When we study and compare the four Gospels, we find the Gospel of John altogether different. It is interesting that while we learn much from what is similar, we learn most from what is different. It is well known that John as he writes omits several events which receive special attention by His three fellow Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John makes no mention of the Temptation, the Transfiguration, the two on the Emmaus Road and several other important events. He does, on the other hand, devote more space to the Upper Room ministry than the Synoptists together, yet no reference to the Lord’s Supper is found in his pages. This makes the omission all the more significant.
It cannot be that he wishes to detract from the importance of the Lord’s Supper, an event at which he was present on that first memorable night. Surely we can safely say that about John. When he wrote this Gospel, the ordinance was already well established in the local churches. It was normal for it to be observed on the first day of the week.
There is no doubt that John was in full accord with what the Lord Jesus taught when He took the bread and the cup, saying, “This do in remembrance of Me.” Why this different emphasis?
All true ministry is timely. The prophets spoke to a present local need, though their message had far-reaching effects. The early public ministry of the Lord Jesus was to meet needs which were present at the time when He spoke, but the Spirit of God is still using that word to us today. Likewise, each book and Epistle of the New Testament was written to meet a particular existing need. It was no different with the Gospel of John.
John connects incidents with small links like a word or a phrase. In this way he connects the supper of Chapter 12 with the supper of Chapter 13 by a reference in each to the last Passover. He says that the one at Bethany was six days before it, while the other was at Jerusalem on the night before it. The student of John will enjoy detail like this from the pen of so contemplative an author.
John tells us that because Jesus was at Bethany, there they made Him a supper. It was a home He often visited, so the place is significant and the time has special meaning. Bethany is referred to eleven times. Only two of these refer to the resurrection of Lazarus, which John shows was just prior to the beginning of the Upper Room ministry.
It was from Bethany that the triumphal entry into Jerusalem of the Messiah was made on a day long foretold, and in the predicted manner. In this home He found rest that evening after coming from the inhospitable capital. It was from there He went to cleanse the temple for the second time, and it was to there He returned, the rejected king. There He was honored by the few who accepted His Messsiahship, believed in His Deity, and appreciated His personal worth. What little warm fellowship the Heavenly Stranger knew on earth most often seems to have been found with the loving hearts in that home at Bethany. The impressive events of the week prior to the Cross brought a strange hush of love and sorrow as the shadow of Calvary was cast over them all.
The record of this supper is full of what the disciples did. Martha was there, and for her it was again an opportunity to serve the Lord Jesus and His own. Previously Martha had been taken up with much serving, but now there is no rebuke from the Lord. Her spiritual maturity had, no doubt, been attained in the school of experience, having spent some time in His presence. All who remember Him, in the same manner need to learn the same lesson Martha did. Present-day activity is often too superficial, and life is often much too hurried for any real worship to be found when we “make Him a supper.” We need to learn what John is teaching here: the spirit of activity that must always be doing something at the supper in order to keep things going, should be restrained. Then the leading of the Spirit at the supper would be more obvious and brethren would have more liberty to lead the assembly in suitable expressions of worship.
We are told that Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. He was enjoying the new life he had been given, and new liberty he had received through the hands of the disciples at the command of the Lord. His enjoyment of resurrection life and His freedom from his graveclothes fitly illustrate a desirable condition for us when we sit at the table with Him. Activity did not mark him, but heart occupation, the enjoyment of fellowship with His heavenly Friend.
How many remembrance meetings have been strained and distracted by undue exposition of doctrinal issues more appropriate at a meeting given to the teaching of the Word. Better it would be, surely, that teaching be given elsewhere, at another time. This would contribute much more to an attitude of worship by all at the supper than the ministering of doctrine there. When we worship, like Mary we come to give back to Him, not so much to minister to one another. What value there would be if we had that Lazarus-like heart occupation, too deep for words. What a richness of worship would result!
Mary, who up to this point had been sitting at His feet hearing His word and enjoying His presence, found this occasion an opportunity to express, in her own way, her admiration of the One whose worth she had been learning. The love of her heart had guided her, so that, without any special preparation for the supper itself, her affectionate heart had treasured up ointment for a purpose she alone knew. The ointment is described as both genuine and costly. The supper and the presence of the Lord Jesus became the opportunity for which she had waited. Then, as she poured out the fragrant ointment, in the truest sense she worshipped Him.
When we come to remember the Lord and these spiritual elements are present, the place in which we meet would also be filled with the fragrance of worship. Order and harmony would be evident, and all cold formality gone. Our celebrations of the supper would then make a Bethany for Him today in a world that is still as inhospitable to Him as Jerusalem.
We must note that while this noble act was being lavished on the Lord, an unworthy one was also present. There is instruction for us in this. There was one there who would have given to the service of man that which was intended for the Lord.
The suggestion was soundly condemned in contrast to the outpouring being commended. It was not every day that this expression of worship was possible; it was not often that the Lord Jesus was with them in this way. Every hour is full of opportunities for doing good to men who are present with us, both physically and spiritually. This occasion was unique and, if missed, could not be recalled.
Let us learn from this, to render to men the things that are men’s in every normal hour, and the things that are the Lord’s in the hour of remembrance. The service of men is a poor exchange for the worship of Christ, and the events that followed proved that the motive of Judas was by no means as genuine as it was professed to be. If we put man first, we are not likely to give the Lord His place at all, and even less likely to be of service to man either. When we in all sincerity put Him first, then it will help us to be to our fellowmen what He desires us to be, and so serve them better, too.