Extravagance

5^th Sunday in Lent   *   John 12:1-8

This morning’s gospel lesson captures a significant moment in the final days of Jesus’ life.  Today we hear a story about love that is so incredible it’s extravagant and excessive.  The journey to Jerusalem that was predicted so long ago has, at this moment, become a stark, cold, reality as Holy Week approaches. 

We find Jesus today in the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus; a place of sanctuary, a place of rest, offered by close friends.  It’s six days before the Passover, meaning it’s the day before Jesus would be ushered into the city on the back of a donkey, under the cheers and accolades of the people who would place their cloaks and palm branches along his path.  But before that, we find Jesus sitting close to his friend Lazarus, as they share a meal together in the home he shares with his sisters.  Lazarus, as we know, had been sick; very sick.  So sick, in fact, that he succumbed to his illness and it took his life.  Right away, Mary and Martha, his doting older sisters (and if you have an older sister(s), you know exactly what I mean), they send for their friend Jesus.  They know who he is, and they know what he is capable of, and they know they need him to heal his friend Lazarus, their baby brother.  (Little trivia for you:  French lore reports of Martha and Mary, the wealthy sisters from Bethany, traveled as missionaries to France, and were noted to have been mighty dragon slayers). 

When word reached Jesus, he must have known what traveling to Bethany would mean.  He knew the prophesy better than anyone, and he knew the events on the horizon.  Equipped with this knowledge, he made a decision.  True to self, true to teachings, true to love, he chose to go to his friends in their fearful time of need, despite the warnings of his friends. 

When he arrived in Bethany, it was too late.  Lazarus was dead, and had been dead for four days.  Emotions were untampered and rearing rampantly.   “If only you had arrived earlier, Jesus” they lamented.  When Jesus asked where his friend had been entombed, they took him to the place with the caveat:  already there is a stench…he has been in there four days.  With a loud voice Jesus cried out “Lazarus, come out”!  And that’s exactly what he did…bound in his grave linens, the walking dead joined the living.

What an incredible feat; at the simple sound of his voice, the walking dead joined the living.  Imagine the attention this garnered…and imagine how word of this miracle spread like wildfire throughout the country. 

So, then, it’s no wonder that we would find Jesus sitting close to his once lost friend, breaking bread, enjoying the time they have together.  For while Lazarus had been restored to full life, it would come at a great cost, for no good deed goes unpunished. 

After dinner, Mary goes to the feet of Jesus, lets down her hair, rubbed a year’s salary’s worth of fragrant ointment on his feet, and wipes them with her hair.  Even in today’s culture that sounds bizarre; this would have been compounded in their culture.  Women didn’t let their hair down or leave it uncovered in the presence of anyone except their husband.  So here is Mary, in mixed company, touching a man’s feet whom she is not married to with her hair.  Scandalous!  However, this happens only after she breaks open what we would equate to $30,000 worth of essential oils with which to wash and anoint the feet of Jesus.  This is grand and excessive and over the top and viewed by some as wasteful.  For while Mary is making a sacrifice in the most giving of spirits, Judas makes a snide comment toward Mary’s extravagant oil…could this not have been sold and the money given to the poor? 

We are reminded, though, of the character of Judas, John telling us that he didn’t truly want to give the funds raised to the poor, he simply wanted a fatter treasury giving him greater funds to steal for his own use. 

Jesus defends Mary’s selfless actions, proclaiming she bought the nard (the oil) for the day of his very burial, for you will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. 

What an odd thing to say, but the words pertaining to the poor weren’t original to Jesus; he was quoting Deuteronomy 15, giving instruction that the poor will always be around, and we are to open wide our hands to them.  The words here of Jesus aren’t words of counsel, condemning nor justifying complacency toward the needs of the poor.  The theologian Stanley Hauerwas comments, the poor we have with us is Jesus…and it is to the poor that all extravagance is given.  The church always has the poor in its midst, and always treasures the life of the poor. 

So we return to where we began, with a prelude to the passion.  Mary’s action foreshadows the grim reality of Christ’s future, anointing his feet with sweet smelling perfume in a similar act done to prepare bodies for the grave.  The extravagant giving shown toward the sisters in the restoration of the life of their brother was ultimately the last straw for the Jewish authorities, who plot to end the second life of Lazarus.  Lazarus was of no direct concern to them, and I doubt they even knew his name; but the action of Jesus, witnessed by so many, was one more item on the list of things weakening their power and influence over the Hebrew people.  Their power was waning; the time for drastic measures is now. 

We are told that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend; through restoring the life of his friend, Jesus has, in fact, traded his life for the life of Lazarus.

But before that, we get a moment of reprieve as we celebrate the arrival of Jesus to the city, next Sunday.