Mary's Spikenard and the Grain of Wheat: John 12 in the Workshop
There is a piece of black walnut in my shop that I have been holding onto for about three years. A friend gave it to me when he was clearing out his father-in-law's lumber stash. It runs about eight feet long and maybe twelve inches wide, with a crack in one end that I keep telling myself I will cut around someday. I have not used it yet. Every time I walk past it I think about what it could become, and that possibility keeps me from committing it to anything.
That is the opposite of what Mary does in John 12.
She does not save the spikenard for a more appropriate occasion. She does not wait until she is sure. She opens the jar and pours it out.
Why Did Mary Anoint Jesus with Spikenard
Six days before the Passover, Jesus comes back to Bethany. Lazarus is at the table. Martha is serving. Mary takes a pound of spikenard that was very costly and anoints Jesus's feet with it. She wipes his feet with her hair, and the whole house fills with the smell.
The detail that always catches me is the amount. A pound of spikenard was not a dab of perfume. It was a year's wages poured out in a single act. There is nothing efficient about it. It is extravagant in the way that real love usually is, which is to say it does not stop to calculate the cost.
Judas objects on economic grounds. He says the ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor. John tells us he said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief who held the money bag. But even if Judas had been sincere, the question is still worth asking. Was it wasteful?
But Jesus says no, and his answer changes how you read the whole scene: "Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this." Mary understood something the others had not. She knew what was coming and she gave what she had while there was still time to give it.
Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
(John 12:1-3)
I wrote about the cost of discipleship in John 8, about how following Jesus usually costs more than you expect. Mary's anointing is the same principle in a different key. She does not hold anything back.
Meaning of the Grain of Wheat in John 12
After the triumphal entry, some Greeks come to Philip and say they want to see Jesus. This seems to trigger something in him, a sense that the hour has finally come. And then he gives them the grain of wheat.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
(John 12:24)
I think about this when I plant things in the spring. A seed looks like a loss. You bury something that could have been eaten or saved, and you cover it with dirt and wait. If you dug it up the next day it would already look worse than when you put it in. The process of dying is the only process that produces anything.
Jesus is talking about himself first, and his death will produce the fruit of the Resurrection along with the salvation of everyone who comes after. But he is also talking about anyone who follows him. Verse 25 says that whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world keeps it unto life eternal.
I have seen this play out in smaller ways, in projects where you have to scrap the first version to get to the good one, and in seasons of life that have to end before the next one starts. The grain has to go into the ground before it produces anything, and there is no shortcut around that.
What Does It Mean to Hate Your Life in John 12:25
"Hate" is a strong word. Jesus does not use it casually. The Greek carries a sense of loving less by comparison, of prizing something else so much more that your attachment to this life looks like indifference next to it.
This is not an instruction to be miserable. It is an honest description of what discipleship costs. The person who holds their life with a closed fist keeps nothing in the end. The one who opens their hand loses what they were holding but gains what they could never have held onto anyway.
I have a friend who gave up a promotion because it would have meant missing too much of his kids growing up. That was a kind of dying. He buried a version of his career and something else grew in its place. It took a few years to see the fruit, but it came.
The same principle runs through the chapter. Jesus is not asking the disciples to do something he is not doing himself. He is the grain that falls first.
Significance of the Triumphal Entry in John 12
The next day a great crowd hears that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem. They take palm branches and go out to meet him, crying "Hosanna" and hailing him as the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord.
Jesus finds a young donkey and rides it into the city, fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy about a king coming low and gentle. The crowd sees a conqueror. Jesus rides a borrowed animal and knows where this road ends.
John notes that the disciples did not understand these things at first. It was only after Jesus was glorified that they remembered and saw how the pieces fit. That feels honest to me. Most of the time you only understand the significance of something after it is over. You are looking back at the grain long after it has grown.
Why Did the Pharisees Want to Kill Lazarus
This is the strangest detail in the chapter. The chief priests decide that they need to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were believing in Jesus. They cannot kill Jesus without also killing the evidence of his power.
It is the most honest thing the Pharisees do in the whole Gospel. They admit that the miracle is real. They do not deny that Lazarus was dead and is now alive. They just wish it had not happened because it is making their job harder.
There is a warning in that for anyone who finds themselves resenting the evidence of God's work because it complicates their plans. The harder thing is to let the miracle rearrange your categories.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the symbolic meaning of the grain of wheat in John 12:24?
The grain of wheat represents the necessity of death for new life to begin. A seed has to go into the ground and break open before it can produce a harvest. Jesus is describing his own death and the spiritual rebirth it makes possible for everyone else.
Why did Judas object to Mary anointing Jesus's feet?
Judas said the ointment should have been sold and the money given to the poor. But John records that his real motive was greed since he was the one who carried the money bag and helped himself to it. The objection sounded righteous but came from a dishonest place.
Why was the triumphal entry significant?
It fulfilled Zechariah's prophecy of a king coming on a donkey, humble and peaceful rather than on a war horse. The crowd thought they were welcoming a political conqueror, but Jesus was entering Jerusalem to accomplish something far bigger than what they expected.
What does it mean that the Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus?
It means they could not deny the miracle but they resented what it cost them. Lazarus was living proof that Jesus had power over death, and that proof was drawing people away from the religious leaders. They chose to fight the evidence rather than follow it.
I still have not cut into that piece of walnut. Maybe I am saving it for the right thing. But reading John 12 makes me wonder if I am just waiting too long.
The spikenard was poured out. The grain went into the ground. Mary did not save it for later, and Jesus did not save himself.
— D.