Lessons from the Gospels – Mary Who Loved Much

Lessons from the Gospels 12 – Mary who loved much, Martha the Provider, Lazarus the Prophetic – Part 1.

Maybe you thought I’d never get back to the blog series on the Gospel. I didn’t forget. I just got distracted for weeks with the lessons of that incredible and interesting woman who raised our Savior, Mary. But we jump back into the Gospels with another equally interesting Mary, along with her sister, Martha, and her brother, Lazarus.

A family of faithful believers is a great blessing, even if they are not blood relatives. But siblings who are also in the faith? Now that is special.

The thing is, Mary the mother, must have known this family of believers because of their close ties to Jesus and their support of His ministry.

We know that, during the time of His life on earth, Jesus’ own brothers (half-brothers) did not believe Him. [See John 7:5] It would seem that after the incident we read about in Mark 3:32-34, Jesus’ brothers no longer followed Him. Maybe they were offended by His words.

Jesus received the blessing of a “replacement family” that He spoke about in Luke 18:29-30, where He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 "who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life."

For a time, at least, He gave up His family (or they gave Him up) for the work of the Kingdom. But God gave Him another family that were with Him until His death, at the resurrection and beyond it. It is the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

Today, I want to focus on Mary. I call her “Mary who loved”. We first hear about Mary when she performs a shockingly intimate and touching act of service, love, and gratitude.

Luke 7:36-39 [NIV] 36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner."

If it wasn’t for John 11:1-2, we would not know that this was the Mary of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, since Luke protects the identity of this “sinner”. Thankfully, we do know that Mary loved much, and we know that this was because Jesus had forgiven much.

And here, where she first shows up at Jesus’ feet, you see why I call her “Mary who loved”.

We don’t know what she did to be called a sinner, but we know it was public enough that this Pharisee thought Jesus should also know about it and, therefore, should not be letting her touch Him. To see such an emotional and touching outpouring of love and appreciation must have been so moving. Yet all this Pharisee could think is “Eew! Why is He letting her touch Him?!” That guy was the one with the problem.

Jesus knew that Mary was a forgiven, repentant, new-life-living sinner who “loved much” in return.

We could all learn to be more grateful for the sacrifice and forgiven of Jesus. We could all learn to find more ways of showing it to the body of Jesus (His church). Since we don’t have His physical body here to anoint with oil, wash with tears and kiss, we must find ways to show love for Jesus, appreciation for Jesus and willingness to humble ourselves before Jesus in how we interact with and serve the part of Jesus’ body that we do have with us = the church.  

This humble and dramatic love of Jesus is probably why when we next see Mary, she is once again at the feet of Jesus. This time, she is sitting at Jesus’ feet, enthusiastic about hearing from Him, probably hanging on every word out of the Saviors mouth. [See Luke 10:38]

Luke 10:38-42  [NLT] 38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, "Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." 41 But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her."

Mary wasn’t about to give up her place at the table of the Lord’s instruction in order to deal with food service. Especially when Jesus Himself did not seem too concerned about a physical meal at that time. I’m sure if He had asked her to go help, she would have done it. She had shown herself ready to serve Him in any way.

However, Jesus, at the moment, wanted her there (with the men, I might add), learning from Him.

We could all learn to do better at prioritizing time eating from the Lord’s table, and spending time with the Bread of life. That’s where our true nourishment comes from.

Mary did learn, there at the feet of Jesus, the one who forgave her sins.  Mary learned, undoubtedly among many other lessons, to have faith in Jesus, her teacher, even in a very sorrowful time.  

John 11:28-29, 32 [NKJV] 28 And when she (Martha) had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you." 29 As soon as she heard [that], she arose quickly and came to Him…32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

There she is, at His feet again. This time, worshipping Him even through the pain of losing her brother. She worshipped Him, even when she and Martha clearly had faith in Jesus’ ability to heal Lazarus, but He had not come in time to do that.

Her faith and faithful worship was rewarded by having her brother restored to life.

John 11:40, 43-44 [NKJV] 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" ... 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."

When we spend time at Jesus’ feet, we find forgiveness, instruction, and faith. We see miracles there. Sometimes it is that awesome miracle of being able to have faith, trust and hope, and to stay obedient when the answer from God is a heart-breaking “no”. Mary, the one who loved, is an example of this steadfast faith in action. And she got an even bigger miracle than she’d asked for.

We don’t know if Mary and Martha were there looking on at Jesus’ death. But Matthew 27:55-56 [NKJV] tells us, 55 And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. We know that Martha and Mary were women who ministered to Jesus (in opening their home, washing His feet, worshiping and learning from Him). It’s reasonable to propose that they might have been among the women there.

Whatever the case, I wonder if, upon hearing of her Savior’s death, Mary didn’t think of the recent resurrection of her own brother and believe.

There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.

Mary who loved much surely heard very quickly about Jesus’ resurrection. Other women, whom she must have known because they also followed Jesus and ministered to Him, learned of it first and started passing the happy news along.

What an amazing example Mary was. Frequently found at the feet of Jesus, she saw miracles, she experienced great love and chain-breaking forgiveness.

I hope she was among those gathered when the Holy Spirit rained down like tongues of fire and that she got to experience that first out-pouring. But the scripture doesn’t tell us.

Her example teaches us so much about what we can be as women, if only we choose to be at the feet of Jesus at every opportunity. You show me a woman at the feet of Jesus, and I will show you a strong, faithful saint who will hang on during the darkest times, knowing that ultimately she will see the light of all eternity.

I welcome your comments and questions. You can write me now in the comments section, or any time at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org