“Love Has its Reasons”
John 12:1-8
Our Gospel Lesson for this morning is really a continuation of John Chapter 11.
If you didn’t read John Chapter 11 this past week—if you didn’t see the email I sent out-- I encourage you, when you go home today or sometime in the next few days, to read it.
You see Jesus had come to where Mary and Martha lived because their brother Lazarus had gotten sick.
When Jesus arrived, the funeral was already over, Lazarus was dead, and the sisters were absolutely overwhelmed with grief.
Now, usually when a funeral is over the mourners gather for a meal.
The strange thing about this meal is that the person who died is hanging out with Jesus and the other guests at the table—and he is very much alive!!!
And that is because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
And so, how grateful are his sisters?
Well, Martha is busy serving the food, and Mary?
Mary is so grateful that she takes out, what could well have been the family’s life savings, and anoints the feet of Jesus with it.
Then she wipes His feet with her hair.
And Judas, who is watching all this take place, gets red in the face mad and asks: “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?”
Well, that’s not a bad question.
Couldn’t the pint of expensive perfume have been used for a better purpose?
It was worth a year’s wages, for crying out loud!
Couldn’t the money be used to buy food for starving people or to improve the miserable housing in Mary and Martha’s neighborhood?
I mean, they did live in the ghetto.
The name of their town literally means “House of the Poor.”
Didn’t Mary go just a little overboard?
Isn’t She kind of like those of us who choose the most expensive casket possible only to have it buried in the ground?
That’s essentially what happens to this perfume.
It’s wasted.
But instead of agreeing with Judas, Jesus tells Judas to “Leave Mary alone.”
And then He says something that sounds a bit confusing, if not downright mean.
He says: “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
What does Jesus mean by that?
That the poor can go fly a kite?
Is He giving the green light to prosperity preachers—the Jim and Tammy Bakers of this world?
What does Jesus mean by these words?
Jesus’ words are a quotation from Deuteronomy 15:11.
And the meaning here is unmistakable.
It reads: “There will always be poor people in the land.
Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy…”
In other words, Jesus is NOT suggesting that we neglect the poor.
Jesus’ ministry is all about the poor.
So what does Jesus mean?
Years ago, a friend of mine used to teach school in Camden, South Carolina.
It was a classroom for mentally challenged children and most of them were very poor.
In December, right before Christmas break, a little girl named Natasha brought my friend a present.
It was a very nice present.
It was a present that cost more than her family could afford.
My friend didn’t need the gift.
But Natasha was so proud standing there.
Her family was grateful that my friend had taken an interest in their daughter.
They didn’t need to buy that gift.
But what could my friend do but hug that little girl and say: “Thanks”?
Love has its reasons.
Lots of extravagant gifts are put in the air where they soon evaporate.
Last week, for example, the Lee University Symphonic Band was here in this sanctuary—leading our worship music.
Was that a real shot in the arm or what?
Did it make a difference in your week?
Will you remember it for a long time?
Was it extravagant and over-the-top?
It was the most beautiful and moving music I have ever experienced in a worship service.
But now it’s gone.
Sure, we can go to our church Facebook page and watch it, but it’s not the same.
It’s not the same as sitting in this room and absorbing that wall of sound.
In a similar way, a church choir might work on an intricate anthem for weeks, and three minutes later it is over with—gone.
Or a preacher might spend hours upon hours researching and writing a sermon that lasts only 20 to 25 minutes and it is never to be heard nor preached again.
A teacher prepares a lesson for 30 kids.
He or she gives the lesson, then the bell rings, and class is over.
Was it worthwhile or not?
It was costly.
It took a lot of time, talent, energy.
A pastor tells the story of the first congregation he served.
It was a country church where many of the members had gardens.
A church member asked: “Would you like some carrots, pastor?”
He answered, “A few would be nice.”
The next day a bushel of carrots appeared on the parsonage porch.
The pastor recalls wondering, “A bushel of carrots for two people? Were they crazy?
Not at all; just grateful to God, just happy.”
A bushel of carrots was an extravagant way of saying “Thanks.”
The pastor says, “We ate what we could.”
So, we might ask, “Well, if Jesus accepted a $50,000 foot massage, would He also drive a Lexus?
Would He stay at the Hyatt Regency?
Would He always eat His steak at Ruth’s Chris?”
To ask these questions, though, is to miss the point.
Jesus had already been anointed by John the Baptist three years earlier—through baptism--for His costly mission.
Now Mary is anointing Jesus for His costly death.
Like John, Mary is a witness and a disciple.
It can be argued that Mary was, actually, Jesus’ closest disciple—His most loyal follower, the one who loved Him most and understood Him best.
After all, she would stand at the foot of the Cross just a few days later as Jesus bled and died.
And she would be the first one to come to Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning.
She would be the first one to witness the Resurrected Christ, and the first one to go tell the unbelieving male disciples that Jesus is ALIVE!!!
Why anoint Jesus’ feet with the expensive perfume?
Again, love has its reasons.
And again, there is more than one disciple in this story.
We have the faithful Mary and also the unfaithful Judas.
Judas says he is outraged that the perfume was not sold and the money not given to the poor, but that wasn’t Judas’ true motive.
His true motive was not his concern for the poor but the money he had hoped to steal!
Mary’s love flows from her heart.
She had been touched and inwardly transformed by her relationship with Jesus.
Her unprompted generosity springs from her very being—she cannot help but offer Jesus her best, her all!
And the same goes for us.
When our lives are changed, when we experience the love of Jesus Christ, we cannot help but offer Jesus our best, our all!!!
I find it interesting that in the very next Chapter in John Jesus is washing the feet of His disciples—giving them an example of how they are to serve one another in love.
This passage seems to be telling us that there is a real connection between worshiping Jesus and serving Jesus—between loving God and loving our neighbor as well!!!
Is it possible that we miss that connection sometimes?
Not too long ago I was speaking with someone and he was telling me how big the church is that he attends.
He told me that they have 5 worship services and they are running out of room for parking.
I was impressed.
I thought, “Wow, with all that money and all those people they can accomplish a lot.”
So I asked him, “What kind of outreach does your church do in your community?”
His face went blank and he sort of looked at me inquisitively.
He didn’t seem to know what I was talking about.
Now his church, may very well do a lot for their community.
I have no idea.
He just may not know about it.
At any rate, the point of this story in John is not Judas’ argument—that Mary went overboard in honoring Jesus.
The point of this story is that we usually go underboard in honoring Jesus.
How often do we take Jesus for granted?
I mean, He is the Creator of the world.
He is our Savior.
He died for us.
When all is said and done, Jesus is really all that matters.
And yet, how much effort do we expend in giving Him thanks?
Or, how thankful are we really?
Jesus’ statement of “we will always have the poor with us” is not a statement of promise as much as it is a charge against people and systems that get rich at the expense of the poor or do nothing for the poor.
Jesus’ words are a criticism of the Judas’ in our midst.
“You will always have the poor with you,” is a wake-up call to us to love and give thanks to Jesus by serving the poor!!!
By having a Food Pantry that operates out of this building.
By having a full-time, 5 days a week, reasonably priced Preschool Program so parents can work and provide for their families.
By continuing our Safe House ministry.
Our world is increasingly a world of the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
And the “haves” aren’t sharing much.
In all reality “The poor that we always have with us” is Jesus.
And, it is to the poor that all extravagance is to be given.
After-all, does not Jesus say in Matthew Chapter 25: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did it for me”?
Mary wanted to show Jesus how much she loved Him.
We are told that after Mary poured the perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair“the house was filled with the fragrance.”
Was this not the fragrance of love, devotion, of giving one’s whole self--of being a disciple of Jesus Christ?
We too, as Christians, are called to fill the entire world with this fragrance.
We too are to show Jesus how much we love Him by giving our whole selves to Him.
The TRUE CHURCH always has the poor in its midst.
And the TRUE CHURCH always loves and serves the poor extravagantly.
And in doing this, we are loving and serving Jesus!
May it be so.
Amen.
