Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (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.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
John 12:1-8
My sermon from the Fifth Sunday in Lent (April 6, 2025) on John 12:1-8.
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I want to start today’s sermon with a question: what’s your go-to meal when you’re stressed and don’t have the energy to decide what to eat? The meal I’m thinking about isn’t one you get delivered or order at a fast food place. It’s what you consume when all you can do is eat over your sink. It might be a bowl of cereal, some apples and crackers, or an entire family-sized box of macaroni and cheese. My go-to in these situations has always been an entire party bag of Tostitos corn chips with – or without – salsa. It’s difficult to call these experiences meals at all since they’re mostly about finding fuel to carry us through. The stress we’re feeling might be a good kind of stress – such as being the primary point person for a multi-family vacation filled with way too many kids under the age of 12. But I’ve found that when we eat this way, we’re doing so because life has become way too hard. What we need during those kinds of moments is some kind of intervention reminding us that today isn’t all that’s meant to be. And in our reading today from the gospel according to John, we sit with Jesus at a moment in life when the anxiety, worry, and fear that causes us to eat over the sink was something he and his friends were living through.
Now one of the things I do when we get a reading from the Bible that is a story is to put that text back into scripture itself. I want to know what came before and after this part of God’s story. Jesus, in John’s version of Jesus’ life, visited the city of Jerusalem during Passover for three years in a row. And when he visited the city, he often caused problems for those visiting the marketplaces and the Holy Temple. The city during this holy festival tripled in size which made Jesus’ actions frustrating to everyone in charge. And while we often think of Jesus as a peaceful leader, he regularly pushed back against those – including his own disciples – who got in the way of His way of love, welcome, and care. It was during his round about third journey towards the holy city to commemorate a moment of liberation in a meal when two sisters let him know that their brother, Lazarus was ill. Jesus, in the chapter right before what we just heard, went to see them but by the time he got there, Lazarus had died. In one of John’s most vivid descriptions of what happens when God’s kingdom comes near, Mary and Martha were completely honest about their frustration, anger, and confusion with God while God’s Son sat next to the tomb and cried. When Jesus, in response to the fullness of the life we live, decided to write a new chapter for his friend Lazarus, those in power decided it was finally time to deal with this traveling preacher from Galilee. Jesus’ willingness to share a meal with all kinds of people annoyed those who wanted to control who had value and who had worth. There were also some, including his disciples, who believed Jesus would soon reestablish the ancient kingdom of Israel itself. Jesus would then be the excuse the Roman Empire would use to violently crack down on the Jewish people. Jesus and his friends heard what was up and so quickly relocated to a town on the edge of the wilderness. Their time there was fairly uneventful but I imagine laying low, finding a place to stay and enough food to eat was pretty hard. That, along with the knowledge those in charge were trying to kill them, tainted every meal with all kinds of anxiety. It’s difficult to taste the food and enjoy one another’s company when terror, confusion, and fear are also sitting there at the table. The disciples hoped their time out there would turn down the heat on them. Those in the city, though, knew how dangerous Jesus’ return would be. Folks expected him to take a year off from his usual shenanigans at Passover. But when the holy festival day drew near, Jesus left the unsettled safety at the edge of the wilderness to return to the village of Bethany which was only 2 miles from the Holy Temple.
Now when he showed up, Lazarus’ home was pretty busy. The influx of pilgrims heading towards Jerusalem had filled the roadways and marketplaces with hundreds of people. Martha, Mary, and everyone in their village were doing their everyday things while preparing for a holiday filled with meals. When Jesus and his large entourage showed up, Martha and her team paused everything to welcome him. This was, I think, the first time Jesus had seen Lazarus since he raised him from the dead. And while the joy of that moment lingered in the air, fear, anxiety, and worry surged into that space too. The mixture of emotions at that table – the eating with the one who had died and the one who others wanted to die – would have been a lot. The stress of that moment, even if they were relatively safe, would have matched what we feel when we’re eating over the sink. Yet in the midst of a vibe that mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausted everyone in that space, Mary took a bottle of costly oil and poured it over Jesus’ feet. We don’t know where the bottle came from or why Mary had such an expensive item in the first place. But I wonder if the nard was originally purchased to anoint their brother’s body just a few weeks before. Once she opened the bottle, the smell in the house would have filled every nook and cranny. Lazarus, her sisters, and the disciples would have been instantly brought back to what had been – and how, in the midst of the sorrow, life would still be found. The promise at the heart of Jesus’ words and mission would have wrapped itself around all the fear and anxiety they carried with them. Nothing about Mary’s actions ignored the current moment or pretended as if things weren’t scary as they truly were. Yet Jesus’ presence – and Mary’s trust – refused to let what they carried be the limit of what their tomorrow would be. Those at the table could have let everything around them, especially the anxiety imposed by those in power and with authority, be the focus of their life. But what Jesus chose to do was to have a holy meal with those he loved. Jesus, whose public ministry was running out of time, took time to tend to those whose worry and fear would grow in the days and weeks ahead. And when Judas tried to revitalize the anxiety sitting at their table, Jesus’ response wasn’t meant to be an excuse we use to limit the support we offer to those in need. The smells Mary put into the air were, instead, a reminder that no matter what we’re living through, living out love and hope is something we can always do. Now what that love looks like, though, will always vary since there are times when eating dinner over the sink is all we can do. But when we feel as if right now is what the rest of our life might always be, we can trust the One who’s already claimed us as His own has written a new chapter we’ll get to live through. The sights, sounds, and experiences that make life hard are not the stuff we’re meant to push aside or ignore. Rather, the Jesus who lived our life and went through the Cross has already shown us what our future is meant to be. It’s this holy love from God which will guide us even when eating at the sink feels like the only thing we can do. And while that love was made tangible through Mary’s actions while Jesus sat around Lazarus’ table nearly 2000 years ago, I trust – and believe – that God’s love surrounds you right now – and wants you to know you will make it through.
Amen.