Last week our sermon centered on the story of the prodigal son, as an example of the extravagant
nature of God's love for us. That theme is continued again this week in the account of the anointing of Jesus by
Mary at Bethany, a story told in three of the gospels with slight variations.
In telling of the events around Jerusalem that led up to the death of Jesus, Mark tells us that "while he
was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very
costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head." -- Mark 14:3 While
we cant be sure whether the story that Mark tells (Mark 14:3-90 is an account of the same event as the one in John,
since it takes place two days before the Passover in the house of Simon the Leper as opposed to six days before
in the house of Lazarus, and involves an unnamed woman. Matthew gives a slightly abbreviated version of Mark's
account referring only to an alabaster jar of very costly ointment. All three agree on one thing however, the same
dispute about the cost of nard and the use of money.
The spikenard oil which was used was costly indeed. It came from a plant that only grows in the Himalayas. Obtaining
it originally and bringing it all the way to Israel, to a small village like Bethany would have involved great
difficulty, and it is not unreasonable to believe that actual lives may well have been lost to obtain it.
Judas' comments therefore carry much more weight. This is truly an unbelievable waste, an extravagance of intense
excess for anyone with any sense of worth,. . . a great outlay exceeding the limits of reason or necessity.
It was William Barclay who first pointed out that the flask which Mary broke and poured out over Jesus' feet
was symbolic of the heart of Christ which would soon be broken and poured out over the sins of the whole world.
He suggested too that this scene was also meant as a parable, an action play of sorts, a prelude to the extravagant
sacrifice of Christ which would take place in just a few days. Like most of the other parables this one too was
not understood by those who observed it anymore than the cross would be understood on the Good Friday to follow.
The main difference in this teaching lesson is that it pushed the hearer beyond the normal experience of sight
and sound to also involve the sense of smell.
The odor of that sacrifice filled the whole room like an exotic perfume, and no doubt clung the clothing of those
who were present. An invisible reminder that God was about to do "a new thing." In the aftermath of the
event…there is an invisible sense of lingering presence that will not go away. Like the candle scent after the
last Christmas Eve worshippers have gone, or the Easter flowers scent that permeates the sanctuary before the first
worshipper arrives.
Ghandi in his advice to Christians suggested that their Christianity be more like the scent of a rose than the
rose itself. Clearly noting that the rose is a thing of beauty and a joy to behold, he favored the value of the
scent which lingers long after the rose fades away.
Many Church commentators and scholars have seen a double meaning in the anointing event. They have taken it to
mean that the whole Church was filled with the sweet memory of Mary's action. A lovely deed of humility and self-sacrifice
which becomes the possession of the whole world and adds to the beauty of life in general, something which time
can not ever take away. Jesus himself would repeat her actions in a sense when he washed the disciples' feet on
Maundy Thursday.
If the New York Times was reporting this the headlines might read: GOD IS DOING NEW THING. CREATOR BREAKS WITH
PAST! PLAYING IT SAFE IS NO LONGER THE ACCEPTABLE THING TO DO.
Churches have struggled with that concept ever since. No great sacrifice without great personal cost. There are
always those who will be quick to point out how expensive or wasteful it is to undertake this or that ministry
in Jesus' name, but clearly sometimes the most important thing we can do is the kind of act which anoints Jesus
and goes against the grain of the practical, the cost-effective, the rational, the timidly logical, the comfortable,
the habitual.
Extravagant sacrifice--How does that translate in today's world? Let me give you a few examples.
A parishioner told me this past week in horror about a neighbor's daughter's wedding. She is the family's only
daughter, and the parents took out a second mortgage on their home in order to afford the $17,000 for the affair.
The parishioner was questioning why didn't the couple use this money to buy a new home, and why should the parents
of the bride go into debt for a party that lasts only one day? Surely that's an example of extravagant waste?
Or, as Pastor Victor Shepherd tells the story of a missionary surgeon he met, a man who was rather gruff and
to the point. On one occasion the surgeon was speaking to a small group of North American university students about
his work in the Gaza Strip. He was telling them that they were just "fat cats" who knew nothing about
gratitude. Nothing! On one occasion he had stopped at a peasant hovel to see a woman on whom he had performed surgery.
She and her husband were dirt poor. Their livestock supply consisted of one angora rabbit and two chickens. For
income the woman combed the hair out of the rabbit, spun the hair into yarn and sold it. For food she and her husband
ate the eggs from the chickens. The woman insisted that the missionary surgeon stay for lunch. He accepted the
invitation reluctantly and said he would be back for lunch after he had gone down the road to see another postoperative
patient.
An hour and a half later he was back and peeked into the cooking pot to see what he was going to eat. He saw
one rabbit and two chickens. The woman had given up her entire livestock supply-her income, her food, everything.
He concluded his story by reminding them/us that we knew nothing of gratitude if all we see is cost, and he wept
unashamedly.
The same is true when a dear friend sits beside the bed of her dying husband and gives the last of her love selflessly,
or a couple open their homes and their lives to adopt a child out of poverty in another country.
Extravagance - the greatest thing you will ever do…and it will not be easy! Yet we are called to anoint Jesus
with such acts of kindness and thus remind others of God's love poured out for us without hesitation at great cost
to God.
And when someone asks the age old cry, "Can we really afford to do this?" The answer has to be "Can
we afford not to? You will not move forward into God's new vision for you by gazing steadily into the rear-view
mirror. If you need to remember how it was and then grieve its passing, that's important and should be done. But
don't pretend that you are discovering God's call for a new day. That will take a new kind focus -- seeing the
needs of others, and not focusing just on our own.
Henri Nouwen's final book was to be about trapeze artists and the need to let go in order to experience the flight
into the darkness knowing there are hands to catch us.
We live in a time when it's easier to focus on suffering, grief and despair; there's little to hope for in our
world -- or so the media would have us believe. How do we hold on to the hope that indeed as we finish our wilderness
pilgrimage of lent, and embark on the final flight to Jerusalem to enter into the drama of the passion, there will
be more to life than the stresses and concerns that weigh us down?
In the movie "Chocolat," which at least one newspaper advertisement describes as a "comic fable"
an attractive woman and her daughter come to an isolated village and set up a confectionery shop. This particular
village is very devout and it is simply not done to not go to Church, let alone eat chocolate during Lent. The
story is the unfolding and the resolution of the conflict between those who go along the accepted route of custom
and predictability, and the newcomers. It would be a very worthwhile "Lenten discipline" to see the film,
and an enjoyable one at that.
We have to believe that indeed God is doing a new thing ... we have to want to see it and recognize it ... we
have to want to believe in it, and act on the basis of what is most important…not for the moment but for the beautiful
sense of purpose that will linger forever.
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