4-7-19
Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.
When you get invited to a party, such as a wedding, your
first thought might be – yay, how exciting! And your next thought might be all
the things you need to do to get ready? Even if you are “just” a guest, there
are some many things to do before you arrive at the ceremony or reception. Make
sure you can get time off work. Get directions. Book a flight and a hotel room
if you’re from out of town. Look on the registry and buy a gift. And the most
important thing: figure out what you’re going to WEAR!
And if you are IN the wedding party, your list of
preparations just got about four times longer. And if you’re a bride (or a groom), THAT list is longer still. Dress, tux, shoes, jewelry,
makeup, hair, nails, veil, flowers, something borrowed, something blue, figuring
out the venue, music, food, and registry…. But I’m pretty sure a pound of nard
is not on any registry I know of.
As I shared during one of our “Eat, Pray, Learn” dinners,
each Gospel tells the story of Jesus a little bit differently, depending on
their focus and their audience. For example, this year we’re hearing from the
Gospel of Luke, and his focus is on how Jesus brings salvation to everyone,
especially people on the margins. But every so often, we get to hear from the
Gospel of John, which is a bit different from the other three.
This story that we hear – this time from the Gospel of
John – is about preparations. And it also comes with a few different options –
sort of like choosing types of items for a registry - one for every Gospel. What
kind of blender do you want? One with lots of speeds, small and portable, extra
flavor boost….. but in the end, no matter how fancy it is, it’s still a blender.
This story, of Jesus’ anointing, is found in all the
Gospels… but the details are a little bit different in each one. In some, this
party is at the home of Simon the Leper, and the woman with the jar is a
stranger without a name. In John, Jesus is with Lazarus, whom he had recently
raised from the dead. Mary and Martha, the siblings of Lazarus, are so happy
that they all threw Jesus a big party. So, there is still the party, which is
the same in all the Gospels… as is the fact that Jesus’ feet are anointed both
with the expensive oil by a woman – Mary or otherwise, and then she wiped with
her hair.
There is another use for this kind of anointing oil. It
is used on the body after death to prepare it for burial. Jesus was not being
anointed for his coming glory, as his ancestor David had been. For Jesus there
was not coronation ceremony. Jesus crown would be one of thorns, and his thrown
would be a cross.
Mary thought she was doing something good for Jesus
purely out of gratitude for what Jesus had done. She had no idea that she was
preparing Jesus for his burial. She also had no idea that, according to John,
Jesus raising her brother from the dead would ultimately be the reason that
Jesus himself is condemned to die.
But Jesus knows, what they don’t - that just around the
corner lies betrayal and suffering and humiliation and death. betrayed and
handed over by one of his own followers, denied by another, abandoned by the rest
of the male disciples, falsely accused, tried in the middle of the night, given
a convenient death sentence, denied justice, beaten, mocked, and finally killed
as a common criminal, in public, as a deterrent. She had no idea that her
actions would help prepare Jesus for Holy Week.
It’s sort of funny, that Mary was chastised for using ONE
point of this anointing oil on Jesus NOW, when later in John, a man, Nicodemus,
brings ONE HUNDRED POUNDS of similar oil to anoint Jesus’ body after his death.
Who was ACTUALLY being wasteful, Judas?
Jesus’ death might have looked like a total waste to the
rest of the world – a waste of three years, a waste of a life, a waste of time
for the Son of God. Just as Jesus’ Judas thought this splendid gift was a
totally waste on Jesus…. The man he was about to betray to death.
But with God, nothing is ever a waste…. Out of death,
comes new life. Out of a tomb, comes resurrection. From a cross, comes
salvation.
There is a lot of death happening all around us right
now, even as the new life of spring is finally bursting forth from a chilly and
wet winter. We all know someone who is struggling with a chronic illness, a
cancer diagnosis, with a chemical dependency, or with the loss of someone they
love.
There is a death that comes with any change – changing
families, neighborhoods, ways of doing life that we are used to. Our church
doesn’t look the same as it used to. We might not have as much energy or
resources as we used to, and the same goes for our congregations. A number of
churches in our own synod have already closed this year, and there are still
more that are scheduled to close before the year is over. We have seen fewer
and fewer faces in our own pews from year to year, while neighboring churches
break ground on new building expansions. Someone like Judas might wonder if it
makes it at all worth it to get up on a Sunday morning… if it is indeed all a
waste.
Some may see Mary’s gift as a waste, but Jesus saw it as
an act of faith. An act of Thankfulness. An act of Generosity. And generosity
is never the wrong answer. Generosity is never a waste.
With God, no act done out of faith is wasteful. Every act
of getting up in the morning, of showing up, of putting a dollar in the
offering plate, of giving of an hour of our time to make sandwiches or to serve
on a committee or to eat dinner at Candlewick to support a ministry, or at
night Buckingham Pizza to have fellowship and to learn …. All these things are
an act of faith.
To others they may seem like wasteful, foolish gestures,
like wasting an entire pound of super expensive perfume on one man… to people
like Judas, this is foolish. Judas tells us to be cautious… restrained, ….
responsible, as much as Mary’s gift was exuberant… irresponsible… and “all-in”
And his advice IS sound…. But do we REALLY want to listen to JUDAS???
Out of her thankfulness, Mary decided to “go for broke”
…. Literally. She broke that jar of pricey perfume over Jesus’s smelly feet.
She thought nothing of getting down and dirty, and using her own hair, and she
didn’t care about the fragrant mess that is was probably making all over the
floor, or how in the world she would get it out of the carpet.
Mary, and the other women who surrounded Jesus during
Holy Week, were “All-In.” They stayed by Jesus when all the other – male –
disciples – had betrayed, denied, and abandoned Jesus. But God was at work
doing a new thing, preparing the way from death into life. As the psalmist
says, those who sowed in tears will reap with songs of joy. But first, God has
to prepare the soil, so that the seeds that God has planted in us can bear
fruit.
Lots of things prevent us
from going “All-In” with Mary… fear of the unknown, anxiety about doing it
right, worry about going in the wrong direction, hesitancy over tough but
necessary choices, timidity in dreaming big.
But there are also lots of
ways to “prepare the soil” for going “all-in” and they just might be similar in
how we can get ready for Holy Week. We can follow Mary’s example, for a start.
She INVITED Jesus to HER table. She didn’t expect anything out of him – in
fact, she along with Martha, sought to serve HIM. She gave the gift of both her
boldness and her humility. She gave the gift of the most expensive thing she
owned – the perfume – and then gave the gift of the most precious thing she had
– her devotion and her discipleship. In the past, she had sat Jesus’ feet as a
pupil, and he had raised her brother from the dead. He had given her
everything, and this is the least she could give in return. After all, Jesus
had gone “all in for her” and went “all in” for us.
Coming up soon is the week
we tell the story of how Jesus went “all in” for us. Will you be “all in,” this
Holy Week to hear and believe? If so, prepare yourselves for the way of the
cross. Amen.
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