The last time Mary of Bethany saw Jesus was six days before Passover. It was not unusual for Jesus and his closest disciples to come to their house for holidays because he considered Mary, Martha and Lazarus his closest friends. However their friendship had been severely tested just a few days before when her brother Lazarus fell ill and died. Yes died. And yet Lazarus is sitting at table with them as alive as ever, all through the power of God. Her head swims every time she recalls the events that just transpired.
Lazarus caught the sickness that had been killing many in their community, most people died within a day of first falling ill. There were no medicines to cure Lazarus’ illness, no treatments either. Remembering that Jesus had healed an officials son who had the same illness; Mary and Martha sent a messenger to where Jesus asking him to come. Surely, Jesus would come not only because he loved Lazarus, but also because he knew that Mary and Martha depended on Lazarus their very livelihood. Women at that time could not live without a male to head their household. If Lazarus dies, they could lose everything they have, their home, their farm, their money to the nearest living male relative because women were not allowed to own property.
Mary kept an expensive bottle of perfume hidden in her bedroom as her financial safeguard. It is worth 300 denarii which was the equivalent of one year’s wages. It was given to her by her mother before she died knowing that it would not be taken away from Mary even if Lazarus died and they lost their inheritance. “But Lazarus won’t die” Mary says to herself, “Because Jesus is going to come and all will be well.”
However, the messenger that they sent to Jesus came back alone saying that Jesus didn’t think the illness was a grave as they made it out to be. Jesus said, “This illness does not lead to death, rather it is for God’s glory so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4) Upon hearing this Mary became hysterical, shrieking, “What is he thinking?!?! What is this nonsense about God’s glory. I don’t want to hear about God’s glory, I just want Jesus here, now!” But he didn’t come, as a matter of fact he stayed two days longer at the place where he was.
Lazarus died and Mary and Martha’s life as they know it had come to an end.
On the fourth day Jesus finally came to Bethany. Jesus told his disciples as they were traveling, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Mary sat in her house with her friends mourning the loss of her brother. Amidst the crying and the eating she fumed over what she heard Jesus say about her brother Lazarus. How could he!!!!! Martha found out that Jesus had just arrived in Bethany and went out to meet him without Mary. When Martha returned from seeing Jesus, she took Mary out of the house and told her “the teacher is here and is calling for you.” (John 11:28) Mary got up and went to where Jesus was, quite angry and ready to give him a piece of her mind. Her friends followed her out of the house thinking that Mary was going to mourn at Lazarus’ grave.
When she saw Jesus, she is overcome with emotion, she collapsed at his feet and wailed to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32) When she looked up at him, she could see that he was deeply disturbed, and then he wept. No he was not the awful person that she made him out to be and yes he did care about Lazarus and Mary and Martha.
Jesus asked for the stone to be rolled away. There came from the tomb such a stench because Lazarus has been dead for four days. Jesus whispered a prayer, hardly heard except to those who were close to him. He then called out, “Lazarus, come out!” and Lazarus came out of the tomb still bound by his wrappings. Mary and Martha ran to their brother and embraced him. They remove his bindings and a friend gives them his outer cloak for Lazarus to wear home.
Mary regretted the way she treated Jesus at the tomb. She regretted how she thought he was a cruel man for not coming when she needed him and how she felt like a fool for her lack of faith in him. All her life she was taught that God always makes a way out of no way. She expected that God would save her brother from illness through a cure from Jesus however in the end God’s salvation went beyond her expectations by Jesus raising her brother to life from death. It was like the stories she heard about her ancestors were in exile in Babylon. They complained to God about their state and the prophet Isaiah responded to them with the assurance that God will save them, just as God took them out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land, so too God will take them from Babylon back home to Israel. But don’t expect salvation to happen the same way every time, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.” Isaiah says, “I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43: 18-19)
News spread quickly of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Mary heard rumors that the chief priests and the Pharisees had called a special council meeting. The decisions of that meeting could not have been good because afterwards they gave orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know so that they might arrest him.
The timing is just to obvious, Jesus rose her brother from the dead, the crowds go wild and want to follow him, the chief priests and Pharisees meet and then there is a warrant for his arrest. It can only mean one thing, death. They are plotting to kill Jesus because he raised her brother from the dead. How much more extravagant can a man be to his friend than to risk his life for him. It was at that moment that Mary understood the significance of Jesus’ actions, and here she was only worrying about the welfare of her and her sister, hanging onto a bottle of perfume for security.
She had to find a way for Jesus to know how much she appreciated what he had done for her and her family. “Yes, if he is executed,” she thinks, “I will use the perfume to anoint his body when we lay him in the tomb.” But that isn’t enough, she wanted him to know how much she loved him, how much she believed in him and his teachings. She wanted to assure him that even though he may be killed by those who fear him that his ministry will still live on in her discipleship.
When Jesus came again to their house six days before Passover, Mary, Martha and Lazarus gave dinner to him and his disciples. After the meal, Mary walked over to Jesus, knelt before him and taking the pound of perfume that she had been hording all these years, she opened it and poured it on his feet. Then with her hair she wiped his feet dry. The scent of the perfume was stronger then the stench of the tomb that Lazarus was resurrected from a few days earlier. She cried as she did this. Saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’m sorry for what is going to happen to you.”
All conversation stopped and everyone was staring at Mary and Jesus. Judas who would become Jesus’ betrayer saids, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” (John 12:5) Jesus knew that Judas’ concern was not for the poor but that he was a thief and was stealing from the common purse for his own gain. He rebuked Judas saying, “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me!” (John 12: 7-8)
Jesus affirmed that Mary knew what mattered. Mary gave him a fantastic gift, loving him and honoring him. She was not dismissing caring for the poor, for the sick, for the old, for the lonely in the pouring of her financial security on his feet. She knew that it was just as important to be present in each moment and praise God, to be present in each moment and grieve, to touch be touched in spirit and in heart. For that sometimes one just needs sit on the floor and really look at the other. She knew just what ministry was required. She served with humility and compassion, lowering herself to the floor, at his feet like a servant, pouring out herself and her expensive perfume in a display of extravagant generosity.[i] Yes God was doing a new thing, in Mary, in all who witnessed her anointing Jesus’ feet and in all of us who are now hearing her story. May it be so. Amen.
[i] Songbird, “Standing in the Doorway: Martha’s Story” http://revsongbird.typepad.com/set_free/2007/03/standing_in_the.html
1 comment:
I like the way you bring us into the crisis moment in the narrative. It's so easy to read these stories piecemeal and forget how tense they all must have been.
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