Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-march-31-2023
John 12:1-8
Jesus Anointed at Bethany
1Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
This story follows the famous story in which Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. You might remember that we’ve said in the past that Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha might have been Jesus’ closest friends, and that the Gospel of John specifically says that Jesus loved this family.
But of course, no matter how close the friendship between Jesus and the family might have been, it had to have changed dramatically when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It’s one thing to be close friends with a charismatic rabbi with great theological insight, but it would change the relationship altogether when you discover that your friend can raise the dead. How would you balance your affection for that friend with the reverence that you’d have for someone with divine power? There’s not much of a precedent for how to act in those circumstances.
And in the story, some of the people present at the dinner must have regarded Mary’s act of anointing Jesus’s feet with perfume and then wiping them with her hair as inappropriate. Under the traditions of the Hebrew people, it was considered immodest for a woman to have her hair unbound in the presence of a man other than her husband. So loosening her hair and wiping Jesus’ feet with it would have been shocking to some people.
But everything about God’s incarnation in the form of Jesus was new and unique. So of course it called for expressions of reverence that there wasn’t any precedent for. God had never before walked the earth in human form. And given the fact that almost nobody really understood that Jesus was God in human form, any expression of reverence that actually fit his role in salvation history was bound to seem highly inappropriate to some of the religious people of the time.
But Jesus said that Mary’s gesture was all part of the plan – a way to honor him on the eve of his passion and death.
This story makes me think about those times in the history of the church when new forms of spirituality have emerged – new forms that seem radical and inappropriate to some people. The appearance of praise worship with its rock-style music is probably an example. And some people have reacted the same way to inclusive language in worship, and to reformulations of liturgy that call on God as ‘Mother’ rather than ‘Father.’ If I’m not mistaken, back when some congregations started using organs in worship there were some purists who thought only the human voice should be heard in church, and that the new-fangled, high-tech thing called a pipe organ was an affront to the dignity of God.
It seems to me that Mary of Bethany is a character in the gospels who challenges us to demonstrate greater open-mindedness about expressions of Christian spirituality. Sometimes those new expressions of spirituality seem inappropriate because they’re ‘not the way we’ve always done it.’ But in retrospect, the life and worship of the church have often been enriched by new ways of expressing reverence and affection to our God who died to save us.
It seems to me a little silly to think that God actually prefers pipe organ hymns over praise music played on guitars. Or flutes, or trumpets, or bagpipes, or whatever. (OK, well, maybe bagpipes are a special case.) But the only identifying characteristic of true worship, it seems to me, is that it comes from a heart that’s passionate about Jesus and heartbroken about its own sins. Mary of Bethany seems to have been an embodiment of that kind of passionate worship.
And by the way, one other thing you might remember me saying before: She may have been the one disciple that “got” Jesus more than any other – and this story might be an illustration of that. Jesus said he was going to have to die at the hands of the Hebrew leaders. And when he said that, it seems that the male disciples of his inner circle tried to talk Jesus out of it. But Mary took him seriously enough that she got some perfume and anointed him with it. That was a common practice of burial. Some of the men objected, but Jesus said Mary had it right. Just as he did when her sister complained about Mary sitting at his feet.
So you see why I say Mary seemed to get Jesus in a way nobody else did.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the way your Holy Spirit calls forth from us new ways to express our love and appreciation for the great love and transforming grace you demonstrated in Jesus. Lead us to be open to those new forms of worship and spirituality, so that our lives of faith are steadily enriched. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 22 and 148; Jeremiah 29:1-14; and Romans 11:13-24. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
Recent Comments