Sermon 3-28-04
You, Who Later Betrayed Him - John 12:1-8
(view lectionary notes for this text)
My ears always perk up whenever the scriptures mention Judas Iscariot - I confess he's my favorite disciple. Ever since I began going to see Jesus Christ Superstar in Junior High (yes, that was a shameless plug to encourage you to sign up for tickets - remember - sign up today!), I have been fascinated by this Judas Iscariot. In John's gospel, and indeed, in most of the gospels, you'll never see his name without seeing the attached tag, "who later betrayed him." "Judas, who later betrayed him." Who is this man that handed Jesus over to his death? I wonder what was going on in his mind, why he did it. For thirty pieces of silver? Why would he? The religious leaders often ran into Jesus, probably knew exactly where to find Jesus on the night Judas betrayed his master. Why did he do it?
But for today, in this text, we see Judas in this scene where Mary is anointing Jesus' feet with expensive perfume. This passage is one of the only others where Judas speaks, besides the actual scenes of the Last Supper and betrayal itself, and here, too, Judas' actions portray him as a greedy thief, foreshadowing his named motivation for betraying his friend and teacher, Jesus. Shortly before Passover, Jesus comes to the home of Lazarus. There, Mary takes costly perfume, and anointed Jesus' feet with them, and wipes his feet with her hair. Judas, upset, intervenes, and asks why the money was not spent on the poor instead. The gospel write interjects to tell us that Judas only said this because he was the treasurer of the group, and hoped to steal what was put into it. But Jesus responds, "leave her alone. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
In stories like this, which appear in several of the gospels, I sometimes read the other versions of the story, to see what similarities and differences there are, what details can add to my understanding of a passage. Matthew and Mark also record the anointing, with an interesting difference. Both Matthew and Mark have a group of disciples complaining about the woman's actions, not naming Judas (or Mary for the matter) individually. Why, then, does John lay the blame on Judas alone? Some have suggested John simply wanting to represent the total evil nature of Judas in scenes like this. But I think that interpretation makes it too easy for us to write Judas off as other than ourselves. Better, I think, to ask ourselves if we are not just like Judas in more ways than we'd like to admit.
What does it mean to betray someone? In the case of Judas, the definition of his actions which I found to best fit was this: "To prove faithless or treacherous to, as to a trust or one who trusts; to be false to; to deceive; as, to betray a person or a cause." (1) We may find it hard to believe that after spending three years as a disciple following Christ from place to place that we'd then turn Jesus over to men we knew were trying to kill him. On the other hand, we may not find it so hard to think of ways that we betray Jesus, perhaps even on a daily basis. If to betray means to prove faithless, then we are indeed very much like Judas. Judas, for whatever reason, did not have faith enough to believe in the path Jesus was following. We do not have enough faith for a great many other things. We don't have faith enough to believe that God has called us for plans beyond our imagination. We don't have faith enough to invest ourselves, our money, our time, and our gifts into God's care. We don't have faith enough to believe that God gives us grace, a gift there for the taking, without our needing to do something to earn it. And our lack of faith betrays Jesus to those who would try to take him from us.
But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. The figure three hundred denarii, which Judas suggests as the value of the perfume, probably does not mean much to us. But in fact, this figure represents approximately one year's salary in Jesus' day. Imagine a bottle of perfume that cost a year of your income. Then imagine using it up, all at once, on the dirty feet of a weary traveler. Judas rightly pins Mary's actions as quite extravagant. But Judas thinks Mary is showing extravagant wastefulness. If we didn't know who these characters were, if we didn't know what would ultimately happen to Judas, Mary, and Jesus, we'd probably side with Judas. Who could justify a year's wages on perfume? Or half a year's wages, or a quarter of a year? Not many of us. Judas suggests the money could have gone far for the poor - imagine, instead, spending a year's wages on the poor. A sacrifice we're not likely to make, but one we could affirm and admire in others who would give in such a way. Any way we look at things, we can't deny the sheer extravagance of Mary's actions.
Jesus responds to Judas with words I wish he'd phrased just a bit differently. He says, "the poor you will always have with you, but you won't always have me." And for thousands of years since, we Christians have somehow used this as justification for doing less than we could to help those who are struggling and in need. After all, didn't Jesus say we couldn't do anything about poverty anyway? We unfortunately twist a passage about extravagant love into a passage about frugality and indifference to the poor! So what does Jesus mean in saying such a thing, since surely he does not mean for us to turn a blind eye to those who are struggling?
I think that this passage, Jesus' response - we're dealing with intentions. Jesus knows that Mary's intentions in her actions, however extreme, are to show extravagant love to her teacher. Jesus knows that Judas' intentions, however they appear, are not motivated by love at all. Mary is the one who is putting her whole heart into serving God, even though the way she shows her faith is unconventional. This passage is about extravagance: not about spending lots of money, or about wasting things needlessly, but about love and service for Christ, extreme love, over-the-top love, extravagant love.
Jesus does indeed call us to live extravagantly. He said, just before this scene of anointing, that he came that we might have abundant, full life. And we are called to live faithfully. We are called to be faithful in our extravagance, and extravagant in our faithfulness. Our world is filled with extravagant living, but like Judas, we too often direct our energies in the wrong directions. We can never seem to get enough: enough possessions, enough food, enough money, enough time. We spend extravagantly - we use up our time, we use up our money, we use up our gifts and talents - but we are using it all up in the wrong direction. Like Judas, our words say that our concern is for our neighbors, but too often, our actions tell a different story. When it comes down to Mary and Judas, he might have the right words, but in the end, it is Mary who shows the faithful behavior, time and again. So, in your own life, what is speaking louder - your words, or your actions? What is your life saying? What kind of extravagance are you indulging in?
Jesus wants us to be extravagant people, but calls us to check our motivations. Are we, like Judas, hiding behind words with our selfish intentions? Or is our motivation selfless love like Mary's? Is our extravagance all for our own benefit? Or do we go above and beyond when it comes to serving others and serving God? For a time, the apostles, Mary, the people of Israel had Jesus with them in the flesh - but even with Jesus right there among them, their attention, their intentions, weren't focused on becoming the servants, the disciples he was calling them to be. Today, we don't see Jesus in the same way - but perhaps we can come to know him and to follow him better. The season of Lent is a season of self-examination. Look carefully at your own life. What motivates you? What's in your heart behind your words? What do your actions say about who you are? Before we begin Holy Week, before we begin the final approach toward Easter morning, let us be brave enough to engage in some extravagant living, extravagant faithfulness, and extravagant sharing of love.
(1) Webster's, as shown on http://www.dictonary.com