The Outsider on the Inside (Holy Week Monday)

Holy Week Monday

John 12:1-11 & Isaiah 42:1-9

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

After the solemnity of Lent and the great celebrations of the crowds as Jesus entered Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday, we turn our minds towards these final few days as we prepare to journey with our Lord during his darkest week. In the gospel reading there is still a week to go until Passover, that great feast that marked the liberation of the Jewish people from their long years of slavery. On the face of it, everything seems to be heading towards this wonderful celebratory event. It was for this great festival that Jesus was making his journey towards Jerusalem.

He chose to break his journey at Bethany, at the home of the two sisters Mary and Martha. It is a scene that echoes a moment in Lukes gospel where Jesus similarly goes to the house of these two women and receives their gracious hospitality. So here we have Jesus (and his disciples) pitching up at the house of two apparently unmarried women for dinner. The gospels record many of Jesus’ most significant events as taking place within the context of a meal. An occasion where folk can gather and share not only their food, but also their lives and experiences. The public ministry of Jesus in John’s gospel began with the wedding feast in Cana, and now we see it moving towards a close with yet another social occasion here at Bethany.

The difference between the two events could not be greater. At Cana the mood was celebratory and optimistic as Jesus embarked upon his mission bringing the sparkling new wine of the kingdom of God. By contrast, this time the atmosphere is quite different. This is a dinner party held in Jesus’ honour, yet this time there is talk of burial rather than renewal. It was not really the kind of dinner party where people exchange light-hearted chit chat or making grand plans about how they were going to somehow change the world with the Son of God leading the charge. It was much more muted than that.

We heard a couple of weeks ago from Jim on how Jesus included the excluded and these two women were certainly part of this group.....part of the other. Yet something quite remarkable happens at dinner as Mary proceeds to open a jar of the most expensive and luxurious perfume she had and begins to anoint the feet of Jesus with it. This wasn’t just a cheap bottle of Old Spice bought from the local supermarket. This was top of the range stuff, almost the fragrant equivalent to haute couture. And here she is on the ground covering the feet of Jesus in it, and then shockingly using her hair to wipe his feet. The very act of her unbinding her hair was in the Jewish culture of her day regarded as deeply suspicious, and certainly not something any respectable woman would do. She was moved beyond the point of caring what other people might think. It was a very public and moving display of devotion to her Lord that no doubt made some of those present feel quite uncomfortable. It pre-empts of course the events of the Passover meal itself a few days later where Jesus kneels at the feet of his disciples and washes their feet.

Brushing away the protestations of Judas, Jesus validates the actions of Mary, as he says, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial”. There is much rich symbolism in her actions as she uses oils and perfumes that are meant to be for covering the dead body of Jesus only days before that becomes an all too real necessity. Even as he remains fully aware of where events are about to take him, he still recognizes and acknowledges the devotion of one who had so often been on the outside looking in.

Jesus commends Mary because what she does is in recognition of the limited time that Jesus will remain with them. She alone seems to have some sense that the amazing journey of the last few years was somehow about to come to an end. She may not have known the full significance of what she was doing, but there seems to be little question of her knowing something of the darkness that Jesus was soon to go through. The Jesus that she and the disciples had followed as he healed the sick, fed the hungry, confronted injustice and raised the dead was now reaching the end of his earthly role.

We read the gospels with the benefit of knowing what happens next. What must it have been like for those first followers of Jesus as they began that final week? What was going through Mary’s mind as she fell to the ground to anoint the feet of Jesus?  What goes through our minds as we travel that slow, often painful journey with Jesus over the next few days? Even though we know how it ends, the pain is no less real, the sorrow is no less great. He came to share in our humanity as much as we share in his divinity.

We may not have the expensive perfume of Mary with which to anoint his feet (and some of us certainly don’t have the hair with which to wipe it). Hopefully, what we do have though is a deep sense of devotion, particularly in this Holy Week. A devotion that recognises in the awfulness of what is about to happen there remains hope that Christ will triumph over the forces of evil and bring us all into a new and life-changing relationship with God.

AMEN