5th Sunday in Lent
John 12:1-8
The Dinner Guest
12:1 ¶ Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
2 There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him.
3 Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said,
5 "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?"
6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it.
7 Jesus said, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial.
8 The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me."RSV
Grace and Peace to You from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
"One afternoon three children, two boys and a girl, entered a flower shop. They were about nine or ten years old, raggedly dressed, but clean. They gazed around the store and nervously approached the owner. One of the boys said: "Sir, we’d like something in yellow flowers, please."
The man immediately realized that this was a very special occasion. He showed them some inexpensive yellow spring flowers. The boy who was the spokesman for the group shook his head. "I think we’d like something better than that."
The man asked, "Do they have to be yellow?" The boy answered, "Yes, sir. You see, Mickey would like ’em better if they were yellow. He had a yellow sweater. I guess he’d like yellow better than any other color."
The man asked, "Are they for his funeral?"
The boy nodded, suddenly choking up. The little girl was struggling to keep back the tears. "She’s his sister," the boy said. "He was a swell kid. A truck hit him while he was playing in the street." The boy’s lips were trembling now. The other boy entered into the conversation. "Us kids in his block took up a collection. We got eighteen cents. Would roses cost an awful lot, sir -- yellow roses, I mean?"
The man smiled. "It just happens that I have some nice yellow roses here that I’m offering special today for eighteen cents a dozen." The man pointed to the flower case.
"Gee, those would be swell! Yes, Mickey’d sure like those."
The man said, "I’ll make up a nice spray with ferns and ribbons. Where do you want me to send them?" One of the boys responded, "Would it be all right, mister, if we took them with us? We’d kind of like to, you know, give ’em to Mickey ourselves. He’d like it better that way."
The florist fixed the spray of flowers and accepted the eighteen cents and then watched the youngsters trudge out of the store. And within his heart he felt the warm glow of the presence of God. "1
Our text for today is about such love and such extravagant giving from one’s heart. It is also about an upcoming funeral, the funeral of Jesus.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the Passover and stops in Bethany to visit with his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It was six days before the Passover and therefore six days till the passion of Jesus starts.
Mary, Martha and of course Lazarus were well acquainted with Jesus as he had raised Lazarus from the dead. He stopped in for dinner, or supper and a brief visit while he continued his journey to Jerusalem.
Martha was doing the serving, as we know she always did quite well. Martha did not sit at the feet of Jesus, but she always went about her tasks and I would guess with love, joy and a willingness to serve. Notice Jesus did not condemn her for her service, but allowed her to cook and serve. Serving others is honorable.
A pastor said: " As a memento of a retreat I attended, I was given a small towel with a hand-stitched design symbolizing Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. That towel served mostly as a decoration for a few years until one of my daughters accidentally used it to clean the car. The commemorative towel has been scrubbed with stain remover and sent through the washer, but it’s indelibly marked by grease and grime.
At first I was miffed at having my memento used to wash hubcaps and bumpers. But then I began to see that towel as a picture of myself, and it caused me to ask some questions. When it comes to serving others, do I reserve myself for special occasions instead of doing an ordinary job today? When Jesus washed and wiped His disciples’ feet, didn’t His towel get dirty? What’s a towel for -- decoration or demonstration?
My little towel now serves as a reminder that self- preservation will keep me untouched but completely useless in my service for Christ. Real servants get dirty every day."
Doing our daily vocation is service to God, period. It is honorable and needed.
Lazarus was sitting at the table with Jesus and then something quite unexpected happened.
As the text says:"3 Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment."RSV
Why did she do this? And as we see later on in the text, this anointing was usually done for a funeral. As Jesus said, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. Did Mary know something that everyone else didn’t? Or was she just showing her gratitude to Jesus for raising her brother? Or was she expressing the love in her heart she had for Jesus?
I think this act of Mary’s was an act of love. An act of love toward Jesus because she sensed he was indeed someone who was truly special. And as the events unfold in the next days, we see this anointing was a fore shadowing of what was to come. Jesus was not anointed after His death, so this anointing was something planned ahead of time. Mary probably did not know it, but Jesus did.
A song speaks to his love Mary had for Jesus; a song written by Gloria Gaither and Bill George, as sung by Steve Green:
One day a plain village woman
Driven by love for her Lord
Recklessly poured out a valuable essence
Disregarding the scorn
And once it was broken and spilled out
A fragrance filled all the room
Like a prisoner released from his shackles
Like a spirit set free from the tomb
Broken and spilled out
Just for love of you, Jesus
My most precious treasure
Lavished on thee
Broken and spilled out
And poured at your feet
In sweet abandon
Let me be spilled out
And used up for thee
Lord you were God’s precious treasure
His loved and His own perfect Son
Sent here to show me the love of the Father
Just for love it was done
And though You were perfect and holy
You gave up Yourself willingly
You spared no expense for my pardon
You were used up and wasted for me
Broken and spilled out
Just for love of me, Jesus
My most precious treasure
Lavished on me
Broken and spilled out
And poured at my feet
In sweet abandon
Let me be spilled out
And used up for me
Mary had to express her love for Jesus and this was the best way she could. Yes, it was extravagant, yes it was costly, but it was her expression of love for Jesus. And as we see in verse 7 she did not use it all, but some was saved!!
Are we extravagant with our love for Jesus? Or do we hold back? How do we express our love for Jesus? We can’t anoint Him as Mary did. But we can worship him and we can serve him by serving others.
We need to look at Judas’s questioning of the devote act. He says: 5* "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" Was he really concerned about the poor? Or as the text says: 6* This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it." Or was he just covering his tracks!! We will never know.
But then Jesus’ statement in verse 8 is most perplexing. It says: 8* The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." Does Jesus mean we should not worry about the poor because they will always be here? Or does Jesus mean he is at the moment more important, period. This reference in verse 8 is actually from the Torah, and the complete verse reads, "Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ’Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land’ " (Deut. 15:11).
Jesus knows there will be poor and you should not neglect them. Our way of worshiping Jesus, to anoint him in this day and age is to love Him with our whole being and then to love our neighbor as our selves.
I read about a man who runs an after-school program for inner-city children. He recruits people to teach sewing, remedial reading, and other helpful skills. He also conducts an all-day school for 6 weeks in the summer, and holds a Sunday service in a church building that he cleans by himself. Hundreds benefit from his work, but an average of only eight people show up for church! He continues, however, because he is motivated by his love for God and the law of the cross, which says that if you die to self and serve others, you will reap fruit for eternity.
This man serves Jesus and loves Jesus with his whole heart as well as loving his neighbor.
Mary loved Jesus and this was her way of expressing it. She anointed his feet, wiped them with her hair. An act of love. An act of devotion.
How do you love Jesus?
A closing story speaks about the love of a small boy for Jesus.
Sociology professor Anthony Campolo recalls a deeply moving incident that happened in a Christian junior high camp where he served. One of the campers, a boy with spastic paralysis, was the object of heartless ridicule. When he would ask a question, the boys would deliberately answer in a halting, mimicking way.
One night his cabin group chose him to lead the devotions before the entire camp. It was one more effort to have some "fun" at his expense. Unashamedly the spastic boy stood up, and in his strained, slurred manner -- each word coming with enormous effort -- he said simply, "Jesus loves me -- and I love Jesus!"
That was all. Many began to cry. Revival gripped the camp.
Amen
Written by Rev Tim Zingale March 22, 2004
1 A sermon by Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn found at SermonCentral
