I. Theme – The celebration of new life on the road.
“Christ in the House of Mary and Martha" – Jan Vermeer (1654-55)
"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 lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm – Psalm 126
Epistle – Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel – John 12:1-8
Today’s readings celebrate the new life God grants through Christ. Isaiah speaks of the “new thing” God will do—life-giving, restorative, renewing. Paul asserts that all his personal achievements are worthless compared to the new life to be gained in Christ. Jesus reveals that his death and resurrection not only invite judgment but call us to compassion, forgiveness and conversion—that is, to new life!
Over the past weeks we have been looking at the pattern in the readings of the Lectionary during Lent. One aspect of that pattern has been the recurring notion of pilgrimage – an active journey to a holy site, a journey from tyranny into freedom, an interior journey into our own faith, or the journey from spiritual moment to spiritual moment, such as the Stations of the Cross.
What can you do to show your journey in the cause of freedom or betterment ? Give someone a gift of flowers, a home-cooked meal, or an unexpected note of appreciation. Use your hands and heart to their fullest, trusting that God can use even the smallest actions to unbind life and set it free. As you become the change you seek, let your goal be to participate in the many resurrections God unleashes all around, today and tomorrow
In Judaism (as well as in later Christianity) we hear of such journeys.
The Bible sees the journey of Abraham and Sarah from the Ur of the Chaldeans as not a mere relocation, but a journey guided and informed by God. Similarly the journey of Israel from Egypt to the promised land is not only a political reality but is peppered with spiritual moments of learning at various points along the way. With the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the people saw an opportunity to make a pilgrimage to a holy place, learn and experience there, and to return home. Even before this Temple, shrines and holy places in ancient Israel drew pilgrims to experience God on the journey. The Psalms of Ascent (Psalm 120-134) literally give voice to the sacred journey of people to the Temple and worship.
Since Luke 9 in the Gospel Jesus has "set his face to Jerusalem", his final pilgrimage. He has been tested after his baptism in Lent 1 by the devil. In Lent 2, Jesus reminds his audience that, as a prophet, his destiny awaits him in Jerusalem after being warned that Herod wants to kill him. During Lent 3, continued his teachings on repentance and confronted his critics with the Prodigal son in Lent 4. The hope of Christ gets connected in the resurrection and the life.
Christians began their own journeys; Paul’s being the most notable as he moved from place to place honoring the Gospel. Early Christians traveled back to the source as we read about the journeys of Origin, Helen, and Jerome. During this season, it might be interesting to read about the pilgrimage of Egeria, a Gallic woman, to Jerusalem during the Holy Week of (ca.) 381. Later Christians would journey to not only Jerusalem but to Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury, Rome, and many other places. The journey is the heightened human experience, often written down for the benefit of others. Let us continue our journey during this Lent.
II. Summary
Old Testament – Isaiah 43:16-21
This part of the book of Isaiah (chapters 40-55) was written at the end of Judah’s 60-year exile in Babylon. The people are soon to be allowed to make the journey home, through some inhospitable terrain, to Judah and its capital Jerusalem.
The larger context shows that Isaiah was blunt in telling Judah it had suffered the exile because it had been unfaithful to the Covenant, and that God was forgiving them by liberating them. Now he is encouraging in describing their restoration.
In our passage from Isaiah, we read that God is about to do a new thing. This new thing will encompass all of creation, including the wild animals, for God’s desire is to do something new in creation. For the people coming out of exile, this was hope for a new future with God out of the darkness of exile and into the light of return. For the prophet, the acts of God are continuous rather than completed.
Isaiah proclaims Israel’s coming restoration to its homeland. The lord will lead the people in a new exodus across the desert. Just as once God opened the way through the Red Sea, so God will now prepare the way in the wilderness.
The desert will be transformed from a place of death into a place of life. The animals that signify its desolation will honor the lord. As in the first exodus, water will spring forth as a sign of God’s revelation.
In response to God’s saving acts, the people of Israel will fulfill the purpose of their existence by praising God.
Psalm – Psalm 126
This is a psalm celebrating the return of exiles to Jerusalem, and asking for God’s grace as they seek to rebuild their lives and their homeland. What has been taken away will be returned, and there will be celebration. When we go through trials and challenges in our lives, we remember that God has promised not to abandon us, and we cling to the hope of restoration, of reconciliation, of new life.
Psalm 126 is a lament for the nation, a cry for deliverance. The past restoration of Zion by the lord’s action, the joy of the people, and the astonishment of the nations are recalled (vv. 1-3). A prayer for similar restoration in the present (v. 4), for a change in fortune as dramatic as the effect of water in an arid land, leads to a promise of renewed joy to come out of sorrow (vv. 5-6).
The fifth verse draws it out for us – “Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses of the Negev.” The dry wadi of the wilderness in southern Palestine, are dry river courses; bereft of water they become gushing rivers during the rainy season. Wet and dry becomes a symbol of Israel’s difficult past and its fruitful future. The images change from a land of nothing to a land abounding in grain. This interaction between God and Israel does not happen in a void, however. The nations see and understand, recognizing the great deeds that God has done.
Epistle – Philippians 3:4b-14
In Philippians 3:4b-14, Paul declares that he desires to become like Christ, that he has suffered for him in order to be closer to him. Paul had tried all his life to earn God’s favor (to have what he calls "righteousness," sometimes translated "justice," in the eyes of God) by carefully keeping the law of Moses and by zealously doing what he thought God wanted.
Paul’s opponents in Philippi considered it necessary for Christians to keep the Jewish law, including circumcision. Paul refutes this by drawing up a personal profit and loss statement. What once he counted as assets—his Hebrew genealogy, his upbringing and his strict observance of the law—he now estimates as loss.
Paul has experienced a complete transformation of all his former values. Following his conversion, he realized how God gives that favor to us in Christ, undeserved and unearned. Gratitude makes Paul want to imitate Christ in everything. Paul’s desire is to lose himself and become like Christ in order to know Christ—not for Paul’s own glory, but because of his desire to know Christ Jesus
The knowledge of Christ that he seeks is not, however, a special or secret kind of knowledge. Rather, it is the experience of sharing in Christ’s death, both in baptism and in daily life, not cognitive but personal in nature, based in “righteousness from God” (v. 9), not moral superiority.
Knowing Christ, being found in Christ, righteousness in Christ, faith in Christ, these are the aspects of honor that Paul wants not only for himself, but also for those who would follow Jesus. Nor does he see it as an “event” accomplished once, and then forgotten. It is rather a continuation of God’s grace, as he (we) moves on beyond the goal
Gospel – John 12:1-8
The first 11 chapters of the Gospel of John are called by many scholars “the book of signs” because of the miracles recounted in them. The rest of the book is called “the book of glory” because of its focus on the glorification of Jesus and the Father through the crucifixion and resurrection. Chapter 12 is a transitional chapter wherein Jesus recognizes the end of his public ministry.
Like the Old Testament reading, the Gospel is a dramatic story of undeserved forgiveness and a command to live a life free from sin.
John 12:1-8 tells of the anointing at Bethany. In John’s version, this is Mary, of Mary and Martha (in Mark and Luke the woman is unnamed, and in Luke she is a “sinner”), who chooses to anoint Jesus. This is Mary who witnessed Jesus raise her brother Lazarus from the dead.
The Gospel of John opens Jesus’ ministry with an expensive wine with bouquet (John 2:1-11) and confirms it with a “holy wasteful” anointing. For John, human beings were not created for slavery but for an abundant life (John 10:10).
This reading follows the raising of Lazarus (11:1-44), and as the “Seventh Sign”; John draws new material that focuses on the themes of death and life. He quite consciously draws our attention to that event by locating the action in Bethany, “the home of Lazarus.” The time is important as well. We are six days away from Passover, and in John’s chronology, seven days from the Resurrection.
The chapter begins with an intimate scene: Jesus, his closest friends and the disciples share a meal. Martha serves, but again, Mary goes beyond and reveals what everyone has been avoiding. She anoints his feet.
In this passage, we see that the Gospel of John offers a radical view of the power that women hold. Whereas throughout much of Western history the pope (a male) crowned the king (another male) or vice-versa. Here Jesus is anointed (given power) by a woman from the countryside, from the working class, from the laity.
There are several culturally unusual actions that Mary makes . Mary expresses her deep love and devotion to Jesus with an extravagant gift. In that time and place, it was taboo for a man to be touched by a woman. She anoints Jesus’ feet (not his head) and letting her hair down (instead of keeping covered as social convention demanded) she wipes his feet with it. Only a servant dealt with guests’ feet, and only a husband would see a respectable woman with her hair let down. Still more, women’s loose hair was perceived as being sensual by men in Galilean culture.
Her gesture of applying the ointments was costly. According to Mark 14:5 the perfume price was 300 denarii, namely, a yearly salary; but Mary didn’t care. Time is not money; time is life. Furthermore, money is an idol made of gold and silver (Psalm 115:4-7).
For Jesus, women are more than sexual objects and children-rearing machines. That’s why Jesus does not have a problem with being touched by women, seeing them with their hair down, with women talking to men or being active with their bodies and alive in their senses. In short, in the Reign of God women are equal at the intellectual level, at the salary level, and at all levels.
Judas interrupts our reverie with a concern about the cost of the ointment – “it could have been given to the poor.” The author contrasts Mary’s simple, selfless act with Judas, whose protest seemed sensible but perhaps masks his greed. Do not use the poor as a means to an end! He saw how Judas was co-opting the language of solidarity with the least and the last Jesus affirms Mary’s unrestrained emotion as the true response of a devoted heart.
Mary’s gift was about her respect for Jesus, but in her actions Jesus sees an opportunity to talk about what was about to happen. Mary prepares Jesus for the work he is about to do; in turn, Jesus prepares the disciples. Jesus connects her actions with the anointing of his body following his death on the cross. Judas’ objection is hollow, and does not see the value of Jesus’ presence for all conditions of people. It is the final lesson before a week of events and a dialogue with the disciples. It is the prelude to learning about Jesus’ purpose and progress to Jerusalem.
This is a powerful image when Mary chooses to anoint his feet, because she has spent a lot of time at his feet! Mary, the same one who sat at Jesus’ feet to listen to him, fell at his feet to mourn and weep, and now, anoints his feet and wipes them with her hair, the same feet that will be nailed to the cross. And from here, Jesus will enter Jerusalem, and on the night he is betrayed, he will choose to wash the disciple’s feet as well.
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm – Psalm 126
Epistle – Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel – John 12:1-8