Based on today's lectionary Gospel reading.

John 12:1-11

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.

An observant Jew, Jesus arrives in Bethany from Galilee a week early to assure ritual purity for attendance at the festival. The village sits just over the last rise from Jericho, a twenty minute walk from Jerusalem, a hostel town for pilgrims. Jesus, with other pilgrims, comes to prepare himself for the coming Passover. In more than one way.

We are invited to prepare with him.

The story actually begins in Ch 11, where we are introduced to Lazarus, Mary and Martha. In that story, Lazarus is ill, and dies. Jesus hears of the illness, but rather than rushing to heal his friend, waits for him to die, because, he says, ‘this illness does not lead to death, rather it is for God’s glory’.

Lazarus, of course, dies. Jesus reports this plainly to his disciples when it occurs. ‘Lazarus is dead.’ Even though he had told them a day or two earlier that Lazarus would not die. (That is what it sounded like).
Jesus does not leave him in his stinking shroud. He calls him out of his tomb, saying, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, though they die, will live.’ That’s what he says to Martha, asking her to believe in him.

Martha, we are told, is the sister of Mary who now prepares the a dinner in Jesus’ honour, and serves Jesus personally.

We are introduced to Mary with foreshadowing: she is the one ‘who anointed the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair’.

The Fragrant Room

3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

This is an act of extravagant and expensive love. Nard was a perfume imported from India, and 300 denarii amounts to a year’s wages for the common working man. (Half a litre of Chanel No 5, at a going rate £326, doesn’t begin to compare in value.) This spontaneous act come from the joy of resurrection, of a brother restored; of Jesus in the midst of the family gathering.

The room is filled with the fragrance of the gift.

The Fly in the Nard

4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Now there is an insertion of foreboding. The story seems marred by the Judas narrative, a souring of the fragrance. A cash value is placed on the gift in the name of compassionate ministry. In the midst of celebration of life a shadow falls at the mention of the one who ‘was about to betray him’.

Jesus’ reply is full of Johannine irony. Irony is hard to spot in printed text, and detecting it requires more than a predilection for literary techniques to show it. What seals it here is recognition that Jesus is quoting Deut 15:11 – ‘There will always be poor people in the land’. This is a marker to listeners who know their Scriptures (which few Christians these days do) to recall the context of Deut 15.

The command begins in Deut 15:4, ‘There will never be any poor among you.’ It is a call to God’s people, blessed with riches, to assure that everyone in the nation is cared for, including foreigners (read it!). It is tempting to suggest that even Moses is being ironic, when he ends the section with the words Jesus cites. Even when he commanded it, Moses knew it would never be obeyed.

Even if we should read the quote as belonging within parentheses, it is useful to note the rest of the text Jesus quotes: ‘I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land”.’

Jesus’ words here are a rebuke that rings down the ages for those who excuse themselves from compassion for the poor on the basis of these words.

Preparation

Mary’s act of pouring costly perfume on Jesus is a celebration of life—of the fulfilment of the promise of resurrection. Jesus, preparing himself for the days ahead, calls it a preparation for burial. Judas reduces it all to monetary considerations.

The beauty of Mary’s extravagant action is in its affirmation of God’s power over death, which becomes a preparation for the death which brings resurrection.

Attention on Judas’ cleptomania, however, tends to obscure the power of Jesus’ rebuke of Judas and of all who separate their own spirituality from the life-giving purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection—he will die, not only for ‘my’ sins, but for the poor and needy neighbour.

On a day in which the US congress votes on health care for millions of their neighbours, it is not a little ironic that so many Christians stand in opposition.