Loving God, your love for us is greater than all we can ask or imagine, incorporating us into the body of Christ.  Renew in us today this same love and the ability to see your power at work, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

           You may have noticed somewhere along the way that each of the four gospels includes a story about a woman who anoints Jesus.  However, the context of the story is different in each gospel, and John is the only one who actually names the woman.  In the gospel that we heard today, this anointing takes place at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany.  Martha (true to form) is serving.  Lazarus (only recently raised from the dead) is at the table with them.  And Mary is once again at the feet of Jesus.  However, this time she is not sitting and listening, but is anointing Jesus’ feet with a large amount of “perfume made of pure nard” (Jn. 12:3).  What would have prompted Mary to do such a thing?

         We can imagine that Mary is certainly grateful to Jesus for bringing her brother Lazarus back to life.  We also know that they were good friends with Jesus, and perhaps Mary has an inkling about the events that are to come.  After all, we are told in the verses just prior to this story that some of the religious leaders who had witnessed the raising of Lazarus had immediately called a meeting and started plotting to put Jesus to death.

         Whether it is intentional or not, Mary is prophetic in this action of anointing Jesus.  Spikenard (or nard) is an herb that was used in order to make burial ointment (sundaysandseasons.com).  Normally, if a king or a priest were anointed, the oil would be poured on their head.  However, on a corpse, the feet would be anointed.  As Jesus points out in today’s gospel, she is preparing his body for burial.  She is pointing ahead to the death of Jesus, while also fulfilling Jesus’ command to love one another before he even gives it.

         As she does so, Mary is extravagant in her love.  The cost of the perfume, as Judas points out, is almost an entire year’s worth of wages.  At the same time, she uses so much of the perfume that she is able to wipe up the excess with her hair.  Meanwhile, even the fact that her hair is loose would have been considered scandalous by some of the men in the room.  However, Jesus is not scandalized.  He does not recoil when she uses her hair to wipe his feet.  He does not rebuke her for wasting expensive perfume on him.  Instead, he does a new thing by honouring a bold woman who defies societal norms.

         As Judas Iscariot looks on, he does not see the value of what Mary is doing.  Perhaps we would be in the same boat, had we been there, witnessing this extravagant act of love.  Would we have been uncomfortable with how Mary was wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair?  Would we have been shocked by the implication that Jesus was going to die?  How many of us prefer to avoid our own mortality, or any indication that those we love might die?  And how many of us simply can’t imagine pouring out an entire year’s income on the feet of Jesus?

         No doubt, Judas was probably calculating in his head how many poor people could have been helped by that amount of money – factoring in, of course, his own share.  However, for Jesus the value was of a different sort.  He would not be on this earth much longer, and he knew that a painful death awaited him.  In the midst of false charges, and disciples running away, and leaders who just don’t get it, perhaps it would be this extravagant act of love that would carry him through.

         At the same time, he is affirming that Mary understands more than the others would give her credit for, as she foreshadows his coming death and lives out his command to love one another as he has loved us.  Jesus also makes a sometimes misunderstood statement: “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me” (Jn. 12:8).

         We need only read the gospels to know that Jesus would never say to ignore the needs of the poor.  Instead, he is pointing us towards far more than Judas was able to imagine.  Jesus was only going to be with them a few more days before his crucifixion, death and burial.  Now, of course, he is no longer with us in bodily form – at least, not in the same way as before.  The poor, however, are still with us, and the best way for us to show love to Jesus is to care for those who are in need.  As we are reminded in the gospel of Matthew, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (25:40).

         In spite of greed and false accusations and plots to kill the innocent, we hear the promise today of water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, and the new thing that God is about to do through Jesus.  May we, too, travel in the new way – the wet way – the way of baptized children of God, loving extravagantly, just as God has first loved us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

Lent 5(C)                                           John 12:1-8

April 6, 2025                                     Isaiah 43:16-21

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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