The Worship Jesus Praises

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Well, I invite you to turn with me tonight back to the gospel of Mark and to the 14th chapter. I want to begin by reading the text that we're going to study together tonight. You know what distinguishes expositional teaching from all other forms is, really it comes down to this. You read the text. You explain the text. You read the text. You explain the text. Unfortunately, that is all too uncommon in American Christianity, but it's what we have to be committed to because, as even we'll see tonight, it's an expression of our love to Jesus Christ. So, let's read it together. Mark 14 and look at verse 3,

While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. But some were indignantly remarking to one another, "Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they were scolding her. But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me. She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her."

This event is recorded in three of the four gospels. It's in Matthew 26, here in Mark 14, and in John 12. None of the three gospels that record this incident clearly state when it occurred. Both Mark as well as Matthew place it, as you see here in their accounts, between the Olivet Discourse and the betrayal of Judas. If that's when it happened, it would have been Tuesday night or Wednesday morning – well, the event here would be Tuesday night of the Passion Week and Judas' betrayal on Wednesday morning, and that is possible. But we know that Matthew, and sometimes Mark, rearrange the chronology of the stories that they tell in order to make a particular point. This may be one of those occasions. John's gospel, which tends to be far more chronological in the, in the way it tells the life of Christ, places this incident just after Jesus arrived at Bethany on Saturday night before the triumphal entry. If that's when it happened as I'm convinced it did, then we're talking in this account about Saturday night before the triumphal entry on Sunday.

Jesus arrived in Bethany probably late on Friday afternoon/early evening, certainly before sunset and before the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday. He would've spent the Sabbath, that is, Friday night and all-day Saturday, resting and on Saturday undoubtedly going to the synagogue as was His practice. At sunset on Saturday night, the Sabbath was officially over. If you've ever been to Israel or in a Jewish culture, it still happens today. When the dark comes and the Sabbath ends, the city came to life. The next morning of course, on Sunday, Jesus would enter Jerusalem as Israel's King, but probably on that Saturday night after the Sabbath ended, this fascinating event occurs.

So, the obvious question is why do Mark and Matthew both place the story here in the timeline, after the Olivet Discourse on Tuesday, if it didn't actually occur at that time? Well, there are two possible reasons. One is it contrasts the anger and the rejection and the animosity of Israel's leaders and even Judas with the love and devotion of one of Jesus' true disciples. You see them in stark comparison and contrast. The other, and I think the more obvious reason to place it here as we will see when we get to verses 10 and 11, is that in this story is at least one of the reasons for Judas' betrayal of Jesus. So, let's look at this remarkable account.

It begins with a profound example of the worship that Jesus praises. Verse 3 gives us the setting: "While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper and reclining at the table…." Mark sets the backdrop for this incident with three descriptive phrases - first of all, "while He was in Bethany". Now just to remind you, this is to orient you to the city of Jerusalem. We're looking now from the southeast across the Mount of Olives, and you can see the temple mount highlighted there in the background, the Mount of Olives in the foreground on this close side. On the eastern side of the Mount of Olives, away from the temple mount where the temple stood at that time, was the little village of Bethany.

That's where Jesus was – a couple of miles away from Jerusalem. It was the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Jesus' good friends. And the gospels tell us that until Thursday night of the Passion Week, Jesus and His disciples stayed in Bethany probably at the home of His friends. Early in the morning each morning, they would walk the two miles to Jerusalem where Jesus would engage in ministry during the Passion Week. And then in the evening, they would return back to the comfort of their friends' home.

But on that Saturday night after the Sabbath was over, Jesus and His disciples were guests at another home. Notice again verse 3, "… at the home of Simon the leper…." We really know next to nothing about this man other than what's told us here. Obviously, he was a wealthy man. He had a room in his home large enough to accommodate a dinner for at least fifteen men, which is the number we know was there. At some point, this wealthy, undoubtedly influential man in that little village had contracted leprosy. It's clear that at that point he would have been forced out of the city away from his family, away from his home, away from his business, living in a leper colony with other lepers.

But he's now hosting this party for his friends at his own home, so he no longer has leprosy. It's likely, and we can imply from the story, that at some point Jesus had healed him. Clearly at some point, he had become a true follower of Jesus Christ. So apparently, this man enjoyed not only the miracle of physical healing from leprosy, but the miracle of spiritual healing from the leprosy of sin. He had come to know forgiveness and reconciliation with God, and he had now opened his home for this meal.

John makes a very interesting comment in his gospel. He says, "They made Him a supper there…." Now there are several interesting things in that statement. First of all, the word "supper", the Greek word, refers to the evening meal. In that culture, it was the main meal of the day. But in the New Testament, it often refers to more formal events. In fact, it's often translated as a banquet. That's the idea here. This was a special occasion, a banquet, a dinner party, a feast at which Jesus and His disciples were the special guests.

Notice John 12:2 says, "… (they) they made Him a supper." "They" must refer to the disciples in Bethany (excuse me). The host had to have been Simon whom we've already met. John tells us about a second host. It was Martha. John 12:2 says, "Martha was serving." Martha was typically probably directing all the work in the kitchen in the preparation for this feast. This is her familiar role. This is how she expresses her love and gratitude for Christ. It's the way many people express their love and gratitude is through active serving. That was Martha.

John adds one other host, Lazarus: "Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him." Lazarus, along with his sisters, was a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus had stayed in their home on a number of occasions. And about two months before this meal, remember, Jesus had come to this very village and had raised His friend Lazarus, who'd been dead for four days, from the dead. It must have been a strange dinner party, don't you think? He's attending this banquet two months later.

Notice verse 3 says, "… and they were reclining at the table." In the first century, more casual meals were eaten sitting down in similar ways to what we do. But on special occasions or for special banquets or feasts like this one, they reclined. In a wealthy home like Simon's, there would have been a special room devoted to eating. Typically, the tables in that room would have been especially addressed for such an occasion. Now most of us when we think of Jesus and the disciples eating, we picture Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" – you know, this long, straight, flat table. Kind of hard to visit, wouldn't you think, from one end to the other? That's very impractical, and it actually is not what they did.

This is more what a Jewish table in the first century would have looked like – a u-shape where the servants could get inside to serve the meal. And it was only slightly raised off the floor, about eight to twelve inches off the floor, and so the guests reclined to eat. Around the table, as you can see even in this portrayal, were pads or cushions or sometimes couches long enough for the entire body. They would have been laid often at an angle to the table, and then each guest would have lain on his side, leaning on his left elbow and eating with his right hand because in that culture, certain duties were done with your left hand, and your right hand was kept clean. And so, you would have lain on your left side and eaten with your right hand. That's what's going on. That's the setting for this profound example of the worship Jesus' praises.

Look at the form of, of the worship. Verse 3 goes on to say, in the middle of that setting: "… there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard…." Now you'll notice Mark doesn't identify who this woman was. Obviously, Peter, the disciple behind this gospel helping Mark write it - he knew who she was. Matthew doesn't, doesn't identify her either. Only John identifies who it was. Why is that? Well, it's likely that when Matthew and Mark wrote their gospels in the middle of the first century that Mary, that's who it is as we'll see, was still alive. And so, they had done what they did to maybe protect her in some way. But when John wrote his gospel near the end of the first century, it's very possible, even likely that Mary at that point had passed away, and her identity no longer needed to be protected.

Now notice what Mary does. She is there in the banquet room. In the first century, it would have been inappropriate for Mary to have joined the men at the table, and so, she's not there eating with them. Perhaps she was helping to serve or, or perhaps she's just standing in the wings observing. But according to Matthew and Mark, she slips in with a small jar, an expensive vial made of alabaster. Inside the jar was a very expensive perfume made from nard.

Now nard was then and still is very unusual. Nard is a fragrant ointment that comes from a plant that only grows in one place on earth naturally and that's in the Himalayan Mountains between India and Tibet. The fragrance comes from the plant's roots. It's very expensive because it had to be imported from India, and the only way to import a fragrance like that was to, to first seal it hermetically in alabaster jars. Because it was so expensive, sometimes unscrupulous dealers would mix it with other substances to get a little more mileage for the money, but notice Mary's was pure nard.

And according to John, she didn't just have a trickle. You know, you see some portrayals and she's got a little like purse-size perfume bottle. That's not the picture at all. John tells us that it was a Roman pound. That means it was twelve liquid ounces. Picture a Coke can, a large amount. This alabaster jar held about that volume.

This special perfume was very expensive. You say how expensive? Well, let's ask Judas. Not surprisingly, he knew how much it was worth – over three hundred denarii. Now a denarius was what an average day laborer was paid for a day's work so three hundred denarii was the equivalent of a year's wages for the common worker. The fact that Mary has this in her possession at all, almost certainly, shows that her family, she and her family, were probably fairly well-to-do, fairly wealthy. It's even possible that this was a valuable family heirloom that had been passed down by inheritance, adding even sentimental value to its financial value. That's the form in which she will express this worship.

Now look at the display itself. Verse 3 goes on to say, "and she broke the vial and poured it over His head." Mark tells us that she broke the vial and poured it over His head, but the other gospels tell us that she did it over His body, and John especially emphasizes that she even poured it on His feet. It was common at feasts to anoint honored guests such as rabbis and certainly kings.

Why is Mary doing this? Well, there are several obvious reasons – to express her gratitude perhaps for her brother, for the Lord raising her brother from the dead less than two months before, certainly to honor Jesus. John tells us that Mary also anointed Jesus' feet. Now that is a remarkable statement in and of itself. Doing anything to someone else's feet in the first century was reserved for the lowest slave.

So, this was an act of great humility, but it was more than that. Listen to how John describes it, John 12:3. She not only put this, some of the perfume that was left on His feet, but then she wiped His feet with her hair. After she had poured out the rest of the twelve ounces of perfume, she began to wipe up the excess with her hair. Now this was never done. It would've been even stranger in that day than it would be today because Jewish women never let their hair down in public. In fact, to let one's hair down in public was the sign of an immoral woman, and to deal with the feet was the sign of a slave.

What's going on here? What is Mary doing? Well, to really understand it, you have to go back about a year and a half before. Luke records a similar incident that happened, but it wasn't this incident. It was probably close to a year to a year and a half before what we're reading here, and it was done to Jesus by an immoral woman. In that story, an immoral woman wipes her tears from Jesus' feet as an expression of her repentance and of her desire for Jesus' forgiveness. Undoubtedly, Mary has heard that story, and it appears best we can tell, that she's imitating it. So, part of what she was trying to do was humble herself before Christ and acknowledge, like the immoral woman did, her own sinfulness. This would have been similar to the tax collector, you remember, beating his chest and refusing to look up to heaven. This was an expression of humility and acknowledgment of her sin.

Now Jesus is going to praise what this woman, what Mary did here. And so, before we move on, I just want you to note exactly what kind of worship does Christ praise. We already have some clues in what we've studied so far. First of all, He praises extravagant worship – lavish, over the top, sacrificial, costly worship of Him – (why?) because our Lord wants to be more important to us than anything else. Certainly, Mary indicated that.

It's humble worship, a humble submission assuming the role of the lowest slave acknowledging her own sinfulness, and it's unashamed worship. Mary sees the only moment that she thinks she has. She knows that Jesus' death is coming. It didn't bother her what others might think. She was not afraid for other people to know that she loved and was devoted to Jesus Christ. That's the kind of worship Jesus praises.

Let's move on to the second part of this story as it unfolds, and I want us to look at the typical responses to the worship that Jesus praises. Verse 4, "But some were indignantly remarking to one another, 'Why has this perfume been wasted?'" They are indignant with Mary.

By the way, Mark uses this same word "indignant" for when the disciples got angry when James and John's mother asked if they could sit on Jesus' left and right in the kingdom. They're hot. They're upset. And they were talking about her actions among themselves. Now notice that Mark calls them "some". We don't know exactly who they are, but Matthew tells us they were the disciples. There's no question about that. It was some of the disciples. We don't know who the disciples were that were involved in this, but we do know who instigated it, who led this attack on Mary. It was Judas Iscariot. John makes this very clear. John 12:4, "But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, 'Why was this perfume not sold….'"

Judas essentially calls what Mary did a waste, a waste of precious resources. Judas is such a tragic figure for so many reasons. We'll look at him the next time we study Mark's gospel together. Here he shows us that he knows the value of perfume, but he has no clue of the value of worship. Verse 5 here in Mark's gospel, "'For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.' And they were scolding her." Judas is leading this parade. Some of the other disciples are chiming in. Judas wants them to think he's interested in the poor. And certainly, on other occasions, Jesus had instructed Judas to give to the poor from their resources.

And it was customary at the feast time to give to the poor on the night of Passover. In fact, when Judas left the Last Supper, you remember what some of the disciples thought in John 13:29? "Some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, 'Buy some things we have need of for the feast'; or else, that he should give something to the poor." But that was all just a façade. That wasn't Judas' interest.

John tells us this, John 12:6 – "Now he said this (he led this parade against Mary), not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it." He stole money from the money given to support Jesus and His disciples. Judas was a first-class hypocrite. He wasn't concerned about the poor at all. He was concerned about himself and how he could benefit. He was the treasurer for the group and kept the money box, and he was a thief and used to steal what was in it.

Judas influenced the other disciples. Notice the end of verse 5, "And they were scolding her." They openly directed their hostility to Mary. What began as indignant remarks among themselves became direct confrontation of Mary. 'How could you? What a waste!' The Greek word for "scolding" implies anger. It pictures even flaring their nostrils in anger and confronting her. They're worked up about this. Judas has them worked up. And my guess is her lavish worship is a confrontation to their weak worship.

Now the bad responses in verses 4 and 5 are really from two different sources, and you need to distinguish them. There was the response of Jesus' true disciples. These men loved and worshiped Jesus Christ, but their temptation (listen carefully) – even though they were true disciples, their temptation was to put charity and service before the worship of their Lord. Now before you get too hard on the disciples though, think about what Mary had just done. In a moment's time – and, and pure nard, the perfume that's created from it evaporates quickly. The fragrance stays and permeates, but the actual liquid evaporates very quickly. In a moment's time, Mary had just spent the equivalent of a year's salary on a single act of worship.

Practically, in that moment, she had used up sufficient resources to fully provide all the expenses for three hundred first century families for one day. Three hundred families could have been fully cared for a day's time. Or the money could have been used to have completely cared for all of the expenses for an entire first century family for a whole year. What a waste. That's one perspective. Those, that's the perspective of the true disciples.

But the other group represented here are the false disciples of Jesus Christ, and you can see them reflected in the character of Judas Iscariot. Their temptation is to be involved with Christ, to be involved with religion, to maintain some kind of connection to Jesus Christ, but all in self-interest. They attach themselves to Jesus, but at the same time, they still worship their idols. Many of us have family members, friends, coworkers who are described in this way. There's some attachment to Jesus, but there's not a serious devotion to Jesus.

These are the people who are happy to be religious, but when they look at a true disciple's devotion to Jesus Christ, they see it as too extravagant, too over the top."A little religion after all's a good thing, but don't go too far. Don't take this thing too far." When your worship becomes too extravagant, your unsaved religious family members and friends wonder at that point, "Are you part of a cult?" Some of you've experienced that, "There's just too much. You're taking this thing way too far. Sure, believe in Jesus, but don't let it control who you are." When the true Christian extravagantly worships Jesus Christ, unbelievers and sometimes even other true believers will misunderstand, misconstrue their motives and even attack them.

Now that brings us to the third part of this story as it unfolds and that's Jesus' explanation of the worship that He praises in verses 6 - 9. Here in four brief verses, Jesus explains and defends the kind of worship that He truly values. First of all, He explains that worship itself is a good work. Worship itself is a good work. Look at verse 6, "But Jesus said, 'Let her alone.' [stop harassing her. Jesus tells Judas, along with the other disciples who've been infected by his attitude, 'Let her alone']; why do you bother her? (Literally, why have you become a trouble to her? And then I love this. He says,) She has done a good work to Me.'" Worship is a good work.

Well, there's a lot of talk in Christian circles today about good works. That's how we're known. Understand from the mouth of Jesus Himself worship is a good work. We could even translate it: 'She has done a beautiful thing to Me.'

Verse 7, "For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me." Obviously, He's alluding to His upcoming death and eventually His ascension. In this remarkable verse, Jesus actually makes three separate points.

First of all, He says as long as we live in a fallen world, poverty cannot be fully and completely erased – not going to happen. You'll always have the poor with you.

Secondly, He says believers should be concerned about the poor and needy among them and should do good to them; obviously we know from other passages especially believers, as well as unbelievers. But He also maintains that there is a priority higher than helping our fellow man and that is the worship of Jesus.

Now that doesn't shock you, but it should shock you. Because if Jesus were only a man - imagine some man saying, "Listen. You're always going to be able to help the poor, but you only have a little while to help me." This is evidence again of His deity. It only makes sense if His claims to be divine were true.

Now Jesus goes on not only to say that worship itself is a good work, but as He explains the worship He praises, He says worship must be built on the right theology. Notice verse 8, "She has done what she could.…" She did what she was personally able to do. By the way, that's all our Lord requires of us. He doesn't ask you to do what's beyond your capacity to do. He doesn't ask you to worship or express your love or serve Him beyond the gifts and abilities and opportunities He's given you, but He asks you to expend everything you have for Him.

Then Jesus explains Mary's heart. Here's what was really behind this act of worship: "She has anointed My body beforehand for the burial." You see, Mary's greatest act of worship wasn't merely the sacrifice of something costly. Did you know you can sacrifice something costly, and it not matter one bit to God? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, "If I … [give] my body to be burned, and do not have love, it profits (what?) nothing." It's worthless, it means nothing.

What Mary did to Jesus that night was an expression of her love and adoration, but it was, it was focused, it was specific. It was her love and adoration for the One who was about to die and the One who was about to die for her, to die for her to make it possible for a holy God to receive her and forgive her sins. Do you see the act that's going on here? She's taking the role of the immoral woman. She is admitting her own sinfulness. She understands that Jesus is going to die. He has said that again and again and again in various passages. Even His enemies knew of Jesus' predictions of His coming death. And remember, Mary was the best listener Jesus ever had. In Luke 10:39, we learned that Mary was often sitting at His feet listening, listening. You say did Mary really get it? I think she really got it. Jesus doesn't say here that she did this unwittingly, you remember, like the comment about Caiaphas who made that prophecy, and he had no clue what he was really saying. John tells us he didn't have a clue what he was really saying. Jesus doesn't imply that all. He gives us every reason to believe, He makes a very direct statement that this was Mary's intention.

Mary's worship that night was based on a clear understanding of the theology of the atonement of her Messiah. She got it. She knew she was a sinner like the immoral woman whose deeds she was imitating, a woman who had anointed Jesus more than a year before. She knew that He was about to die and that He was about to die for sins. He Himself had said it on several occasions. We've seen it in this gospel. And she knew that He would die at the hands of His enemies, and His friends would be unable to prepare His body for burial. And so, Mary seized the moment to worship her Lord and her Savior.

You know, I love to think ahead to just a few days after this. Remember, this is Saturday night. On early Friday morning as the soldiers stripped these same clothes off of Jesus, He still smelled the fragrance of Mary's worship.

A third point that Jesus explains about the worship He praises is that genuine worship is something Jesus always values in His disciples. Look at verse 9: "Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world (and obviously He prophesies that it will be), what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her." Now obviously, this was Jesus' reward to Mary personally. This was His way of saying, "'She's done good; she's done the right thing. What she's done is a beautiful and good work to Me. It was an intelligent act of worship – anticipating My death and My death for sin." So this is a praise of Mary. You know what's amazing to me is: this is part of our future reward as well – to have Jesus' praise and commendation. You know, people ask, "What are going to, what are the rewards going to be? You know, the description of the crowns and all of that - what are, what are our rewards going to be?"

Well, I can tell you one thing it's going to be and that is the verbal praise and commendation of Jesus Christ. Imagine standing in front of our Lord and hearing Him say, "Well done. You have done a good deed to Me." That's the greatest reward imaginable. But verse 9 is not merely about commending Mary personally. It's here in the gospel intended to teach us that our true worship of Jesus Christ is always what matters most to Jesus - remarkable, remarkable story.

So, what are you and I to do in response? Well, first of all, don't ever forget that worshiping Jesus from the heart is your highest priority. Jesus values the genuine heart worship of His disciples more than our service, more than our acts of charity to others. The point of the passage is not that we should do one and not do the other; instead, the point is that worship must be our priority over everything else. Let me just ask you - can you honestly say before the Lord that you consistently worship Jesus Christ from your heart? I'm not asking if you're busy serving. I'm not asking if you're busy with acts of charity and good works. I'm asking is your heart ever genuinely focused on worshiping Jesus Christ? That's what marks a true believer.

It also must remain the church's chief priority. You know, there's a prevailing trend in Christianity today to criticize churches for being too focused on corporate worship. You have the seeker sensitive churches which say, "Listen. That's selfish and self-consumed. You need to, you need to gear your Sunday worship services around unbelievers and reaching them. That's really the mission."

Others argue that the focus of the church should be primarily on good works and acts of charity. And there's nothing wrong with either of those but understand that worshiping Jesus is our chief priority individually and corporately.

And oh, by the way, it's what we will do for eternity. Mike Barrett put it this way, and I love this, "There is no effective service until there is acceptable worship." There is no effective service until there is acceptable worship.

There's a second lesson here for us and that is the worship Jesus praises is a focused worship. You say, 'Okay. I, I don't know if I worship Jesus. How do you worship Jesus? What does that mean? What does that look like?' Well obviously, Mary knew how. Can we agree with that? And in the gospel record, she shows us how. Mary understood that worshiping Jesus is primarily about two things.

Number one: it's about listening and responding to Christ's word. Remember what was said of Mary in Luke 10:39? "Martha had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word." And you remember Martha gets worked up, 'There's a lot to do, Lord, and, and Mary's just sitting there listening to You. Would You please send her to help?' And what does Jesus say? He says, "Martha, there's only one thing that's necessary, and Mary has chosen the good part...." You want to worship Jesus Christ? Then be in His Word. And don't just study it; do it. You know what He says in John 14? He says: "If you love Me, you will (what?) keep My commandments." It's not enough just to enjoy Bible study. It's about learning His words, listening to His words and pursuing obedience to them. That is an act of worship to Jesus Christ.

There's a second way we can express our worship of Jesus – not only in listening to His Word and obeying it, but secondly in contemplating and focusing on His death for us. That was the focus of Mary's worship that Saturday night. She was worshiping Him as she contemplated her own sinfulness, her own need of a Savior, and the fact that He was going to lay down His life for her. And she worshiped Him for what He would do on her behalf. In other words, true worship (listen carefully, true worship) is when we live a Christ-centered life, which means a Word-centered life, which means a cross-centered life. And when all that's true, we'll be interested in carrying on Jesus' mission to the world. Our worship won't become ingrown. It will flow out because Jesus cared about spreading the gospel. Jesus cared about caring for His bride. And when we live Christ-centered, Word-centered, cross-centered lives, we will also live gospel-centered lives.

You want to worship Jesus? Here it is. Be in His Word, studying His Word, seeking to obey His Word. And live your life cross-centered, remembering who you are by nature and what God has done through Christ in His grace. Mary's worship was admirable because it came from a redeemed sinner. It was motivated by genuine love for Christ. It was done solely for Christ's glory. It was informed by a rich theology of the cross. It was what she could do, and it was extravagant and humble and unashamed. That's the kind of worship Jesus wants from all of us. That's the kind of worship Jesus praises.

Let's pray together.

Father, we measure our love against what we see even in Mary, and it falls so short. Forgive us. And Lord, increase our love. Strengthen our love. Help us to be in the word of our Lord – studying it, learning it, and then striving with all our being to obey it, knowing that we cannot do that on our own, but that only You can enable us to do that. But Father, don't let us use that as an excuse. Help us to be diligent students and diligent doers to express our worship of Jesus Christ, even as Mary did.

And Father, help us to live our lives consumed by the cross – thinking about, contemplating, worshiping Jesus, acknowledging our sin, acknowledging what we deserved that He took in our place, and contemplating the incredible act of love that He, whom we cursed and denied and refused, loved us so much that He willingly laid down His life for us. Father, let our worship of Christ be like Mary's.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.