What Do You Worship?

John 12:1-26

“Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of her perfume.” John 12:3

As we picture Mary anointing Jesus’ feet, we capture a beautiful moment of what Christians refer to as worship. Of the many ways I have heard worship defined, I know of no more concise an explanation that the one offered to me by the pastor who led me to Jesus.

Worship is the expression of love and adoration for our God.

When we speak of worship in church-world, we generally use the term to describe our time spent in music or song. I’m not about to pronounce judgment on the cave dwellers who seem to use the term primarily within the context of music, mostly because I often do so myself.

Worship isn’t an exclusively Christian thing; rather I propose that we all worship something. We were created to be a people of worship and have continued to be so throughout human history. Left to our own we are predisposed to worship anything I believe, BUT God. We are a species having substituted our affection for God for the trappings of His created world.

We love money, so we do what we can to get as much as we can, keep all we can and then sit on the can. That is our worship. We love sex and romance. That’s why we love to listen to music or watch movies which scratch that itch. That is worship. We love our sports. Our affection might prompt us to wear team swag, buy season/single game tickets and maybe even paint our faces. This is worship.

There may be a part of worship that can be summoned or inspired, and we desperately try to accomplish this in our church settings on a Sunday morning. Yet I am of the opinion that worship simply comes out of who we really are and what we truly value. This is what we see in the lady Mary. We see a woman who is immensely grateful for what Jesus has done in her life. Jesus had brought her brother back from death itself. To put her offering into context, a denari is worth about a day’s wages. If you take a couple of weeks off per year for holidays, her gift would amount to approximately one year’s wages.

Our love for God is expressed in virtually all we do in relationship to Jesus. We worship when we listen to His word. We express our love as we walk in obedience. We live out our adoration when we tell others about what He has done for us.

If you want to know what your life truly worships, just track the money. Our heart is where our treasure is. Maybe it’s in your house, garage, your closet, the bank or even your belly. I won’t be one more Jesus guy to try and get you to give your money to my cause. Keep your cash if it’s so precious to you. I will ask you this;

As she dumps a full year’s wages on to the feet of her saviour, do you suppose she’s wondering if it’s tax deductable?