Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver
Week 11: Chapter 11 — The Fragrant Offering
Read Chapter 11 of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. Primary Scripture: John 12:1–8; 2 Corinthians 2:14–15.
Weaver closes the book with Mary's most extravagant act — anointing Jesus' feet with costly perfume — and calls every reader to the same lavish, "wasteful" devotion. These questions invite you to consider what your own fragrant offering might look like.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.In John 12, Mary takes a jar of very expensive perfume and pours it on Jesus' feet, then wipes His feet with her hair. Judas calls it a waste. Jesus calls it beautiful. What is the difference between Judas's logic and Jesus' evaluation, and what does that difference reveal about how God values devotion?
2.Weaver uses the image of the broken alabaster jar — the perfume can only be released when the jar is broken. What does she mean when she applies this image to our own lives? What in us needs to be broken for true fragrance to be released?
3.Second Corinthians 2:14–15 describes the knowledge of Christ spreading "like the fragrance of life." Weaver suggests that a woman who has genuinely been at Jesus' feet — who has been broken and poured out — carries that fragrance into every room she enters. Have you ever been in the presence of a person like that? What was it about them?
a.What quality or characteristic most marked them?
b.When you imagine yourself at the end of your life, what fragrance do you want to have left behind?
Closing Prayer
Full guideGet the Complete 13-Week Study Guide
All 93 discussion questions, weekly reading schedule, closing prayers, and a downloadable PDF for your group.
Get Your Guide — $24.99