John
12:1-84
12Six days before the Passover Jesus
came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There
they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the
table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure
nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled
with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his
disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5‘Why was
this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii 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 kept the common purse and used to steal what was put
into it.) 7Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she
might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor
with you, but you do not always have me.’
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Being totally honest, I have some
trouble with this reading, mostly because I generally agree with Judas’ comment
– aside from his poor intentions - that the money could have been better spent
on the poor. I mean 300 Denarii was the average yearly salary and that could
feed a lot of hungry people and shelter a lot of homeless children. Of course,
one should always be very wary when she finds herself siding with Judas, even if
he is the one making the most sense.
Our story picks up with a familiar
family, Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary. They live in Bethany
which is quite close to Jerusalem. Just days before it seems, though maybe it
has been longer, the gospel writer isn’t clear, Lazarus was dead and in the
tomb for three whole days when Jesus finally turned up and raised him from the
dead. Of course his sisters were thrilled and his friends were amazed, but
there were some who doubted the legitimacy of Jesus’ power. So perhaps this is
another in a long line of celebratory feasts with friends and relatives. I know
if my brother had been dead and now were alive I would throw a party that
lasted a month, maybe longer, to celebrate having him back in my life and in my
world. And I’d invite everyone he ever knew to come and join us. Who cares if
we all have to sleep on the floor and we run out of money to pay for the wine.
My brother is alive! And the guy who brought him back?! Well, if he were
willing to stay at my house I’d give him the finest of everything I own and he
could stay forever.
John tells us that this is six days
before the Passover. That should trigger a little flag in our minds because it
was during the Passover that Jesus was betrayed and crucified. It looms large
in the future and the shadow of his death already hangs over this would-be
happy party. Martha served dinner. We’re reminded of the story of her and Mary
in Luke where Jesus tells her Mary’s plan – sitting at his feet and listening
to what he has to say – is better than her bustling about the house. But this
time, there is no such reprimand. This time, her work to feed him and the other
guests, to be the “hostess with the mostess” seems to be the meet and right
thing to do. Jesus knows she shows her love by feeding him, not unlike so many grandmother-types,
and she’s allowed to do her best for him exactly the way she chooses.
Lazarus is seated at the table with
Jesus. I suppose we could infer some kind of sexist judgment upon him, that he
ought to be helping serve or something, but I think this is the right place for
him. Again, if my brother had just risen from the dead he would get a buy on
housework for at least a while. Besides, this dinner part may be for Jesus, but
let’s be honest, everybody is there to get a good look at Lazarus too. He just
rose from the dead for crying out loud! Don’t you want to know what he looks
like? If his mind still works the same? What his stories are from beyond the
grave? If he smell okay? Even with Jesus there, Lazarus is at least the co-star
of this evening.
That is, until Mary comes in and
unexpectedly steals the spotlight. Tables in ancient Palestine sat only a
little way off the floor and people reclined next to them supporting themselves
with one arm and eating with the other. So Mary comes into the room and takes
her place at the end of Jesus’ reclined body, at his feet which would be
pointed away from the table. Women generally didn’t cut their hair in those
days, and always kept it bound up. In fact, it was inappropriate for any man to
see a woman’s hair down unless he was the woman’s husband. So to let down her
hair for Jesus was a very intimate act. Now, anointing is not such an uncommon
thing to do in the ancient world. Kings were anointed, the sick were anointed,
the dying were anointed, even sacrifices were occasionally anointed. But
anointing feet seems to combine the sacred act of anointing with the servant
act of washing feet. Add in the intimacy of the hair down and the cost of the
particular perfume she used and this becomes a very unique, very extravagant
act. And soon the room is filled with the scent of the perfume and all eyes
watch her stunned and a little bit in awe. Some in the room are wondering what
on earth she’s doing. Some are thinking, “how beautiful! Look how she loves
him!” And then there’s Judas, and me, and maybe some of the rest of you
thinking, “Wow. There goes a year’s worth of income. Do you have any idea what
we could have done with that?”
And then Jesus drops that line, that
difficult, murky, make-me-feel-like-a-traitor line, “You always have the poor
with you, but you do not always have me.” What does he mean?! Does he mean,
“Don’t give to the poor?” Does he mean one way of honoring him is better than
another? Because the thing is, I buy into the idea that taking care of the poor
is at least one of THE most righteous and important ways of showing my love for
God. For me it’s a question of stewardship. And I think the Bible is really
clear about what to do with money – give it away. Don’t spend it on stuff that
doesn’t last. Spend it on the stuff that is important. And for me, that means
spending it on making better the lives of those less fortunate than I am.
In studying for my sermon
preparation this week I came across a little blurb from Ray Brown who is kind
of THE New Testament scholar in the circles I run in. He explained that in the
time of Jesus there were different schools of thought in Judaism, just like there
are now and not so dissimilar to our denominations. So in rabbinic theology, of
the time, there were two classifications of good works, mercy and justice.
Mercy included things like anointing the dead, and justice included things like
almsgiving. And in rabbinic theology, merciful acts were seen as more perfect
than justice acts.[i]
Now, this is not necessarily the view of all of scripture, but the first
hearers of John’s gospel would have known this distinction. And they would have
agreed that when you have Jesus in your midst, and you are able to anoint him
for his forthcoming burial, or really for any reason, you do it. That devotion,
that lavish act of fidelity, that over-the-top outpouring – literally – of
adoration for Jesus was in that moment absolutely the right thing to do. It
was, in Biblical terms, a sacrifice of praise.
Hebrews 13:15 talks about a “sacrifice
of praise,” along with many of the Psalms. It isn’t a term we use much in this
particular expression of the Christian faith, though others of Christ’s body
do. It comes out of a Jewish tradition to give a “friendship offering” to God,
as a sign of thankfulness for the good things God and has done and for the
close relationship enjoyed with God.[ii]
One simple way to do that is always to praise God for every good thing and to
do it not only privately in prayer, but in our conversations and
communications. It rolls right off the tongue for some folks, “praise be” they
say, or, “alle…” well you know that word we don’t say during Lent. For some of
the rest of us it feels weird or a little cheap.
But it raises the question, the
question to which I think this story means to point us: How do we express our
love for the One who gives us life? Put another way, how do we lavish our
devotion on Christ?
Last week we read the story often
called “The Prodigal Son.” We remembered that prodigal does not have a negative
or positive connotation it simply means to lavishly spend and so both the son
and the father are prodigal. And thus, God is prodigal in lavishing God’s love
on us.
This week, Mary is the prodigal one.
She spares nothing to lavish her love upon Jesus. She spends a years’ salary in
one fluid motion. She throws propriety to the wind and lets down her hair. She
risks her family and friends judging her to be reckless and unseemly. She even
risks her relationship with her family and friends by behaving with such
seeming abandon.
But Mary’s love for Jesus is
intimate and extravagant and she cannot help but spend her money and her
reputation on giving it to him.
And so, we
come back to the question at hand, How do you express your love for the One who
gives you life? My hope for us, my prayer for each of you is that everything
you do is an expression of love for God. Everything. From your waking moment to
your snoring moment. From your morning shower to your evening tooth brushing.
Your love for God is clear in the way you treat coworkers and friends. Your
love for God shines in the way you behave with family and with strangers. Your
love for God is evident in the decisions you make about spending money and
time. In your voting and your driving and your cooking and your cleaning and
your volunteering and your working and every little thing you spend time doing.
And it
matters, brothers and sisters. It matters. It matters to Jesus not in a
you-better-lavish-your-love-on-me-or-go-to-hell kind of way. It matters in a
this-is-what-it-means-to-have-abundant-life kind of way. It matters that we
lavish our love on him with our words and our actions, with our hearts and
minds, with everything we have and everything we are because he loved us first.
His love is with us in our deepest darkness and in our brightest hours. He
lavishes the purest, truest love on us with every breath we take when we’re at
our best and when we’re at our worst. To live in the assurance of that kind of
love, to live with confidence that that kind of love even exists in the world
at all – that is gift, that is grace, that is abundant life. And that is the
life God desires for every single created being on the face of the earth that
ever was and ever will be.
With that
as our core truth, money and reputation seem like pretty small concerns.
Praise be.
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