A MESSAGE FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

(a link to a worship service including this message on the YouTube channel is found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kS0PE9u-pI&t=2s)

Prayer of the Day:

Creator God, you prepare a new way in the wilderness, and your grace waters our desert.  Open our hearts to be transformed by the new thing you are doing, that our lives may proclaim the extravagance of your love given to all through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

John 12:1-8

12 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.”

Well, it is about to begin again, this journey through Holy Week to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection on this Fifth Sunday in Lent.  We have Jesus in a familiar place, in a comfortable place, in a friendly place.  It was here that he was preparing to make his triumphant entry and spend this last week of his earthly life.  He knew that.  And he chose this place to spend it, the home of Lazarus and Martha and Mary.

We recall that the gospels saved the title “friend” for these three.  Jesus called others his friends, but the gospel writers say only that these three are Jesus’ friends, his close friends.  And so here he chose to spend this day before his triumphal entry.

“Six days before the Passover” …the Passover he will celebrate with his followers that will become for us Maundy Thursday, the Passover that preceded his trip to the Garden of Gethsemane, his deep and heartfelt prayer, his betrayal, his arrest, his torture, and ultimately his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.  He warned his followers of this.  He told them repeatedly that this was going to happen, all of it.  But it seemed that often their thoughts stopped before he said he would be raised from the dead.

I think we can understand why.  They loved him.  They had been with him for a very long time.  And when he talked about dying, they did not want to hear it.  Peter tried to rebuke him, correct him, and they all scattered at the sheer horror of it.

But six days before the Passover, before all that happened, here he was in a familiar place.  “Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead”.  We need to recognize that this was now essentially Lazarus’ last name -- Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead.  Nobody can forget it was a monumental moment, so monumental that that was the event that spurred the Pharisees to take seriously the plot to have Jesus put to death and have Lazarus put to death.  After all the contentions, all the fights, that was the event that triggered all that was to come.

So, there he was in the home of Lazarus and Martha and Mary, these three siblings, these dear friends of his.  There they gave a dinner for him.  There was a dinner and Jesus was the guest of honour.  Jesus had been in their home before.  The scene was Jesus was there, Lazarus was there, Martha was in the kitchen preparing things, and Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus.  Remember, Martha complained that Mary was not helping her.  Jesus reminded her that she was fussing a lot.  She did not have to.  He was not going to be with them forever.  Mary had chosen the good thing as she listened to Jesus teach.

Here again we have a similar scene.  They gave a dinner for him.  Martha served and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.  No complaining from Martha this time and Lazarus was there as “Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead”.  And there was Mary again at the feet of Jesus.  But she was not just listening.  She was doing something profound and, we have to admit, extremely intimate.

“Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard and anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”  There are a number of aspects of this verse that would have shocked those who witnessed it and those who heard about it, at least by the social mores of the Jews of the time.  Mary had this pound of costly perfume.  How costly?  Well, Judas mentioned later that it could have been sold for 300 denarii.  Now, a denarii was one day's wage for a working person.  300 denarii was close to a year's wages.  Costly indeed! 

A full pound!  It was a lot.  And she seemed to have anointed Jesus’ feet with all of it.  It was abundant.  It was extravagant, not unlike the grace and mercy of God.

Not only did she anoint Jesus’ feet, but she wiped his feet with her hair.  This was again an intimate detail, partly because women did not have their hair down, particularly in the presence of men.  It was not done.  In some orthodox Jewish communities, it is still not done.  And yet here Mary had her hair down in a setting in her home with Jesus, her dear friend. 

Martha did not complain about that.  Neither did Lazarus.  And neither did Jesus.  But I have to think that at least some in the room were blushing a bit.  This was a moment that they might have thought they should not be witness to.  This was a tender and intimate moment.  And extravagant moment.

And the house was filled with the smell of the perfume.  It was not just this visual moment.  There was Jesus.  There was Mary at his feet, anointing his feet and wiping his feet with her hair.  It was also a smell moment.  The whole house was filled with the smell of this perfume.  It was almost a kind of a tableau moment.  And there was the smell and there was the sight.  And there was a pause, a silence.

But then Judas Iscariot, one of his apostles, and, as John reminds us, the one who was about to betray Jesus.  But Judas Iscariot said, “Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the poor.”  It was a reasonable question.  It really was really expensive.  If she wanted to anoint his feet, just as a guest in the house, it did not have to be that expensive.  But as we shall learn, this was no ordinary perfume.

John also added another editorial note here.  “Judas said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common person and used to steal what was put into it.”

It was an odd reference about Judas.  Judas was a unique character for a number of reasons, not just that he betrayed Jesus.  Eleven of the apostles were Galileans.  Only Judas was a Judean.  If he was a thief, why was he entrusted with the common purse?  And remember, as an apostle, he was chosen by Jesus.  It was a complicated dynamic going on here.

But he raised the question and, as I said, it was a fair question.  This was a very extravagant gift.  Then Jesus explained.  “Leave her alone; she bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.”  This was no ordinary perfume.  This was meant as a perfume to anoint the dead in the Jewish rite of preparation for burial.  Even today, the bodies of dead Jewish people are not embalmed.  They are buried within three days.  They have to be in the ground, and they are prepared.  The body was washed, anointed, and spices were added.  The body was wrapped and so prepared for the burial.  That was what this perfume was for.  It was burial perfume. 

So, imagine again the scene.  Mary anointed his feet, wiping them with her hair.  And that smell filled the room, that smell of the preparation for death.

“You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”  A lot has been made of the first part of this verse.  It seems Jesus was being kind of callous.  “Well, there will always be poor people.”  This was not what he was saying.  The Jewish tradition in the law stated that there will always be poor people and therefore there will always be charity given to the poor.  The followers of Jesus always took care of the poor.  That was not the point in this moment.  In this moment was the recognition by Mary and by Martha who does not complain and by Lazarus who does not complain and by Jesus who does not complain that this was an important moment.  These were Jesus’ dear friends acknowledging that he was going to die, acknowledging something that his apostles would not.  They would scatter when the time came.  Only John was left at the foot of the cross, with the women who waited with Jesus as he died.

But here, before the beginning of all of that, were Jesus’ dear friends saying, “Yes, we know this is going to happen.  And we are here for you, and we will be here for you.”  Lazarus, whose own resurrection was a precursor to Jesus’ resurrection as Jesus declared he even had power over death, was there.  Lazarus knew where Jesus’ was going, in a way.  And these dear friends made their home a safe place for Jesus to acknowledge what he was about to do.

It was an honesty, I think, that we would all cherish from our friends.  That friends of all people would acknowledge the reality of whatever our situation is and say, “Yes.  And this is difficult.  And we are here for you.”

From here, Jesus would go to his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and I wonder, I just wonder, there is nothing in the scripture to say this, but I wonder whether, as Jesus rode on the donkey into the gates of Jerusalem as the people sang Hosanna and laid palm branches at his feet: How many who were near him acknowledged the familiarity of the scent, the perfume still on his feet?  How many of them said, “I know that smell.”

Jesus knew what he was going to do.  Lazarus, Martha, and, most importantly, Mary acknowledged that and gave him a place to acknowledge it, the reality of it.  They said to Jesus, “Yes, that is where you're going.  And in this moment, we are here for you.”

In that reality, as Jesus, in his death and resurrection, declares that he is here for us in whatever our reality might be.  And so, on this Fifth Sunday in Lent, as we close off this time of Lent as we have been practicing it as an observance of our discipleship and a reflection in our life of faith, and as we prepare for the week ahead, we say: “We are here with you, Jesus, as you are here with us.”

Be safe.  Be well.  God bless you all.

Pastor Greg