Dearest e-votees,
Our appointed gospel text for this coming Sunday is Mary anointing the feet of Jesus in the gospel of John.
This is, in case you care and lost track, number 15 in the countdown to the end of e-vos. I hope and pray it blesses you.
Peace,
Karl
------------
1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 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. 4 But 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.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
John 12:1-8, NRSV
The 11th chapter of John details Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This anointing of Jesus feet was referred to proleptically ($50 word for before it happened) in John 11:2. The Mary we are talking about is the sister of Martha and Lazarus who are both present but silent in this account. Martha is serving (not too surprising given the Mary-Martha account in Luke 10:38-42). Lazarus is at the table (perhaps still a little tuckered out from being dead for four days and then resuscitated). Mary is off doing her own devotional type thing (also not too surprising given the Mary-Martha account in Luke).
This may or may not, some debate, be connected with the sinful woman anointing Jesus at Simon the Pharisees's house (see Luke 7:36-50) and or Simon the Leper's house (see Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9) (detailed in Simon the Leper entry at Wikipedia). I'll let you ponder those connections and possibilities if you are so inclined.
What we see is an enormously expensive amount of nard (1 pound, worth 300 days' wages--half again as much as the disciples estimated it would cost feed 5,000 people in the gospel of John). Mary pours this expensive gift over Jesus' feet and wipes his feet with her hair. She is even beyond sitting at Jesus' feet choosing "the better part". Perhaps she is showing affection and love for the return of her brother. Perhaps she is preparing Jesus for his own imminent death. Perhaps she has rightly discerned who this Jesus really is.
This is not a text about neglecting the poor (as Judas alleges). It is a text about the sacrifices of a broken (open) and (perhaps) contrite spirit (see Psalm 51). And clearly Jesus does not despise her.
God, give us hearts for worship and adoration like Mary of Bethany. Amen.
Our appointed gospel text for this coming Sunday is Mary anointing the feet of Jesus in the gospel of John.
This is, in case you care and lost track, number 15 in the countdown to the end of e-vos. I hope and pray it blesses you.
Peace,
Karl
------------
1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 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. 4 But 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.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
The 11th chapter of John details Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This anointing of Jesus feet was referred to proleptically ($50 word for before it happened) in John 11:2. The Mary we are talking about is the sister of Martha and Lazarus who are both present but silent in this account. Martha is serving (not too surprising given the Mary-Martha account in Luke 10:38-42). Lazarus is at the table (perhaps still a little tuckered out from being dead for four days and then resuscitated). Mary is off doing her own devotional type thing (also not too surprising given the Mary-Martha account in Luke).
This may or may not, some debate, be connected with the sinful woman anointing Jesus at Simon the Pharisees's house (see Luke 7:36-50) and or Simon the Leper's house (see Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9) (detailed in Simon the Leper entry at Wikipedia). I'll let you ponder those connections and possibilities if you are so inclined.
What we see is an enormously expensive amount of nard (1 pound, worth 300 days' wages--half again as much as the disciples estimated it would cost feed 5,000 people in the gospel of John). Mary pours this expensive gift over Jesus' feet and wipes his feet with her hair. She is even beyond sitting at Jesus' feet choosing "the better part". Perhaps she is showing affection and love for the return of her brother. Perhaps she is preparing Jesus for his own imminent death. Perhaps she has rightly discerned who this Jesus really is.
This is not a text about neglecting the poor (as Judas alleges). It is a text about the sacrifices of a broken (open) and (perhaps) contrite spirit (see Psalm 51). And clearly Jesus does not despise her.
God, give us hearts for worship and adoration like Mary of Bethany. Amen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment