At the Feet of Jesus

Which biblical woman comes to mind when you picture a woman sitting at the feet of Jesus? Mary of Bethany, of course, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. And, after many weeks of blogging that ranged from church history to founding fathers to gifts of the Spirit, I feel the need to just sit at the feet of Jesus for awhile, in the same way that Mary did.

So, for the next several postings, we'll explore this little-known yet famous Mary as a model for us:

1. a model of one who easily recognizes the true worth of our Savior;
   
2. a model of how such a one worships Jesus Christ;
   
3. a model of gifted giving;
   
4. a model of a spiritually hungry heart feasting on every spoken word of our Lord and Savior;
   
5. a model of one who was loved so by the Lord that her tears brought on his own tears;
   
6. a model of one who "has chosen the better part" (Matthew 26:7-13).
   

I'd like to know more about that "better part."

Matthew tell us this about Mary of Bethany:

"Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when the disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." (Matthew 26:6-13)

And with that simple act, Mary of Bethany gained lasting fame, for just as Jesus had prophesied, her name would be included in the gospels; the "good news of Jesus Christ" that was (and continues to be) preached in the whole world.

Before we study this action of Mary's a bit further, take a look at what immediately followed her action:

"Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him." Matthew (26:14-16)

Interestingly, ALL of the disciples were upset at the waste, but even more interestingly, one of them was SO bothered by it, that it drove him to sell out Jesus to his enemies. John tells us that Judas Iscariot was the keeper of the communal purse amongst Jesus and the apostles and that he stole from it for his own use (John 12:6). We can't help but wonder, then, what thoughts went through his head when Mary did this thing that must have been beyond comprehension to one such as he who was obviously "controlled' by his love of money. Was his decision to betray Jesus arrived at as a solution to cease this kind of waste? Did he think he would still have control of the purse if Jesus were removed from the scene altogether? I mean, after all, what was the purse for, except to provide for the needs of Jesus and the twelve men with him? And what did Judas expect would happen to the group once Jesus had been forcibly removed? Did he believe that the group had some sort of existence of its own outside of Jesus? Or was it just that his love of money caused him to so "hate" seeing such a waste, that he was blinded to the thing that he did, and saw only the "rightness" (in his thinking) of stopping the waste?

He obviously saw Mary's actions as a terrible thing that should not have been allowed; a terrible mis-use of money that was not to be tolerated (for the ointment had to have been very expensive to cause such indignation, a fact which John confirms in John 12:3). And by a woman, of all things! For women had no high place in society then; something that the good news of Jesus Christ soon rectified, placing all, whether Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female, onto equal footing with each other in Christ (Galatians 3:23). Perhaps that, also, played a part in the decision of Judas.

And so he sought to remove the One who allowed (and even gave approval to) such travesties. Well, that's my theory, at least.

My KJV Bible, published in 1985, did a modern day exchange rate on those thirty pieces of silver and came up with approximately $3,840.00. Just as that's a lot of money to most of us today, it was a lot of money to Judas back then. But beware the fine print! It was the hidden "fees" that were attached to that thirty pieces of silver that later drove Judas to hang himself!

Today, more than 2,000 years later, it takes very little worship of Jesus Christ to provoke outrage and sometimes even actions of prosecution (aka persecution). That's because the motivating factors are the same today as they were then: to believers, Jesus Christ is priceless - worthy of expensive ointments.

To the unbelieving, he's only worth about $3,840.00.