She Has Done a Beautiful Thing to Me
Text: John 12:1-8
She has done a beautiful thing to me.
1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 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. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Main points
Mary’s costly display of love and devotion
What is worship for one is waste for another
Jesus commends Mary’s actions
Some relevant Scriptures (all Scripture references are in ESV)
Proverbs 26:24-26:
24
Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips
and harbors deceit in his heart;
25
when he speaks graciously, believe him not,
for there are seven abominations in his heart;
26
though his hatred be covered with deception,
his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.
2 Samuel 24:24: But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
Luke 10:41-42: 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Zechariah 9:17a: For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty!
Luke 23:39: One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
2 Samuel 6:16: As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.
Luke 23:56-24:1: Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
John 19:39: Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
Mark 14:6b: “She has done a beautiful thing to me.”