by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
John 12:1-8
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 at the table with him. Mary 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. 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."
Harry and Martha drank their coffee as they listened to the morning weather report. "There will be three to five inches of snow today. You must park your cars on the odd-numbered side of the street." Harry got up from his coffee to move the car.
Two days later, they sat down with their cup of coffee and listened to the weather forecast. "There will be two to four inches of snow today. You must park your cars on the even-numbered side of the street." Harry got up from his coffee to move the car.
Three days later, they tuned in to the weather report. "There will be six to eight inches of snow today. You must park your cars on the... ." The power went off.
Harry said to Martha, "What am I going to do now?"
Martha said, "This time just leave the car in the garage."
Were you ready for that? It kind of snuck up on me and I imagine it did you too. Here is something else that surprised me.
Have you ever priced cosmetics? Most women know that there are lines of cosmetics that cost incredible amounts of money. Most men have some slight grasp of that fact, but we really aren’t all that well acquainted with how much we are talking about.
One time when my mother was visiting, she ran out of a couple of her Merle Norman cosmetics products. I see a couple of you ladies shaking your heads. Yes! That stuff is expensive.
Anyway, I found a Merle Norman store on the internet and drove over there and bought the two items in which she was of need. I was handed two very small little jars and charged well over one hundred dollars. I almost fainted. “Are you sure?” She assured me she was with a big smile on her face. I couldn’t believe it.
Well, if you want to know about expensive cosmetics how about the jar of Nard that Jesus was anointed with by Mary in today’s gospel story we just heard? Nard, for the uninitiated, comes from the Himalaya Mountains. It’s processed from a flowering plant that grows there. And it costs a lot of money. According to the gospel writer the jar of nard which anointed Jesus was worth three hundred denarii. Let’s put that in perspective. A Denarii was approximately a day’s pay for the common man. That means this jar of nard was worth three hundred days pay. In today’s terms that’s probably over forty thousand dollars. Holy Cow you say. No wonder Judas was upset by what happened.
On the face of it, what Mary did was of no practical sense. Judas was right. The nard could have been sold and something more practical done with the money. The writer of the gospel says that Judas wanted to steal the money, and that was his real interest. But the fact is that Judas had a point. The money could have gone for a more practical purpose other than anointing Jesus and making him smell nice. When Judas stated his feelings about it, Jesus snapped at him. There are two versions of what Jesus said, one in John which we read a bit ago, and one in Mark. In John we heard “"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."
I am particularly fond of Mark’s, and here I quote it. “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could.”
Isn’t this interesting? We have two reactions to Mary’s act. Mary has shown Jesus her love for him through this tremendously wasteful, and frankly worthless, act. But he appreciates it. Judas, who is the practical keeper of the community funds, The Treasurer for the community if you will, on the other hand does not appreciate what Mary has done at all. In fact, he thinks it’s stupid.
And so, we ask ourselves the most important question of all. What does this story have to do with us? What is the lesson we learn from this?
Well, let’s remember we don’t think like God. Let’s start there. God’s priorities are not our priorities. As we have discussed before we have a bad habit of projecting our thoughts onto God. So please forgive me as I live dangerously and think about the nature of God for a bit based on my encounters with God in scripture.
God created the cosmos and everything that is in it. God speaks things into existence. Probably God thinks things into existence too, but I don’t know. Maybe God’s speaking and thinking are the same thing. In any event God is able to produce anything that God might desire for the cosmos out of nothing, In God’s world there are no shortages. The idea of shortage as applied to God makes no sense at all since God is capable of creating anything at any time.
Jesus is the mirror image of God. Know Jesus and then know God. I assume that same statement works the other way too. Know God and then know Jesus. Jesus speaks thing into existence too. Think about the loaves and fishes when he fed everyone in the crowd. Think about the miracles he performed. So, the idea that Jesus isn’t particularly impressed with the value of Nard doesn’t surprise us, does it? Fifty cents or five hundred dollars are of no consequence to Jesus. He is interested in other things. In this case he is interested in the welfare of Mary. He seeks to protect her.
We live in a world of plenty. I have heard that to irradicate hunger would only cost thirty or forty billion dollars annually. I am talking about eliminating hunger for the whole planet. Yet people won’t share what they have. Instead, we hoard. Some of us having incredible riches and others less than nothing. God created plenty, much more than any of us need. The problem is we just won’t share. I imagine the idea of not sharing is as abhorrent to God as not being concerned about the price of beauty products is to us.
What God appears to be most interested in is relationship with each of us. I submit Jesus’ relationship with Mary is a great example of that. And I would also say that his relationship with Judas is equally important. You see I am certain Jesus knew Judas was stealing from the common purse. Jesus probably didn’t like that but he continued to trust Judas while hoping for the best. He wouldn’t give up on him.
Don’t you think God has a similar relationship with us? God has left us in charge of creation. If we are honest, we could be doing better than we are taking care of the planet don’t you think? People are starving because those with much are unwilling to share with those who have little. Yet God leaves us in charge. Maybe that’s where the phrase hope springs eternal comes from. God never gives up on us. God just loves us too much to do that.
Today perhaps our invitation is to give God’s love for us some thought.