Sixth Sunday in Lent: Palm Sunday
Readings: Isa. 52:13-53:12,;Psalm 24; Phi. 2:5-11; Matt. 26:1-16
Waste, or Worship?
About seven years ago, my daughter Alexa went on a summer missionary trip. A local church here in town had organized a week-long project in which teenagers from this community would provide some much needed manual labor for a mission agency working in Mexico. I think they actually spent most of their time digging huge holes in the ground for septic tanks for the mission agency’s offices and housing in a rural, underdeveloped part of Mexico.
Toward the end of this trip, the local mission leader took the American teenagers on a sight-seeing tour of the city, and one of the stops along the way was that city’s Roman Catholic cathedral. Alexa tells me that as she walked into the nave of the largest church she had ever entered in her life (up to that point), she was overwhelmed with the beauty of what she saw. The artistry, the obviously lavish investment of time, money, and creativity were stunning to her.
On one hand, this might not be surprising if you’ve just spent the previous week digging septic tanks! But, still – If the Ellis County Courthouse is just about the most ornate public structure you’ve ever seen first hand, a European-style cathedral will probably knock your eyes out the first time you encounter one.
And about the time she was catching her breath while gazing at all the splendor around her, the mission leader spoke up and said, “What a waste this is!” He waved his hand toward the entire interior of the Church and said, again, “Have you ever seen such a waste?”
Alexa was beholding a dense concentration of beauty and devotion to the worship of Christ, but the mission leader had nothing but scorn for it. I always wondered if he would have said the same thing about any number of Protestant Churches one can find in America or Europe, which are every bit as grand, every bit as adorned, every bit as invested with the labors – sometimes the life-long labors – of Christian artisans? If, perhaps, he should ALSO scorn these as well, I’d link his attitude to something other than a stereotypical Protestant aversion to something Roman Catholic. Today’s gospel lesson will help us sort this out.
The gospel lesson we heard read from Matthew’s gospel is also recorded in two other gospels – Mark chapter 14 and John chapter 12. We learn from these other two gospels that the woman is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. We aren’t sure if Simon the Leper was the women’s father, or, perhaps, Martha’s husband. At any rate, Jesus is with a family he loves, a family who loves him, a family for whom Jesus has wrought amazing miracles of salvation – the cleansing of Simon from his leprosy and raising Lazarus from the dead.
Matthew’s account is interesting for the way he embeds the anointing at Bethany between two other notices. In verses 1-5, we find Jesus telling his disciples again that he is soon to be crucified. Matthew notes that this is just two days before the Passover. And, down in verses 14-16 we are told that Judas had decided to betray Jesus to the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver. Between these two notices, Matthew includes the anointing at Bethany, which John tells us had occurred six days before the Passover.
The point: Matthew is giving us an amazing glimpse into the heart of Judas and the circumstances which issued in his betrayal of the Lord. At the same time, this episode in Bethany provides us a touchstone by which we may judge our own hearts as regards our worship of the Lord.
We have the scene set, and during dinner, Mary enters the room with an alabaster jar containing a very costly ointment. Mark and John call it spikenard, and Judas informs us that its value was in excess of 300 dinarii. In the economy of that day, 300 dinarii was the annual salary of a common workman. In today’s terms, the value of the ointment would be around $25,000. The alabaster jar was very likely more expensive than the ointment in contained. It was a costly mineral which was often carved into intricate containers for jewelry or perfumes. Imagine a hand-carved flagon, inside of which this exceedingly expensive ointment was sealed tight, so that it would not evaporate away or become contaminated.
So, what does Mary do? Mark tells us she first breaks the jar. This detail tells us it was likely sealed tightly shut. Mark and Matthew tell us that she pours the entire contents of the broken jar onto Jesus’ head. And, John tells us that she then begins to massage this ointment into Jesus’ feet using her hair.
Well, the reaction of the disciples is immediate – they were indignant and outraged. John tells us that Judas led the chorus of protest and criticism of Mary, but the other gospels make it clear that all the rest of the disciples followed Judas’ lead. “What a waste!”
Jesus’ response was just as immediate. “Why are you bothering her! She did it for me!” I imagine you could have heard a pin drop. The rebuke contained in Jesus’ words must have cut like a razor. That was, in fact, the whole point – Mary did it for Jesus. Unlike the disciples, she fully understood and believed what Jesus had been telling his disciples for some weeks now – that he was going to be betrayed to the religious leadership, that he was going to be arrested, tried, and crucified.
Unlike the disciples, Mary believed Jesus. Mary knew that before the week was out, what Jesus had said would happen would be over. Jesus would be crucified, dead, and buried. But, here was Jesus at dinner in her family’s house. Her was her one chance, and she seized it! While Jesus was still with her, she wanted to give him the most precious, most expensive, the rarest thing she had to offer.
Both Matthew and Mark note that it was THEN that Judas went out to strike a deal with the chief priests. Why THEN, do you suppose? The point seems to be that Jesus’ acceptance of Mary’s extravagant worship was the last straw for Judas. If this rabbi was going to countenance such waste, such a hideous waste, it were better for him to die.
Now, what do we say about all this? What bearing, if any, does this episode have on how we view our own worship and service to the Lord? Jesus was right, of course – the poor we still have with us. Many of have found ourselves numbered among the poor. But what about Jesus – is he still with us?
Some would say, No. He’s not. And, therefore, Mary’s costly sacrifice and expensive worship actually have little bearing on how we live our lives as Christians. They would probably agree with that mission executive I mentioned earlier – money spent on beautiful churches would be deemed a waste. It should be spent on the poor instead.
On the other hand, it was Jesus, after the resurrection, who said to his disciples “I am with you always. Even until the end of the age.” Some have thought that this means nothing more than “I support you, I endorse you, I’m on your side. Go Team!!” and similar thoughts.
But, what if Jesus means what he says? What if he is with us as he was with those disciples on the Emmaus road – REALLY with us in some concrete sense? What, then, does Mary’s worship suggest for us?
I submit that Christ is truly with us – here with us in this world – in two ways, both of which are pointed out by Jesus Himself, and both ways have been commonly understood and believed by countless millions of Christians over the centuries.
First of all, he is with us insofar as Christ identifies Himself with certain people we meet every day. Jesus foretells the great judgment at the end of the age when he will say to some:
"Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ ”
And when they ask him what he’s talking about, Jesus explains, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ ”
Second, Jesus is with us right now within the walls of this sanctuary. We who are baptized into Christ are members of his Body. That is why Jesus called to Saul from heaven and said “Saul, Saul. Why are you persecuting me?” If you ever wonder how to mimic Mary’s extravagant gift to Jesus, there’s an answer for you – consider directing your extravagance toward a member of Christ’s body.
And, thirdly, if you believe Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, if you accept Paul’s teaching that eating this bread is the communion of the very Body of Christ, and drinking this cup is a communion in the very blood of Christ, then Christ is with us in every Eucharist – in the bread and the wine.
This presence of Christ in the Communion is, perhaps, what has so inspired – more than any other thing – a mimicry of Mary’s devotion like what my daughter saw that day in the richly ornamented cathedral. The creation and adornment of the places where Christ is worshiped – these activities more than any others have inspired the most amazing and costly Christian art over the past two millennia.
The worship of Christ inspired the great Cathedrals of Europe, many of them bearing inscriptions by stone-masons that read “to the glory of God” or “to the praise of Christ.” And they engraved these dedications of their work into parts of the cathedral that no one except Christ Himself can see. In many instances, these inscriptions to the glory of Christ were only discovered when the cathedral was dismantled in some part, for repairs, or when it a cathedral was destroyed by fire or war, so that in the rubble one could finally see what the stone-masons had put there at the beginning, far out of the sight of anyone but God himself.
Was Mary’s worship a waste? Jesus didn’t think so. Was Mary’s worship costly? Was it extravagant? Or, was Mary looking for a bargain basement way to worship Jesus?
Obviously not. It would never have been called a waste in the first place if it had not been valuable. And the labor, money, time, and creativity which Christians for centuries have joyfully offered the Lord – all these also are not a waste. And, for the same reason that Mary’s worship was not a waste. She did it for him, as Christians who love the Lord have been doing ever since.
God grant that we may not be found among those who are indignant by the worship which Mary – and others like her – offer the Lord. Instead, may we find in their example what will shame the miserly mind within each of us that would say “What a waste.” God so loved the world that he gave his only son to die in our place. May this same God grant us to repent ourselves of the self-righteousness that would withhold from the Lord what it is right for us to offer him.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
