John 12 journal

John 12 Journal

Proverbs of the day – Proverbs 9:10-11 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.

John 12 Journal – Mary seemed to have knowledge of the Holy One and demonstrated it by her actions. She took a bottle of perfume worth about $40,000 and poured it on Jesus’ feet. Her actions showed that she valued Jesus more than the perfume and she was willing to get on her knees to serve him by wiping his feet (People’s feet were generally very nasty from all the stuff on the dirt roads) with her hair. This part of the story challenged me to consider if there is anything that I would not sacrifice in order to demonstrate that I valued Jesus more than any possession.

On the other hand, Judas had a much different response. He got extremely angry because he saw the perfume as being wasted. How do you determine what god you worship and serve? By what makes you angry.  Judas worshipped money and he got angry that he was not going to be able to sell the perfume and help himself to the money that would be put in the treasury. Placing a higher value on money than Jesus is what led Judas to betray Jesus and experience the guilt that comes from worshipping the wrong god.

The chief priests also had the wrong motives. They wanted to kill Lazarus because many people were putting their faith in Jesus.  How sad it is that they could not see the wonderful miracle that Jesus performed and put their faith in him.

My prayer today is that God would give me the faith of Mary. I pray that my actions will show that I value Jesus above anything else.