John 12:3 “Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”
Once contained in a bottle, now covering the feet of Jesus—in a single remarkable act, the Creator and the created become one in fragrance. The ardor of Mary’s love poured out filled her home, but it is where Jesus carried it that commands our attention.
Jesus likely bore that fragrance to the garden of Gethsemane as He prayed to the Father for strength. When Judas betrayed the Son of God with a kiss, we wonder if the smell reminded the son of perdition that the Messiah, the anointed One, came to die. After all, the spikenard in Mary’s fragrant oil is one that graced royalty at their death.
Jesus was arrested, bound, and subjected to acts of mockery and questioning. Stripped of clothing and beaten unto near death, Jesus was sweating, He was bleeding, and perhaps His blood moistened the fragrance upon His feet, intensifying its effect.
Through the streets of Jerusalem, amid the shouting throngs, Jesus moved toward Golgotha, and still, the aroma lingered, emanating from His presence. Nailed to a Roman wooden cross, lifted high, and crucified for the sins of the world—was the scent of that fragrant oil strangely mixed with the atmosphere of violence and rejection?
Once laid in the tomb, did its faint odor cling to those who placed Him there? Only those nearest could answer. But to all who would draw near to the Savior today, let the fragrance of the crucified Son of God scent the air. We dare not miss the aroma of His sacrifice.
– Pastor Jack
Click here to read all of Jack Hibbs’ Weekly Devotionals at Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
