Foundations are the most important aspect of any structure. If you’ve ever went house shopping, especially for a fixer-upper, you know the big question on your mind upon entering the house: ‘I wonder if the foundation is good?’

Usually, if there’s a crack in the foundation, or one of the floor joists are rotted out, this is a big red flag. It could mean a lot of work to make the house a solid, safe place to live, not to mention a good investment.

I remember looking at distressed house in Burlington County early in my real estate days. It was one of the first houses I considered purchasing. The house had minor roof damage. The floors were warping a tiny bit from water infiltration. There were some birds nests in the chandeliers. Along the corners of the rooms were signs of minor rodent invasion (poo). Mold was here and there. This is not untypical for buying a foreclosed property. On the outside it wasn't all that bad. On top of that, the bank which owned the property, was practically giving the house away. I knew it would need a some work, but I was ready to take it on. Best of all, the previous owners left tons of old comic books that I suspected had some worth.

I made the bank a super low offer and they accepted it. I was thrilled! However, my contractor was not. He had some reservations. (Can you can imagine? ;-)

He was primarily concerned that we could not access the crawl space. He recommend I get a second opinion. We called in another friend who was an actual house inspector who specialized in this sort of thing.

The inspector looked around the house. All was going well. That was until he walked into the master bedroom. As he stepped into the bedroom, the seemingly sturdy hardwood floor collapsed under his feet. He went sailing down into the two foot crawl space. Thankfully he was okay. And the good news - we were able to access the crawl space and inspect the foundation properly.

When we (he) looked in the crawl space, he found the floor joists were rotted out. Not only that, the supporting beams were warped from previous flood damage. Off in the corners, the cinderblock foundation had major cracks and mold was everywhere. This meant bad news. It meant a much larger project than I anticipated. On the outside it looked doable, but once the foundation was exposed, it was a different story. Thankfully I was able to pull out of the contract with an inspection clause. Although I was disappointed in losing a potential good deal, I learned a valuable lesson.

Foundations are everything. They need to be inspected and evaluated first and foremost before putting in an offer. Everything can look acceptable on the outside, but what's underneath reveals whether the deal is authentically ‘good’ or not. Secondly, I learned that if your house does not have a solid foundation, the project can literally fall apart. Not to mention go significantly over budget.

Try to correlate this with your Christian walk. If the foundations are faulty, so will your relationship be with Christ. It will be unstable.

In John 12 we begin to enter into the final week of Jesus’ ministry. In the first 11 verses, John shows us what some of the qualities are of a true Christian walk and foundation. He contrasts two very different relationships with Jesus - Mary, who was Martha’s sister and Lazarus’ brother, (which many commentators believe to be Mary Magdalene, which I tend to agree with,) and the infamous Judas who betrayed the Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

You may look at the two and see the obvious differences on the surface. But the foundational traits of Mary's relationship reveals much more than the deficient traits of Judas'. Mary's relationship I believe, is the focus John wants us to zero in on.

What Mary does, how she does it, and why she does it, gives us a nice blueprint of what we must strive for as it relates to the foundation of our relationship with Jesus. Judas on the other hand is the backdrop of who not to be. We will look at both.

Read through the first 11 verses of John 12. The scene is tense. Martha serving. Lazarus resting. Judas plotting. The Jews scheming. But Mary - she's doing the 'better thing' (Luke 10:42). This is all happening within 6 days of when Jesus will finish His work at the cross.

What makes the tension worse is that Jesus knows His time has come. Although, He seems as cool as a cucumber. See if you can figure it out. How does Mary's actions, compared to the others, teach us the true foundations of Christian character?

Listen to this sermon on John 11:47-57 by clicking on the links below.