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Love Poured Out



2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:2-3)


How much does love cost? About a week before the start of Passover, Jesus went to the home of his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Mary opened some expensive, fragrant oil and poured it on Jesus' feet. She then wiped his feet with her hair. This oil was worth a year's wages, and she just poured it out - on Jesus' dirty feet. Even if her hair was long, Mary had to get very close to wipe Jesus' feet with her hair. How intimate. How uncomfortable everyone else in the room must have felt at Mary's public display of affection. How appropriate for the One she was honoring.

Jesus touched lepers, talked privately with women, ate and drank with tax collectors and "sinners", was touched by a bleeding woman. Jesus got intimately close to those he wasn't supposed to reach out to. When Jesus later washed the feet of his disciples, everyone else in the room felt uncomfortable. In his life and death, Jesus showed us that love is not safe or comfortable.

Love costs everything.


7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:7-8)

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