St. Paul sought righteousness that he believed came through
faith in Jesus Christ. “I want to know
Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing in his sufferings . .
.because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
What an amazing power the resurrected Jesus had to completely turn St.
Paul's life upside down! St. Paul had
taken pride in his ethnic heritage, his biblical learning and his zeal to
persecute heretics.
Then he encountered
the risen Christ on the Damascus Road. He rejected everything about his former life
and embraced the faith that Christ offered him:
“ . . . forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in
Christ Jesus.” God's call was no longer
to Pharisee Paul, but to Apostle Paul—whom God sent to found Christian
communities: preaching, teaching, and, yes, suffering for the reign of God.
Jesus had an amazing power to reach the hearts of those
around him, pulling them to God in order that they might, through faith, grow
to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. And those who were drawn close to Jesus were
not only the men we call “the Twelve,” the apostles. There were women as well who
recognized something about Jesus was unique and wonderful, and they became his
disciples.
Mary of Bethany is such a person at the center of our Gospel
story this morning. Her anointing Jesus attested to her love and her loyalty to
him. But this story in John is not the
only one. There are four gospel accounts
of women coming to Jesus and anointing him.
It's possible that these four stories are really about the same
incident, with each gospel writer telling it with his own slant. All four follow this plot line: a woman obtains some very expensive and very
fragrant oil and anoints Jesus with it.
When someone objects, Jesus defends her action.
The stories from Matthew and Mark are almost identical. The incident took place in Bethany at the
home of Simon the Leper. It occurred
directly before Jesus went into Jerusalem to face betrayal and
crucifixion. An unnamed women poured oil
on Jesus' head and was criticized for using it this way, instead of selling it
to get money for the poor. He defended
her and said this anointing was to prepare him for burial. He also said that when the gospel is preached
throughout the world, this story will be told “in memory of her.”
Jesus had drawn this woman to him in faith and, in
responding to him, she showed respect and honored him. Kings were anointed with oil poured on their
heads, for example. Fragrant oil would
also cover the stench of death. Jesus
honored her in return with the promise that her gesture would always be
remembered. Others may have considered
her a female spendthrift, but Jesus identified this woman as a worthy person,
worthy of his respect and ours.
The stories of a woman anointing Jesus in Luke and John are
somewhat different than the accounts in Matthew and Mark. The Lukan account will be our gospel lesson
in about two months, so we will leave it alone for now. But the account in John which we heard this
morning portrays a deeper, more intimate relationship between Jesus and the
woman named Mary of Bethany than we saw in the accounts by Matthew and
Mark. Could it have been a different incident? Yes, of course, but the anointing by Mary of
Bethany also took place just before Jesus entered Jerusalem. Would two different women have anointed him
in such a short time? Possibly, but I think it's more likely that John
understood what happened quite differently that Mark or Matthew.
The nature of their intimacy can be seen in several
ways. First, the incident is set in the
home of friends (Mary, Martha and Lazarus) who had invited Jesus to
dinner. And not only were they friends,
but Jesus had revived Lazarus from the dead. Secondly, Mary wears her hair
loose and uncovered, being less modest than might be expected in the company of
males, not members of her family. And, finally, Mary anoints Jesus feet, not
his head—in a gesture not so much of respect and honor, but one of humble
servanthood and also one of great love.
Remember that in just a few days Jesus will wash the feet of his
disciples, a gesture with very similar overtones.
Professor Gail O'Day of Candler School of Theology at
Emory University, puts it this way: “The power of the witness of Mary's
discipleship in this story is she knows how to respond to Jesus without being
told . . . In the anointing, she shows what it means to be one of Jesus'
own. She gives boldly of herself in love
to Jesus . . . in Mary's anointing of Jesus, faithful discipleship is fully
revealed.” O'Day also notes that later
in the Gospel of John, “[d]iscipleship is defined by acts of love and one's
response to Jesus . . . [and i]t is important, therefore, . . . in the life of
the church to acknowledge that the Fourth Evangelist names a woman as the first
to embody the love that is commanded of all disciples.”
Mary's intimate and rather outrageous gesture of anointing Jesus'
feet with oil or perfume, costing about a year's wages for a laborer, and wiping
them with her hair does not indicate she is a woman of weak moral
character. Rather it shows she has a
deep love of Jesus Christ, and, like St. Paul, has found herself caught by
Christ, who has made her his own.
Jesus also makes it clear in his teaching many times that
caring for the poor is important. Her gesture of using expensive oil is not in
opposition to caring for the poor.
Indeed one is expected to do both, because the chronic injustice and
inhumanity caused by our sin will always result in poverty for some people. If Jesus Christ has made us his own, we will
love him, and we will work to heal whatever in human society is broken by sin. So today we should ask ourselves this
question , “Has Jesus Christ made me his own?”
When we are able to answer, “Yes,” we can then go out to love Jesus,
outrageously, without reserve, while humbly and diligently serving the poor in
His name.
O'Day, Gail R. Commentary on John in The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IX, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995, p. 703
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