Lent 5C
March 21, 2010
St. Dunstan's
The Rev. Patricia Templeton

"Six Days Before Passover"

It is six days before the Passover.

Jesus is once again in the town of Bethany, at the home of his dear friends, the siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

The dinner is a celebration of sorts. It is the first time Jesus has been back to Bethany since his dramatic raising of Lazarus from the dead a few weeks earlier.

Mary and Martha are still amazed each time they look at their younger brother. The memories of his illness and death, the overwhelming grief and despair they felt at his burial, are still very vivid to them.

The fact that Lazarus is with them, alive and healthy, is truly a miracle. And the one who performed this miracle, Jesus, will be with them for dinner tonight.

Both sisters have been wracking their brains, trying to find some way to show Jesus just how much he means to them, how grateful they are for his friendship, his love, and the amazing gift that he gave them in restoring Lazarus to life.

Mary and Martha both understand that this gift came with a price. News of the miracle of Lazarus has quickly spread throughout the region. Many people have come to believe in Jesus because of it.

But not everyone has rejoiced at news of this miracle. The chief priests and Pharisees immediately called an emergency meeting to discuss Jesus’ growing popularity, which they see as a threat to their own power and authority.

“If we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy our holy place and our nation,” one of the religious leaders said in a meeting.

It is reported that Caiaphas, the high priest, responded to that comment by saying “it is better to have one man die than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Rumors are flying that the religious leaders are planning Jesus’ arrest and execution.

In bringing Lazarus back to life, Jesus has in effect signed his own death warrant.

Jesus has, of course, heard the rumors. He has not been seen in public since he raised Lazarus, but he has sent word to Mary and Martha that he wants to see them again. The sisters are both acutely aware that this may be the last time he visits their home.

Martha wants to make sure that it is an evening Jesus will remember. A renowned cook and hostess, Martha this time outdoes herself, fixing all of Jesus’ favorites, making sure everything is perfect for their honored guest and friend.

For Mary, finding a way to show her appreciation is harder. She does not have her sister’s culinary talents. Entertaining is not her gift.

But at the market with Martha, she has an inspiration. In a shopkeeper’s stall is the most beautiful alabaster jar she has ever seen, and in it the most fragrant oil she has ever smelled.

Pure nard, the shopkeeper said. Very special, imported from India.

It should be special. It cost 300 denarii, a year’s wages for the average worker. Mary has that much money; it has taken her years to save it.

She doesn’t hesitate. She runs home and uncovers the money from her hiding place, then goes back to the market and purchases the jar of oil. She hopes she will have the courage to carry out her plan.

Now Jesus has arrived, traveling as usual with the men who accompany him wherever he goes.

Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, the jar of oil under a table next to her. Jesus seems distracted and worried, but the other men talk on, not noticing.

Silently, Mary reaches for the jar and opens it. The house that so recently reeked with the stench of death is now filled with the fragrance of rich perfume.

Without saying a word, she pours the oil, all of it, over Jesus’ feet. She begins to rub it in, massaging his rough dusty, calloused feet with her hands. But even that gesture seems inadequate, so she reaches up and unties her hair, letting her dark tresses hang long.

And with her hair she rubs the oil into Jesus’ feet as tears stream down her face.

The room goes silent as everyone watches this intimate act of devotion. And then, Judas, Mary’s least favorite of the men who travel with Jesus, speaks out.

“Why was this perfume not sold and the money given to the poor?” he sneers self righteously. Like he really cares about the poor. He wants the money for himself. And he wants to humiliate Mary.

But Jesus stands up for her.

“Leave her alone,” he says sharply. “She bought it for my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Jesus is not saying that care of the poor in unimportant. Instead, he is contrasting the presence of the poor with his own impending absence.

Those who truly care for the poor will continue to care for them after he is gone, in fact will care for them as way to show their continued devotion to him.

Judas, who is already suspected as a thief and is entertaining thoughts of collaborating with those who wish to kill Jesus, is feigning a prophetic concern for the poor.

But on this night, six days before the Passover, Mary is the true prophet.

In her anointing of Jesus, she foreshadows his death. Indeed, this anointing is the only one his body will have.

In less than a week, Jesus’ broken body will be cut down from the cross and hurriedly laid in the tomb before sundown and the beginning of the Sabbath. When a group of women arrives at dawn after the Sabbath to anoint him it will be too late – his body will be gone.

But Mary’s real prophetic act that evening is her modeling of faithful love and discipleship to Jesus.

Six days later, on the night of the Passover, Jesus will be in Jerusalem with his disciples for the holy meal. In hours Judas will betray him, and he will be arrested and handed over for execution.

During that last meal with his friends, Jesus gets up from the table and ties a towel around his waist. Then he pours water into a basin and begins to wash the disciples’ feet and wipe them with a towel, an echo of the act of love that Mary shows him.

After he washes their feet he returns to the table and says, “Do you know what I have done to you? If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

“For I have set an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

“I give you a new commandment,” Jesus tells his disciples on the last night of his life. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciple, if you love one another.”
Before Jesus ever gives his new commandment, Mary is living it. She is the first to embody the love that is commanded of all disciples. She is willing to sacrifice all that she has to show her love and devotion to Jesus.

We can imagine how difficult it was for Mary and Martha to say goodbye to Jesus that night. Perhaps they begged him to stay longer, to spend the Passover with them, in the safe haven of their home.

But Jesus gently detaches himself from his friends, and bids them a sad farewell.

It is time for him to head to Jerusalem.

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Readings

Isaiah 43:16-21

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.”

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary 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. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him,) said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (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.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

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