Lent Day 28: The Women Who Anointed Jesus Part 3

Jesus' anointing in the Gospel According to John has much in common with the versions found in Matthew and Mark:

• The Bethany location (though, it is the home of Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus; and not Simon the leper).
• The presence of costly ointment/ nard.
• The "J'accuse!" moment with Judas over the waste of something so costly, and the appeal to Jesus' preferential option for the poor. 

It also has one key element in common with Luke's version: the anointing of Jesus' feet (rather than his head, as in Matthew and Mark).

But the details of the fourth gospel's presentation stand out as incredibly important in the story.

1. This is not an anonymous woman. She has a name: Mary. (Given... so many Marys.) This is a family with whom Jesus has a prior connection, one revealed in chapter 11:

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” (John 11:1-3)

Jesus loves at least one member of this family, and the assumption that he will hurry to his bedside is clear. There is a prior intimacy here.

2. Jesus and this family also have a recent shared history of death and loss, and resuscitation/ resurrection. Lazarus, the one whom Jesus loves, has died--shock. And he has been brought back to life--shock again. And in the midst of it all Jesus has had a key conversation with his sister Martha. She has expressed her anger/ disappointment that Jesus did not show up in time (as does Mary, in another conversation). But Martha has also affirmed not only one of the powerful "I AM" statements that are unique to John's gospel, but also Jesus' identity/ role as Messiah/ Christ/ Anointed of God:

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (John 11:20-27)

3. Points 1 and 2 are background from the previous chapter. In chapter, 12, Mary (who also had a heartbroken conversation with Jesus) comes into the room where they are eating, at a party the family has thrown in Jesus' honor, with the once dead but now alive Lazarus seated at the table as well. Into the room she brings nard. Matthew and Mark note the nard and its expense. John notes the amount of nard--a pound, an extravagant amount, shockingly so.

Nard is expensive, as the text points out. And it is used to prepare bodies for burial. In the previous chapter the smell of death is discussed. When Jesus orders that the stone be rolled away from the tomb, Martha objects. "There will be a stench..." (Or, in the KJV: "By this time he stinketh.") But Lazarus comes out alive, and no stench is described. 

Now, Mary pours out the nard on Jesus' feet, and we have a different, beautiful smell of death that would be well-known to the community; the smell of nard, sweet, pungent, filling the entire house, unmistakable.*

In chapter 11, Martha affirmed Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life, the Christ who has come into the world.

In chapter 12, Mary affirms that Jesus will die. More than that, she affirms his worthiness. She has shown devotion in a way that shocks at least some who are present, but which is entirely appropriate. She is a true disciple.

Gill, Eric, 1882-1940. Mary Magdalen, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58991 [retrieved April 2, 2022]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolyn_gifford/32946639684/.

Note: Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany
have often been blurred and conflated throughout the centuries.
It is Mary of Bethany who anointed Jesus in the gospel of John.

* Thank you to Rev. Ruth Hetland for this insight, as found in her "Full to the Brim" Bible Study.

Lent Day 28: Sparking Love

There is something about Lent that brings an intensity of purpose to my work, and that is all for the good. I am glad and grateful that the church sets aside this time for us to aspire to a spiritual journey to the cross.

Yesterday's gospel reading did it for me. (John 12:1-8; you can find it here.) It brought the cross near. We witnessed Mary of Bethany anoint Jesus, as a tender act of both extravagant love and gratitude (Jesus had raised her brother from the dead! That calls for something big).

But it was also a prophetic act.

It was an anointing for Jesus' burial, even before he is dead. Jesus recognizes the act for what it is.

I witness in our culture, on a regular basis, real unease with the death of Jesus-- the pain, the blood, the real, human cost of a brutal system that saw all but the official state religion as a threat.

(Sounds familiar, in these days when some seek to make a bizarre, unrecognizable version of "Christianity" the law of the land.)

But Mary nails it (if you could, um, excuse that expression). She recognizes Jesus' death-- even before it has occurred-- as a supreme act of love. As the supreme act of love. And so, she responds in kind, with an act that also recognizes the human Jesus-- the feet that carry him on his journey, this journey to the cross. She responds in kind, in kindness, with extravagant love, love fragrant and pure, love that doesn't count the cost.

What good is religion if, in the end, it doesn't come to love?

These words, then, from today's reading from Hebrews, speak to me:

And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds.  Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near. ~ Hebrews 10:24-25

Spark love in one another, my beloveds. Spark love, kind acts, and encouragement.

What good is our faith, if it doesn't come to love?