Is Our House Filled With the Fragrance?

“Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” - John 12:3 ESV

The Lord brought me to my face a few nights ago, folding laundry in worship. It was a beautiful moment in my heart to recognize the reverential fear of the Lord. I knew immediately to stop what I was doing and soak in His presence that entered the room! I felt I couldn’t even give Him enough of me.

I strongly believe there is a cry rising in my heart for the Church: Jesus, teach us how to worship You again, how to know You deeply, how to be known by You, and how to live in such communion with You that everything else becomes secondary to the incomparable worth of Christ.

I don’t want to spend my life doing things in the name of Jesus while neglecting the feet of Jesus, becoming familiar with ministry, church, Scripture, worship songs and even the things of God while somehow losing the simplicity of actually knowing Him.

When I read John 12, I see this kind of devotion in Mary of Bethany. Lazarus, the brother who had been dead and was now alive, was reclining at the table with Jesus; (this represents us communing with Jesus as the resurrection power lives in us) Martha was serving; and Mary came carrying something incredibly precious, pure nard worth nearly a year’s wages, and poured it upon Jesus.

She didn’t calculate how little she could give and still call it worship; she recognized His worth and poured out something costly, and the entire house became filled with the fragrance of her great surrender.

What Is Jesus Actually Worth to Us?

It makes me ask a question I believe the Church must continually ask ourselves: What is Jesus actually worth to us?

Worship reveals worth, because we give our time, attention, resources and lives to what we truly value. Mary answered the question without saying a word: Jesus was worth everything!

This is the worship of Romans 12:1, where Paul calls us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.

Jesus, my time is Yours, my home is Yours, my family is Yours, my money is Yours, my gifts are Yours, my ministry is Yours, my reputation is Yours, my plans AND future are Yours, my WHOLE LIFE is Yours.

I don’t want to give You the leftovers of my life and call it sacrifice; I want to pour the whole jar.

There is something deeper than being used by God, and that is knowing God. Paul had experienced incredible revelation and ministry, yet his cry remained,

“that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”Philippians 3:10

Before I ask You to use me, Jesus, I want You to know me. Search me, correct me, purify me, have every hidden room, every ambition, every affection and everything competing for the throne of my heart.

I don’t simply want to preach about You, sing about You or serve Your Church…. I want You.

Fresh Oil and a Deeper Death to Self

And then Jesus says something remarkable about Mary’s oil: it was connected to His burial.

“Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial”John 12:7

Jesus was speaking specifically about His approaching death, yet there is such a powerful picture here for the believer because following Christ also calls us into identification with His death.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”Galatians 2:20

Maybe the fresh oil we keep crying out for must also lead us into a deeper DEATH to self - death to pride, recognition, selfish ambition, man’s approval, comfort, control and our own agendas.

We want resurrection power, but resurrection follows death; we want fresh oil, but are we willing to become poured-out vessels? We want more of His presence, but are we willing to make more room for Him?

There are things that must go into the grave so that the resurrection life of Jesus can be revealed through us.

The Christian life isn’t Jesus simply becoming part of our lives; Christ becomes our life, and the more we surrender ourselves to Him, the more His life is displayed through us.

An Invitation to Return to His Feet

I believe there is an invitation before the Church to return to His feet, to move away from performance and back into presence, away from striving to be seen and toward longing to see Him, away from constantly asking, “How can God use me?” and begin asking again, “Jesus, how can I love You? How can I know You? What else can I give You?”

What would happen if our homes became places of worship again, if we opened our Bibles when nobody was watching, lingered in prayer without needing anything from Him, worshiped when there was no microphone, fasted simply because we were hungry for Him, and allowed obedience to become an expression of our love?

What if instead of asking how much of the world we can keep while still following Jesus, we began asking how much more of ourselves we can surrender to Him?

How devoted can we become?

How acquainted with His voice?

How quickly can we obey?

How completely can we belong to Him?

Stop Calculating the Cost

There will always be voices that call extravagant devotion excessive.

Judas looked at Mary’s worship and calculated the value of the oil, but Mary looked at Jesus and calculated His worth, and suddenly the oil wasn’t too expensive anymore.

That is the Church I long for us to become - a people who have looked upon Jesus long enough that we stop calculating the cost of following Him.

Give Him the expensive thing, the hidden thing, the dream, the schedule, the resources, the gifts, the plans, the places we have protected and the life we thought belonged to us, because He is worthy of all of it.

John tells us that after Mary poured out her treasure, “the house was filled with the fragrance,” and I want our homes, churches, marriages, families and ministries filled with that same evidence of surrendered lives.

We don’t have to manufacture a fragrance; we need to become surrendered.

When pride dies, Jesus can be seen; when self decreases, His life becomes increasingly visible; when our agendas surrender to His will, His desires become our delight.

The fragrance is the overflow of communion.

May the Whole House Be Filled With the Fragrance

So this is my cry:

Jesus, know me, and let me know You.

Take my oil, my glory, my gifts, my plans, my reputation, my comfort and my future; take every part of me that still wants to live independently of You and teach me what it means to truly be crucified with Christ.

Prepare me for burial - not physical death, but the continual death of self - so that the resurrection life of Jesus Christ may be increasingly revealed through me.

I don’t want to preserve my life; I want to pour it out, because You poured Yours out for me.

You are not merely worth something to me; You are worth everything.

May we become a people at Your feet again, and may our surrender become so complete, our communion so deep and our lives so consumed with Jesus that once again, the whole house is filled with the fragrance.

Pastor Sarah Bell