Year C
 Isaiah 43:16-21
 Psalm 126
 Philippians 3:4b-14
 John 12:1-8

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

Today’s Gospel is a strange story indeed…  today’s narrative doesn’t unfold in a strictly linear way…  you’ve got to read it all the way through…  and then read it again…  to be able to say…  Oh…  so that’s what that means…

Because in just the last chapter…  word reaches Jesus that Lazarus is gravely ill…  but he delays going on purpose…  at first…  Jesus euphemistically tells his disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep…  but when the disciples take Jesus’ words literally…  he clarifies that Lazarus has really died…  and when they get to Bethany…  both of his sisters…  Martha and Mary…  go out to meet Jesus…  one at a time…  and both acknowledge that if Jesus had only been there…  their brother would not have died…  but Lazarus did die…  and there is already a stench…  but Jesus…  ever undeterred…  has the stone rolled away and calls Lazarus out from death and into life…  and then…  many of the Jews who saw Lazarus raised from death…  have gone and told the chief priests and Pharisees…  who convened a Council meeting…  which expressed concern that…  If we let him go on like this…  everyone will believe in him…  and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation…  and as Caiaphas said…  it’s better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed…  and so they hatched a plan to kill Jesus…  and the chief priests and the Pharisees gave orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was…  should let them know…  so that they might arrest him…  and because of this…  Jesus traveled from Ephraim to Bethany…

And now…  six days before Passover…  commemorating the Exodus…  and bringing freedom and life out of slavery and death…  this same man…  Lazarus…  just raised from the dead…  sits down to dinner with his sisters…  with the disciples…  and with Jesus…  and it’s easy to imagine how grateful Mary was…  and so she took what was a Roman pound of nard…  which for us is about eleven or twelve ounces…  and which cost almost a year’s wages…  and anointed Jesus’ feet…  and wiped them with her hair…  in an intimate…  sensuous expression of gratitude…  and while the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume…  as opposed to the stench of Lazarus’ tomb…  the spiritual aroma revealed that Mary loved Jesus…  not for what he could do for her…  but for himself…  just for himself…  and she may even have thought…  why wait til he’s dead…  why not give him this sign of my love while he can enjoy it…

Nard…  by the way…  and in case you were wondering…  comes from the spikenard plant…  a Himalayan plant of the valerian family…  which produces a rhizome…  from which this ointment is prepared…  and which explains its expense… 

And in response to Mary’s generous gift…  Judas asked in what was likely an indignant tone…  Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor…  though the text also tells us that he really didn’t care about the poor…  but would have gladly added that money to the common purse…  which he kept…  and dipped into when he wanted to…  and in a not-very-veiled way…  Jesus rebukes him…  because he knows that Judas will betray him…  and he will be killed…

And in response to Judas’ question…  what Jesus says…  is something that’s actually not in the text…  Jesus says…  Leave her alone…  she bought it…  so that she might keep it for the day of my burial…  but the Greek does not include the words…  she bought it…  so what Jesus actually said was…  Leave her alone…  so that she might keep it for the day of my burial…  don’t let Judas sell what’s left over and keep the money…  let Mary keep what’s left over…  she will need to anoint me again…  but under different circumstances…  for a different reason…

Now let’s shift our attention for a moment…  to Deuteronomy 15…  Presbyterian minister Liz Theoharis writes… The Deuteronomic Code speaks of mandated sabbatical and Jubilee years… prohibitions on charging interest to Israelites… protection of pledges given as collateral for loans… weights and measures that are fair and just… prompt payment of wages… equity in legal proceedings… and direct provisions for the poor through tithing and gleaning…  and there’s a lot more…  but these instructions are given to a people who are reminded that God led them out of slavery in Egypt… and with the highest commandment… the Shema… the people bound themselves in a covenant…  to abide by these commitments…  and keeping that covenant was viewed as a matter of life and death…

And so when Jesus says…  you always have the poor with you…  he’s referring to Deuteronomy 15:11…  and as The Rev. Dr. Marshall Jolly wrote… this phrase would have fallen on Jewish ears in the same way that “Do unto others…” falls on our own ears…  and those who heard Jesus utter it could finish the verse for themselves…  therefore I command you…  open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land…

So Jesus isn’t condoning poverty… he’s reminding us of Deuteronomy’s message that God hates poverty… and has commanded us to end it by forgiving different kinds of debts in different kinds of ways…  when Jesus says…  you always have the poor with you…  it’s because he knows that not enough people will follow these commandments to tip the scales towards equity…  in other words…  this scene in Bethany is a revelation…  in which Lazarus represents the promise of new life…  Judas represents eyes which can no longer see and hearts which have been hardened…  Mary represents pure unbounded love which is gift…  and expects nothing in return…  and Jesus doesn’t just represent…  but is the embodiment of God’s covenant with God’s people…  to serve the poor and needy…  by forgiving…  our debts and our sins…  ] because the day was coming when…  as Rev. Jolly wrote…  Jesus himself…  would be poured out as a fragrant…  costly…  and precious sacrifice for the life of the world…

And in spite of appearances…  the life of the world continues to move closer to God’s plan for all of creation…  and our readings from Isaiah and Philippians tell us that we’re not to…  remember the former things…  or consider the things of old…  because God is about to do a new thing…  and we’re to…  forget what lies behind…  and strain forward to what lies ahead…  not because the past is wrong or bad…  not because how we’re used to things working is wrong or bad…  and not because what we experience as normal has no value…  but because our journeys are ever on the cusp of the boundlessness to which God invites us…  of God’s invitation into God’s new normal…  of us peeling away layer after layer as we grow into St. Bonaventure’s experience of God as…  One whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere… and because Wisdom resides with God at every point within creation… we are ever being called to an enlightened life… in which we shift our perspective from microcosm to macrocosm…  shift our motivations from selfishness to selflessness…  and we lift up our eyes…  so we can finally see…  and not through a mirror dimly…  and for this…  and especially for all of Jesus’ promises…  we say…  thanks be to God…