Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Lent, Year C: John 12:1-8 (RCL)
St. Faith’s Episcopal Church, Cutler Bay, Florida
Preacher: The Rev. Jennie Lou D. Reid+

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his Holy Name. Amen.

When our son Benjamine was in the fifth grade, my husband took him and a classmate to see the newly released movie Titanic. I would not go. I simply could not bear to witness the impending danger, injustice and suffering all in the name of entertainment. But my guys embraced the adventure. As the opening credits were rolling (as I was told later), my son’s friend announced loudly, “The ship sinks in the end!”

While the fifth-grader’s prediction was hardly a movie spoiler – or a much-appreciated joke for that matter – prophecies of future events in the midst of story-telling can sometimes deepen our appreciation for the action in front of us. John the Evangelist with his focus on theological significance continuously moves back and forth in time, from the very first chapter of his gospel, where he connects the birth of Jesus to the activity of the Divine Son in Creation. Here in Chapter 12 John inserts a reference to Jesus’ burial in order to offer a context for the anointing of Jesus’ feet done by Mary of Bethany. Jesus will soon be arrested, abandoned, condemned and crucified. In Bethany we glimpse flashes of gloom and glory.

The cloud that casts its shadow on the gracious hospitality Jesus receives in Bethany is the Temple Leaders’ conspiracy to kill Jesus. John’s previous chapter relates the events of Lazarus’ death and Jesus’ miracle of raising him from the dead. While ordinary people are amazed and thrilled by this action, the religious leaders respond to it as a threat to the security of Judaism in Jerusalem. “If we let [Jesus] go on like this,” some Sadducee suggests at a council deliberation, “everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” The High Priest Caiaphas concludes, “…it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” John adds, “…from that day on they planned to put [Jesus] to death.” When people come to Jerusalem to prepare for Passover, they learn that Jesus is visiting Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany, a village just a couple of miles outside Jerusalem. Having heard the story of Lazarus’ resurrection, many go to Bethany in hopes of seeing the celebrities Jesus and Lazarus. The fretful, jealous Temple Leaders determine to add Lazarus to their hit list, to squelch this story once and for all.

Imagine, if you can, that Jesus has restored to life on this earth someone you love. Would your overflowing heart, like Mary’s, make you crazy and careless? We know how crazy Mary is because she blatantly disregards social convention in her greeting of Jesus. Instead of having a slave wash Jesus’ feet, Mary falls at his feet to care for him herself. In broad daylight, in front of God and everybody, Mary unashamedly caresses the feet of a man who is not her husband and allows persons outside her immediate family to see her hair uncovered. We see that she is careless in her lavish generosity, since she pours on Jesus’ feet perfume that would cost a peasant ten-months’ salary!

The intimacy of this moment is too much for Judas. His only response is to belittle Mary’s gift, labeling it inappropriate on the grounds of being indulgent and not reflecting the Law’s requirement of caring for the poor. Chastising Judas’ criticism, Jesus honors Mary and her gift, noting that she is preparing for his burial. If Mary has heard the rumors of the Temple Leaders’ plans, she knows that Jesus may be crucified, a punishment that will not allow for a proper burial. This is her moment for honoring the body of her beloved friend. Sometimes careless is more honorable than careful.

Mary recognizes Jesus’ importance the first time he visits her family home in Bethany. While her sister Martha is busy in the kitchen preparing a meal for Jesus and his disciples, Mary sits at Jesus’ feet so that she will not miss any of his wisdom. When Jesus comes to see the broken-hearted sisters after Lazarus’ death, Mary wails her lamentation to him, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Now Mary has an opportunity to express her love for Jesus in a tangible way. Surely she knows that Jesus is in danger, even if she does not suspect that he is about to be condemned unjustly and to suffer an agonizing death. In her lavish welcome, Mary expresses tender loving care with a humble act of kindness in response to Jesus’ goodness and mercy revealed in giving new life to her brother Lazarus. The cost of the perfume is unimportant to Mary, but the treasure of Jesus is priceless.

Jesus and Mary are not the only ones who have been able to enjoy a party just before the darkness. Richard Lischer, a professor at Duke Divinity School in 1996, relates the story of a friend who completed her doctoral dissertation while undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer. She and her husband wanted to celebrate this miracle by renting a VFW hall, hiring a band, and inviting their church family and community friends to party with them. Although just before the party, perhaps a day before, doctors inform the woman that her cancer is back and they need to begin another round of treatments the day after graduation, the couple goes ahead with the party, celebrating achievement and life and love, even in the shadow of death. Professor Lischer declares,

“I have never heard the gospel of God’s Yes preached more powerfully than I saw it danced on the floor of the VFW. An outsider would have seen only the vintage 1960s arthritic gyrations that we were all doing, but this was a woman of faith and she danced her Yes in the grip of the No….The best celebrating is done in the face of the enemy, the best dancing on the devil’s dance floor.”

Similarly at her home in Bethany, even in the shadow of the cross, Mary celebrates Jesus, lavish giver of love and life.

Today we begin the last two weeks of Lent. Soon we will be intentionally remembering doom and gloom: danger, injustice and suffering all in the name of our Salvation and Restoration. Our acts of remembrance hardly count as entertainment, but instead serve as the gateway to a glimpse of glory in Resurrection Hope. How can we express our thanks to Jesus for the gifts his compassion has brought us? Perhaps it will be enough for us simply to grasp Jesus’ outstretched hand and allow him to guide us into the light, where we know surely we are his priceless treasure.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

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Psalm 103:1
John 11:48
John 11:50
John 11:53
Luke 10:38-42
John 11:32
From Mary Hinkle, Pilgrim Preaching: Keeping Company with Biblical Texts and the People Who Hear and Preach Them