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March 28, 2004
Extravagant Love
John 12:1-8
Two weeks ago, I read The Da Vinci Code. This is a book that's been on the New York Times Bestseller list for something like a year. It's huge, and no doubt many of you have read it, or plan to read it. Several of you have asked about it. Some of the youth have told me that it's even been mentioned in their classes.
I suspect what makes the book so popular is that it's a great mystery. Yes, there's the intrigue and the race between the good guys and the bad guys to find out what the book's deep dark secret is. But I enjoyed participating in trying to decipher the symbols and codes left at the murder scene in the Louvre Museum, and in Da Vinci's famous paintings. It's great fun to discover the deeper meaning that had been hidden all along in plain sight.
For me, exploring this week's sermon text was something like that. This morning's passage from John is full of symbolic action and meaning that is perhaps hidden at first glance. As I was studying the text, I felt a little bit like a detective, trying to discover what it all meant. This is the kind of exegesis that I enjoy best—looking for the deeper meanings in a passage, comparing the ways the four gospels tell the same story, how the details are different, or the placement has changed. And how that affects the meaning. I find this kind of Bible study fascinating. And this morning I'm going to invite you to join with me in exploring this text.
Let us pray:
O God, we give you thanks for the Word you give us, both in the Bible and in the Word made flesh. Be present with us this day in the preaching and hearing of your word, that your Spirit may tell us what we need to hear and show us what we ought to do as we seek to be your faithful disciples. Amen.
The first stop in our investigation is to look at the popular understanding of this passage.
Now, if someone had asked me to describe the scene of this morning's text before I had read it again, I would probably have said that the woman who anoints Jesus feet with perfume was Mary Magdalene. I don't think I'm alone in this. But if you were listening carefully as Margaret read the scripture, you perhaps remember that it was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair.
Why is Mary Magdalene associated with this story? The answer may be found when we look at how the story appears in the other gospels. In every gospel, a woman anoints Jesus with perfume. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the woman is unnamed. In Luke alone, the woman who anoints Jesus is described as sinful, and maybe it is something about the intimacy of this woman washing his feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair that makes us assume she is a prostitute. This episode happens at the end of chapter 7 in Luke. One verse later, at the beginning of chapter 8, Luke describes the women who accompanied Jesus, and in the second verse Luke lists "Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out." Somehow, in the popular mind over the centuries Mary Magdalene has become Luke's unnamed sinful woman. Part of the smear campaign Dan Brown alleges in The Da Vinci Code (see ch. 58, p. 244)? Who knows? (see also Brown, p. 452)
In John's account it is extremely important that the woman who anoints Jesus is Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus. The placement of the story and its connection with what comes before and after is in no way ambiguous. This morning's story appears between the death of Lazarus, and Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem that led, ultimately, to the crucifixion. The events of this morning's text act as a bridge between what has happened and what is to come.
Let's look at what comes before the story of the anointing:
The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is told in chapter 11. This account only appears in the Gospel of John—you don't find the story in the other gospels. You may remember how the story goes: Lazarus was ill, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus. Jesus was in no hurry to come. By the time he arrived in Bethany, the village where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived, Lazarus had already been dead several days. The sisters both tell him, if you had been here, Lord, our brother would not have died. Jesus weeps for his friend, goes to the tomb, demands that the stone be rolled away, and calls Lazarus to come out. And amazingly, miraculously, Lazarus does come out, still bound in burial cloths.
Jesus does more here than simply bring a friend, someone whom he loved, back to life. In the story of Lazarus, Jesus fully reveals who he is, and the newness of life offered through him (NIB, p. 703).
Naturally, not all are overjoyed by this revelation. When the Jewish authorities learn what has happened, they are outraged, and they begin planning how they will put Jesus to death (John 11:45-54). Because of this, Jesus "no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went to a town called Ephraim", about 15 miles from Jerusalem (John 11:54).
But word of Jesus spread, and as the Passover approached, and people began gathering in Jerusalem for the festival, speculation was rampant: "What do you think? Surely he won't come to the festival, will he?" The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him (John 11:56-57).
Six days before the Passover, Jesus returned to Bethany. Bethany is a village just two miles from Jerusalem. Bethany sits on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Across the valley of the western slope is Jerusalem. Jesus comes to Bethany for a dinner party with the family whom he loves. He has, in effect, come out of hiding and revealed that yes, he is going to Jerusalem. Lazarus sits at table with him, and Martha, of course, served the meal (John 12:1-2).
And then along comes Mary with her extravagant gift of nard. Nard was a fragrant oil made from the root of the spikenard plant, which grows in the Himalayas. Because it was so hard to come by, it was expensive. The pound jar that Mary brings cost 300 denarii-one denarius equaled the typical wage for a day's labor. To put that amount in modern terms, based on an eight-hour day at minimum wage, Mary's gift would be worth, very conservatively, $12,600. Imagine, if you can, spending that much money on a gift that would be used once, and then be gone.
The scene is incredible: at a dinner party made up of the disciples and some guests from the village of Bethany, almost assuredly all of them men, Mary gets down on her knees and pours this ridiculously expensive perfume on Jesus' feet and wipes them with her hair (John 12:3).
John tells us that, "The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." (John 12:3) This little detail is an echo of when Lazarus was raised from the dead. As they all stood around Lazarus's tomb and Jesus called for the stone to be rolled away, Martha had protested because of the stench of the body that had been dead for four days (John 11:39). Because Jesus is who he is, and because of the love and devotion Mary shows with her gift, the stench of death is replaced with a fragrance that is beautiful (NIB, p. 701).
But death is not completely absent from this scene. It is significant that Mary anoints Jesus' feet. Anointing was a sign of luxury or celebration, or investing someone with power, as when Saul, David, and Solomon were anointed when they became king. Generally, it is the head that is anointed. Anointing the feet was only done when preparing a body for burial. Mary anoints Jesus' feet, a symbolic action that foreshadows Jesus' death.
How do the other guests respond to Mary's extravagant gift? In Matthew and Mark, "wasting" the oil like this was met with anger from multiple, nameless disciples, who wonder why the money was not used to help the poor (Matthew 26:8-9, Mark 14:4). In John, it is Judas Iscariot alone who responds to Mary's gift: "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (John 12:5). Judas's reaction is turned into a revelation of his character: He said this not because he cared about the poor, John tells us, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it. (John 12:6)
In John's account of this scene, Judas serves as a foil, a contrast, to Mary. John not only uses the objection to help paint the picture of how utterly contemptible Judas was, he uses Judas to show how faithful Mary is. Where Judas is selfish, Mary is selfless, offering Jesus a costly gift. While Judas pretends at devotion to the needs of the poor, Mary concretely and genuinely shows her devotion to Jesus.
Jesus scolds Judas: "Leave her alone. She bought [this perfume] for me 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." (John 12:7-8)
Jesus, of course, knows where all of this is headed. And I don't believe for a second that anyone else in the room doesn't know either. The disciples have hidden out with Jesus since he raised Lazarus from the dead. They have seen how outraged the Jewish authorities are by Jesus' teaching and actions. They have all witnessed how people who rock the boat and challenge the religious and political status quo are silenced by torture, and crucifixion. But Mary is the only disciple who responds faithfully and fearlessly. Perhaps it is because she has witnessed firsthand how Jesus overcame the power of death with her brother. The others, apparently, aren't so sure who Jesus is and what he is here for.
In the chapters to come, Judas will betray him. Peter will deny him. The other disciples will run away. Jesus will be abandoned. And when his body is taken down from the cross and is truly ready for burial, his body will be taken away quietly by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus the Pharisee, both of whom had been secret disciples of Jesus (John 19:38-40). Only Mary knows how to respond to Jesus in faithfulness.
In this passage, Mary is held up to all of us as a model of what discipleship should be.
Mary's actions are a response—a faithful response to what Jesus did for her family, a response to who Jesus is, a response to the love Jesus has shown to them. Mary responds in gratitude, not with a token gift, but a gift that is costly. We don't know if her family was wealthy or poor, how much of a burden those 300 denarii were for them. But it is almost as if Mary has tried to find the most extravagant gift that she can imagine, a gift that is as extravagant as the love Jesus has shown to all of them.
And Mary's gift is an act of service. In John, on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus washes the disciples' feet, and he tells them that this is the way they should love one another. Mary's act of service anticipates Jesus' command. She knows how to respond without being told.
She responds by serving, with great faith, and with the best she has to offer.
How shall we respond to Jesus?
Perhaps Mary had it easier, since she literally knew the Christ, and had experienced a miracle first-hand. But I suspect that if we look more closely at our lives, examine the deeper meaning, look at the clues that are hiding in plain sight, we will find that the living Christ has been with us, offering us miracles every day, mercies new each morning. I think we'll find that Christ has been as extravagant with us as he was with Mary.
How shall we respond?
May our words and actions also reveal the extravagant love of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Sources read in preparation
Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John. Anchor Bible 29. Garaden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co, 1966. Pp. 445-454
Kysar, Myrna and Robert Kysar. "Fifth Sunday in Lent." Proclamation 4: Lent. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988. Pp. 63-64
Newsom, Carol A. and Sharon H. Ringe, editors. "John" from The Women's Bible Commentary. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992.
O'Day, Gail R. The Gospel According to John. New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995. Pp. 699-703
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