"The perfume filled the house" - Mary anoints Jesus' feet

 Introduction to reading

 

Today’s reading is the story of Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’ feet – it’s John chapter 12  verses 1-8.

In Chapter 11 of John’s gospel – just before the reading we’re about to hear, the story is told of the raising of Lazarus.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the earlier chapter introduces Lazarus, & his sisters Mary & Martha, and then says:

(11.2) This Mary, whose brother Lazarus had fallen ill, was the woman who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.

 

But the story of the anointing of Jesus is not told in Luke’s gospel until after the story of the raising of Lazarus.

If someone was reading chapter 11 for the first time, they would find that the astonishing story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead is told using a reference to today’s amazing story – so amazing that the writer of the gospel could assume that people might know the story already.  

This is a famous story – there are variants of it in all 4 of the gospels – this extravagant act of love and devotion is not easily forgotten. We are dealing with something remarkable.

 

So what happens ?

 

John 12:1-8

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, "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."

 

Sermon

I wonder if we can imagine what it was like to be in the house of Lazarus, Mary & Martha that evening, when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet, using so much expensive perfume that ‘the whole house was filled with the smell of the perfume’.

Jesus is well known at the household of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary & Martha. It is Luke who tells us the story of Martha asking Jesus to tell Mary to help with the practical work, when Mary is just sitting, listening, at Jesus’ feet. When Lazarus falls sick, Mary & Martha send for Jesus. When he is dead, and Jesus arrives, they trust and believe.. and Jesus raises Lazarus from death.

And now Mary performs this extravagant act of love – pouring costly perfume onto Jesus’ feet, and the whole house is filled with the smell of the perfume.

 

There is a saying of the rabbis – teachers in Judaism -  which would have been known in the time of Jesus:

“The fragrance of a good perfume spreads from the bedroom to the dining room; so does a good name spread from one end of the world to another”.

 

I wonder if anyone thought of that saying of the rabbis when they smelt the perfume Mary used – and did they come anywhere near realising that Mary had done something so amazing and so striking that the story of it would be told and retold for more than two thousand years, as Mary’s good name spreads from one end of the world to the other.

This is not just a story about perfume and its use or misuse – although Judas tries to turn it into an argument about that – it is a story about devoted love – and what Mary does is a good deed so striking that it fills the world, just as her perfume filled the house.

Frankincense & Myrrh – mentioned as gifts of the magi to the infant Jesus – are resins of trees found in Northern Africa & in the Middle East, so that they would have been traded freely through Israel at the time of Jesus. But Nard, which Mary uses, comes from the roots of a relative of honeysuckle which is native to the Himalayas. It was exotic and expensive.

Mary is doing something beautiful and extreme in showing her devotion to Jesus.

But Judas cannot see what Mary has done as a good deed at all - on the contrary he thinks it is a huge mistake. “Why was this perfume not sold and the money given to the poor?”.

Judas complains that the perfume is costly – it could be sold for 300 denarii – nearly a year’s wages for an ordinary working person. Nard was difficult and expensive to get hold of.

Mary has done something extraordinary – but why has she done it? This is Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet while her sister Martha did the work of getting a meal ready. Mary who wept when Jesus came too late to save her brother Lazarus. Mary, who saw her brother return, alive, from the grave at the command of her Lord and saviour, Jesus.

No wonder Mary wants to show her love and respect for Jesus. But some instinct tells her to do far more than would have been reasonable – to pour the extremely costly nard all over Jesus’ feet, to unbind her hair like a woman who is grieving, and to wipe Jesus’ feet with her hair.

All Judas sees is extravagance and waste.

Jesus tells Judas to leave her alone – she should not have saved the money for the poor, she was right to buy the perfume, because, Jesus says ‘she bought it for the day of my burial’.

If we look ahead in John’s gospel it is not any of the women who prepare the body of Jesus when he is taken down from the cross. It is Joseph of Arimathea who asks for the body & then Nicodemus who brings a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to prepare it for burial (another extravagant act, which we’ll return to on Good Friday).

Jesus is not talking about Mary’s physical preparation of his body, but her mental preparation – her acceptance of what is to come – her prophetic action of preparing his body, starting with the feet, as one would if anointing a corpse.

Mary is foreshadowing Jesus’ death.

 

The sweetness of Mary’s actions spread everywhere through the house. It is as if she is announcing to everyone there that death is close for Jesus – their beloved Jesus.

 

Jesus makes it clear that what Mary is doing is right – she is accepting his future fate. Her actions are not wasteful, they are prophetic. Just as Jesus; death will not be a waste, but a sign of a much more marvellous truth of life eternal. Mary foreshadows Jesus’ death, but this will not be the disaster that it at first seems to be.

 

All this happens in the home of Lazarus – in the presence of a man who has returned from the grave. Even Jesus’ use of the word ‘Burial’ takes us back to the story of Lazarus. Like Lazarus, Jesus will be placed in tomb for three days – and like Lazarus he will be resurrected.

Jesus is trying to prepare all his disciples, by talking about what is to come, his death which will not be an accident, but his choice, and God the father’s will.

 

Judas asks why Mary wastes the perfume – but he misses the point of what she is doing:

 

Firstly, she is responding to Jesus’ grace and love with her own love and devotion. Her love is as pure as the perfume she uses. This is absolute worship of Jesus, contrasting sharply with Judas’ suggestion to serve the poor.

 

Secondly, Mary is performing a prophetic action which shows everyone who Jesus is.

John’s gospel is known for its ‘signs’ – the raising of Lazarus is the seventh and last of Jesus’ signs in his public ministry. (the other six are turning water into wine; healing a son near death; healing a lame man at the pool; feeding the 5000; walking on the water; healing a man born blind).

 

Jesus has performed seven signs, now here is a sign performed by Mary – anointing Jesus for his death.

 

Mary shows us how all disciples needs to react to all that they have seen of the life of Jesus : with worship, giving, and love.

 

In just a week’s time we will hear the story of Palm Sunday. Then the crowd will show us the wrong response to Jesus – the hero-worship, the empty cheers, the ease of following the crowd. But today we pause with Mary and offer our worship, giving and love, as she did.

 

Prayer (borrowed from Susan – you’ll read it in the Daily Devotions in due course)

 

Jesus,

who received so warmly

an extravagant gift offered from love,

give us such grace that we may grow

in gratitude and grace.

 

Bless all our giving

with the generosity

that calculates little

and begrudges nothing.

 

Bless all our receiving,

so that all who give to us

may find us never churlish,

but grateful for love expressed.

 

And thank you, above all,

for the gift of your love,

poured upon us,

filling the house. Amen.