Like the house of feast in

Bethany where Jesus’ death was

commemorated

John 12:1-11



Jesus often visited Bethany on His travels to Jerusalem during His 3 years of public ministry.
Bethany is a village that is only 1.2 miles away from Jerusalem. The meaning of its name is ‘house of suffering,’ ‘house of sorrow,’ or ‘house of tears.’ As the Israelites who were claimed to be eagerly waited for the Messiah did not recognize Him, Jesus diverted his path from Jerusalem, the capital city and a religious hub of Israel. How sorry and sad Jesus must felt! He cried out “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matthew 23:37). Jesus foresaw what was to take place as a result of their disbelief; in AD 70, Roman soldiers raided the city and slaughtered 100 million people.

Bethany, a ‘house of sorrow,’ a poor village

When night comes, people who were outside a city come back to inside the city. However, on the contrary, Jesus left the city of Jerusalem and rested in Bethany (Mark 11:11, 19).
Even in Bethany, Jesus was not treated with a meal, for it was a poor village. Better yet, Jesus had numerous lusty disciples with Him. In order not to burden the host family with trouble of preparing breakfast for Him, Jesus hurried His disciples to leave the house early in the morning after the short sleep. As Jesus was filled with hunger, He went to a fig tree looking for fruits, but there was none as recorded in the Bible (Mark 11:11-14, Matthew 21:27). Jesus the Master of all living things, the Creator endured such hardship.

In Bethany, there lived Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. They were siblings loved by Jesus. Some while before Jesus’ crucifixion, an incredible event took place. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha lamented to Jesus, “Teacher, Lazarus would not have died if You had been with us.” However, Jesus with the power of resurrection, life, creation, history, and the consequences Himself and who wished He could be believed so approached the tomb where Lazarus were buried for four days already and decaying with smell (John 11:39). There He ordered the stone to be removed, and with a loud voice called out, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43) Lazarus came out of the tomb, once bounded by death, with his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and put on shroud just as how he was put into the grave. Jesus said to the people to take off his grave clothes and let him go. People who witnessed this miracle were at the verge of fainting. As this event spread all over they came to see Lazarus even from Greece, let alone places in Judea. As the large crowds followed Jesus, the chief priests were enraged with envy. Then they started plotting to kill Lazarus as well, not only Jesus (John 12:9-11). They were threatening people heavy sentence if they helped and hid Jesus.



The Last feast at Bethany

The event occurred during the feast of Bethany as recorded in today’s scripture reading took place under such circumstances. During the last week of Jesus’ public ministry, the Passion Week, Jesus entered Jerusalem. Then at night, He left the city to stay in Bethany. Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor (John 12:1-2). Jesus was treated the last time in His life in Bethany. After the several days, He would die on the cross. Jesus already knew how he would be captured and how horribly He would suffer. He saw the leather whip with tip attached with fish bones and iron pieces lashing against His body. He saw He would be beat brutally till His eyes get swollen that He could not even see. Seeing and knowing all these suffering He would go through, He attended the feast at Bethany.
The house that hosted the feast was the house of Simon the leper (Matthew 26:6, Mark 14:3). No one wants to be near lepers. Would you go and enjoy delicacies in the house of a leper? People do not even want to stay in the house even for a moment. Yet, Jesus was with him and had a meal with there. Those who were loved and favored by Jesus offered a feast for Him. When Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus whether the man was blind because of his sins or his parents’ sins, Jesus replied, “It was neither that this man sinned nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3) Then Jesus healed the blind man to see.
We often we belittle and condemn others in our minds and even speak against them. We nitpick which hometown or school they are from and think to ourselves ‘How can such (undeserving) person help with God’s work?’ We gather in cliques. However, Jesus did not act this way. He tells us not to be proud, be without conceit, and do not belittle others, because everyone is made in the image of God. If you belittle and curse others, then you are cursing God who created them (Proverbs 14:31; 17:5). That is why Jesus had His last feast at the house of Simon the leper.



Mary broke the alabaster vial of perfume

Then an unexpected event took place. Mary, Lazarus’ sister took a jar of pure nard, poured it over Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. Nard was the world’s most precious perfume. It is tremendously costly, equivalent to a labor’s annual salary. When people who witnessed this event where Mary broke the precious perfume, which they do not understand how she got it to pour over Jesus’ feet, they started to fill with confusion. Even Jesus’ disciples, unaware of the suffering Jesus would face joined Judas Iscariot scolding the woman, saying, “This perfume might have been sold for over 300 denarii and the money given to the poor.”
Jesus’ response, however, was different from what they had expected. Jesus stopped His disciples, saying “This woman has done a good deed to Me. She did it to prepare Me for the burial.” Jesus knew the disciples were not concerned for the poor. Although they had been with Jesus for three years, they did not understand the Word. They considered what Jesus said as preposterous and asked “What funeral?”
They followed Jesus to be served and not to worry about their next meal. Jesus said, “You seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26). Among them, Judas Iscariot the treasurer particularly, was a thief who pilfered the offering (John 12:6). Then when Judas scolded Mary, Jesus rebuked him and said, “You plan to pilfer that money, too.” Judas, who could steal money as long as he followed Jesus, when hearing Jesus’ prophecy several times that Jesus would be captured, realized his food line would be cut off. Moreover, when Jesus rebuked him as a thief, he was hurt. So he went out immediately and made a deal with religious leaders of Israel to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16).

“Her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much.”

There were some who were also tested in another sense. For them, it was suspicious that a young woman, Mary, broke the alabaster jar and pouring it on the feet of Jesus, who was also a young man, and wiped it with her hair, crying. The scene was good reason to criticize in the eyes of people. Even Simon who had invited Jesus because he loved Him harbored doubt. Then Jesus said to Simon, “When I came into your house, you did not give me perfume let alone water to wash my feet. You did not kiss my feet, but this woman washed my feet with her tears, wiped it with her hair, and kissed them. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been given little loves little” (Luke 7:40-50). Only those who truly love Jesus and give their most precious things to Him can do the same for their neighbors. This is because you learn the love of Jesus and take after it. Jesus gave the parable regarding the slave who had been forgiven but did not forgive his fellow servant and said, “If each of you does not forgive his brother form your heart, my heavenly father will also do the same to you” (Matthew 18:35). He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (John 13:34). God is love (1 John 4:7-8). God does not have enemies. He declares those with sin as without. Jesus came to save His people from sin and to rid of sin (Matthew 1:21, 1 John 3:8).

The feast of Bethany that we must host

Dear saints, we are in the period of Lent. It is the last path Jesus took as the Lamb of atonement who carried the sins of mankind. This year, Lent begins on February 22 and ends on April 7, the day before Easter. Lent begins on ‘Ash Wednesday’ where the ash is sprinkled on the head (2 Samuel 13:19, Ezekiel 27:30) and sins from the past are thoroughly repented for. Lent is the period of time when we must thoroughly repent for all of the sins we have committed. In the New and Old Testaments of the Bible, ’40 days’ consistently symbolizes hardship, suffering, and judgment. It is during the time of Lent that we must bear the sins of the people and even our ancestors and pray earnestly.
It is just like Daniel who prayed for the sins of his people and was forgiven (Daniel 9). We need to pray for our ancestors and children in the name of the Lord, and repent that we have not prayed properly, and have not had family worship. Only through these prayers of repentance can we host a feast for the Lord on Easter after concluding Lent.
Just as a feast for Jesus was held in Bethany, the ‘house of sadness’, when we understand the Word and receive grace, a feast takes place in our lives that were dark. Hope begins to appear in a place where it once filled with sadness, suffering, and despair. Someone once dead, is brought back to life.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

With tears, suffering, and death gone, there is no choice but to have a feast.

Dear saints, there are many painful, sad, and tearful things for every individual, family, business, and workplace. Frustrating situations that we cannot tell our wives and children are overflowing. Wherever it is, not just in Korea, but in all over the world, where there is no Jesus, it is Bethany. It is a place of tears, sadness, and suffering with nothing but death. However, if it was not Bethany, Jesus did not go. He visited Bethany, the village of sadness to raise Lazarus from the dead and to sit at the house of Simon the leper. If Jesus visits us, our family, workplace, and business all becomes a spiritual Bethany. All suffering flees and the tears stop. Jesus said to the widow from the city of Nain who cried sorrowfully after losing her son more precious than her own life, “Stop weeping” and “Young man, I say to you, arise!” Then her only son was raised from the dead. The entire village that cried together because the widow’s circumstances were so pitiful was turned into a banquet hall(Luke 7:11-17). The village that was like a grave became a house of feast. Even if our business has failed until now, our children worry us and we do not see any hope, I ask that we have the faith that our house will become the one with feast.
The Lent of this year must be that kind of time. Please understand this Word and repent thoroughly. Our lives were like Lazarus who died and emitted a rotting smell. Please repent for not serving the church, not putting all your heart into it, and not being able to properly understand the History of Redemption Series. If we do not attend Wednesday Service, Thursday Service, cell group worships, not to mention the Lord’s Days even during the time of Lent, our faith must be fake.
Like the people of Bethany, please prepare all your heart to host the life of the Lord. Love Jesus just as Mary, who consoled Him by pouring perfume on Him on His last path with carrying the sins of mankind. And as we invite the Lord and host a great feast at our church on Easter, I pray in the name of the Lord that there will be a living work in that the entire world will hear the news of this feast and smell the fragrance, and come running. I pray in the name of the Lord that all things that were down until now will turn out well, and you will be blessed that whether you come in or go out. John 11:39 says that there was a stench. So far, our lives have not been able to give off a fragrance before God, we have lied to, disliked and hated others. We did not keep God’s commands, did not read the Bible, did not praise, did not pray, and have not received the Word of God with concentration while seeking grace. Let us thoroughly repent of all these sins during this Lent until April 7. And when it is Easter on April 8, 2012, please allow our Pyungkang Cheil Church to host a great feast centered on Jesus just as the feast held at Bethany.

Please drive out the powers of darkness from each family through the authority and power of the Word. Please shine the Glory of God on every household with Your abundant grace, so that darkness cannot even come near us. Let the God’s glory dwell upon our heads.

God, we thank You. As we have Your grace to read the Bible, to praise, to pray, to proclaim the History of Redemption Series to all nations, and to love our nation and our people fervently with our hearts, please allow there to be a work in which this Word is proclaimed. We give thanks wholeheartedly before You, Lord, for this day. And please watch over us until the end of this day so that we may keep this holy Lord’s Day before You, God. We thank You for all of Your Word, and pray this in the holy name of Jesus Christ with thanksgiving. Amen.”

Lord’s Day Sermon on February 26, 2012.