Extravagant worship

John 12:1-15 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. ³ Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴ But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, ⁵ “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” ⁶ Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. ⁷ Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. ⁸ For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”

⁹ The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. ¹⁰ But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; ¹¹ because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

¹² On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, ¹³ took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” ¹⁴ Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, ¹⁵ “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

Jesus makes a statement in today’s text which seems out of character, inconsistent with the rest of His words and actions. He says:  ^“For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”    He is speaking of the extravagant act of worship Mary performed in anointing Jesus feet with expensive perfume. Some who were there considered it an excessive, even wasteful act, saying: “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?”   The commentary, by the writer John, refutes the motive of this question saying:   Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.       The fact remains though that Jesus not only condoned but He blessed this act of worship, this extravagance spent on Him. Even though He was dedicated to reaching out to the poor, He says there will always be poor.

Even today there will be those who will question and condemn extravagant worship. They will say the time and money could be better spent on other things, loving and serving others rather than coming together to worship. As in all things there is a balance which we need to find. Certainly there can be excessive things done in the name of worship, but there can be no excess in true worship. The truth is God does not need our money. He has the resources of the entire universe at His disposal and anything He needs that doesn’t exist He can create. So there is nothing we can spend or expend that is too extravagant to truly worship our God. In many ways what this out of character statement really does do is not to go against the rest of Jesus teaching and actions but rather to confirm what He said. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus says:    “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’   On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

First and foremost, before, above and beyond anything else we do, we are to love the Lord. Not just a little bit, not just by verbal ascent but with all of our heart, soul and mind.  We are to be extravagant lovers of God, to love and worship Him with all that we are and all that we have. 1 John4:19 says: “We love, because He first loved us.”   It is not that we are to be conditional lovers, only loving in response to love, but it is that only the true, perfect love of God can motivate and inspire us to true love. John completes his thought about love in 1 John 4:21 saying: this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.      God’s love for us is the source, the motivation and the model for our love for Him and then only as we love God, having received His love, can we love others as we love our self. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says:   If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.     Nothing done outside of true love matters, it has no value.

There are many today who are critical of the church for its religiousness. They say the church has wandered from its mission and call to be like Jesus, to be a friend of sinners and outcasts and to some extent they are right.  James 1:27 makes an interesting statement about religion. It says:   Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.    Even to do those things, visit orphans and widows, give all our possessions to feed the poor, love the unlovely and befriend sinners and outcasts it is just religion if we do it without love, without a love that is formed and founded in extravagant love for God. If we love and serve because we should, because we want to do what Jesus did, because we want to act like Him, it becomes religion.

All that we do, all that we are must be first and foremost founded and formed in extravagant love and worship of God. It is only through that love and worship that we become truly one with Him. Jesus says: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24)    In today’s text Jesus said:  “you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”   Yet His promise to us is: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”(Matthew 28:20)   Jesus makes that promise as He commissions us saying:   “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

If we would be like Jesus, if we would answer His call and His commission, first and foremost, before we do anything to love or serve others we must be extravagant lovers and worshippers of God. Only as we love Him, as we worship Him extravagantly, in spirit and in truth, do we become unified with Him. Only then can our love be like His love. Only then can anything we do be an expression of Him and not religious activity. Jesus cares for the poor and the unlovely, but He knows that the only way we can minister to them is if we first and foremost love Him.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You that You first loved me. That while I was a sinner Christ died for me. Holy Spirit I yield to You so that first and foremost I might worship God in spirit and in truth, that I might love God with all my heart, soul and mind and then and only then might I love others, with Your love, not as my religion, but as the fulfillment of Your call and commission.   Amen