March 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 12:1–7

Devotional

Mary did not talk too much. She listened to Jesus. She listened and the fruit of her listening led her to recognize Him as her Savior. She, therefore, wished to honor Him and anointed Him with precious spikenard.

When Mary anointed Jesus, she anointed Him as Prophet, for He spoke as Prophet about His coming humiliation. The disciples only thought about His exaltation, but Mary looked deeper. At the feet of this Prophet she came to understand that Christ had to suffer and die so that the church of God could be saved.

Secondly, she anointed him as Priest, because He was the Priest that would enter death for His people. He was Priest and sacrifice at the same time. She anointed Him as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

Thirdly, she anointed Him as King, because in this spikenard lies the odor of victory. Jesus would overcome death. In this anointing Mary cleaves to a dying King, believing that He will not die forever but will rise from the dead. Herein lays the significance of this anointing. What a privilege if we would also acknowledge Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. We need to see Christ as a dying King and as a Priest who intercedes for His people as the Lamb of God. And we need to acknowledge Him as Prophet, who foretold all these things. We have to have Mary’s understanding of Jesus as Surety and Savior. If He is not acknowledged as such, we cannot be saved.

We are at the time of the year when we meditate on the sufferings of Christ. Mary had looked into His grave. What do you think of Christ? Do you desire Him? Do you need Him? Have you, like Mary, learned to look into His grave? To do that you first have to look into your own grave and recognize that we are worthy of death. You will see death within you and that from our side there is no hope. Christ came for such hopeless ones. Those who see their own death cannot do with less than a dying Jesus. Those who have seen the grave of their temporal, spiritual, and eternal death cannot live anymore without Him. It will be a blessed Passion season for us when we learn to look into His grave.

Mary did a good work and now there is only one good work for us to do in these weeks of commemorating Christ’s sufferings. That is to do as she did. We must recognize Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, as Surety and Savior. That is the only good work we can do. Everything else is refuse.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.