How do you worship?

I’m reading through John right now and I’m on chapter 12.  The whole chapter shares contrasts proper worship to Jesus with sinful/wrong attitudes.  I want to highlight the first story in chapter 12.

Ch. 12 begins with a story of Mary washing Jesus’s feet with an expensive perfume.  Remember, washing a guest’s feet was a common practice on those days; anointing them with an expensive perfume was not.  Obviously, this is a story worth highlighting.  Judas’s response to her action was to criticize it, saying that the money should’ve been spent on the poor (taking his own percentage off the top, of course).  Like the expensive perfume covering Jesus’s stinky feet, Judas tries to cover up his stinky sin with a nice-smelling excuse.  Jesus’ words in verses 7 and 8 highlight her action and contrast it with Judas’s greedy objection.

“It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

This happens about 1 week prior to Jesus’s crucifixion and death and he understands this anointing as preparation for his coming burial.   I don’t know if Mary understands that Jesus will die soon or if she is simply honoring the one who raised her brother from the dead.  It is possible that Mary understands the significance of Jesus’s visit to Bethany (read 11:7-16 and 12:9-11) and is very thankful for his presence despite hostile opposition.  Regardless, she gives to Jesus a great honor with her simple, beautiful action.  Judas should recognize this.  Instead, his greed gets in the way of a special moment to honor Jesus.

I was going to write on the whole chapter, but then kept cutting it down to get to the point that convicted me the most in this first story: our sin gets in the way of proper worship of God.  I do this a lot and here is an example:  3 or 4 Sundays ago, I helped set up for Jacob’s Well.  I normally set up all the sound equipment (cords, mic’s, etc), but this Sunday, a friend of mine set it up.  After that, two people came up to me to play music with us; I had asked them to play, but forgot about it.  Lastly, I had neglected to pick songs because I assumed someone else was going choose music.  These three things stressed me out BIG.  I’m not a control freak, but I am a control freak.  So I was stressed out about where to put people, if the sound system was set up properly, and what we were going to sing.  During rehearsal, when I normally have a lot of fun and enjoy playing and singing and worshipping, I was pissed off.  Sinfully pissed off.  I wish I could say that I recognized it then, but it’s always in hindsight that I realize how my sinful attitudes or actions hinder a moment of glory to God.

Instead of offering sweet praise to Jesus for his death, eternal life, and forgiveness of sins, I tried to cover up my sinful attitude with music and silence.  It was wrong.  I was Judas.  I still am Judas.

Questions to consider:

How do you worship God?  

Do you often let sin affect your time with Jesus?

Favorite soda pop?