Text: John 12:1-8 (RSV)
Mary Anoints Jesus
12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Laz′arus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Laz′arus was one of those at table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii[a] and given to the poor?” 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. 8 The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
Although this passage describes what has to be the most unusual dinner party in history, the underlying meaning of it is discipleship – specifically, that discipleship can and does take many forms and is practiced by many different types and groups of people.
There are several themes in this short passage – incredible love, impetuous extravagance, a growing sense of dread and loss, and even greed. Yet all of those people who exhibit these behaviors and feel those emotions nonetheless have one thing in common, and that is their discipleship as followers of Jesus.
And what a group of people it was. First, imagine sitting at the table with a man, Lazarus, who until very recently – just six days previously, as a matter of fact – was dead. Dead and buried – in the grave for three days! People who were dead, stayed dead. Yet there he sits now, right next to you, maybe asking you to please pass the bread. Incredible.
Then there’s Judas, the keeper of the purse. To us, he’s the ultimate villain – all four Gospel writers agree that he was the “son of perdition.” But this view has everything to do with the events that are to follow this dinner party. According to tradition, Judas was one of Jesus’ closest friends, a man in whom Jesus confided and whom Jesus trusted implicitly – as did the eleven other disciples. As Wayne Jackson writes on the “Christian Courier” blog: “After more than three years of association, the disciples entertained no suspicion of Judas’ duplicity, but had confidence in him. He served as their treasurer; and … they apparently yielded to his influence. At the final supper, none suspected him of being the traitor; they each asked, ‘Is it I?’” (Matthew 26:22).[1] Only Jesus knew what was to come, and what part Judas was to play.
Rounding out the company were the other eleven disciples, and the sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. It was their house. Martha, always the good hostess, was busy serving. It was a scene of friendship, of love, both among siblings and of close and dear friends.
It is no accident that this scene is one of hospitality, even given the fact that this dinner party takes place six days before the Passover. Hospitality – whether shown to perfect strangers, beloved friends, or even family – was a sacred duty. In the Bible Lands, then as now, Fred H. Wight tells us: “Guests [are] believed to be sent by God. These men of the East believe that a person who becomes their guest is sent to them by God. Thus their hospitality becomes a sacred duty. When one such a host entertained Westerners, he was so happy that he wept tears of joy that ‘Heaven had sent him guests.’
“Friends as guests. In the East a friend is always welcome to receive hospitality. The Romans of the New Testament times had a token of hospitality between two friends, which consisted of a tile of wood or stone, which was divided in half. Each person wrote his name on one of the two pieces, and then exchanged that piece with the other person. These were often kept and handed down from father to son. To produce the counterpart of one of these pieces would guarantee the hospitality of a real friend. The Book of Revelation no doubt refers to this custom in one of the promises to overcomers: ‘And will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written’ (Rev. 2:17).”[2]
Wight goes on to say that not only are strangers subject to that expansive hospitality, but even enemies: “[S]ometimes an enemy is received as a guest, and as long as he remains in that relationship, he is perfectly safe and is treated as a friend. There are certain Oriental tribes of tent-dwellers who have the rule that an enemy who has ‘once dismounted and touched the rope of a single tent, is safe.’”[3]
So this was a holy gathering, not even just because Jesus was present. And the guests are enjoying the meal, and then –
Suddenly, Mary, Lazarus’ other sister, kneels down at Jesus’ feet and pulls out a jar of very expensive nard and starts to anoint his feet with it. That’s really unusual for several reasons, but first we need to note here that the other three Gospels differ in their account of this story. In both Matthew (26:6-13) and Mark (14:3-9), this dinner took place at the home of someone named “Simon the Leper,” and in Luke (7:36-50), it’s in the home of an unnamed Pharisee; and in all three cases, the woman is not Mary at all, but a woman who, as Luke says, “lived a sinful life.” Only John identifies this woman as Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus.[4]
Back to the anointing. The first element is the nard itself. What is nard, anyway? “Nard” is an abbreviation of “spikenard,” which is an herb that produces a fragrant essential oil. The reason why it was so expensive is that it grows on at the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, thousands of miles away. In order for Mary to get a jar of it, it had to travel from India by caravan through Persia, and from there to Palestine. That’s a distance of thousands of miles! And with each foot that it travelled, its cost went up significantly; so that by the time it came into the hands of someone like Mary, it represented a pretty considerable expense.
And she poured it onto Jesus’ feet! Every last drop. Scandalous! That would be like us taking a half a pound of Beluga caviar and feeding it to the cat!
The second element is that it was Mary who is performing this anointing. Women never anointed men. That was just unheard of! Men anointed other men – the prophet Samuel anointed Saul to be the King of Israel, for example. Male Popes anointed male Emperors throughout Western history, for another. But a woman anointing a man? Didn’t happen. But that’s exactly what Mary does.
The third element is that she wipes his feet with her hair! Such anointing was a common part of burial rituals – so, in addition to an act of love and devotion, what Mary does also foreshadows Jesus’ death.
Then Jesus himself wrecks the mood of the whole evening by openly talking about his death. So, yes, it was a night to remember, for sure!
But what did it all mean? What does it all mean?
First, in this season of Lent, where we hover, as it were, between life and death, we see not just the contrast between death and life, but also an example that death does not have the last word. Lazarus was dead, but now he’s alive. Even though the pall, the smell, of death still lingers about him, there he sits, having dinner.
But Jesus, too, has just one more time spoken about his upcoming death. And those gathered there that night do not yet have the knowledge we have that especially this death will lead to life for all humanity.
Then comes of the smell of the nard – “permeating every nook and cranny of that room. That smell in contrast to the smell of death … The smell of love in the face of certain betrayal.
“The smell of extravagant love. Mary’s foreshadowed embodiment of Jesus’ commandment – ‘love one another as I have loved you.’”[5]
Second, we see in the interchange between Jesus and Judas the contract between the thoughts of the world and the thoughts of God. Judas has a point – that perfume could have been sold so that the proceeds could have been given to the poor. But Jesus tells him that there’s something bigger going on here. That something is the love that God is about to show the world when Jesus dies on the cross. So let Mary get on with it.
And she did so in an extravagant, unexpected, over-the-top way.
Mary teaches us that if we’re going to give anything to Jesus at all, we need to give everything to him. If you’re a parent, you don’t reserve just a small portion of your heart for your children – you love them totally. Mary is telling us today that you don’t reserve a small section of your heart for Jesus. If you give him any of it, you give him all of it. No great thing was ever accomplished by people who said, “Well, OK, I’ll go for it halfway.” Mary sets the bar much higher.
Yet Mary didn’t rush off and become a missionary. She didn’t become a martyr. She continued living in her house, she continued to live pretty much the same way she always had; nonetheless, her life was totally changed. She showed her devotion to Jesus where she was by leading the transformed life of a disciple within the context of normal human life – which is exactly where it counts the most.
It’s the same for us. We still need to get up in the morning and go to work. We still need to be attentive and diligent parents. We still need to be contributors to society, however we understand that. The differences are more internal than external.
The main difference is one of dedication. It’s a question of intent. If we dedicate our lives to serving the Jesus who has called us, who has claimed us, in whom we live and breathe and have our being, our lives become transformed. They become greater than the sum of their parts.
We have before us today the choice of renewing our dedication to Jesus, or of giving in to what’s been called “The World.” The lesson here is that God constantly does things in unexpected and extravagant ways, and he does these mind-blowing things through ordinary people, people like Mary, and people like you and me.
Sisters and Brothers, let’s be disciples like Mary!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] Jackson, Wayne, “Judas Iscariot: From Apostle to Apostate,” Christian Courier blog, https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1480-judas-iscariot-from-apostle-to-apostate
[2] Wight, Fred H., Manners and Customs of Bible Lands, Chicago, Moody Bible Institute, 1953, pp. 69-70
[3] Ibid.
[4] Pope Gregory the Great famously melded these two biblical women [Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene] together, under the name ‘Mary Magdalene’, in a homily preached in 591. And he also added into the mix an unnamed adulteress, who was redeemed by Jesus and who washed his feet with ointment in penitence. Pope Gregory’s mistake stuck.” https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/real-mary-magdalene-facts-prostitute-sinner-myth-who-why/
[5] http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4554