Jesus is at the home of Lazarus, whom some months earlier he has raised from the dead – and dutiful Martha is there – serving as always, cooking and cleaning and making sure the details are just right. Lazarus is at the table and Judas Iscariot is at the table and we can assume the rest of the Disciples as well.
They are sharing a meal together and as usual there is mystery and holiness afoot. Jesus has been speaking to them of what is to happen in the coming days and just like their forefathers they don’t fully perceive it – they can’t see how the waters of life might flow through the dry desert of death but they are at least seeking to understand.
And then something remarkable happens. Mary gets up and takes a pound – a pound – of costly perfume and begins to anoint his feet and wipe them with her hair. What an extravagant and beautiful act of sacrificial love – what an extraordinary testimony of her appreciation, understanding, trust-in and love for him. Right in the middle of the meal – to get up and begin such a thing – it can’t wait – it shouldn’t wait – it needs to be done now.
The deep and penetrating fragrance drifts throughout the house and the Disciples are left to enjoy it and revel in the beauty of it as Jesus surely was . . . or not. And at least one of them – Judas, we are told – misses the glory of it completely. In fact, driven by the ulterior motive of greed, he uses another teaching of Jesus – a genuine concern for the poor – to try and undermine Mary’s extravagant act that honors Jesus and glorifies God.
“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” he says. Remember how in the last temptation in the wilderness Satan finally tried to use Jesus’ own words to get him to throw himself down from the top of the temple? Judas is a pretty quick study isn’t he.
But Jesus answers swiftly and directly, “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.”
What are we to make of this? Is it no longer required that we should care for the poor? Of course not. But what IS clear is that honoring God by extravagantly and confidently lifting up JESUS whenever we are able is the priority above everything else – even taking care of the poor.
Which is what the church so often seems to solely default to in this day and age. We have become reasonably decent agents of addressing worldly suffering – which isn’t a bad thing of course. But if it’s done at the exclusion of honoring God and proclaiming the gospel of His extravagant love for us (and seeking to do so extravagantly ourselves) then any other good we do is only temporal in nature, and we have completely missed the true mission of the church given in the great commission and highlighted here so beautifully by Mary’s humble act.
As the church we need to ask ourselves – are we all about making Disciples of Jesus? Is it our number one priority? Or have we just become another organization that seeks to relieve poverty in the world? Clearly the poverty of the human heart – and the question of what our REAL relationship with God is – was the most important thing to Jesus. Everything else – including a genuine compassion based ability to care for the poor – springs from that.
There are lots of excuses out there – some of them very good ones – some of them that are even in line with what Jesus himself taught. But if we aren’t doing the extravagant thing(s) to tell the story – to speak HIM to the world – then we’re completely missing the point of his life, death and resurrection – and why God sent His son for our redemption.
So, spend all you have – give all you have . . . Break out the very best “essence” that you can give him . . . And work it into the feet that have walked the world in sacrifice for your salvation. Use the very hair of your head if you can – and let the tears flow into it all as well.
God’s love for us is extravagant beyond measure. As disciples of Jesus Christ let us love the same.
– Roanoke Star Publisher Stuart Revercomb is the Pastor at Peace Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. Visit them on the web at www.peace-church.net