciples were reclining at the table after supper. Without regard to all the “important leaders” in the room, she rushed to Jesus reclining at the table, broke open a bottle of very costly perfume, and poured it over His head, hands, and feet. The only one who knew why Jesus was in town was the one who sat at His feet and listened to every word. The one who worshiped had clarity on what He was doing in her generation. When He visited her town, she knew exactly why He was there and that this would be the last time she would see Him before his death.

All the gospel writers focus on the cost of this offering. John Mark said it was very costly. It is a flask of pure Spikenard. She had about 12 ounces of this costly perfume which in those days was worth about a year's wages for a well-paid laborer. The gospel writers all tell us it was worth about 300 denarii which in today’s terms would be about $60,000 (USD) worth of this precious fragrance. The cost of the offering was not only in its monetary value but in the life circumstances that were held in that bottle. There were only a few reasons why this young woman had something like that in her possession. 

This costly oil was often used by a bride on her wedding day. She would wear it around her neck all night and its fragrance would linger throughout the wedding ceremony. This would have been very likely something she was saving for her wedding day. It would have taken a woman in that time period years to acquire the amount of money to purchase something so valuable. Who knows how long she had saved, who knows how long she had been keeping it, who knows why she initially bought it or who might have given it to her. We know that Mary and her sister were living with their brother Lazarus, indicating that their parents had passed. It is very likely that this flask of perfume could have been part of an inheritance left to her by her parents as a security for her future. 

This bottle of perfume represented much more than some hard-earned money; it represented years of hope and dreams, expectations of family members, her future and security. The past, present, and future were all contained in this flask of oil. It was her life pressed into a bottle.

She saw Jesus as worth that.

While the king was on his couch, my [spike]nard gave forth its fragrance. - Song of Songs 1:12

Spikenard is traditionally called “the fragrance of the lost Garden of Eden''. John told us that when Mary poured it on Jesus, the fragrance filled the whole house where they were sitting. The fragrance of what was lost in the garden. The fragrance of pure, unhindered, and wholehearted worship: Eden’s worship, where we worshiped without shame and accusation. Where we were free from the prison of people's opinions. Where God dwelt with man and worship was our chief vocation. Where the chief end of man was to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Here in Simon’s house, Jesus saw a glimpse of something and He smelled the aroma 

It was a freewill offering unto Jesus, not required, nor given out of obligation but poured out because of love. 

This fragrance moved the heart of Jesus and it moved the hearts of the disciples, but in two different directions. The men around the table began accusing her of wasting her resources and scolding her for this extreme act of irresponsibility. This act of extravagant devotion exposed their dull hearts, selfish ambition, pride, and lack of prophetic understanding. The allocation of resources was not the issue at hand. It was the worth of Jesus that was in question.

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor." - Matthew 26:8-9 

They were indignant over someone else spending their resources on Jesus’ presence. Their response was “Why are you wasting that on Him? Jesus, you are not worth that! There are better things to spend money on!” To be clear, they did not care about the poor and this passage has absolutely nothing to do with any ministry model that neglects the least, the last, and the lost. No, they didn’t care about the poor; their virtue signaling was just a cover for the other agendas and ministry plans in mind that did not include extravagant worship and the presence of Jesus. They had their own salaries in mind. John later told us in his gospel that Judas was leading the charge in the accusation. 

He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. - John 12:6

The disciples had a people-centered, productivity-centered vision for ministry. Mary had a presence-centered vision.

Jesus had something very different to say about what Mary had just done. Jesus called this offering beautiful. Not only beautiful, but appropriate in light of the prophetic season which the disciples were all unaware of. This is one of the only things in the gospels that Jesus calls “beautiful”. That word can be translated as a right, worthy, or noble business. In light of why He was in Jerusalem, in light of what He was about to do on Calvary, and in light of who He was; this was the only right, worthy, and noble business. So she poured out her inheritance upon His head where the crown of thorns would press into His brow, on his hands and feet where the nails would pierce through and the blood of Jesus would cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Then, as Jesus sat looking at Mary at His feet, breathing in the aroma of pure worship, and pondering the cost of her inheritance, His thoughts turned to His inheritance. It would be just a few more days until on the cross, He would purchase something. Through the finished work, the nations would become His inheritance. Not only His inheritance but His desire and reward. We were purchased by that same desire that created all things. Here in Simon's living room, He saw the joy set before Him. If marched up the hill and hung on the tree, He would receive the worship, adoration, and love of all the tribes of the earth. It is the reward of His suffering.

…Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:2

As His heart swelled with joy and desire, He turned back to the disciples and prophesied. 

Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her." - Matthew 26:13 

What they were looking at on the floor and what they were smelling in the air would fill the whole world before the end. This kind of extravagant devotion would be the banner at the end of the age. This story of Mary of Bethany would be at the center of the missions movement in the generation that will finish the Great Commission. Why? Because it would be those who see Jesus the way Mary saw Jesus, who count Him as much more worthy than house, home, and future security, who value His presence more than the approval of man, who are weak like her who would take this gospel to neighborhoods and nations of the earth. They would carry their fragrance across their cities and the oceans. They would pour their worship among the most unreached region of the earth until every nation sees Him like Mary did and every nation sings. The result of the proclamation of the gospel to all nations would be an offering of worship from every tribe, tongue, people, and language. In every place, incense will be offered. 

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. - Malachi 1:11

Many are building churches and ministries with the primary goal of getting more people in the room. Many are singing, preaching, speaking, yes sometimes even praying, to move the hearts of people, but Jesus saw a people who would move His heart with the right, worthy, or noble business extravagant worship. 

So this Easter season, give Him your worship again. Give it extravagantly! Hold nothing back as you pour out your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Let your life be a beautiful offering. Be like Mary.