Bethany may mean “house of affliction” or “house of response,” but both were true of the house that was a home to the Lord Jesus there. Death had afflicted it, but now, following His gracious and powerful intervention in raising Lazarus, there was response: freehearted service from Martha, fellowship out of death with Lazarus, and worship—perhaps the most beautiful example of it in Scripture—by Mary.

What she brought to the Lord Jesus had substance and was good: a pound of ointment. It was pure as becomes Him, and a sacrifice because of its great cost to her. She honored Him by anointing Him with it, but not in a formal or routine way. She was “in” what she did. She poured all of it on Him and wiped His feet with her hair. There was extravagance for Him and sacrifice for her. It was at once intimate and reverential. She did not speak a word—entirely becoming for a woman in that setting—but the whole house was filled with the odor, the beautiful effect, of what she had offered.

This is probably as much as our minds can take in of worship in picture-form, but no doubt the Holy Spirit penned it to help us in our worship, whether audible or silent. Being in the house means it has particular application to the Assembly, but if our worship is like Mary’s—scriptural, genuine, treasured up, submissive, from the heart—it will have a spiritual effect wherever we are, for the Lord will take pleasure in it. But let us remember that it will be but the fruit in us of what He accomplished on the cross—He who did everything for God and for us (Eph. 5:2).