Making Space to Enter In

by Carrie Gleeson, Director of Student Ministries
February 27, 2020

Then Mary took about a pint of . . . expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. –John 12:3 (NIV)

Have you ever had a friend who just got you? Someone who knows what you’re about to say before you say it? Someone who enters into the hard stuff of life with you not in an attempt to fix it, but just to be with you in it? In John 12, we see Mary living this out. At a dinner honoring Jesus—with people moving about and noise and chatter spinning around them—Mary got what was going on with Jesus. She saw His pain and entered into it in a way no one else did.

It was only a few days before the Passover would start. Only a few days before Jesus would walk to the cross. He had told His disciples many times that He was going to suffer, that He would not be with them for very long. Still they did not comprehend. But Mary looked past the other people at this dinner party and understood what Jesus had told them about His fate. She walked into the room, took down her hair, and poured perfume used for burials over His feet. She then wiped them clean with her hair. Mary saw the humanness of the Savior on full display. She knew what her friend would go through, and instead of trying to fix it or pretend like it wasn’t happening, she entered into it with Him.

How can you take the posture of Mary this Lenten season? How can you make space to sit at the feet of Jesus, offering up what you value out of your love for Him? What does it look like for you to enter into Jesus’ pain and suffering and understand the meaning of His walk to the cross in your everyday life?