Jesus Protects Mary's Love for Him

This is a wonderful piece of history where Jesus' protection for people is seen very clearly. Six days before Jesus is going to die He has a meal with Mary, Martha and Lazarus whom Jesus has recently raised from the dead. As he is reclining at the table Mary takes a pint of very expensive perfume and pours it over Jesus' feet and gets down on her hands and knees and wipes his feet with her hair! Wow, the devotion and love that Mary had for Jesus was extravagant! This perfume was worth a years wages and was probably her entire retirement! Mary doesn't consider her loss of the money but only Jesus. As she is in the middle of pouring out her love for Jesus in an unashamed and very vulnerable way, Judas criticizes her actions. He can't see the worth of Jesus only the amount of money that the perfume was worth. "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." Sounds pretty noble until the text continues, "He did not say this because he cared about the poot but because he was thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it."

To get the full picture here we need to wrestle with who Judas is a bit and who he is stealing from. First consider someone who steals from Bill Gates verses someone who steals from Mother Teresa. It is true that stealing is evil in either case. And sin is sin. However, there is something more wicked about the person who steals from Mother Teresa who is pouring out her life to care for others than the person who steals from Bill Gates. It is still evil, but the first person is so much more wicked. Consider who Jesus was. He was/is the only innocent person ever to walk the earth. He was the only hope for those with skin diseases (leprosy), the only hope for those who were demonized, the only hope for the poor to hear the truth... and Judas was stealing from Him! Judas was seeing the miracles first hand. Judas was hearing the truth from Jesus own mouth. Judas was seeing the compassion of Jesus on the sick, hurting and weak... and He was stealing from Jesus all the time. Consider also that many of those who were supporting Jesus were older widows and women who gave money out of their limited means. Judas was stealing that money. The offense of the sin is so great because of the beauty of God that is revealed by Jesus in His earthly ministry. The wonder and hope of God was clearly shown by Jesus. And Judas was attacking that!

Jesus intervenses and puts a stop to Judas - "Leave her alone." Jesus possibly said this quite firmly. He is probably not shouting, but He isn't being passive either. "Leave her alone." In a moment Jesus surrounds Mary extravagant devotion with His arms of protection to reject the criticism of the accuser. That accusing, fault-finding voice of Satan is shut up! The vulnerable display of love from Mary is protected. Her heart will be covered, not trampled upon.

That is Jesus. And if you can believe John 14:9 ("If you have seen Me [Jesus], you have seen the Father") - then that is God as well!