March 21, 2010

Isaiah 43:16-21; John 12:1-8

We are continuing our Lenten theme of “Holding on and letting go”. During this season of the year we are reflecting on

what we need to “let go of in order to hold onto God”.

This morning I want to focus on this story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus from John 12.

Now, I don’t know how this story made you feel, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable because in this story Judas is the bad guy – he is about to betray Jesus, but there is a part of me that thinks Judas asks a very good question.

When he questions Mary about wasting $15,000 of perfume on Jesus’ feet – he seems to make a good point.

I have to wonder why Mary didn’t use a drop or two for Jesus’ feet and then take the rest to buy blankets for the homeless or to feed the hungry or to build a Habitat for Humanity house.

I am sure Jesus would have understood if she didn’t pour out the whole jar of perfume on his feet.

I mean – Jesus talked a lot to his disciples about caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, and setting the prisoners free. Jesus was deeply concerned for the impoverished.

So, I have to wonder, how could Mary possibly waste all of this money on anointing Jesus’ feet when there are so many needs around?

It is because there are so many needs in our world that Judas’ question to Mary sounds so compelling to me and makes me want to support Judas.

But then the Gospel writer – John – pulls us aside and whispers in our ear and says – be careful! Don’t get sucked into that way of thinking.

John tells us that Judas does not really care about the poor. In fact, Judas has been stealing from the disciple’s money bag for a long time and building up his own nest egg.

John carefully lets us know that there is really more to this story than we realize.

So, let’s go back to the beginning now and see what this story is all about.

This story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus isn’t just a nice little story in the middle of John’s Gospel.

This story takes place one week before the Passover. Jesus has turned his face towards Jerusalem and is determined to face the religious authorities and the Roman Empire.

Just a few days earlier – Jesus raised his good friend Lazarus from the dead and this caused a large number of Jews to take interest in Jesus. When the religious leaders heard about Lazarus – they panicked and they raised the terror alert to code “red”.

They immediately begin plotting how they are going to kill Jesus.

Jesus’ good friends – Mary, Martha, and Lazarus – decide to throw a party for him in their home in Bethany. Lazarus has just been raised from the dead and they want to thank Jesus. So, they throw a party in his honor.

However, this is not your everyday run-of-the-mill dinner party.

We have at this party – Lazarus – who has just returned from the tomb and Jesus – who is on his way to the tomb.

Jesus knows he is a marked man. He knows his days are numbered. He knows people are looking to kill him and everyone else does too.

In the midst of all of this – Martha is preparing the meal and Mary is preparing to express her love and gratitude to Jesus.

Mary takes a clay jar of some expensive perfume and she kneels at Jesus’ feet and breaks open the jar’s neck.

As the scent fills the room and with everyone watching her – Mary scandalizes them all with her radical departure from the appropriate customs of the day.

• First of all, she lets her hair down in a room full of men – something an honorable woman would only do for her husband.
• Then she pours perfume on Jesus’ feet – which is also not done. It was acceptable to anoint the head of kings but never the feet of a person.
• Then she touches Jesus. A single woman rubbing a single man’s feet is just not done – even among friends.
• And then lastly, Mary does the bizarre thing of wiping the perfume off of his feet with her own hair.

This most intimate, excessive, and extravagant act of love was so over-the-top that it made everyone in the room feel uncomfortable – except Jesus.

John’s Gospel has Jesus begin his ministry with an extravagance of excellent wine at a wedding feast. And now John brings Jesus’ ministry to a close with a passionate display of love in the extravagant pouring out of this very expensive perfume on his feet.

Barbara Brown Taylor, commenting on Mary’s actions here says it was an “act so lavish that it suggests another layer to her prophecy; there will be nothing prudent or economical about the death of this man, just as there was nothing prudent or economical about his life. In Jesus, the extravagance of God’s love is made flesh. In Jesus, the excessiveness of God’s mercy is made manifest.”

So, while everyone else is uncomfortable with Mary’s actions – Jesus interprets this extravagant, loving act of Mary, as an act of preparation for his burial.

Only Mary, of all the disciples, seems to understand who Jesus is and what is going to happen to him.

Mary could have anointed Jesus’ head and no one would have been upset. In fact, they might have cheered her on because the disciples wanted to make Jesus king.

Mary also could have waited to anoint Jesus body after he died, and again, people would have thought it was an appropriate use for this expensive perfume.

In Jesus’ day, when a person died, the Jewish purity codes elevated caring for the dead body – above caring for the poor.

So, the really upsetting thing here for most folks is that Mary chooses to anoint Jesus while he is still alive – rather than waiting until he is dead.

By anointing Jesus when he is alive – Mary is giving the very best she has to the living Jesus. She is giving him her most sacred possession. Her love for Jesus overflows into this tender and loving act.

By pouring this very expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet Mary is inviting all of us to love Jesus in the same extravagant way. She is inviting us to give the best of ourselves to Jesus. In her actions -

• Mary is no more extravagant than the widow – who put everything she had in the offering plate.
• Mary is no more extravagant than Zacchaeus – who gave half of his possessions to the poor.
• Mary is no more extravagant than St. Francis – who took all of his possessions and gave them to the poor.
• Mary is no more extravagant than Millard Fuller – who gave his possessions away and built houses for the poor.

Whenever we give the best of ourselves to Jesus we are acting in the extravagant spirit of Mary.

Mary’s extravagant giving of herself to Jesus is in direct contrast to Judas. Mary, not Judas, teaches us what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Judas was one of the twelve disciples closest to Jesus. He had been with Jesus for three years. Judas knows the right words to say. Judas has the right theology – as God’s people we are to care for the poor.

And yet, knowledge and privilege of position is no substitute for faith and obedience. Mary, whose actions are over the top and seen as indecent – is the one Jesus commends – not Judas.

Judas teaches us here that the only thing worse than not caring for the poor – is “pretending” to care for the poor.

How many of us, at times, are like Judas? We talk about fiscal responsibility and being good stewards of God’s resources – when it is really a cover up for our own greed so that we can have more for ourselves and our own pleasures?

Richard Rohr, a Catholic priest, says – “religion is the most effective way to cover up our darkness while still maintaining it.”

Judas pretends to know what it means to care for the poor but it is all a cover for his own greed. He hides behind his right theology – while he continues stealing from the money bag.

Now, Judas had been given the great responsibility of being in charge of the disciple’s money. Jesus must have seen in Judas a special gift to keep track of the money, pay all the bills, and care for the poor.

But somewhere along the way that gift and talent got twisted and distorted and Judas abused the gift God gave him.

And that can happen to any of us, as well. We, too, have been given gifts and talents by God that can be abused and used for the wrong purposes.

Jesus recognizes Judas’ hypocrisy and so he tells him to “leave Mary alone”. Jesus defends Mary’s extravagance. Jesus honors her love and her faith.

Mary, even in the face of criticism, holds nothing back. Her heart is so full of love that she doesn’t take time to compute the cost of her commitment.

And for me, what is so amazing here, is that Mary becomes the model for what Jesus does at the last supper with his disciples only a few days later.

At the last supper, in the upper room, with most of the same people there – Jesus takes a towel and washes his disciple’s feet.

Then Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment – “to love one another as I have loved you”.

Peter, of course, argues with Jesus about having his feet washed. Some of the others think Jesus has lost his mind. But all of them can remember Mary bending over and washing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume.

By washing Jesus’ feet Mary had acted out Jesus’ last commandment “to love one another as I have loved you” even before she was told to.

Mary, so full of love, loves extravagantly. Through her extravagant gift of love she helps us recognize who Jesus is and who we are called to be as his faithful disciples.

This story reminds us that there is nothing half-hearted about God’s love for us.

Mary’s act of extravagance was a sign of God’s extravagant love for us.

Mary poured out expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet because we are that precious to God. So precious, in fact, that God would suffer the pain and pour out his blood for us on the cross.

Mary’s act of extravagance reminds us that the cross is the center of our hope today. It is a sign of God’s extravagant mercy for us.

This morning, we are going to share in communion together. In some Christian traditions it is called “the Eucharist” which means “the great thanksgiving”.

This meal really is a great thanksgiving for all that God has done for us and our world.

Mary’s story reminds us today that “God’s love for the world was so extravagant that God came in human form – in Jesus of Nazareth – to be with us and to suffer for us.

Just as Mary did not hold anything back – God holds nothing back in loving us.

God did not come among us to condemn us but to show us what God’s love is like so that we can be born from above by God’s Spirit.

When we get broken down and corrupted and sick – God does not throw us on the junk heap. Instead, God goes to work and searches after us to restore us to our original beauty.

In Christ, our sins are forgiven, we are made new, and for that we give Great Thanks!

The Lord’s Supper is important to us because here we remember the extravagance of God’s grace for us and the immensity of the debts forgiven.

It is because of God’s extravagant grace that we can also practice extravagant mercy with one another.

And so this morning – let us come to this meal and eat it with great joy – remembering all that God has done for us.

All who have been baptized are invited to come and share in the bread and cup.

All children and seekers are invited to come for a blessing and to receive grapes and crackers as a sign of God’s love for you.

Take bread – on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took a loaf of bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said – this is my body broken for you, eat this in remembrance of me.

Take cup – in the same way after supper, he took the cup and said – this cup is the new covenant in my blood – drink this in remembrance of me.

Prayer.