the holy gospel according to john, the 12th
chapter. glory to you, o lord.
six 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.”
the gospel of the lord. praise to you, o
christ.
-----
jesus comes to the home of the ones he loves: lazarus, mary,
and martha. in the chapter before
this in john, jesus raised lazarus from the dead, so it follows that mary,
martha, and lazarus would want to have jesus over for dinner to express their
gratitude for what he’s done for them. gracious guest and loving friend that he is, jesus accepts
and shows up with a few others for dinner.
as we will find again on maundy thursday, one of the customs
when sitting down to a meal was footwashing—usually done by a servant. in those days shoes were mere sandals
and the mode of transportation was walking, so feet, got to be pretty dirty
pretty quickly. this means that
jesus wouldn’t have been very surprised to have his feet washed, but when mary does it and even anoints his feet with
a perfume of pure nard and wipes it with her hair—that’s a big deal! the perfume she had been saving for him
cost a whole year’s salary! that’s
like cracking open a $30-100,000 bottle of wine for a guest! talk about extravagant!
the thing about this extravagant gift is that it is far beyond anything i could imagine.
i would have to save for several years to even come close to having
$10,000 to spend like that and that would be a pretty cheap perfume compared to
mary’s! but here mary is dumping it out on jesus’ feet.
and sometimes i’m with judas questioning mary and dismissing
her devotion, because how outrageous is her
gift?! couldn’t i have used that money for something
else? something better? and surely that is precisely what i
do. i use the money for something
else—for the gym, movies, traveling, student loans, or i just save it for next year.
but mary and martha and lazarus know what jesus is up
to. they’ve gotten the
message. jesus raised lazarus from
the dead after lazarus was well past dead. up to three days of being dead back then and it could’ve
been a mistake, but 4 days??
he was definitely
dead and
yet jesus shows up and, true to what he said, ”the glory of god” was revealed
as he called lazarus to “come out!”
the dead one was raised, and mary, martha and lazarus realized that
jesus is not here to fight and destroy the roman occupying powers. he is here to destroy the power of death!
and jesus takes mary’s extravagant gift in stride. he knows what it’s for. he knows what’s coming and so do
we. when mary anoints his feet
it’s not just because he raised her brother from deep death, it’s because this
is the beginning of jesus’ death.
jesus is being anointed for his own burial. jesus is on his way to reveal once again the glory of god,
only this time it will be on
the cross.
mary has caught on and uses this moment, this special,
intimate moment with loved ones in order to care for and support jesus in his mission. she recognizes his power and is eager to honor him.
she knows the journey is to the cross. it’s been clear since jesus raised lazarus and the chief
priests and the pharisees began planning to kill him.
and here jesus again tells those gathered that his death is
coming. not only that, but it is
upon him. it is just 6 days before
the passover, this is the last sabbath.
jesus will be betrayed, tortured, and crucified. god’s glory will be revealed in the
cross—in his refusal to come down off the cross.
jesus endures death on a cross for you and for me because he
knows the power of death over us.
he knows the sickness, pain, and hurt; the anger, violence, and death; the
loneliness, the addiction, and the grief we face each week. jesus knows that every day we live in a
world where expectations are unrealistically high, where bullies reign at work
and at school, time is scarce, and it feels like there is never enough of
anything.
[pause]
death is integral to our lives and to what happens in
bethany, but it is not central to it.
even as mary anointing jesus’ feet points towards maundy thursday, the
betrayal, and the crucifixion and death, it centers on jesus.
in all of this it points toward jesus and the love that
leads him into washing his own disciples’ feet, sharing that last supper with
them. enduring betrayal, torture,
and death, and moving through death to new life, bringing all of us with
him. it is love that brought jesus
to earth and love that sustains him and that love is no ordinary love, but
extravagant love.
that is his gift
for each of us.
jesus comes in with the most extravagant gift of them all. he comes to die on the cross, pouring out his life for us, a
gift worth more than an entire lifetime’s
wages. he is faithful even to
death so that death will not have the final say.
mary and jesus’ extravagant gifts point to god’s glory. they are not idle gifts. they mean that the time we spend with
jesus does make a difference. we
are a community that gathers around the Word and the Sacraments. worship each week is a big deal. it is
a priority. we need worship. we need jesus to
get us through the rest of the week. and every sunday he nourishes us in Bread and Wine—Body and Blood so that we can go back into the world for one more week. and that is what we do together here in this place.
we bring ourselves and our gifts to this place. we contribute to worship and to
immanuel not because it is the only way our money and our talents will do good,
but because, like mary, martha, and lazarus, we know that god is up to
something, that jesus is at work.
we gather here to receive god’s grace and extravagant love
and in our joyful response to god’s abundance, we offer ourselves, our lives,
and our offerings, as signs of jesus’ extravagant love for us. we bring our gifts because we know how
valuable jesus’ gift of extravagant
love is.
when we come together for worship, jesus’ extravagant love
is poured out. it is the thing
that gives us the grace and the love to pour back into the world. jesus’ love comes to us in wine and
bread so that we can turn outward and pour that love into others.
we all can, and do, do it. it’s in how we live our lives. how we care for co-workers, how we care for creation or our
neighbor or families. how we give
our gifts. how much the poor truly
are together with us always—in
community, in worship, in life.
the way we worship together, receiving the most extravagant
gift of love each week, prepares us for a world where death is all around. but we know the gift of love and we
know that death does not have the final word. we know a god, in jesus christ, who conquers death and
brings us all to new life. not once, but constantly. jesus gives the most extravagant of
gifts, claiming us as beloved children of god, and feeding us with his Body and Blood.
thanks be to god!
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