10. Mary's Extravagant Love

Same house, same dinner table, two very different readings of one jar of perfume. Chapter 10 of Weaver's book looks at Mary's anointing of Jesus and contrasts her heart of gratitude with Judas's greed. Let's step into John 12:1-8 and listen.

The scene is a dinner given for Jesus in Bethany, where Lazarus, the man he raised from the dead, is at the table. John notes, “Martha served.” Nothing in the text records a complaint. Then Mary takes a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, anoints Jesus' feet and wipes them with her hair, and “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” Her act was done in front of a full room, so this is not about secrecy. It is about cost and motive.

Now listen to Judas: “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” It sounds generous. John pulls back the curtain: “He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.” Love and self-interest can sound alike at the same table. One way to tell them apart is to look at who benefits. Mary's act left her with an empty jar. Judas's plan would have left money in his hands.

Jesus answers: “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.” Weaver connects this with Peter's rebuke when Jesus spoke of his death in Matthew 16:21-23, where Jesus tells Peter he is setting his mind on man's things. In Mark 14:3-9, Jesus says Mary's act will be told wherever the gospel is preached. In both places the people closest to Jesus struggled to see what was coming, and Mary acted anyway.

Weaver pairs this with warnings about the love of money: Matthew 6:24 says we cannot serve God and money, 1 Timothy 6:9-10 calls the love of money a root of all kinds of evil, and James 4:1-4 traces quarrels to desires at war within us. Money is a useful test of the heart because it is hard to fake generosity with it.

But notice where Mary's extravagance comes from. The book roots it in having received lavish love: 1 John 3:1 marvels at the love the Father has given us in calling us his children, and Romans 8:31-39 declares that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Mary gave freely because she had first been given much. Extravagance is not a performance to earn love. It is what gratitude looks like when it has a jar in its hands.

Chapter 10 puts Mary in a room with a jar of perfume and a crowd of opinions. John 12 is a dinner in Bethany, six days before the Passover. Notice who is serving: “Martha served.” John records no complaint this time. Both sisters are in the room doing what they do, with Jesus at the center.

Then Mary “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.” John does not record a word from her. Her devotion is costly and physical, and it fills the whole house. You cannot do something like this halfway.

Now listen to Judas: “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” It is a large sum, and the question sounds responsible. But John pulls back the curtain: “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.” That is the lesson of the chapter. Two people stand in the same room looking at the same jar. One pours out love, and the other counts what is in it. Self-interest can use good words. Love usually sounds a little foolish.

Jesus answers, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” He ties her gift to his burial, a subject Peter once rebuked him for raising (Matthew 16:21-23). The book also has readers finish Jesus' own words about her act in Mark 14:3-9. In that account Jesus calls it a beautiful thing, says she did what she could, and says it will be remembered. Whatever the crowd called waste, Jesus called beautiful.

The book also sets Judas's greed against Mary's gratitude and warns about the pull of money. Jesus himself says in Matthew 6:24 that no one can serve two masters, God and money. Paul, writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, warns that the desire to be rich leads to ruin and that the love of money fuels all sorts of evil. James, writing to believers in James 4:1-4, traces quarrels to cravings at war within us and warns against friendship with the world. Different writers, same concern: money can become a rival love.

So why could Mary give so freely? Because she had received. The book roots her extravagance in God's lavish love, as in 1 John 3:1 and Romans 8:31-39, where nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. You do not pour out perfume to earn love. You pour it out because you have been loved first.