sweet surrender
When is the last time you sacrificed something of great value to the Lord? I’m not talking fifteen minutes in the Bible here or a service project there, although those are tremendously important and certainly fall under the umbrella of sacrificial acts. It’s just that I’m trying to get you to think of something deeper—a life-altering, no-turning-back kind of surrender. That type of sacrifice is much harder to muster from my innately selfish heart than I care to admit. The precious story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet is one of the most poignant examples of self-sacrifice found in scripture, so let’s dig into that, and then I’ll share my own triumph and failure with this heart posture. I am going to focus on the account from John 12:1-8, but it can also be found in Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9.
A week before Jesus’ death, while he was visiting Martha, Mary and Lazarus in the home of Simon the leper, a dinner was given to honor him. Martha is lovingly serving the guests while the risen Lazarus is relaxing with Jesus and the others—everything appears to be in order. The ESV text says that “therefore” Mary anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them dry with her hair, combining an act of unbridled generosity with one of utmost humility. She did so lavishly, with total devotion and unfettered love.
It is interesting to me that the adverb “therefore” is inserted into the story after the setting is described, as if this was the plan all along. It’s like John was saying, “So, of course it follows that Mary used an outrageously expensive product to anoint Jesus before his death, and she did so in complete humility.” By kneeling at his feet, Mary assumed the position of a slave and publicly let down her hair, a formidable faux pas in first century Jewish society, in order to serve him.
We don’t see evidence of dissension from her siblings, though they are the ones who would have felt the impact of this extravagant donation most acutely. The jar of pure nard would have been worth a year’s wages for an average worker of the day. It was a source of their savings and security, but we are not told that either of them even raised an eyebrow. Judas did, of course, but Jesus swiftly came to Mary’s defense and rebuked him. What a juxtaposition between Judas’ selfishness and Mary’s devotion, as well as Jesus’ response to both!
Often when we read scripture, we are tempted to identify most strongly with the righteous character of the story, and when I read this one, I so desperately want to be Mary, but more often find that I am Judas, withholding my best, justifying my selfish choice cloaked in righteousness with logical reasons. In the eyes of the world, this choice might even make sense like Judas’ did, but we are called to live for the Lord, devoted to him first and foremost, not to other people and what they think (Col. 3:23) nor to our own selfish desires.
By the grace of God, He inspired me to make an extraordinarily sacrificial choice when I was 26 years old. I sensed a calling on my life to step out of the limelight of a successful career as a physician to devote myself full-time to the role of wife and mother. Please do not cringe if you’re a working mama! Every time I tell this story, I try to emphasize the fact that this was God’s call on my life for my family and our circumstances. It is unique to my story and never meant to be the blueprint for someone else’s life! So breathe. Each of us is unique and the Lord calls us to all sorts of different paths. Thank God no two are just alike!
My personal calling was a sweet surrender, the first of its kind in my life, when I knew that following the Lord demanded that I lay down my pride at His feet. However, embedded in this triumph that I owe fully to God, are also my failures. Pride and doubt rear their ugly heads time and again as the years pass and I must face these foes anew and remember what God did for me, how He chose this path for my life, and how it has blessed our family beyond measure.
Sometimes I long for the recognition that my female peers from the medical community receive, for the title, for the glory of being a successful working woman in the 21st century. Sometimes I am jealous of my Christian friends whom God called to fast-paced careers. They can do it, Lord, why couldn’t I? Then I hear Him sweetly tell me, If it is my will for her to run her own private practice, what is that to you? This comes to mind because I remember what Jesus said to Peter about John, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21:22). You follow me, Lisa, and focus on me, not on your own accomplishments or the comparisons you make with others. How humbling!
Having Mary’s posture is one that I find I must intentionally cultivate every day. It does not come naturally! To continue in the path of “Father, not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42), I must surrender myself to Him moment by moment. Let me tell you, some days that is an incredibly daunting task, but on the best days, when I choose the best thing and lay myself at the feet of Jesus, I receive the joy of beautiful intimacy with the Holy Spirit, and His fruit is most alive in my life.
As the season of Advent approaches, and we expectantly wait and prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus, I pray that you will find yourself enamored with our Savior, inspired by Mary to pour your treasure at his feet. That, my friends, is sweet surrender.
