Two weeks from today, we will celebrate Easter. The passage of scripture that I am preaching on this morning is one that points us towards Easter.
When we read the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—we tend to think of them as collections of the stories of Jesus’ life on earth. Unless we look at the way the gospels are put together, we might not notice how they point to Jesus’ death and resurrection. But all four gospels present the story of Jesus’ life as leading up to his death. In a way, they interpret his entire life as the prologue to his death.
We generally don’t think that way about life and death. We tend to focus on a person’s life—the things they accomplished and how they lived. But we tend to see death as just the end—the snuffing out of life.
With Jesus, it’s different. Jesus’ death has enormous significance for us as Christians. Some of us don’t like to think about death—not our own deaths, and not even Jesus’ death. But in order to understand Jesus, and certainly in order to understand his significance in our own lives, we need to consider his death.
Easter is, of course, the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from death. In order for there to be a real resurrection, there needs to be a real death. In order for us to understand the resurrection, we need to understand Jesus’ death.
That is why the gospels tell us about the events that lead up to Jesus’ death. This particular event, if considered all alone, just seems like a somewhat odd little story. But in the context of the story of Jesus’ life and death, it adds to our understanding of Jesus.
The story takes place in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We already know these characters from two other stories about them. In one, Jesus is in their home teaching. Mary is listening to Jesus. While this doesn’t seem so strange to us today, in that time, it would be odd for Mary, a woman, to spend her time listening to Jesus teaching. This is just one of the incidents that demonstrate how radical Jesus was in his affirmation of women.
As Mary sat listening to Jesus, her sister, Martha, became annoyed. She came to Jesus and complained that Mary was simply listening to Jesus while she, Martha, was doing all the work preparing the meal. In her social setting, Martha had every right to complain. Mary was not doing what was expected of her as a woman. But Jesus affirmed Mary, saying she had chosen what was most important.
Some time later, Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, died. In a very dramatic story, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Now, Jesus has been invited to return to the home of Lazarus, who is very much alive, and his two sisters, Mary and Martha.
It’s a week before the Passover, which tells us this event takes place about a week before the crucifixion. Notice in this account that Martha is still working in the kitchen, and Mary—well, anyone who questioned of her behavior before must have really wondered this time.
Luke 12:
1Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at
4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."
9Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
This is a story about death. It begins and ends with a reminder of Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. We are reminded that Jesus has power over life and death. He is God. Yet he is also human, and we understand that he is facing his own painful human death. This reminder of his power over life and death seems to indicate to us that Jesus could have altered his own destiny, but he is choosing to submit himself to death.
In the story, Mary brings out an outrageously expensive flask of perfume. Not only is it very expensive, there’s a lot of it—about a pint. This amount of perfume was so costly that it would have been equivalent to a year’s wages for a worker. We don’t know why she had this perfume. It’s possible that she may have been a very wealthy woman, or perhaps this perfume had been given to her. We don’t know. What we do know is that she broke open the bottle and proceeded to do something very unseemly. She poured the entire bottle on Jesus’ feet. Then she bent over and wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair. Do not assume this was a normal procedure in that day. It wasn’t. The people present were puzzled, and some of them were outraged.
One of them, Judas Iscariot, voiced an objection. We are told that this is the same Judas who would later betray Jesus. Judas makes what seems to be a valid point. He asks, “Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.”
Those of us who are, by nature, practical tend to kind of agree with Judas. This seems like foolishness! I suppose in today’s money, we could translate this to being somewhere around $15-20,000. Isn’t Judas right? Mary could have sold that perfume on eBay and given all that money to feed poor people.
But then, the narrator of the story brings us up short. He says, “He [that is, Judas] did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.”
Ouch. Don’t you hate it when you start to agree with the bad guy and then the story-teller puts you to shame? In this story, the bad guy seems to be the one who makes sense. Judas appears to be morally outraged. How can you waste all this money on perfume when there are people going to bed hungry?
But the narrator says that the truth was, Judas cared nothing for the poor. He only said what he said because he carried the money bag, and he was accustomed to helping himself to the money. He was a thief. This is one place where we learn that Judas was not just a nice guy who was deluded when he later betrayed Jesus. This passage tells us that Judas was habitually dishonest, and Jesus knew it all along.
But when Jesus speaks, he does not accuse Judas. Instead, he says, “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
This statement by Jesus is worth examining. First, he says directly to Judas, “Leave her alone.” It’s likely that Mary was deeply hurt by Judas’ stinging accusation that she has wasted this perfume. We don’t know exactly how much Mary knew at this point in time. Most likely, she was acting in response to a nudge from God’s Spirit when she brought out her perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet. Probably she did not quite understand what she was doing. But somehow, she has this nudge from God and she does something she never planned to do.
Without even understanding what she is doing, she goes and gets this extremely expensive flask of perfume, and then, right in front of all the guests, she pours it on Jesus’ feet, and begins wiping his feet with her hair.
All she knows is that she believes God is leading her to do this, and she is acting out of love. Judas’ accusation stings, and she must have wondered for just a moment whether she got everything wrong. But Jesus says, in front of everyone, “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.”
Then, Mary understands what she has done. She understands that she was anointing Jesus for his burial. This outrageous expression of love will be nothing in comparison to the love Jesus will demonstrate on the cross.
I think there are times when it would be good to remember Jesus’ short words to Judas—“Leave her alone.” Sometimes other people do things in response to God’s love that most of us find strange at the least and maybe even offensive. I’m a pretty conservative person in the way I express my feelings. So when I am around someone who is extremely demonstrative in the way they show their feelings, I sometimes feel just a bit uncomfortable. That’s probably why I am not a Pentecostal.
I remember my first encounters with people who raised their hands in worship. It seemed to me they were showing off. I remember one woman in our church who would just stand up in the middle of the singing, when everyone else was sitting. I had a hard time understanding, because it seemed to me she was calling attention to herself. And in my upbringing, calling attention to oneself was one of the worst sins! But I think Jesus would say to me, “Leave her alone.”
I guess pouring expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiping his feet with your hair might seem to be calling attention to yourself. Mary’s act was an extreme act of worship. She herself probably did not fully understand what she was doing. But Jesus understood, and he said to Judas, and others who were probably just as disapproving, “Leave her alone.” Let her express her love in the way that God is leading her to do it. If the Spirit of God leads you to raise your hands in worship or fall on your face, go ahead. And to the rest of us, I think Jesus would say, “Leave them alone.” I think Jesus would want us to allow others to worship God with all their hearts.
Jesus knew what Mary was doing, and he said, “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.” We don’t fully understand, but God wanted Mary to anoint Jesus’ feet for burial in this lavish way.
But that’s not all Jesus said. Jesus then responded to Judas’ complaint about the poor. He said, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” Notice there are two statements here. First, he says, “You will always have the poor among you.” This statement has probably been taken out of context and misused many times. Jesus is not saying that we should ignore the needs of the poor because there will always be poor people.
The second half of the sentence says, “but you will not always have me.” Jesus is defending Mary’s seemingly wasteful use of the perfume because he is about to die. He is not saying that all perfume should be used in this way for all time, and the poor should simply be allowed to starve. The Bible has a strong message of compassion towards the needy, and there is no indication here that we are to ignore the poor.
There are, however, times when we will make choices. This is a time for pure worship of the God who has become human, and will soon be giving his life blood for all humankind. On that particular day, a year’s wages spent on a vial of perfume is nothing at all, in comparison to the gift of life Jesus will give for all of us.
The passage ends by telling us that the crowds came to see Jesus, partly because they also wanted to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. The Jewish leaders began to plan to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus, because they realized that many of their followers were believing in Jesus and putting their faith in him.
The plot to put Jesus out of commission is underway. But even as we know this, we understand that God is ultimately in control of what is happening. God knows these religious leaders are plotting Jesus’ death, but it is part of his plan for our redemption.
In the beginning of this passage, we were reminded that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Now, we are reminded of the plotting going on to put Jesus to death, and Lazarus as well. Even as this plot is moving ahead, God prompts Mary to anoint Jesus for his death. God knows what is going on. Jesus will die on the cross, but he will rise on Easter morning, triumphant over sin and death. Jesus will conquer sin and death once and for all, and it will be his gift to each one of us.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you for your death and resurrection, conquering sin and death for all time. Help us to worship you with the pure love that Mary showed when she poured all of her expensive perfume on your feet. Remind us, when we worry about the cost, of what it cost you to die for us—your very life. Help us to understand what is truly valuable. Lord, teach us to truly worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank you that we serve a risen Savior, and that you live in our hearts today.
Amen
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