Bold Love

The deal was sealed, the dotted line was signed, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead clinched it – a decision was made – something must be done to stop this man, Jesus. Here’s what happened. When Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha died, Jesus didn’t get to Bethany until 4 days later. When he got there, he had Lazarus’s tomb opened after his body had been lying there 4 days in the grave, baking, decomposing, the stench was awful. They understood that he loved Lazarus, they saw his tears, but to want to step in there with the body was repulsive. They were all listening as he prayed, “I know that You are always listening, but I proclaim it loudly so that everyone here will believe You have sent Me. Lazarus,” he boomed, “come out!”

Right then, the Jews who had come with Mary saw what happened and believed. The man who was dead walked out of his tomb bound from head to toe in a burial shroud. It was beyond comprehension!

The Sanhedrin, the 71 Pharisees and Sadducees (mostly priests), who were the supreme council of the Jews for civil and religious, and criminal, matters had been called together in response. “What are we going to do about this man?” they asked. “He is performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, you know what is going to happen. Everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and destroy both our temple and our nation.” They began to plot to take his life. So, Jesus retreated and had been lying low.
Now it’s almost Passover. In 6 days time, he will gather with this disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem and remember God’s faithfulness throughout the ages and proclaim God’s new covenant, poured out in his blood. But first, he will eat with his friends in their home again: Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. The writer of the Gospel of John wants the scene to permeate us. The sense of smell is deeply linked to our memories and emotions. The scent of the nard didn’t just waft through the air, it filled the house, bringing everyone’s minds back to Lazarus’s tomb, his body anointed for burial with the same scent. Lutheran pastor, Dawn Hutchins points out that “We are not first century Jews, so the pungency of this particular extravagance can all too easily elude us. There are details that first century Jews would have been overcome by. Details that we need to sniff out if we want to smell the pungent aroma of the {spike}nard that oozes, soothes, and anoints the feet of the one we claim to follow.”

John describes the scene:
The household and guests are gathered around a low table, resting on an elbow as they ate. Lazarus is reclined at the table with Jesus. Martha is serving, presiding over the religious rituals of the meal; the word John uses, by the time John writes his Gospel is used for being a church leader. And Mary comes in and interrupts. She has a jar of extravagant perfume, nard. It was much like the bottle she used to anoint Lazarus when they prepared his body for burial. Perhaps she had gotten this one as a replacement. She opens the jar and anoints Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair. In the 1st Century, honorable women didn’t let their hair down for anyone but their husbands. It is an intense moment of unrestrained, bold love. Was it an undignified outburst or a prophetic sign act?

Judas was sure it was an undignified outburst. “How could she pour out this vast amount of fine oil? Why didn’t she sell it? It is worth nearly a year’s wages; the money could have been given to the poor.” By the time John is writing, the name Judas was not on the list of most popular baby names. Judas had come to mean “betrayer.” So, his readers knew that he was setting up a foil, a contrasting character to Mary. If Judas is the betrayer, Mary is the be-lover.

Jesus responds, explaining her sign act: “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

But what is a sign act? “Sign acts are nonverbal actions and objects intentionally employed by the prophets so that message content was communicated through them to the audience” (Friebel, Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets). They are visual aids, theatrical displays to help the faithful envision and be guided by God’s Word. We see sign acts mostly in the Old Testament prophets: Ezekiel eating a scroll or, another time, baking bread over cow dung, Isaiah walking around naked for 3 years, Jeremiah writing in a book of the destruction that would come upon Babylon and then tying the book to a rock and then tossing the book and the rock into the Euphrates River, prophesying impending doom.

Mary anoints Jesus’s body for burial before he is dead. We don’t know why she did it. A seventeenth century German priest, Angelus Silesius, writes this:
“The rose has no why; it blossoms because it blossoms.
It pays no attention to itself, nor does it ask whether anyone sees it.”
Like a rose blooming, Mary cannot help but pour out her devotion to Jesus. She doesn’t want attention. She doesn’t care who is watching. Mary just lets bold love flow.

And Jesus understands the sign. She is anointing him for burial. It is confirmation that he is following God’s plan as he makes his way to Jerusalem for Passover, where he is sure to be arrested and killed. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Everyone gathered in the house knew the Hebrew Scriptures. They had memorized the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible. They knew the context of the verse that Jesus was quoting, Deuteronomy 15:11, God’s plan for community. Every 7 years, all debt is to be canceled, the playing field leveled. This is what the passage Jesus is quoting from says, “There need be no poor people among you because all that you have is a blessing from God. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart. There will always be poor among you, some will have more and others less. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded.”

Jesus is not putting himself ahead of the poor, but the care of the dead as an offering is the highest of alms. Remember that the tithe of 10% was for the upkeep of the Temple and for the worship and celebrations that happened there. Alms were gifts that were above the 10% tithe. That’s where your devotion to God was shown. Alms were for caring for others, they were sacrificial gifts. Alms are to be given like roses blooming, without expectation of return, just beautiful acts offered without strings attached. Even today, in the Jewish tradition, the greatest mitzvah, or good deed, that a person can do is picking up a shovel and tucking their loved one into the dirt because it is an act of care that the deceased cannot return. Acts of love for the dead cannot be reciprocated. You can’t do something for a dead person in expectation that the dead person is going to give something back. No one there would have questioned Mary anointing Jesus’s feet once he was dead. There was time-sensitivity to anointing the body, preparing it for burial. Jesus is saying that Mary understood the time. There is no time-sensitivity for caring for the poor; that is to always be the work of community: allowing God’s blessings to flow through in a way that blesses all, and every 7 years wiping away debt, any strings that had been attached to the flow of God’s blessings.
Jesus is not excusing his disciples from care of the poor; Jesus is commending Mary’s openhanded prophetic act, her generous gift of bold love.

Grace upon grace, like a rose offering beauty. Not to get anything. No calculation, no holding back. She pours out love, and the fragrance fills the house. Amen.