Why?

Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² Lazarus and his sisters hosted a dinner for him. Martha served and Lazarus was among those who joined him at the table. ³ Then Mary took an extraordinary amount, almost three-quarters of a pound, of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus’ feet with it, then wiped his feet dry with her hair. The house was filled with the aroma of the perfume. ⁴ Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), complained, ⁵ “This perfume was worth a year’s wages! Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?” (⁶ He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He carried the money bag and would take what was in it.) ⁷ Then Jesus said, “Leave her alone. This perfume was to be used in preparation for my burial, and this is how she has used it. ⁸ You will always have the poor among you, but you won’t always have me.” ⁹ Many Jews learned that he was there. They came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ The chief priests decided that they would kill Lazarus too. ¹¹ It was because of Lazarus that many of the Jews had deserted them and come to believe in Jesus. (John 12:1-11, CEB)

Why are you motivated to do what you do? Here we see that Judas was motivated by his greed. Now I’m not sure about this passage, and some one else had seconds thoughts at least, because of the ( ). Those ( ) are there not because of grammar, but because that verse is not in some manuscripts. SO it could have been added later, when a hatred of Judas arose because of what Judas did. Now we could go on and on about Judas and what he did in handing Jesus over, but that is not really the thrust of this text. So I ask again why you do what you do?

Are we motivated to share love or to get power and possessions? Even the chief priests here were going to plot to kill Lazarus along with Jesus because people were leaving the temple and following after Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead. They didn’t like that people were not listening to them, their power was diminishing. They were motivated by power and not by love and truth.

So why do you do what you do? Is it for love?

Love People, Love God.