"Being Drawn More and More Deeply In Love With God" March 25, 2007 Lent 5

(First read the text for this sermon: John 12:1-8)

In the gospel story, we’re getting very close to Holy Week – the week of Jesus’ suffering and death, in the muck of our human lives. This morning we read from a section of John that is full of poignancy, because it anticipates what is to come. To set the context, listen to the verses in John that immediately precede this morning’s story. Listen for the danger that Jesus is in:

[Jesus] cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, "What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation." But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed." He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.

Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?" Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

That sets the stage for this morning’s story in the gospel of John, which begins in this way:

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.

Let me pause for a little bit of Bible study, because that will help us to see what gospel writer of John is doing. In all four gospels, there is a scene of Jesus being anointed by a woman, but there are significant differences among the accounts. In Matthew and Mark, the anointing happens during a dinner in the house of a certain “Simon, the leper.” (See matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9) In Matthew and Mark, the woman pours perfume over Jesus’ head, rather than his feet! In Luke, the woman anoints Jesus’ feet as in John, but it takes place during a dinner in the home of an unnamed Pharisee. And the gospel writer of Luke places the scene in an entirely different part of the Jesus story. It is much earlier than in the other gospels. (See Luke 7:36-50) In Luke’s version of the episode, the woman is identified as “a sinner.” But, in Matthew, Mark and Luke, the woman who anoints Jesus is unnamed.

Now. Look at what the author of John does. He takes the episode of the anointing of Jesus, which he has received through the tradition, and he shapes it in yet another way. He weaves it into the story of Jesus’ relationships of love with the siblings, Martha and Mary and Lazarus.

I want to come back to that. But first I want to point out what the writer of John does with Judas in this morning’s story. We read, 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, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (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, "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."

The gospel writer here gives Judas a motive for betraying Jesus: because Judas is greedy, and so he will be susceptible to a bribe from the chief priest’s henchmen. Historically, it’s always been a mystery why one of Jesus’ closest followers would betray him. There are several explanations offered among the different gospels, and it’s interesting to speculate on the question. But the reason I’m even bringing it up is because of a verse in this account is often misinterpreted. It is Jesus’ response to Judas: “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Of all the thousands of verses in the Bible that refer to the poor, this one is the most familiar to most Christians. Maybe I’m cynical, but I think the verse is so well-known because it is often used by Christians to take themselves off the hook of caring for the poor – as to say, “Poverty is no big deal. Don’t worry about it. You always have the poor with you!” But that’s the wrong interpretation! That becomes obvious, quickly, when we are formed by the consistent teaching in the Hebrew Scriptures to care for the poor, and by the model of Jesus, who spent his life among the poor.

I just wanted to say that!

Back to the anointing of Jesus. (That’s what’s striking to me this time through this story from John.) The gospel writer has it that it is Jesus’ dear friend, Mary, who is anointing Jesus’ feet, and wiping them with her hair. What an act of intimacy, woven into the story of Jesus’ deep love for Mary and her sister, Martha, and their brother, Lazarus. This becomes a story that encourages us to see the spiritual life as being drawn more and more deeply in love with God.

Now, we often speak about “love” in church, but I think, for many of us, it’s an intellectual idea, and it’s sanitized. To be as upfront as possible about this morning’s gospel story: as Mary expresses her love for Jesus, physically, with the perfume and with her hair – there’s a lot that is erotic in that! And you probably know that many Roman Catholic nuns wear wedding rings – because they are brides of Christ. What are the overtones in that? Many of us American middle-class Protestants start hyperventilating about such thoughts!

For one thing, we’ve been taught that sex is dirty, something we can’t think about in church. And so, we put strict limits on the “love” we’re allowed to think about, when we consider God. We turn “love” into an intellectual, philosophical, safe category. “God is love,” sure. But that becomes an idea. It’s something that we say, and think about, a head trip. What spiritual poverty there is in that!

Instead, to use the language of love, God desires to draw us deeply into God’s love. In fact, whether we deny it or not out of prudishness, all desire, all longing, all love, all acts of love, come from a desire for God. In the gospel story, Mary is drawn to be deeply in love with Jesus, with God in human flesh, and she pours perfume over Jesus’ feet, and she dries Jesus’ feet with her hair. How breathtaking that is!

“God is love.” That is the fundamental thing we say about God. The effects of Puritanism have impoverished Protestant spirituality since the 17th century. But let me formulate some sentences, using language of love that ancient Christian writers employed. Notice the power in this.

All desire in love is desire for God.

God deeply desires us. And so, God awakens in us desire for God.

God arouses us to faith.

Just as two people come to know each other most deeply through their love for each other, so we only come to know God truly by loving God.

It is all grace.

It is all gift.

It is love that God arouses in us.

During the life-long spiritual journey, we are drawn more and more deeply in love with God.

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


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia