Isaiah 1:11-17 Revelation 2:1-7 John 11:55-12:11
Acceptable Service
There are many stories of hypocrisy, treachery, and betrayal in the history of the world. From Genesis three onwards we are confronted by humanity’s uncanny ability to lie, cheat, and steal while maintaining an appearance of innocence…in this respect, we resemble the father of lies who can appear to be a messenger of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) more than we do the Father of truth in whom there is no darkness (1 John 1:5).
Sadly, this flaw can be found even in those who claim to be followers of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. From Cain’s feigned surprise when confronted by God for the murder of his brother…to Kings who were expected to live by the Law of God and who yet resisted and persecuted and executed Prophets…to Prophets who quite happily prophesied falsely in exchange for fame and fortune…to Priests who perverted God’s Law to suit their lucrative grip on political power…to many throughout the ages who chose to challenge, contradict, twist, or void God’s Word for the sake of personal gain.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus often confronted the political and religious powers of his day exposing their practices by citing Scripture. Worship devoid of truth is meaningless because God is truth. The basic message to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7 was that although they possessed many virtues and it appeared that they had their act together doctrinally, they had lost their first love and consequently they were exhorted to repent and to do the works they did at first…in this case, it seems John was alluding to Jesus’ statement that if we truly loved Jesus we would keep his commandments (John 14:15)…love and obedience always go together.
So, the conflict between Jesus and the church in Ephesus then concerned their bizarre inconsistency. For all their religious purity and rigorous rules, they were in actuality not obeying God’s Word. Subsequently, as a church that claimed to be something they were not, their witness to Jesus was not faithful…in fact, they were nothing less than bold-faced liars and Jesus threatened to remove them as light-bearers because the light in them was no longer light, but darkness (Luke 11:35).
Unfortunately, people such as these often believe themselves to be right, and they will defend their position even to the point of duplicity and deception, defamation and betrayal, or when all else fails, murder. But surely the saddest part of it all is that this is not confined to those outside the Fellowship of Christ. While it was the Sanhedrin who plotted to kill Jesus, it was Judas who betrayed him to them.
Now, in our Gospel passage today, we have several contrasts between those who are light and those who are posing as light.
John informs us that many went up from the countryside to Jerusalem to be purified before the Passover. Timewise quite a lot had happened since Jesus left Jerusalem to go to Ephraim, but you will have to read the other Gospels to fill in these blanks. For instance, we know from the other Gospels that Jesus came to Bethany via Jericho where he had brought Zacchaeus back into the fold. Now obviously, the excitement concerning the resurrection of a decomposing corpse had not abated…if anything it had probably increased by word of mouth and the Chief Priests were contemplating the assassination of Lazarus as well as Jesus because his very existence preserved the problem of an unexplainable miracle by an unwanted messianic figure.
Now, John tells us that Jesus arrived in Bethany six days before the Passover. That year Passover fell on the Sabbath, making it a special High Day (John 19:31). According to Judean reckoning (remember the Galileans counted days from sunrise to sunrise, while the people from Judea counted days from sunset to sunset) , this would have been the first day of the week, or Sunday as we call the day now. I believe this is significant because Jesus was arrested and tried on Thursday night (and early Friday morning) but he was crucified on the Friday, or the day of preparation, the day before the Passover when the lambs were being slaughtered.
He was then hurriedly bundled up in cloth and spices before sunset that Friday and he “rested” in the tomb that Saturday. Then shortly before sunrise on Sunday, the women, who had come to complete what had not been completed on Friday, were told by angels that he had risen from the dead. In other words, this feast recorded in our Gospel lesson for today, occurred exactly one week before the resurrection.
Is it possible that John was trying to draw our attention to the imagery of creation and the Exodus? Mankind had been created on the sixth day. God had “rested” from his creative labours on the seventh day. If we believe that the cross began the reversal of the effects of the Fall, it may be that John was following a recreation timetable here…a sort of final countdown, if you will. As humans were created on the sixth day, so they were recreated on the sixth day, at the same time when the people were remembering the night when the angel of death passed over all those who had the blood of the lamb daubed on the lintels of their doorways.
Once more, on the Sabbath God “rested” from his labours, but this time from the labour of recreation. Remember Jesus’ words on the cross, “it is finished”…words that may echo what was said of creation at its completion in Genesis 2:2. Jesus then rose again on the first day of the week to usher in this new beginning. The raising of Lazarus had served as a picture promise of this glorious reality. And, of course, one cannot miss the obvious table fellowship imagery. In six days’ time, Jesus would quite literally give his body and his blood to sustain the spiritual life of all his people. Together, they would then shortly feast again at the table of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
But as important as the timeline and the recreation imagery may be, I think the main point of the immediate passage is to contrast those whose religion is purely external with those whose devotion wells up from an inward reality. Whereas the Sadducees and Pharisees went about their meaningless duties, harbouring hatred and murderous thoughts in their dark hearts, the followers of Jesus gathered around him to savour every moment and every word and to honour him as best they could.
It is interesting to note that John tells us how each one of our famous family from Bethany honoured their Lord and friend in different ways using their obvious gifts. God gives every one of us specific but different gifts.
Gifts such as cooking and cleaning and gardening can be every bit as spiritual as preaching and teaching – remember the craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiab who were filled with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. (Exodus 31:3-6) Their artistic craftmanship was a gift from God. And we are well pleasing to God when we use our gifts to honour him.
Martha, as we would expect, was serving. That was her gift. Lazarus, John tells us, was among those who were reclining with the Lord at the table, which, when we understand that this feast took place at the home of Simon the Leper according to Matthew 26:6-7 and Mark 14:3-9, means that he was as much a guest as Jesus. However, itinerant Rabbis were often invited to lecture at meals and so one would expect Lazarus to be there as a student or a disciple.
And then there was Mary. We know from Luke 10:38-42 that there was some friction between the sisters as Mary did not share the same practical homebuilding skills with Martha. That in itself is a lesson we would do well to learn. Just because someone does not possess the same gift as you, does not make their gift any less. But, as we learned from their respective responses to the Lord following the death of their brother, Mary was certainly the more sensitive and openly emotionally expressive of the two sisters.
Be that as it may, Mary’s form of devotion here is startingly sacrificial. Spikenard, which is also known as nard, muskroot, and nardin, has a woody, spicy, earthy fragrance. It is derived from a plant known as “Nardostachys Jatamansi”, a flowering plant of the Valerian family that grows in the Himalayas. It is mentioned in Mark 14:3-9 as an oil used by an unnamed woman to anoint Jesus before the crucifixion. It is also mentioned in the Song of Songs 4:14. It was used as incense in the Temple and in the preparation of bodies for burial. A pound or pint is about 473 millilitres or 324 grams or 12 ounces. A jar would normally contain no more than an ounce, so Mary would have been enormously extravagant here.
John tells us that this ointment was worth a year’s wages for an average worker so one is not surprised when Judas (as well as the other disciples according to the synoptic Gospels) criticises her apparent wastefulness. Many scholars believe that this jar of expensive perfume was a form of “life savings”. Assuming that she was not married as no husband is ever mentioned and the siblings appear to have been living together, should anything happen to Lazarus, the sisters would be left with nothing but their personal possessions. So, this jar of spikenard would then offer a form of security against poverty.
When you think about this it seems that the anointing was more than just devotion. It was a statement of faith. What she was pouring out on his feet was her insurance, if you will…her pension, as it were…her future. Like the widow in the temple treasury who gave all she had.
The contrast then with Judas (and the other disciples) is certainly a glaring one! On the one hand, we have Mary who gives all and then on the other hand we have Judas who is portrayed as one who habitually steals and who will ultimately betray his Lord. Another contrast will come four days later during another meal…an embarrassing scene where it seems none of the male disciples were willing to demean themselves by performing the task of a servant in washing the feet of the travellers.
Now this is quite a challenge for us who often only remember the great things people achieve. It seems that it is the apparent insignificant things…like the giving of a cup of cold water or performing the tasks considered beneath our dignity…it is the insignificant things that are remembered and valued by our Lord.
John mentions that the fragrance of the spikenard filled the whole house. Knowing John, we should not skip over this as a mere trivial observation. It may be that he was indicating that her sacrificial giving was a well-pleasing aroma to the Lord, like the burnt offerings in the Old Testament and the frequent use of this term by Paul referring to sacrificial giving and sacrificial living. Through Isaiah God made it clear to the preexilic community in Judea that the multitude of their sacrifices were meaningless and gave him no pleasure…the sweet-smelling incense was detestable to him…because their deeds were evil. Gifts given with incorrect motives are better not given at all.
But then comes the sad contrast. One of the many reasons I believe the Gospels are genuine is because of the inclusion of such embarrassing moments as these. The pseudo or apocryphal Gospels and letters never make the heroes look bad. But this event casts such a poor light on the male followers of Jesus that one marvels that they included it at all.
Remember, these men were disciples…they had walked with Jesus for three-plus years, and they had learned at his feet. It is amazing to think that they were just six days away from the crucifixion of the Lord…and what were they arguing about? Perfumed oil. But it is always the so-called little things that break up friendships and fellowship, isn’t it? That’s why Solomon warned us to catch “the little foxes” that destroy the vineyard (Song of Songs 2:15). If only we could major on the many important doctrinally central things we agree on, we would not tend to trip over the fewer or more peripheral things we disagree about!
But what is even more startling here is that they (Judas and the other disciples) condemned what their Lord had already accepted. Surely by now, they ought to have learned that their Master would have objected if he deemed the action inappropriate! But sadly, all too often the followers of Jesus think themselves more righteous than him! And so, they begrudged him this act of devotion with a pious reference to the poor, perhaps referring to the custom of giving to the poor on the evening of Passover.
But John reveals the true reason behind the objection…Judas was a thief and had been for some time. He had apparently, been given charge over the communal purse but he was lining his own pocket all along. When compared to Mary we see a man who had little faith in God’s provision. While she abandoned any thought of future security, quite literally pouring it out at Jesus’ feet, he was feathering his nest and we know exactly where that took him.
Now, Jesus’ reply to this objection is interesting. Firstly, he referred to what would be his hasty burial six days later, when there would not be time for such an anointing with oil, something none of them could have predicted…but somehow Mary’s action became prophetic. Did she have some sort of intuition? Had she discerned something the others did not?
It is quite possible that while Martha was bustling around in the kitchen, and while the men were arguing about position and authority in the kingdom, sometimes even callously in the context of Jesus’ statements regarding his betrayal, trial, execution, death, burial, and resurrection, Mary was listening at a deeper level and somehow perceived that something monumental was about to happen.
But then secondly, Jesus appeared to quote from Deuteronomy 15. Concerning giving generously to the poor, Jesus said “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” Jesus was not saying that they should not give to the poor…but rather that they needed to balance priority and timing.
What Mary had done was more than a simple act of devotion…she had anointed Jesus for his burial…the only proper anointing he would get because of later haste. But I think there’s more to this than that. There are images of sacrifice here for sure, for both Mary and Jesus, but perhaps there is also a hint as to what would happen after his sacrificial death as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Unknown to her and everyone else in that room, Mary was anointing the future universal king. Her anointing pointed forward to his priestly royalty…to the fact that he was a sacrifice destined for exaltation via the suffering of his substitutionary death.
Everyone seemed to have missed all this…they all seemed to have missed the significance of this sacrificial act of devotion because their focus was elsewhere. The number of times the disciples were yet to stumble over the concept of servanthood rather than arrogance and swaggering remains to be examined in future sermons.
But to bring this home, one would have thought that by this time, with two centuries of church history behind us, we would have learned to be more like Jesus. But even today, pride seems to be more prevalent in the Church than humility. We just love to lord it over each other, don’t we?
In our Gospel passage for today, we have two sad examples…on the one hand, we have those who are reprobate despite their elaborate religious observances and then on the other hand, we have those who are followers of Jesus and yet are blinded by their own values and ambitions. Perhaps if we allowed the love of God, which he has poured out abundantly in our hearts, to direct us as it did Paul who viewed it as the supreme virtue, we would be more like Mary and less like the Sadducees, Pharisees, and, in this case, the disciples…especially Judas. Paul teaches us that if we do not love, our lives are as jarring as a clanging cymbal. Perhaps if we were less concerned with ourselves – if we were less concerned with always being right – crossing all our t’s and dotting all our i’s, we would be able to love each other as God has commanded us to love.
Giving up our pride may be as difficult and as risky as Mary’s sacrifice of her future investment. It will certainly render us more vulnerable to each other as Mary’s act made her vulnerable and exposed her to severe criticism and censure. But ultimately, we must ask ourselves a rather uncomfortable question: whom do I wish to impress? God or humanity?
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2024
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