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Leonidas, king of Sparta in 480 B.C. held a horde of 200,000
Persians at Thermopylae pass with 10,000 valiant soldiers. A
trader led the Persians by a secret passage to their rear, and
Leonidas saw that he was trapped. Most of his men were set
free to flee the trap while he and 300 fought until they were
all dead. A memorial on that spot reads, "Stranger, tell the
Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their laws."
Devotion to the laws of Sparta led them to die for her cause.
Memorials for such daring devotion are almost always for
men, for men have done most of the daring acts of devotion
though history. That is, if we limit our vision to wars in
which men dominate. But if we move into other realms
beside the battlefield, and look at the sacrificial devotion that
was needed to build a worthwhile world to live in when the
wars were over, we discover that women play a dominant
role.
Jesus exalted the gentle virtues of women rather than the
rough virtues of the mighty men of battle. This is a major
difference of the New Testament from the Old Testament.
Nowhere does Jesus encourage men to remember the
victories of war and combat. But He does make sure that a
woman's gentle and tender act of love becomes a memorial
for all time. Her memorial was not because she obeyed the
law, or because she won a battle, or laid down her life. Her
memorial is due to the simple fact that she expressed her love
in an act of sacrificial devotion.
We must face up to the fact that Jesus did not do for any
man what He did for Mary of Bethany. This means that
Mary did something here that no man ever did, and so we
are compelled to recognize that no man can be fully Christ
like who does not recognize, as Jesus did, that the female
perspective on life can be superior to that of the male
perspective. This incident and the response of the men, and
the conclusion of Christ forces us to recognize that the female
is often sensitive to things of which the male is blind. There
are radical differences in the mentality of the sexes, and we
are wise to evaluate these differences, and like Jesus do all we
can to combine them, and get the best of both. Jesus was the
best of both. As a perfect man He combined the best of both
the male and female virtues.
The whole context of this story reveals the contrast of the
male and female perspective. It is, in a sense, the conflict of
mind verses heart, but this is too simple a statement of the
facts. Reality is more complicated than that. It is true that
the men are evaluating the price and reasoning as to how the
money could have been put to better use in feeding the poor.
They are being more intellectual, and are critical of her being
sentimental. It is false to say they had no heart, however, for
they desired that the poor benefit. It is also false to say Mary
was not using her mind. The fact is, she had a deeper mental
grasp of the situation than did the men. Spurgeon said, "My
own belief is that when she sat at Jesus' feet, she learned
much more than any of the disciples had ever gathered from
His public preaching."
Mary loved Jesus, not just with her heart, but with her
mind also, for she had insight into His death that was
superior to that of the men. None of them could even tolerate
His saying that He was going to die, but she came and
anointed Him for dying. It is an oversimplification to say the
male-female contrast is the mind verses the heart, for both
function in both sexes. However, since love is the superior
virtue, and love seems to be easier for the female to express,
this is what gives women the edge in the realm of the spirit.
The great preacher Horace Bushnell said, "Ah! It takes a
woman disciple, after all, to do any most beautiful, in certain
respects too, as far as love is wisdom, any wisest thing." Any
woman who feels inferior has not gotten her feelings from
Jesus. He said the female perspective on love is superior to
that of the male. The male, however, can have it too, for he
can learn it from the female. Jesus expected just that, and
that is why this story is to be a vital part of the message
carried into all the world with the Gospel. Every Christian,
male or female, will be less than their best who miss the
message of this great act of love. Women need to learn as
well as men, for no one is like Mary without some training.
She is the only woman in the Bible that Jesus said would be
preached about all over the world for all time.
One of the lessons that is vital for us to learn is the
contrast between duty and love. The men tend to see
obligation involved. They feel it was Mary's duty to sell the
ointment and give it to the poor. Duty tends to be legalistic,
and though it does a great deal of good, it is often without
joy. When you serve out of a sense of duty you do what you
must and no more. Mary acted, not out of any obligation or
duty, but out of the spontaneous joy of love. She was
extravagant, for love is a spendthrift. She was original, for
love does not follow a rut like duty, but seeks for new and
unique ways of expressing itself. The Christian who falls into
the rut of duty tends to follow routine, and this can make him
or her a stable person to have around, yet they are missing
the spontaneity and creativity of love. The loving Christian
who serves Christ looks for new ways to be loving. He or she
surprises him with some new approach to serving. The duty
bound Christian will go in circles like Martha, but the love
oriented will be seeking for creative ways to please her Lord.
The most creative thing the love motivated Christian is, is
a self-starter. Millions of Christians can be moved to give,
serve, witness, read the Word, and numerous other things
God wants in their lives if there is some kind of a campaign
to stir them up to do it. These are the masses of duty
oriented Christians. The church would be sunk without
them, for they are the majority. They are not the Christians
most loved, however, for this place is held by Mary type
Christians. Nobody told Mary it would be wise for her to
give up her precious perfume for Jesus. She did not just
come from a revival meeting. She was not on some spiritual
high that had been generated by mass psychology or moving
music. On the contrary, she was all alone, and everybody she
knew was against her act of devotion. Her family and her
best friends in the world said she was foolish.
Mary was a self starter. She did not fall into anyone's rut.
Let Martha yell her lungs out, she was not going to miss a
chance to sit at the feet of Jesus just so a passing need could
be ready a half hour earlier. Mary was one who made her
own choices about how she would relate to Jesus, and how
she would show her love. Spontaneous love freely expressed
is the highest pleasure that Jesus can receive from anyone.
To love Him as Mary did is the ideal. Spurgeon saw Mary as
the great example, and he said to his congregation, "I am not
going to stir you up, my fellow Christians, to do anything for
Christ, for I fear to spoil the freeness of your love's life. I do
not want to be pleading with you to enter into His service
more fully, for the work of pressed men is never so much
prized as that of happy volunteers.
Mary was one of those happy volunteers. It is no wonder
that Jesus loved her, and was so deeply grateful for her love.
Such love is rare even among believers, and Jesus wanted to
make sure that every believer got a chance to see this ideal,
and so He guaranteed it would be told everywhere. The poet
wrote,
She brought her box of alabaster,
The precious spikenard filled the room.
With honor worthy of the Master,
A costly, rare, and rich perfume.
No bottle of perfume ever lasted so long, and touched so
many lives with its fragrance as did this broken bottle of
Mary's. Had she preserved it or sold it for the poor its
influence would have faded soon, but because she poured it
on Jesus it's influence will never end.
Nothing else that ever happened to Jesus impressed Him
quite like this act of devotion by Mary. Jesus did so many
marvelous things for others, but very seldom did anyone ever
show Him their love in a special way. Mary made Jesus feel
loved more than any other person as far as we have any
record. John 11:5 tells us that Jesus loved Martha, Mary,
and Lazarus, but there is no doubt that Jesus had a unique
love for Mary, just as among men He had a unique love for
John. Is it possible that John and Mary are the two most
popular names because they were the most loved by Jesus?
I have wondered many times if Jesus ever fell in love. It is
hard for us to think that He did, for when we think of love we
link it to sex. But I got to examining life, and I have come to
the conclusion that love and sex do not always have to be
combined. Jesus could have an experience of love that is not
out of keeping with His perfect and sinless nature. I
remember when I first met Lavonne, and I know from
experience that love and sex are two different worlds. They
come together in time to make one world, but they can be
totally distinct. I can remember the feelings of tenderness
and warmth that comes with being with someone you enjoy.
Out of this positive and pleasant experience of each others
presence comes love, and later comes the sexual expression of
love.
I can easily believe that Jesus entered into these initial
stages of love in His relation to Mary. It happened late in His
life because in God's plan He did not come to make any one
women His bride. The whole church of the redeemed was to
be His bride. But I am convinced that Jesus did enter into
the precious experience of love. He experienced the joy of
being understood by a woman who cared for Him deeply. It
is hard to believe that as a perfect man He would not fall in
love with such a devoted disciple as Mary. It is a logical
conclusion to come to when we see that in the Song of
Solomon Jesus is symbolized by the male lover in that great
love story. It is inconsistent with God's revelation to assume
Jesus never knew the experience of love. He wanted her
story told for all of history because it was one of His most
unique experiences.
One of the powerful lessons we learn from this is how to
test our love. If your first impulse in a relationship to the
opposite sex is sexual, you do not have a good foundation for
marriage. True love will begin on a level of admiration, and
build to commitment and loyalty before it gets to physical
intimacy. It is the first stages of love that are the lasting basis
for love. I am convinced Jesus experienced these basic
beginning stages, and that is why He honored Mary as no
other person. She could give Him no greater sacrifice, and
He could give her no greater honor. We see here a clear
demonstration of mutual love in its noblest and purest form.
Jesus wanted Mary's love for Him to go everywhere that
the story of His love went. In so doing Jesus links together
forever divine and human love. Any form of Christianity
that tries to separate them is divorced from Scripture. The
divine and human are married in this story, and what God
has joined together let not man put asunder. Jesus wants our
love just as we want His, for there is a mutual need. Mary is
the great example of one who met that need. Mary loved
Jesus more than the disciples, for none of them could see His
need as she did. They never did until it was too late. D. L.
Moody said, "Mary knew His mind, she had deeper
fellowship with Him; her heart clung to Him." Because it
was so, she built a memorial that has outlasted empires, and
goes on daily all over the world challenging men and women
to daring devotion.
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