Day 12 of 21 Day Challenge

Day 12: Shared by Tanner

One of the key things that jumps out to me in John 12 is when Mary washes Jesus feet with expensive perfume. It is an act of pure worship. She bowes herself before him and washes his feet with the perfume and cleans his feet with her hair. She was all in, that is not a halfway devotion. It makes me ask myself when was the last time I went all in at the feet of Jesus. Judas admonishes her, often times there are people in our life who won’t understand what we are doing, it won’t make sense to everybody, even those who claim to be believers but Mary did it anyway. I also think the fact that the perfume is expensive means following Jesus can be costly. There are some things that you and I will have to give up to be totally committed to Jesus but in the same token Jesus stops Judas from chastising her and acknowledges her sacrifice.

The second part that stands out to me is that Jesus rides into Jerusalem seated on a donkey and people are excited and shouting Hosanna! Blessed is the king of Israel! If it were me I would think that Jesus would say “your right, the king is here!”but in true Jesus fashion he does the opposite and compares himself to a grain of wheat to be sacrificed so that it can produce many seeds. He doesn’t make things about himself, even when everyone wants him  to. Can I just say that is difficult for me to do, and I’m willing to bet that is difficult for others to do as well. He’s showing us that self sacrifice is a vital part of his mission and if we go on we see that devotion to God should be our top priority. “Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of the light.”