Let's leave cyclone reports for a short while.....
Here at PTC I'm glad to say the journey through Lent and into Holy Week engages us still. There are intensive evening rehearsals going on for a Maundy Thursday Passion play which includes Samoan soloist Alofa Crawley and the College Choir giving John Stainer's 'God so loved the world'.
This morning in Chapel, it was my turn on the rota to preach and preside, and the appointed Gospel was John 12. 1-8. We read it in a simple, responsive style.
READER: Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.
Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,
MEN: ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’
READER: (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said,
WOMEN: ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’
From time to time I take a deep breath and put a sermon on the blog, and so here's this morning's: very closely led by the text and the picture it paints. A humble, Lenten offering. Here at PTC, we hope your hearts and minds are focussing, like ours, on what's to come and how it might speak to our lives: cyclone-challenged or otherwise.
The smell of death and the scent of life John 12. 1-8
Everyone notices a strong smell. Unless there’s a medical problem with the nostrils. Everyone notices a bad smell particularly – if the College sewer pump isn’t working and bathrooms are affected or the power is off and fish in the fridge starts to rot. I was baking recently and broke a bad egg into the bowl. Ugh – the smell!
Our Gospel is from John 12 this morning. Smell, aroma, fragrance are crucial. But predominantly in this case a good smell. Mary’s a bright woman. She knows how to get noticed. When she should be serving food with Martha, instead she spills perfume. She doesn’t offer speech, she offers scent. And the detail John includes is ‘pure nard’ – the essential oil – Pure Fiji products are much marketed here. Nard is from Eastern India and precious among oriental perfumes. She pours it liberally – it spills out (v3) ‘and the house was filled with the fragrance’. For sure, everyone notices a strong smell.
There’s a colloquial phrase in English about someone ‘creating a stink’. And what’s meant by that of course is that someone’s causing fuss; complaining, criticizing, or otherwise making trouble about something. We’re in John chapter 12 here, but not many verses before in John chapter 11.39, Martha is desperately concerned not to cause a stink. Literally. Her brother Lazarus has been dead in the tomb for 4 days and Jesus orders her: ‘Take the stone away!’ There will be a bad smell Lord – we can’t do that! Martha is horrified. She doesn’t want to cause a stink, neither literally nor metaphorically – which is why she serves food at the house in Bethany, unobtrusively, true to type, as required and expected. She doesn’t sit at Jesus’s feet for hours listening to his teaching, nor does she anoint his feet with hugely expensive perfume and cause embarrassment to the whole household.
Judas creates a stink of course by making a fuss. Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the poor helped? It’s a great question – I used to think Judas was spot on. One of the best ways to create a stink in any gathering is to ask about money: try it in any Christian Church or institution worldwide. People are discomforted by the question, ‘Why is money being used for this thing and not for that thing?’ Especially if the implication is that it’s wasteful and unnecessary.
So Jesus is going to defend his disciple Judas, right? Good question, Judas. Let’s sell what’s left and give it to Fiji’s cyclone victims. Quite the opposite. ‘Leave her alone. Let her keep what she has’. Jesus protects his disciple Mary not his disciple Judas. And John, who has a fascinating range of source material, gives us a little commentary about Judas’s motives which are not pure of course: he’s the treasurer but he steals. Mary’s perfume and intentions in contrast are pure: pure nard.
Let her keep what she has for the day of my burial. If we can create a stink by talking about money, we can certainly create one too by talking about death. Jesus has said it. Straight out. It won’t be long before she’s bringing spices and perfumes to my tomb.
Minister to the poor by all means, but Judas – are you able to journey with me to death, through death and beyond death? Because that’s what’s required of you now. Can you do it? Or will you mess up? You seem keen enough to sell this perfume – are you sure you won’t be tempted to sell out on your Saviour? Death is coming. Can you stay with me and pay the price of true discipleship?
Mary can. She’s ready for Good Friday. And the stink she creates shows us that she’s ready for Easter Sunday too. After all, this Jesus brought her own brother back to life from the tomb. Lazarus is sitting at table, watching her. Why shouldn’t she pour out her tears of gratitude in perfume at Jesus’s feet?
And if Lazarus can rise from the tomb and amaze all who see him, just as this fragrance unleashed from its container, soars on the air and lifts the heart and spirit; how much more the one who declared ‘I am the resurrection and the life’? Mary’s prepared for death. But she’s ready for resurrection too. Amen
