John 12: Break the Jar, Jesus Deserves Your Best

Introduction

In many homes there were the everyday plates and the "good plates." Joseph Perry, one of the pastors at City Gates Church in London, remembers his grandmother's: kept in a cabinet, strictly off limits, reserved for "special occasions." Birthdays, graduations and Christmases came and went, and the plates stayed in the cabinet. "I'm still waiting for the special occasion."

Everyone has their own version: the expensive candle that never gets lit, the perfume you only dab on when the occasion deserves it, the sneakers kept in their box in case it rains. There is nothing wrong with that, the pastor says, until the day you realize you treat God the same way. You keep the best in the cabinet and give him the chipped plates: whatever time, energy and attention is left after three hours of Netflix and two hours of group chat.

Against that backdrop, he opens John 12: a woman walks into a room, takes out the most precious thing she owns and breaks it. She does not wait for a better occasion. She decides the occasion is standing in front of her, and his name is Jesus. The message is about worship, not as a style of music or the thirty minutes before the sermon, but as "a posture for a whole life." He draws four lessons from it.

Outline of the Message

1. The Context: A Dinner in Bethany After the Raising of Lazarus

Six days before the Passover, Jesus comes to Bethany, where a meal is given in his honor. Martha serves, Lazarus is at the table, and Mary takes a pound of expensive, pure nard ointment to anoint Jesus' feet and wipe them with her hair (John 12:1-8).
In the previous chapter, Lazarus fell sick and Jesus deliberately waited. When he arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. Martha, ever practical, warns that there will be a stench. Jesus calls the dead man by name, and Lazarus comes out wrapped in his grave clothes (John 11).
You would think the whole region would celebrate. Instead, John reports that from that day on, the religious leaders plot to put Jesus to death (John 11:53). The raising of Lazarus sets in motion the events that lead to the cross.
The week is tense: the crowds are going up to Jerusalem, and the authorities have asked for anyone who sees Jesus to report it. He goes back to Bethany for dinner with his friends. "A week ago, Lazarus was in a tomb. Now he's asking for seconds."

2. Your Worship Is Shaped by Your Testimony

Mary is not worshiping a theory or a concept she read somewhere. She is not copying her neighbor, and she is not raising her hands because a worship leader asked her to. She is sitting next to the brother she watched die, whom she buried and wept over at the graveside.
A week earlier, she was planning a funeral and telling Jesus at his feet: "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died" (John 11:32). She had questions, disappointment, perhaps anger. Now she sees the resurrection sitting at the table.
The principle: "Those who remember much worship much." The best worshiper is not the one with the best voice but the one with the best memory: the brother who remembers his life before Jesus came and stopped him in his tracks, the sister who remembers the hospital room, the diagnosis or the eviction notice. They are not performing, they are remembering.
"We don't lack testimonies, we lack memory." Between teenagers, aging parents, rent and bills, we are so busy managing what is in front of us that we forget what is behind us. That is why God kept telling Israel: remember that you were a slave in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15), and he had stones set up beside the Jordan so that the children would ask what they meant (Joshua 4).
This week's challenge: take ten minutes to write down five things God has already done in your life, not the ones you are hoping for. A job you got, a relationship he brought you out of, an anxiety that loosened its grip, a prodigal child who came home, the fact that you are breathing, the cross of Jesus. "Worship is not a transaction, it's a reaction" to what Jesus has already done.

3. If It Costs You Nothing, It Isn't Worship

Nard came from a plant that grows in the Himalayas, harvested in the mountains of northern India and carried thousands of miles by caravan. Judas names the price: three hundred denarii (John 12:5). Since a denarius was a day's wage, the jar was worth about a year's salary, poured out in a single moment.
Mark adds a detail: she "broke the jar" (Mark 14:3). She did not unscrew a lid or put on a single drop, and she did not pour a reasonable amount and save the rest for later. The jar could not be closed again. "Mary didn't give what she could spare. She gave everything she had."
David understood this. When he is offered the land, the oxen and the wood for his sacrifice for free, he refuses: "I won't offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24).
Mary also paid in public, because she did it in front of everyone. She cared more about Jesus' opinion than about the opinion of the people in the room.
Everyone has a jar. For one person it is their time: an hour and a half on Sunday, as long as they are home in time for lunch. For another it is their image: singing, but without raising their hands. For another it is control: relationships, money, career and the five-year plan all stay sealed. For others still, it is a pain, a grudge or a question kept shut for fear of what would come out.
In 1949, the young missionary Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." A few years later, he was killed in Ecuador by the tribe he wanted to reach. People spoke of a wasted life, but that tribe came to faith, partly through the witness of his wife, Elisabeth Elliot, who went back to live among the people who had killed her husband. "That is the worship of the broken jar."

4. Not Everyone at the Table Will Celebrate Your Worship

The criticism comes neither from the Pharisees nor from the Romans, but from inside the circle: from Judas, who walked with Jesus for three years and saw his miracles. Sometimes the people who criticize your devotion are sitting right next to you. "This is not the time to nudge your neighbor."
The criticism sounds spiritual: why wasn't this perfume sold for the poor? It sounds noble and responsible, so much so that other disciples agree (Matthew 26:8-9; Mark 14:4-5). But John, "a man who speaks plainly," points out that he said this because he was a thief and used to take what was put into the money box (John 12:6).
Judas saw only the price because he had already put a price on Jesus. Right afterward, he goes to the chief priests to ask what they will give him to hand Jesus over (Matthew 26:14-15). "Mary saw that Jesus was worth everything. Judas saw that Jesus was worth thirty pieces of silver." How people react to your worship often says more about their heart than about yours.
In a culture of commentary, you will be misunderstood if you follow Jesus: a post of gratitude judged "a bit much," friends who say you have changed when you stop laughing at certain jokes, start tithing, get up early to pray or fast. The question is whether you let the critics at the table set the temperature of your worship, at the risk of going back to the chipped plates and worshiping for the approval of the room rather than for the attention of the Lord.
The pastor is not speaking only about gestures or loud songs, but about complete devotion in all of life. And he asks the opposite question: some of us are not Mary but Judas, arms crossed, wondering why the other person is so emotional or is always serving or present at every event. "Someone else's extravagance may expose your own economy."
Judas was not wrong to say that the poor matter, and Jesus cared deeply about them. But he used a good cause to cover a bad heart. We can do the same by calling ourselves "balanced" in order to keep our jar sealed. To the worshiper who is criticized: keep pouring. To the critic: ask yourself why this bothers you so much, then stop watching from the side. There is room for you at Jesus' feet.

5. Heaven Remembers What Others Call a Waste

Mary never defends herself. She does not argue with Judas, does not explain her budget, does not post a statement. She keeps worshiping, and Jesus takes up her defense: "Leave her alone" (John 12:7). When you worship Jesus with all your heart, he takes responsibility for your reputation.
Jesus adds that she kept this perfume for the day of his burial. Mary had come to say thank you for Lazarus, and Jesus writes her act into the story of the cross. A few days later, women will come to the tomb with spices to anoint his body, but the stone will be rolled away and there will be no body left to anoint (Mark 16:1-6). Mary had already done it, while she had the chance.
You may be waiting for the perfect moment, a little more money, for everything to line up. Mary teaches that the moment for worship is the one you are in. There is no better time than the present to give God your all.
"The house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment" (John 12:3). A week earlier, that house smelled of death, and Martha was saying not to open the tomb because of the stench. Now the whole house smells of worship. When you break the jar, the atmosphere changes: your children notice, your colleagues too, your spouse too.
Jesus says she has done what she could, and that wherever the good news is preached, what she did will be told in memory of her (Mark 14:8-9). Judas called it a waste; two thousand years later, we are still talking about it in a church in Ilford.
The prayer no one saw, the gift no one thanked you for, the obedience that cost you, the tears shed in your car before work: "You may call it a waste, but heaven doesn't forget a single drop."

6. The Hero of John 12 Is Jesus

Mary is not the hero of the story. She broke her jar for Jesus because, a few days later, Jesus would be broken for her. The night before his death, he takes the bread, breaks it and says: "This is my body which is given for you" (Luke 22:19).
The next day, on a Roman cross, heaven's treasure was poured out. He held nothing back and kept nothing in reserve. He did not give chipped plates, he gave the best, for people like Judas who had put a price on him and for disciples who did not understand.
So you do not break your jar to earn God's love. Worship remains a reaction to what he has already done. The story begins at a table in Bethany and continues, a few days later, at another table, where Jesus shares the bread and the cup. "Mary poured out her perfume, and Jesus poured out his life."
Before communion, the pastor invites everyone to examine themselves (1 Corinthians 11:28) and to bring to Jesus what they are holding back: time, image, control, or the pain kept sealed for years. He also invites those who are not yet disciples to say yes to Jesus today: "Don't wait for things to line up. Tomorrow is not promised."

Key Takeaways

Worship is not a style of music but the posture of a whole life, and it is born from remembering what God has already done.
Mary broke the jar: she kept nothing in reserve. Worship that costs nothing is not worship.
Criticism often comes from inside the circle and looks spiritual. It reveals more about the heart of the critic.
Jesus defends those who worship him, and heaven does not forget a single drop of what others call a waste.
Mary poured out her perfume because Jesus was about to pour out his life. We do not break our jar to earn God's love, but in response to that love.

Personal Application

Which "good plates" are you keeping in the cabinet, waiting for a special occasion to give them to God?
What are the five things God has already done in your life that you could write down this week in order to remember them?
What is your jar: your time, your image, control over your plans, or a pain you keep sealed?
Do you let other people's opinions set the temperature of your worship? Or do you sometimes recognize yourself in the one who criticizes, arms crossed?
What act of obedience or giving have you written off as lost, when heaven remembers it?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "break the jar" mean in John 12?

In the parallel account, the Gospel of Mark specifies that the jar of perfume was broken (Mark 14:3). For Joseph Perry, she neither unscrewed a lid nor kept anything in reserve: the jar could not be closed again. To break the jar is to stop saving your best for a special occasion and pour it out at Jesus' feet.

How much was Mary's perfume worth?

Judas estimates it at three hundred denarii. A denarius was a day's wage, so the nard perfume, which came from the mountains of northern India, was worth about a year's salary, which Mary poured out in a single moment.

Why did Judas criticize the anointing at Bethany?

Judas spoke about the poor, but John 12:6 specifies that he was a thief and used to take what was put into the money box. Joseph Perry observes that Judas saw only the price of the perfume because he had already put a price on Jesus: thirty pieces of silver. How others react to your worship often says more about their heart than about yours.