Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
Mary and Martha had come to understand that Jesus was the resurrection and the life. Their brother Lazarus had been dead but now sat at the dinner table with Jesus, a preview of the banquet of the King for his Kingdom. Martha still served at this meal, but probably now less burdened by the serving than before. Before the raising of Lazarus she would have felt an urgency to optimize how time was spent, since everyone had a limited amount allocated to them before death. Back then she couldn't bear to see time apparently wasted by her sister sitting at the feet of Jesus. But now Jesus had relativized her conception of urgency. She and Mary were made to wait four days for Jesus to come. They experienced what seemed like the very disaster that they had feared. Yet they learned it was not the end. If even death was not the end, and if this was because Jesus himself was the source of new life and resurrection power, what ought not be poured out in offering to him? What better use of anything than to surrender it at his feet?
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
The fragrance of the offering of Mary presaged that of the offering of Jesus himself, the fragrance of which would so fill heaven and earth as to avail for all times and all places before the throne of the Father. Mary's offering symbolized that truth, and the excessiveness of it was precisely where it most directly corresponded to what Jesus himself was about to do. We might be tempted to protest as Judas did. Weren't there myriad better ways that he might spend his life than by giving it up to death? Wouldn't his precious blood be put to better use by continuing to teach and to heal, or perhaps by liberating Judah from Roman occupation? The thoughts of Judas in response to the offering of Mary were likely along these lines. He thought he himself was too smart for such sentiment and disagreed with all the apparent excess and futility of the path which Jesus chose.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
Judas did not have a heart for the poor. A true heart for the poor would not hesitate to offer everything before the one who came to proclaim good news to the poor. Rather, Judas himself felt the need to be in control of any offerings that were made. By doing so he was able to syphon off some part to keep for himself, "because he was a thief and held the money bag".
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.
Jesus responded to Judas not by diminishing our obligation to the poor, but by assuring us that we would also have time and resources sufficient to that task. The chief thing was the centrality of Jesus himself, without whom we would have no truly good news to speak to the poor, no lasting solution or permanent fix. Even if we managed to give appropriate levels of material resources to everyone in the world unredeemed hearts would still quickly drag us back down to our current situation of inequality. Even if that didn't happen, such wealth was temporary and would be taken from everyone at the moment of death. Only in Jesus was true treasure. Only by treasuring him above all wealth could our own gifts have their full potential to help others.
Not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
Until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.
Judas wanted a Messiah who would cry out, shout in the streets, and crush all opposition along the way, using all of his resources as efficiently as possible to accomplish his goals. But that vision was not what was promised by the prophets, and not what was in turn fulfilled in Jesus himself. Did the gentleness of Jesus seem to be strategic or somehow a super power? Not to most, at least. And we can remember this when we are tempted to try to force the Kingdom to come by merely human efforts. The temptation to succeed by any means necessary usually means something is off inside of us and that we need to go back to Jesus himself and to learn from he who is gentle and humble of heart a burden that is easy and light. Does that mean we won't be called on to commit ourselves and our resources beyond our comfort level? Clearly not. Yet our offerings will then have more the fragrance of that of Mary than the odor of the intentions of Judas.
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Jesus himself is the New Covenant by the body and blood he offers us each day around his table. We feast not only with him, but with those saints who have gone before us, those who now know by experience that he is the resurrection and the life. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha are still with us in sharing this feast. In order to partake of the blessings of the covenant let us follow the example of Mary and lay down all that we have and all that we are at the feet of Jesus himself.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment