The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
John 12:1-8
On this fifth Sunday of our Lenten journey we stand poised to make our transition to Holy Week. We are preparing to move toward Jerusalem with Jesus. In the gospel of John, Jesus is spending time with his friends in Bethany. In John’s account, Jesus has executed seven dramatic miracles among the people up to this time. These signs point to the truth of God’s saving action in the person of Jesus.
Jesus has already turned water into wine at Cana; healed the official’s son in Capernaum; made a crippled man walk and a blind man see; fed the five-thousand by the Sea of Galilee; and walked on water.
The “sign” symphony, if you will, comes to a poignant crescendo when Jesus raises his friend, Lazarus, from the dead. This action, of course, stirs the hopes and imaginations of those who follow Jesus thirsting for new life, and also further stirs the insecurities and defenses of those who see a threat to the religious and political status establishment in peoples’ reactions to Jesus. In fact, so threatening is this Jesus that there are whispers on the street that those who are threatened by this “Jesus movement” are lying in wait for Jesus as he enters Jerusalem for Passover.
This is the context as we enter our Gospel story today. In today’s text, Jesus is having supper in the house of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. These three are certainly aware of the charged situation in which they find themselves. These three certainly have heard the whispers of threats to their friend Jesus on the street. These three are most certainly ones who can best judge why Jesus poses such a threat. If anybody were categorically convinced of the truth of Jesus, these three are. All three have witnessed the truth of Jesus with their own eyes and with their own hearts. For this family the truth is, most certainly, that Jesus restores life to the dead. If anyone perceived the truth of promise in Isaiah’s prophecy we read today, that God is about to do a new thing, it was those sitting at table with him in this story.
The existence of Lazarus, whose name means “God is my help,” is the testimony to this new thing God is doing. All of Jesus’ followers, including Lazarus, Martha and Mary, know best who Jesus is, what he is capable of and, perhaps, the price he is about to pay for being such a threat to the status quo.
In John’s Gospel we are poised for the Passover Celebration, the Jewish Celebration of God’s dramatic saving action of his people, moving them from a life of literal, physical, and spiritual bondage, through the waters of the Red Sea, to a new life of freedom. Generations later, held in literal, physical and spiritual bondage, God again seems to be acting in dramatic fashion in the person of this Jesus. Jesus, in John’s Gospel account, will play the role of paschal lamb in this drama.
Jesus sits at table with these three friends in Bethany on his way into Jerusalem for the Passover before the “final” sign of John’s Gospel will be enacted—that is Jesus’ suffering as sacrifice and God’s most dramatic action of raising Jesus from the dead; life will conquer death.
What to do then if you are Mary? What to do with all that is in her as her friend sits at table? Surely now we gain insight into Mary’s movement to take the finest of oil, the most expensive and perfumed oil, and to pour it over Jesus feet. Pistos is the Greek word conjugated to describe this oil. It means refined, pure, derived perhaps from pistachio nut. It will become the oil of anointing for this Jesus who is Messiah, “anointed one” and it will simultaneously become the foreshadowing of the preparation of his body for death. Jesus, anointed as Messiah and prepared for death, will enter Jerusalem where he will soon hear the ecstatic cry of the people for a Messiah King, one who will restore Israel to political and religious independence. What they will get instead will be the suffering servant who will invite God’s final “sign” of resurrection. Those who have followed Jesus and who put their trust in God will enter a whole new way of believing…
living…and acting. Those seated with Jesus at table this night know there is a holy and sacred moment upon them. It seems Mary’s response of pouring the finest perfume is a response to the complex beauty seated before her.
Having been invited into this story, in the tradition of our youngest children who live in God’s story each week in our Godly play curriculum, I invite you now to wonder. Wonder with me as we make this transition to Holy Week and into the deepest mystery of our life and faith.
I wonder what new thing is now springing forth in your life that you might perceive?
I wonder where you see holy, sacred complex beauty in your life over which you may wish to pour the finest of oil?
I wonder how your perception might lead you to a new way of believing…living… acting?
