What Worship Smells Like

Ever wonder what worship smells like? Yeah, me neither. But maybe we should. In an act of pure and impractical devotion, a woman named Mary -- who had recently seen her brother raised from the dead by Jesus -- shocked all the guests at an otherwise lovely dinner party by pouring nearly a pound of uber-expensive and potent-smelling perfume oil all over Jesus' head and feet.

It happened on a Saturday night like this one, the day before the first Palm Sunday. Was it an impulsive act of worship or something she had long planned? We don't know. John writes that the whole house smelled of the stuff, and in the time before quick showers Jesus may have carried the scent on him well into the final five days before His crucifixion. After wiping his feet with her hair, she would have smelled just like Him, bearing the aroma of her worship everywhere she went during that painful week, perhaps even to the cross itself.

Judas and some other disciples grumbled about the cost, but Jesus praised her.

She has done a beautiful thing to me. . . . She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her. (John 12:6, 8-9)

Read two versions of the story in John 12:1-11 and Mark 14:3-11, and ask yourself what your worship smells like this week. Would anyone grumble that you're giving away too much to Jesus? That your choice to follow Him as you do is impractical? Yeah, me neither. But maybe they should.