The Perfume That Broke the Math: Mary, Judas, and What Jesus Is Worth

From the sermon preached on October 11th, 2026

Imagine you arrive at a restaurant dinner with friends, and one of them got there early and ordered a bottle of wine for the table. The label looks old and the bottle looks dusty. You look it up on the wine list and the price is not fifty dollars, or a hundred, or even a thousand. You start doing the math and realize this bottle costs more than your yearly wage, and the friend who ordered it has about the same job you do. Do you say “this is too extravagant, we can’t drink this,” or do you pour a glass? In John 12, a woman faces a very similar moment at a dinner table in Bethany, and Jesus’ answer has everything to do with what he is worth. This past Sunday at Apostles Uptown, John Starke continued our series The Unavoidable Jesus with a sermon titled “Preparation for Death,” working through John 11:55-12:11.

To check out more sermons from The Unavoidable Jesus series, click here.

 If you have ever wondered whether devotion to Jesus can be too much, sit with this story for a few minutes.

Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and a dinner was given for him in Bethany. Martha served, Lazarus reclined at the table, and Mary took a pound of expensive nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair (John 12:1-3). The perfume could have been sold for 300 denarii (John 12:5). A denarius was a day’s wage, so that is roughly a year of income. Mark’s Gospel says she broke the alabaster jar, which means the whole thing was spent. Many commentators suspect it was a family heirloom, the kind of security you sell when things fall apart.

Pastor John pointed out that this story appears in more than one Gospel, which signals that it is foundational. It is not an isolated moment of devotion to admire from a distance, but a picture of what a heart that belongs to Jesus looks like.

The next time you split a dinner check on the Upper East Side and wince at the total, notice how fast “too much” becomes your instinct. That same instinct showed up at Bethany.

One honest step: Read John 12:1-8 slowly once this week and write down the one detail that feels like “too much” to you.

In John 13, Jesus kneels like a servant and washes his disciples’ feet, an act that points ahead to the cleansing of their sins at the cross. Mary’s washing looks similar: both are humble, costly acts of love, and both point toward death. But they are not the same thing. Jesus’ cross is atonement. It covers sin and shame, emptied God’s wrath, secured our life, and defeated death. We are also told to pick up a cross, and ours may look costly like his, but none of our crosses accomplish any of that.

Mary’s love does not repay Jesus for raising her brother, and it does not buy her a place in his love. As Pastor John put it, Jesus’ washing is what saves us, and Mary’s washing is what a saved, free heart looks like.

If you spend your week in a Midtown office quietly feeling that you owe Jesus more, hear this: the debt is already settled, and love is what remains.

John gives us two postures at one table. Lazarus is reclining, and Mary is anointing (John 12:2-3). It is easy to imagine Lazarus feeling guilty, as if Mary were simply the more mature or radical believer. But Pastor John said rest and pouring yourself out are not in competition. Jesus says in Matthew 11 to come to him if you are weary and heavy laden, and he promises rest. In Matthew 16 he says to deny yourself and take up your cross. Holding both takes discernment.

Lazarus has been raised, so everything is a gift now, and the outcome of resurrection life is communion. If the end of the world is a feast with Jesus, he can start now. Mary shows what our cross looks like. [INTERNAL LINK: what we believe about grace and the Christian life, /beliefs]

In an apartment full of unanswered emails, rest can feel irresponsible, and sacrifice can feel like one more demand. Jesus offers both as expressions of one relationship.

One honest step: Share one unhurried meal this week, and thank Jesus for it before you eat.

Two calculations are at work in this story. Judas calculates the price of the perfume, and he is right about the price: it was costly. But Judas, a thief who helped himself to the money bag, misjudges whether Jesus is worth it (John 12:5-6). Mary is calculating Jesus’ worth, and she has not become ignorant of cost. She has simply stopped asking whether it is worth it.
Jesus does tell us to count the cost, and Pastor John named real ones: fewer vacations and restaurants, falling behind at work for refusing to be dishonest, losing status when coworkers learn you follow Jesus. As you stay close to him, you begin to feel what you already believed, his beauty and worth, until at some point the calculating stops.

Mary is always at Jesus’ feet in the Gospels (Luke 10, John 11), and here she senses what is coming. Jesus said she was keeping the perfume for the day of his burial (John 12:7). Pastor John suggested her love was awakened by his love, and that his dying love stirred her costly love. At the cross, Christ was scorned just as she was: “What a waste.” Yet the centurion said, “Surely this was the Son of God.” Our crosses look extravagant until we see the Son of God lifted up, and that is where the calculations stop.

On a Monday morning when honesty at work will cost you something, the question is not whether it costs. It is whether he is worth it.

One honest step: Write down the one cost you keep calculating, and bring it to Jesus in prayer with the cross in view.

Apostles Uptown gathers Sunday mornings at Regis High School, 60 East 85th Street, on the Upper East Side. Our community groups also meet in East Harlem, Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, Morningside Heights, and the Upper West Side. In a city where it is easy to live as the room expects, these questions matter. You don’t have to have it figured out, and there is no performance. Come as you are. Find a community group near you.

Back at that dinner table, the bottle still feels like too much until you learn who paid for it and what it cost him. Mary’s perfume looks extravagant until you see what Jesus pours out for you. Our crosses look extravagant until we see the Son of God lifted up, and in front of that cross the math stops, because he is worth it.

Did this raise questions about who Jesus is and whether he can be trusted? Taking the next step starts with a simple visit. Plan your visit below:

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