Next was the offering of her past. I believe, having experienced something so similar, that it was on this day that Mary finally reconciled her sins and salvation at the feet of the one who offered her that very forgiveness. I believe on this day she finally forgave herself.
I believe that next Mary brought to Jesus her promise. Every little girl dreams of the day that she walks down the aisle on her father's arm to the bridegroom waiting there for her. At the tender age of 16, I had a note book filled with pages torn from various magazines, my wedding completely planned out in my mind. From the Scarlett O'Hara white swiss dot organza hoop dress complete with floppy hat to the yellow bridesmaids dresses, the perfect yellow roses to the summer gray tuxes the groom and groomsmen would don. Every detail was already set in my mind's eye. I even had the groom picked out. Jeffery was his name.
Needless to say, none of that worked out. I laugh out loud at the thoughts of how far off course the vision and the reality actually were. By the time I married, my father was deceased. My little white church was a chapel in Nevada and my beautiful white hoop dress was a champagne lace tea length dress wrinkled from the many hours of flight in a suitcase somewhere in the belly of a plane. There were no yellow roses, no gray tuxes, no family and friends to help us celebrate. Just a little round preacher, me and my groom whose name was not Jeff.
Mary was a woman, like any other. A woman feels before she sees, a woman can visualize her dreams and those dreams and hopes are as real to her as any tangible object. Like every little girl, Mary most likely held to the hope that someday her prince would come.
That is why her offering is all the more significant. Mary broke open the seal on the most costly possession that she owned, an alabaster vial of Nard, her dowry. A precious perfume, often used in two rituals. One the consummation of the marriage and the other, the burial of the dead.
Mary, first anoints the head of Jesus with the oil intended to anoint the head of her husband. In doing this, Mary has placed Christ above any earthly husband. She yields herself to "the bridegroom" and gives him the place of adoration and supplication that would have been reserved for her own husband. She then lays herself at his feet.
The scripture says that she washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Yet again another job conceded to the wife or servants, the washing of feet would have been one more act of submission and servitude on her wedding night. That day she brought to Jesus all of her hopes, her dreams, her desires and her promises. She lay them at his feet with her tears. Fully reconciled with her past, she knew this man alone could bring her the gift of eternal life.
Lastly, Mary brought to Jesus her passion. We females of every species are passionate beings. Just get between a woman and her kids, or her chocolate, you will see. Mary's tears were also a sign of her passion. She loved this man who had changed her in her inner most being. She loved that he saw something in her that no other could. She understood who he was, what he was doing and what he was about to do.
I believe she could feel in her spirit that all he said was true and she knew this would be the last time she would have an opportunity to show her love to him while he was alive and in doing so lovingly prepared his body for the impending death that she understood was to come. I believe she understood his mission better than anyone else, yet she still could not comprehend the resurrection he spoke of.
In her passion for who he was, she broke open the only thing she had to give him. Not the vial of precious oil, but her heart and in that moment she captured his heart as well. In the days to follow this event, her sister Martha would host another dinner where she would complain that Mary was being no help to her. Jesus would gently rebuke Martha and assure her that Mary had chosen what was best, to sit at his feet and drink in all that he would foretell.
When Lazarus was taken ill and eventually died, Mary runs to him and once again falls at his feet. Her passion for the loss of her brother overwhelms him and for the first time we see Jesus, the man, weep. I believe he felt her pain deeply because he knew that she believed he had failed her.
Martha was first to rush to Jesus on the road to Bethany, she spoke the words to him "if you had been her, my brother would not have died", Jesus assures her of who He is and that her brother we surely live again. He knows her well, Martha is a black and white kind of no nonsense gal. A real take the bull by the horns chic. She does not mince words, she says what she means and means what she says. A real go-getter and a leader. He knows her, he knows if He tells her, she will believe.
He then inquires as to Mary's whereabouts. He knows her too and when she utters the almost identical words as her sister, He knows that Mary is so much like the majority of humanity. She believes, yet there is just this small tinge of unbelief and this small portion pains him greatly. He assures her that Lazarus sleeps but only so that God may get the Glory.
Can I just admit here, this is me? Completely and totally. I believe. I know and yet my heart craves the physical manifestation of confirmation of the promises that God has given me. and when I do not see the evidence in the time frame that I think it should come to pass, then I can become devastated. Not that I don't believe the promises God has made, "but Lord if you had only........." I believe, Lord help my unbelief.
On that day in Simon's home, Jesus recognized the sincerity of Mary's heart and sacrifice, just as David capture the heart of the Father in his desire to do the will of the father despite his shortcomings. When the disciples and other guests mocked her, he scolded them and honored her saying that what she did was a beautiful thing that would be remember and told through history.
Mary, beautifully broken Mary. The cost of her oil so great.
So as I sit here tonight, I ask myself the question that I ask you. What is the cost of your oil? There are not enough pages and time to list everything for me. My pride, my heartache, my pain, my hopes, my dreams, my sins, my husband, my shame, my guilt, my failures, my unbelief just a few of the things that I lay at the feet of my Savior. I know the depth of the sin from which he saved me and I too offer my oil in adoration of who He is and what He has done. I give him my tears of sorrow and gratitude.
I leave you with this. When Mary broke open the alabaster vial, the sweet spicy scent of the perfume permeated the air. The scriptures say its fragrance filled the air. When Mary dried Jesus feet with her hair, His scent would have become embedded in the very fiber of her being. Wherever she went, His fragrance would fill the air. But Mary chose a more beautiful thing, I believe that in sitting at his feet, absorbing all His words, the sweet fragrance of His spirit spilled over onto her and every where she went, people would know she had been with the master.
Holy Spirit, fill me with your fragrance and every where I go, may people know that I have spent time at Your feet. May they know that I carry You with me and may Your fragrance fill the room.
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