Sermon 4-1-01
The Price - Philippians 3:4b-14 John 12:1-8
(view lectionary notes for this text)
The account of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany is a familiar story, and Jesus' remarks about his impending burial appropriately turn our minds toward the fast approaching Good Friday. The anointing scene occurs in three gospels - Matthew, Mark, and here in John, with a similar story appearing in Luke. Obviously, this story has important significance, else it would not have turned up so many times. What is the message we are to take away from the text?
At first, the lesson is somewhat confusing. Mary anoints Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, worth an entire year's wages. Judas admonishes her for not using the money more wisely, to provide for the poor. Jesus responds that the poor are always among them, but he would not always be among them. We can easily understand that Jesus is foreshadowing his own death, but the rest is not so clear. Mary spent an entire year's salary on a bottle of perfume, and used it to wash feet. Think for a minute, of your yearly salary. Even a smaller yearly salary is a large sum to spend on one item to be used on one person. Imagine spending $30,000 on a designer fragrance, and then pouring the whole bottle over someone's feet. You wouldn't think of doing something so ludicrous, would you? On the other hand, we might more easily consider spending a year's wages in donations to charities. The gift would be large and hard to bear financially, but much more sensible than wasting it on perfume! We think we understand what Jesus is getting at - yes, his approaching death is so important - but... we can't help be see the reason behind Judas' protests. So, what are we to make of Jesus' response: "you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me?"
The three occurrences of this story in the gospels have some interesting differences. A common first response to the account shared in John is "oh, that Judas - here is just a foreshadowing of his evil or misguided nature. He is simply motivated by greed and lust for wealth and power." Yet, we must not be so quick to make this assumption about the story. In the two other accounts from Matthew and Mark, Judas' name appears nowhere. John is the only writer to name Judas as a treasurer for the group. In fact, in the other gospels, either several people or several disciples are named as the questioners of the woman's actions. So, why does John single Judas out? He obviously has a specific reasons. John makes more references to Judas than the other gospels, and he usually paints Judas in a more negative light, suggesting that Judas is purely evil, Satan driven, or possessed by the devil. John then pins these protests on Judas, perhaps suggesting that only someone so evil would protest in such a way. We would never do such a thing, we would never misunderstand the true meaning of Jesus' words. We would never be consumed by ulterior motives, like Judas.
I, however, prefers the readings that have many people, many disciples, raising the protest. I think it better reflects how we might have reacted. In reality, we would probably all raise such a protest against Mary's actions. Why? Because we have such a particular concern for the poor? Unfortunately, not. We do think Mary's actions are extravagant. But, as I mentioned before, while we wouldn't spend all our money on one expensive perfume, we wouldn't spend it all on the poor either. Instead, we might spend out money on clothes and music, entertainment and possessions to add to our already full households. We, like Judas, do not always have the best intentions.
Jesus seeks to turn us away from these gut reactions. He says that we will have the poor with us always, but we will not always have him physically among us. Does he mean we should not try to alleviate poverty? Is it too big a problem to tackle? Should we just give up? Are we, as Christians simply to give up on social justice and action? Of course, we protest against this interpretation of his words as well. Jesus must have something else in mind. Jesus has a specific reason to call our attention to his presence instead of to the opportunity to help out the poor. What is Jesus urging us to see?
Let us turn to a moment to Paul's letter to the Phillipians, to seek some answers. Paul says that he has the best reasons to boast in the flesh - he did everything proscribed by Jewish law, and was a faithful member of the community. However, he says that he "regards everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus." His former life is nothingness compared to his present life, because he now does not have "a righteousness of his own that comes from the law, but righteousness that comes through faith . . . the righteousness from God." Paul, before his conversion, did everything that the law of his faith set out for him. He was circumcised, he was a Pharisee, and he persecuted those who stood outside the law or in opposition to the law, like Christians. Paul did just what he was supposed to do. He acted in all the right ways, upheld all the rules, met all the requirements. Yet, he now calls all of these things rubbish. Why?
Paul replaces his deeds of law with righteousness through faith. All his former acts are reduced to nothing by his simple faith in God through Christ. What Paul realizes is that all of his efforts to be righteous - his actions of upholding the law, practicing piety - cannot make him more righteous and worthy before God. In another of his letters Paul rightly says that every person "sins and falls short of the glory of God." Paul is reflecting that no matter what people do, how many good deeds they perform, how many acts of justice they complete, they are still not worthy of God's grace.
So then, is there no hope? If all our efforts at righteous living are in vain, should we just give up? Not at all, says Paul, for though there is no righteousness under the law, we have righteousness through our faith in God, and thus have hope because of God's abundant grace. We should not give up working to better the world, but we should realize that good deeds can't earn us get-into-heaven points. We are so entangled in human sin and shortcoming, that our own efforts would fail. But through God's grace, and our faith, hope abounds.
What, you might be wondering, does this have to do with Judas' protests at Mary's actions of anointing the feet of Jesus? Consider for a moment Judas' suggested action and Jesus' response. Judas wanted to act, to do a good deed. The Mosiac law is filled with commands to look after the poor. Judas was right in line with the law code by suggesting the money would have been better spent on the poor than on perfume. In and of itself, his suggestion is not so bad. Where Judas' idea falls short is in its not being first grounded in faith. Jesus prefers the actions of Mary because her actions show her faithfulness. She is affirming Jesus' special role as Messiah by anointing him, an action that confirms someone's kingship, and she is affirming his salvific aims, by preparing him for burial after his crucifixion. Her actions represent faith in God's plan for Jesus. Thus, though Judas' suggestion showed his concern with law and deeds of righteousness, Mary's actions were the better, because she acted out of faith, and, as Jesus said numerous in the gospel stories, it is faith that is saving.
We can see this pattern of faithful behavior preferred over "doing" activities in another story about Mary of Bethany. In the gospel of Luke, we read about Jesus' visit to the home of Mary and Martha, sisters. Martha bustles and fusses, trying to do everything just right, to make everything perfect for Jesus' visit. Mary, on the other hand, was sitting at Jesus' feet, simply listening to his teachings. Martha was upset that Mary would not join in and do her share of the work. However, Jesus responded saying, "there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Like Jesus does with Judas and Mary when Mary anoints him, here Jesus emphasizes that faithfulness takes priority over deeds. Jesus says that there is need of only one thing - this one thing is faith. Martha is hung up on actions, making things seem perfect. Mary focuses on what is first - just "being" in the presence of God. And as in the scene of the anointing, here again Jesus does not tell Martha that she should not do the work, or prepare for the dinner. Of course, these things must be done. Instead, he shows that before the work comes the faithful presence. Martha's work is not wrong, but it is Mary's faith that is commended.
In our own lives, our seeking to live faithfully and follow God's commands, we often must confront the struggle between Judas' actions and Mary's presence, between Paul's adherence to Jewish law and his new righteousness in faith, between Martha's business and Mary's peacefulness. How often do we try to become closer to God by performing spiritual acrobatics? We sign up for mission projects, we put on dinners, we give of our time, and we donate our money. As Archie reminded us last week, these actions are important and valuable, but they are not the core of Christian living. Jesus reminds us that the core of our living as servants of God is our faithfulness. We can do good works, but if they are not founded in a life of faith, they mean nothing. Jesus reminds us that our actions do not make us righteous before God. Our faith is what brings us into closer communion with God, and God's grace is the source of all our righteousness.
Let us pray: God, sometimes we get caught up in doing, doing, doing. We think that if we can only do enough, if we are only good enough, we can deserve your love. Yet, no matter what we do, we are brought down by our shortcomings, unworthy because of our sin. Remind us that we must only depend on your goodness, your grace, and your love for us, and that we must seek to live only as faithful servants, sitting at your feet. In Christ's name, Amen.