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an you think of anything that would be worth spending a year’s wages, a year’s salary, for?

What would your dream purchase be, a cruise around the world, a boat, a car, a piece of jewelry? What is worth spending a year’s salary to own?

Ever since I was an adolescent and the neighbor across the street had a red Jaguar, I have wanted a Jaguar. My son’s have promised me when they make their first million they are going to buy me one. Trust me that will be the only way that I will ever have a Jaguar because no matter how much I wanted one as a youth, there is no way I would spend a year’s salary to own one.

Don and Nicole, would you have spent a year’s salary, if you had to, for Sean? (There are some parents right now who are thinking, wait until the terrible twos or when they are teenagers you might change your mind.)

So maybe for a loved one, a child, a parent, a spouse, a friend we would spend a year’s wages on, but would you spend a year’s wages to express your devotion to God? (Perhaps here, now would be a good time to say, that if any of you are inclined to do so you can make that check out to the St. Paul’s Restoration Fund, pass it to the center aisle and an usher will be there to collect it.)

Spend a year’s salary to proclaim your devotion to God? I must admit it sounds absurd, yet this is exactly what Mary has done. She has taken a pint, eight ounces, of pure nard, an expensive perfume imported from the mountains of India, and poured it on Jesus’ feet.

This act of devotion brought a complaint from Judas. He saw Mary’s action as a waste of good perfume.

“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It’s worth a year’s wages.”

Has anyone ever told you that your acts of devotion to God or to His people or to His church are foolish? Have you ever been criticized for spending so much time helping at the church, or giving too much of your money in the offering, or expending too much time helping others? If you have, then let me say, don’t allow the criticism to stop you from expressing your love for God and neighbor. And if you haven’t been criticized, why haven’t you been?

“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It's worth a year’s wages.”

We see two very different motives in this story. Judas’ motive, which is self-serving and Mary’s motive, which is God serving. Judas saw the perfume and saw dollar signs. Mary saw the perfume and saw an act of devotion.

Judas’ pious attitude for the poor is a front for his true motives. Judas, has indicated elsewhere in the gospel as John, often helped himself to the money that was in the disciple’s treasury. What Judas was really complaining about was the fact that he personally lost a source of income.

It should be noted that this passage is in no way teaching us to ignore the poor by lavishing ourselves with expensive clothes, possessions, etc. This is a unique act for a special occasion. It is an anointing that anticipated Jesus’ burial. It was an anointing that declared Mary’s faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Mary’s attitude of devotion to Jesus, was no doubt motivated by the fact that in the not too distant past Jesus had raised her brother Lazarus from the dead.

This section pictures a new exodus. It is the ‘new exodus’ that God spoke of through Isaiah.

“This is what the Lord says - See I am doing a new thing! I am making a way in the desert and the streams in the wasteland.”

He reminded them of the time when they were oppressed, when they had been slaves in Egypt before the exodus. How they cried out to God and he delivered them. Now Isaiah is speaking about being exiles again in foreign lands. He is speaking about how they would again be oppressed, how they would be slaves and how they would cry out to God. He is speaking about how again God would hear their cry and deliver them, for God promised a new exodus.

Mary, as you and I should, saw Jesus as this new exodus. Jesus is the way out of the desert of death. Jesus is the refreshing stream of hope in the wasteland of despair. Moved by her love and devotion for Jesus she anointed Jesus with a year’s wages worth of pure nard. Is this not but a small gift when you think of what Jesus did for her? Jesus raised her brother from the dead and gave him back to her.

Is a year’s wages too much to ask one to give to Jesus for dying on the cross, for destroying death and rising from death to offer you and me salvation?

Is a year’s wages enough to give to Jesus for destroying death?

Can you actually put a price tag on what Jesus did for you and me?

This story isn’t about money, as if you could ever put a price tag on what Jesus has done for you and me. The story is about acts of devotion. It is about offering God your heart and your life. It is about seeking ways to express your love to God.

God’s love for you and me, it is a love so amazing, so divine, it demands our soul, our life, and our all!

Amen