Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 17 March 2013
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Today is St. Patrick’s Day so I thought that I would start off our time here with a little St. Patrick’s Day quiz. (ANSWERS AT BOTTOM)
1. Where was St. Patrick born?
- Ireland
- Scotland
- France
- Saskatchewan
2. What was the nationality of St. Patrick's parents?
- Irish
- Scottish
- Roman
- Martian
3. What is the traditional colour associated with St. Patrick?
- Blue
- White
- Green
- Orange
4. What object to St. Patrick famously use to share the gospel?
- Clover
- Shamrock
- Rainbow
- Snake
5. In Eire what would one call criminal who comes down with a skin disease?
- a criminal with a skin disease
- a leper con
We know basically the story of St. Patrick, right? He is the one credited with bringing the Gospel to Ireland. He is famously known for using the shamrock as a metaphor for the trinity in his evangelistic efforts and he is mythically credited with driving the snakes from Ireland.
In the Gospel of John that we are looking at today is the record of the woman who poured out a year’s wages worth of perfume onto Jesus’ feet and the resultant objection that that perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor.
St. Patrick started out as anything but poor. He was born in Scotland, the wealthy son of Roman parents in the 4th Century. He did however discover poverty and lived out much of his life that way. He was kidnapped and taken away from his family to Ireland. He escaped and then returned to Ireland bringing with him freedom in Christ to the country in which he was held in captivity.[1]
Our story from the Bible today – that of the lady with the perfume – I find quite shocking. This story or its parallels are found in all four of the Gospels (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 7:36-50, John 12:1-8). There is quite a scandal that unfolds in our text to which three of the four gospels draw particular attention.[2]
.
Picture the scene with me as John presents it, as that is the text that we are primarily dealing with today. Jesus, along with his disciples, goes to the home of some of his closest friends –Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We know that, as it says in Verse 1 of our text that Jesus’ has just raised Lazarus from the dead and because of that more and more people are following Jesus. We know as well that his detractors are becoming more and more nervous of a Roman military crackdown with so many people following Jesus that they are even now plotting the death of both Jesus and Lazarus in order to, among other things, save the people from Roman reprisals (John 11:38-53).
Picture the scene with me as John presents it, as that is the text that we are primarily dealing with today. Jesus, along with his disciples, goes to the home of some of his closest friends –Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We know that, as it says in Verse 1 of our text that Jesus’ has just raised Lazarus from the dead and because of that more and more people are following Jesus. We know as well that his detractors are becoming more and more nervous of a Roman military crackdown with so many people following Jesus that they are even now plotting the death of both Jesus and Lazarus in order to, among other things, save the people from Roman reprisals (John 11:38-53).
.
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are close friends and close allies of Jesus; they are committed to Jesus and the Lord has done so much for them. They are having this dinner for Jesus, in Jesus’ honour. His disciples are there. Lazarus is present at the table. Others are likely in attendance. Martha is faithfully serving her Lord as she waits on him, her brother, and the other invited guests. This would be quite a gathering and remember that everyone would probably be talking about all that had just happened with Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. It would have been in the buzz of all this activity with people talking and eating their meal that Mary enters this account. Verses 3-5 record, “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’”
.
.
Verse 6 tells us that Judas, “he 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.” Now this may be Judas’ motivation in making this comment but the other gospel writers tell as that there were others who had reason to make this same objection. Matthew mentions that this same question is on the lips of Jesus’ other disciples as well (Matthew 26:8-9).[3] As such this is an important question so let’s spend some time exploring it today.
.
Mary has somehow gotten this really expensive perfume. There is no indication that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are extremely wealthy. They have just had all the expense as well of Lazarus’ funeral – before Jesus raised him from the dead. The average annual income in Canada today is $47 200.00 (February 2013). It wasn’t so much back then and they didn’t have credit cards back then and -I don’t know about you but- even if I wanted to run out and pay $47 000.00 on perfume in this day and age to pour on someone’s feet so that it would all run into the ground, I doubt that I could manage that. And back in the first century, in the world of our text today, when the average person in Palestine was just trying to make enough to eke out a living, I don’t imagine that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had so much money that they could just let the equivalent of $47 000 CDN run out of their savings, over the Lord, and onto the floor. But this is exactly what is happening in our text today.
.
We can see, can’t we, how we might even find ourselves in this same situation asking alongside Judas and the other disciples, Verse 5, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” And then how about Jesus’ response: Verse 8, Jesus says, “You will always have the poor among you”
.
There is even more to this too when we think about who Jesus was and who Jesus is and when we think about how Jesus interacted with his followers and how Jesus interacted with his disciples and how Jesus interacted with his close friends in the first century. What did Jesus say about our spending money when there are still poor people around? And what does Jesus say about even saving money when there are still poor people around? Jesus says, Matthew 19:21, “…If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Jesus says, Luke 12:33 (and Matthew 6:20), “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail...” Luke 6:20, “Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’” Luke 12:13-21 even records a parable of a man who saved for his retirement instead of giving his money to the poor and this parable concludes with Verses 20 and 21: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” And Acts 2:45 records of Jesus’ early followers even after his resurrection that “they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”
.
So how can someone who has taught all of this about not saving up money and instead taking care of the poor and needy to his disciples, to his friends, and even to the population at large - how can someone who has taught all of this about taking care of the poor and needy then turn around when one of his friends and followers pours the 1st Century equivalent of $47 000 CDN (2013) onto his feet and then onto the floor - - how can someone who has taught all of this about taking care of the poor and needy then turn around and tell his disciples, “leave her alone”, Verse 7; and Verse 8, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me”? How does what Jesus is doing here match up with everything that he has been teaching all along about taking care of the poor and the marginalized instead of saving money for ourselves. And so much so that his followers, to whom he is addressing, even give up everything they have to follow him. How does this match up with that?
.
I think that Jesus gives us a bit of a clue in John here. John 12:7: “Jesus replied. ‘It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.’” Funerals were very important in the 1st Century. Mary and Martha had just had one too, remember, for their brother Lazarus. Funerals were a big deal and family and people would walk for miles and days to attend a funeral. Mary and Martha had just gone through the whole grieving process and were prepared for when one might arise again. Funerals in our day and age can cost upwards of $10 000 with caskets accounting for as much as a quarter of that cost. Today we have many people who plan in advance for their funeral services and it says in Verse 7 of our text that Mary (probably even in concert with Jesus) had likewise planned in advance for Jesus’ funeral. She had already acquired this expensive perfume for Jesus’ funeral and she is presently saving this expensive perfume for Jesus’ funeral when all of a sudden here she is pouring this perfume out on Jesus for the purpose of his funeral and burial.[4]
.
We remember too that just a very short time before this event at Lazarus’ funeral; Jesus has this exchange with Mary’s sister, Martha. John 11:25-27:
Jesus said to her [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though [one] dies; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
Jesus then raises Lazarus from the dead. So here we have a glimpse of the ultimate resurrection of the dead that is penultimately viewed in that example. Jesus’ death and resurrection and return to his Father is coming in the next few chapters of John. He is with his friends for only a short time now as plans are already being made for his execution. This perfume is a foreshadowing and -even more- it is an integral part of the preparation for his death that is about to come but we know that this death is not the end. Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. This expenditure on the perfume is not a meaningless or self-indulgent extravagance. This pouring out of Jesus’ funeral nard is a prophetic and divinely inspired worship of our Lord and Saviour.
.
So then, revising and applying the questions to our own lives that we asked earlier: while we are here today eagerly awaiting Jesus’ return, is there ever an occasion when we would better spend a year’s wages on something other than the poor? With Jesus teaching so much about taking care of the poor and the marginalized –as much as he apparently teaches on anything else – and with Jesus saying that indeed how we treat the poor and the marginalized, the least of these brothers and sisters of ours, is an accurate reflection of how we treat him (Matthew 25:31ff); given how much Jesus cares about the poor are there instances in our own time and place when there is something more important to spend our money on that on the poor and the needy?
.
I would say that only if we do so for the gospel: only if we do so at the direct revelation and bequest of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is God and God is the only one who is more important than our neighbour here and as we turn our whole lives over to Him, He promises that we can trust him that everything will be okay. Matthew 6:33: “… seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 25:45: whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you do for Jesus. And, Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” It is said that the whole Bible, like the Decalogue, can be summed up with ‘love God and love your neighbour’; so then let us do just that. Let us turn to Jesus, let us worship God and let us in trust Him who alone holds the keys to eternal live because as Jesus says in John 11:25-26 “…I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though [he] dies; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Let us pray.
ANSWERS: 1) b. Scotland, 2) c. Roman, 3) a. Blue, 4) b. Shamrock
---
[1] For more information: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=89
[2] But cf. Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/IV. The Galilean Ministry (4:14-9:50)/C. Ministry to Various Human Needs (7:1-9:17)/4. Anointed by a sinful woman (7:36-50), Book Version: 4.0.2
[3] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 260: The ‘you’ in John’s text is also plural.
[4] Cf. Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995),702.
Posts
