Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of
Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There
they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the
table with him. Mary took a pound of
costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled
with the fragrance of the perfume. But
Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him),
said, ‘Why was this perfume not
sold for three hundred denarii and
the money given to the poor?’ (He
said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he
kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She
bought it so that she might keep
it for the day of my burial. You
always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’
A quick break from the Christ in Film Series to
pop in a sermon on the Gospel from the Fifth Sunday in Lent.
This is another one of those passages in the
bible where I wonder about the logic at play.
Seems like a relatively simple story: Jesus is hanging with some friends and Mary
decides to anoint Jesus with some expensive perfume and Judas gets all up-in-arms
about it and Jesus tells him to chill out.
Pretty basic. But here’s where
the logic rub comes in.
He’s hanging with FRIGGIN’ LAZARUS! You know, the guy who was dead for a week and
Jesus brought him back to life. THAT guy. It’s like this huge elephant in the
room. I mean, sure, maybe it’s been a
few weeks (though I assume it’s only been a day or two) but I’d still be
talking about it.
After the Super Bowl this year and the loss the
Panthers had, I was talking about whiny Cam Newton for a good two weeks
afterwards and this group is like: “Hey,
Laz, nice to see you after you were dead – Mary lay off the perfume a bit.” Does the fact that Jesus brought Lazarus back
from the dead not mean ANYTHING to these people? Maybe Lazarus is all like: “That whole ‘raise from the dead’ thing,
yeah, let’s not discuss that. Feels kind
of funny to be talking about me dead and all.
Mary, whip out that perfume, will ya?”
It’s like there are a number of things at play
here and I don’t know where to start.
Lazarus snacking on figs, Mary dousing Jesus with some pricy Chanel No.
5 and Judas being all “weird” about it.
I mean Jesus just raised a man from THE DEAD, cut him some slack if he
wants to smell pretty for five whole minutes!
But there’s the underlying thing here that I
think this passage is truly about and that is:
Judas and the others JUST DON’T GET IT.
Typically as it was back in Jesus’ day and is
true today, the women know what’s what.
They know what’s going on. Mary
certainly comprehends the path that Jesus is on, especially now that the “All-is-Lost
Moment” has happened (see previous blog about Jesus and the three act
structure). I mean it is one thing for
Jesus to turn water into wine and I can see the authorities saying to
themselves: “Parlor trick. He probably had Simon slip a couple extra
huge jugs and put ‘em under a tarp or something…” But with the word of Lazarus coming back from
the dead – well things just got real – REALLY FAST. Mary knows this. Jesus sure as heck knows this. Martha probably knows that this meal she’s
providing Jesus as a thank you for RAISING HER BROTHER FROM THE DEAD is probably
one of the last that he’ll eat. But here’s
Judas whining about some perfume and being really kind of dickish about it.
I sometimes think that Jesus could have looked
each disciple in the eye and said: “Uh,
you don’t GET IT, I’m going to go and be tortured and killed and, hopefully,
raise from the dead after three days.”
And Peter or Paul or Matt are like:
“Yeah, good, but can I get a cabinet post after you come to power, Mr.
Messiah?” I’ll bet you, dollars to
donuts, that Jesus and Mary probably had many an eye roll and head shake when
dealing with the disciples.
Such as this here: “She bought it so that she may keep it for
the day of my burial…” Just a
not-so-subtle reminder to his followers that he’s going to be tortured, killed
and buried and Judas was probably still like:
“Yeah, yeah, buried and all that.
But I’m in charge of the funds…”
What to make of this passage? Well, like I said, it’s confusing on a number
of levels and what I take from it is that the point of John’s Gospel isn’t so
much that Lazarus is BACK FROM THE DEAD but that Judas is continuing his role
as thief and all around dork and that Mary and Jesus knew what was about to
happen – even if everyone else seemed pretty clueless.
And that Judas wasn’t being very nice.
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