There are so many people in this passage who fail to engage with Jesus in a way that would be so good for them. In truth, most people today don’t engage with Jesus either.
And yet, in the heart of our reading, there’s a woman who is utterly, lavishly worshipping him. She abases herself in front of everyone, and pours out eye-wateringly expensive perfume on him.
Why do some people shy away from him, while others are willing to give up everything to follow him? More to the point: Which are you? And just in case you think you’re probably somewhere in between, beware: We’ll see someone like that in the reading – and it doesn’t end well.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church Wirral in July 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
The reading falls broadly into two scenes, so we have two main thoughts to grapple with. First:
In humility, engage with Jesus in your mind
These events follow straight on from Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead that we looked at last time. All that happened just two miles from Jerusalem, so it wasn’t long before the religious elite got news of it. And the first thing we see an example of not engaging minds.
The Sanhedrin was a local government in Jerusalem, chaired by the high priest (so, in theory, subject to God). Read John 11:47.
It’s a fair question, isn’t it? Jesus has turned water to wine, healed an official’s son, caused a lame man to walk, walked on water, fed 5,000 people with next to nothing, made a blind man see, and even raised a dead man to life. “What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs?”
You can look at what’s being signified, for starters! You can engage your mind and think. Could it be that people aren’t following him stupidly, blindly, unthinkingly? Could it be your own lack of intellectual humility that will keep you from the truth?
Unbelief feeds on itself. You just keep on telling yourself that you’re right, despite all the information telling you you’re wrong. Pride will keep you from simply reappraising what you think you know.
What are you going to do since this man did so many signs? In humility, engage your mind.
Too much to lose?
Why didn’t those men? Read John 11:48.
They’re the religious elite, the ruling class. They have money and status and a sense of belonging in the world. And they loved all that, and feared they’d lose it if everyone carried on following Jesus.
It doesn’t cross their minds that they might follow him: They just want to stop everyone else following him. Ironically, their religion itself had become an idol to them that kept them from knowing true life in Christ.
Happiness and security built on anything that you can lose will lead you to heartache. Nothing can ever sustain the weight of your expectations. Everything you have, everything you can touch, will one day be lost to you.
It’s time to weigh up eternal realities. Will the things you’re working towards bring you any pleasure or reward just 100 years from now? “I’ll be dead by then” you say! That’s the point. So weigh up those eternal realities. Engage your mind with Jesus, the man who himself came back from the dead.
Double talk
Back in the text, the high priest has his say: Read John 11:49-50.
In short, he thinks that the best thing for the nation is that Jesus dies. That way, they can maintain the status quo and everything will go back to the way it was. But that won’t work (at least, not the way he’s thinking).
He can’t erase the signs that Jesus performed that testify to who he is. If you pretend that Jesus isn’t there, will he go away? Will his testimony or his signs go away like they never happened? Will the truth of his teaching fade away? No, no, and no.
Jesus is the man from heaven who burst into the world and changed it forever. You’ve heard of the impossible things he did. You know that that means he must be God in flesh. It’s truth that you can’t unlearn.
When you meet him, you can’t say you didn’t know.
Engage your mind and ask the question they did: “What am I going to do as this Jesus has convinced me of so many signs?” And look at what John says next: That high priest was saying words with a double-meaning. He spoke more truth than he realised.
Read John 11:51-53. Caiaphas was thinking purely in terms of the nation of Israel in the middle east. But God spoke another, richer truth through him.
Christ pierced for his people
Isaiah 53 speaks of the death of the Messiah to come: He was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the LORD has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
It was always God’s plan that Jesus should come into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of others. He’s a substitute: A morally perfect man willing to die to take the punishment of your sins, if you will trust him.
Caiaphas’s words about the nation are reapplied to the church of Christ. Remember what Jesus said in John 10:16 But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. He will “unite the scattered children of God” (John 11:52).
Jesus came to fulfil God’s plan to save you, to give you life – so come to him in repentance and faith. Embrace God’s eternal plan for you. Turn to him in humility.
Every Christian has already done the same. Repent of your sin, and pray to God for forgiveness and newness of life in Jesus, the living Saviour.
And for those who have (or think they have):
In worship, engage with Jesus in your heart
John 11:55 says that “the Jewish Passover was near.” John’s gospel is edging towards the end, to Jesus’ death as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
People needed to be ceremonially clean to take the Passover, so many were going to Jerusalem early to take the various rites. Jesus never needed to, so he went to Bethany.
There was a dinner for him, and Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were there. Lazarus was dining with Jesus and Martha was serving.
But it was what Mary did that caused such a stir: Read John 12:3.
- Judas puts a price of 300 denarii on the perfume – that’s a full year’s wages. In UK money, minimum wage is about £24,000 per year. This was an expensive pound of perfume.
- And a pound is quite a lot: Not just a little here and there.
- The whole house was filled with the fragrance of it.
- And she gave it all, anointing Jesus feet with her hair. It’s an image of utter humility, to be at Jesus’ feet. And it’s an image of adoration. She is worshipping him. She’s not doing this to receive anything in return. That’s the very essence of true worship – adoring Jesus for who he is.
He is worthy
What prompted her? Everything she knew about him.
- He’s the bread of life, giving spiritual nourishment for eternity.
- The light of the world gives sight to the blind, understanding in darkness, the light of life.
- He’s the gate, the only point of entry into God’s flock, his people.
- Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for his people, and who lives to call you by name.
- He’s the resurrection and life. In him you will rise from the dead, and his people will rise to enjoy life with him forever.
- Jesus is the eternal word who is God and who was with God in the beginning, the Son of God, Messiah, Saviour.
He is glorious in his own eternal essence, and he reveals his glory to you in countless ways – not least in your salvation.
He’s worth a pound of perfume, when you put it like that. Actually, he is worth everything you have and are.
Mary knew that.
True worship
True discipleship springs from a living devotion to the Lord based on an experience of his life and power. Mary knew that; she knew her entire existence and all her blessings flowed from him.
Lazarus, Mary and Martha must have been wealthy even to own that much expensive perfume: But Lazarus had actually died; his sisters had grieved him. They knew that nothing in all their material wealth could compare with the life-giving saviour there at their table.
What Mary did was self-abasing, Christ-exalting worship. It was entirely honouring and appropriate to who Christ is. The more you understand who he is and all he has done for you, the more you’ll hold nothing back in his service, in your daily worship of him.
Fall at his feet. Lay everything you have before him.
It’s his anyway. You’ll be blessed to realise that and live it out. Engage your heart.
Or a “waste”?
Not everyone saw things that way: Read John 12:4-6.
Judas clearly lacked Mary’s adoration of Jesus. He sees this perfume being used up and thinks it’s a “waste” (Matthew 26:8). He’d rather it be sold so that he would have more funds to steal from. For Judas, Jesus is someone that enables you to get things, rather than give.
If you don’t know Christ, or only know him dimly, you’ll never give your all to him or for him. You’ll always hold back. When you give your money, or time, or talent, you’ll only ever see it as “loss” – or even “waste”.
Worryingly, Judas was really close to Jesus throughout his ministry. Be careful! Check yourself. Is your heart inclined towards Jesus like Mary’s was, or are you counting your discipleship as “loss”? Repent of the idols you’re trusting in.
If you’re a Christian here today, 100 years from now Christ will be all that you have – and you will lack nothing. Engage with Jesus in your heart. Cling tightly to him now; cling less tightly to things you’ll lose anyway.
And here’s the good news: Jesus clings to his people more tightly still: He holds you in his hand.
Christ’s protection
There’s a simple but beautiful example right here: Read John 12:7-8.
As a woman in that culture, she was vulnerable. In comparison, Judas was “one of the Twelve.” But Mary’s heart was Christ’s, and he protected her. He stood up for her: “Leave her alone.” His heart is wholly engaged for his people.
Be assured of his protection around you, eternally so. In fact, he gives honour to her.
Mary had done more than she knew. It would be typical to use perfume like that on a corpse at burial, and Jesus knows that that is only a week away. He knew that he’d soon die for her. His heart is engaged with his people by way of his cross. If you’re a Christian, it’s because he loved you enough to die in your place, to take the punishment of all your sins.
And yet even in his words, he makes it clear that while it’s right to honour him there will always be time and opportunity to help the poor, to do right in the world.
Being a Christian isn’t all about gathering here for worship one day a week: It’s living for Christ every day.
Absurd unbelief
Our reading ends on a note of absolute absurdity: Read John 12:9-11.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? Well, we’ll just have to kill them both. Make it all go away.
Lots of people would love to make this truth go away. Close the book. Ignore the feeling that it might be true. Stop thinking about these things; refuse to pray. Worst of all: Choose to sin, because you want to. It’s absurd, because it’s a complete denial of all that you know.
Engage with Jesus in your brain and in your heart. Repent and believe in him; trust in him and live with him eternally. It’s what he calls you to; it’s what he came to give you.
Adore him with the devotion of Mary simply because it’s right to.