Teaching Text

MATTHEW 26:6-13

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Sermon Recap

This Sunday, Pastor Raegan continued our FOLLOW series with a teaching on worship from Matthew 26, where Mary pours an entire jar of expensive perfume over Jesus’s feet. The disciples call it wasteful, but Jesus calls it beautiful. Pastor Reagan used the scene to ask a more uncomfortable question—what does it actually mean to worship Jesus?

Pastor Raegan suggested that worship is more than what happens when we sing together on a Sunday. It is “a wholehearted giving of yourself to that which you believe is worthy.” We already understand this kind of devotion in other parts of life. We give our attention, time, money, and energy freely to the things we love. Mary simply reveals what that kind of devotion looks like when Jesus becomes the One we believe is truly worthy.

The contrast with Judas makes the question more pointed. Mary pours herself out at Jesus' feet, while Judas sees her offering and asks, “Why this waste?” What we are willing to give reveals what we believe something is worth. Pastor Reagan challenged us to consider where our own worship may have become measured or divided—whether we are giving Jesus what is left over while holding tightly to the things we value most.

Pastor Raegan was careful not to turn worship into another list of things we need to do for God. Mary’s extravagant worship did not begin with trying harder. It began with beholding. Earlier in Luke 10, Mary had chosen to sit at Jesus' feet and give Him her attention. We do not become deeply devoted to someone we rarely look at. As Pastor Raegan put it, “Attention leads to adoration.”

That attention also brings us face to face with our need. Mary knew she needed Jesus, while Judas had come to believe that other things could ultimately satisfy him. Pastor Raegan shared honestly about her own experience of weakness and how being stripped of her sense of self-sufficiency had made her more aware of God's strength, grace, and mercy. Our desperation is not something to hide from God. It can become the very place where worship grows.

From there, worship moves outward. As we see Jesus more clearly and recognize His worth, we begin to give ourselves to what He cares about. Prayer, serving, generosity, evangelism, care for the poor, and mission are not substitutes for worship. They are meant to flow from it. The goal is not simply to do more for Jesus, but to become people so captivated by who He is that our lives begin to look like a response.