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What Is Jesus Worth to You?
In this powerful message, Pastor Nathan Smith explores the profound encounter in John 12, where Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus with a pound of expensive ointment. As Jesus enters His final week before the crucifixion, we are confronted with a challenging question: What is Jesus worth to you, and how do your actions reflect that worth?
We Are a Church of Broken People
Our Purpose
No matter who you are or where you're from, you are welcome here. We gather Sunday after Sunday so that, by the steady drip of God's Word and the power of the Spirit, we grow to know Jesus more and become more like him.
Expository Preaching
We practice exposition — preaching that exposes what is in the text. Done rightly, exposition reveals Jesus. Whether in the Gospels or the Old Testament, every trajectory and theme points toward Jesus Christ and finds its ultimate fulfillment in him.
Even the preacher must guard against letting Jesus become merely a theological concept or ideological construct. He is a living, breathing person who currently reigns at the right hand of the Father.
Mary's Act of Worship
As we come to John 12, we encounter a beautiful short story of one woman's response to Jesus — a response of worship, humility, sacrifice, and extravagance. Through her actions, Mary declared that Jesus Christ is worthy.

The word worship comes from the Old English concept of worthiness — to worship is to attribute worth. When we worship Christ, we declare him the most worthy person in the cosmos.
This story prompts the central question of the sermon: What is Jesus worth to you? And how are you declaring his worthiness in your worship and your life?
John 12:1–11
"Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him... 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 the perfume."
— John 12:1–3 (ESV)
Judas's Objection
Judas asked why the ointment wasn't sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor — not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief who helped himself to the money bag.
Jesus's Response
"Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." — John 12:7–8
The Setting: Bethany & the Final Week
Bethany is a small town two miles from Jerusalem, on the other side of the Mount of Olives. This is Jesus's final week before his crucifixion on Passover Friday. Jerusalem swelled to perhaps a million people celebrating Passover — a feast recalling deliverance from death by blood and an intercessor.
The dinner celebrates Jesus's resurrection of Lazarus. They dine at the house of Simon the leper — almost certainly a man Jesus had healed. At the table: a formerly leprous host and a man raised from the dead. And still people wondered: Is this the Son of God?

Passover Typology: Jesus — the blood sacrifice and intercessor — leads all who believe through the waters of death into the presence of God. There is beautiful poetry in the redemptive narrative brought to fruition in Christ.
The Nard: A Year's Wages, Broken All at Once
What Was It Worth?
Pure nard traveled by caravan from India — a dangerous, long journey. This single alabaster jar was worth a year's wages. In today's terms, imagine a $60,000 bottle of perfume.
Most people would use one careful drop every few months. Mary broke the whole jar and used every drop — all of it, at once, on Jesus.
And Then Her Hair
She also undid her hair to wipe his feet — an act considered scandalous in Jewish culture, a sign of loose morals. But she didn't care what others thought.
In Scripture, a woman's hair is described as her glory. Mary exchanged her glory to make him glorious. Washing feet was a servant's work. She chose the lowest place to show the highest devotion.
Five Observations from Mary's Worship
1
She Sacrificed Her Dignity for His Glory
She didn't look around the room for approval. Her eyes were fixed on Jesus. Culturally, she gave up her dignity — but in doing so, she entered her created dignity. We are made to worship.
2
Her Actions Reflected Her Value for Jesus
Extravagant sacrifice reflected extravagant love. She didn't give out of obligation or duty — Jesus so captivated her heart that giving everything became a natural expression of inward devotion. Outward generosity begins with inward worship.
3
Her Devotion Filled the Whole House
A $60,000 jar broken all at once — the fragrance permeated everything. Genuine worship of Christ has a far-reaching effect. Where Christ is truly worshiped, there is a fragrance of heaven.
4
Hard Hearts View Worship as a Waste
Judas called it a waste. But doing things is the effect of worship, not the object. Christ is the object. If we reverse those, we place ourselves at the center. The Church gathers not for a lesson, but to declare: Jesus, you are worthy.
5
Devotion to Jesus Is Remembered for Eternity
Jesus promised: "Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her." Only things done in devotion to Jesus ring for all of eternity — parenting, vocation, marriage, giving.
Lazarus, Death, and the Resurrection and the Life
In John 11, Lazarus died. John reinforces the finality of death repeatedly — four days dead, decomposing, no recovery possible. Then Jesus arrives and declares war: "I am the resurrection and the life." He approaches the tomb as a champion and commands: "Lazarus, come out."
Death is defeated in the presence of Christ. This becomes a precursor image of what Jesus will accomplish on the cross — defeating death once and for all for all who believe. When Mary saw her brother raised from the dead, her heart was inflamed with worship. She saw what others missed because she was always at the feet of Jesus, listening.

Mary grasped that Jesus's time was near and that he was about to do something on behalf of others that they didn't yet fully understand. While disciples debated and Judas criticized, Mary listened — and she saw.
Sovereignty, Urgency & the Perishing
God's Sovereignty in Gathering
John 11:52 speaks of gathering "the children of God who are scattered abroad" — strong overtones of God's sovereignty in calling the elect. This is the heartbeat of missions: the in-gathering of God's people, names known only to God.
"I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also." — John 10:16
And Yet — Jesus Wept
Sovereignty does not produce stoic indifference. Jesus knew Lazarus would rise, yet he wept. He looked over Jerusalem and grieved. Both are true: unshakable confidence in God's plan and deep heartache over the perishing.
William Carey said we must "set an infinite value upon immortal souls." Adoniram Judson called it "great privilege" to cooperate with the Savior in enlarging his kingdom. Confidence in God fuels boldness to go.
A Voice from the Mission Field
"Today I smelled the combination of wood and flesh burning. My eyes stung from the smoke of the corpses... In this country alone, nearly 30,000 people die every day with little to no access to the Gospel. Eternal damnation — forever separated from our Father. I beg you, dear brothers and sisters, to petition on our behalf for the Indian church and the global church to send more laborers. People's lives and souls hang on the edge of eternity."
— A sent global worker from Heritage Baptist Church
This is a very real, significant urgency. Like Christ, we must feel the weight of death and those perishing into a Christless eternity. It should fuel a passion to make Christ known — because he is worthy, and death is real.
What Is Jesus Worth to You?
Your Wealth
Are you willing to give sacrificially — to let it hurt — as a declaration that Jesus is worth more than your financial security?
Your Reputation
Will you follow Jesus regardless of what others think? Like Mary, will you fix your eyes on your Lord and not look around the room for approval?
Your Whole Life
Whether parenting, vocation, or marriage — do it in devotion to Jesus. That is what will ring out for all of eternity. Devotion to Jesus is what Jesus will remember and celebrate forever.
"Heavenly Father, help us to extol your Son and give him the worship he is due. May we live not out of blind rote obedience, but out of true joy that stems from an inner devotion — recognizing that this Jesus called us out of the grave, paid our debt of sin, and brings us into life eternal. Amen."