Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for our meditation is written in the 14th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 1 – 15 & 27:
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; 2 for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”
3 While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4 But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7 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. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 13 So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written,
‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’
A woman named Mary, twelve seasoned disciples, a room filled with the fragrance of the finest perfume, a broken alabaster jar, and a Saviour drenched and dripping with the finest imported perfume. I am sure that you are familiar with the story. It was Holy Week. Jesus was only a few days from arrest and trial and crucifixion. But, tonight it was a celebration. It wasn’t so long ago before this night that Lazarus had been dead and buried, but tonight, he was sitting at the table with Jesus – and his sister Martha and Mary were there. The Passover was just around the corner. Jesus was with friends in the familiar village of Bethany. It was a happy night, but we don’t hear about that. No, this evening meal is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and John for one reason only: because of what Mary did.
Mary had already made a mark on the Gospel stories. Remember, she was the one sitting and listening to Jesus while Martha cooked. But, tonight, Mary really did it! Sometime, while everyone was still seated, or as John tells us, reclining around the table, she came to Jesus with an extraordinary gift. The perfume Nard was imported from northern India, from a plant that grew there at the foot of the Himalayas. It wasn’t cheap. Mary had almost 12 oz. (that’s about 350ml) of it, worth about a year’s wages—by today’s standards, it was worth tens of thousands of dollars. This precious nard was bottled in a glass-like, translucent alabaster flask or bottle, with no lid. This bottle was sealed, as one piece, the nard encased within. It did not have a screw top, a wax plug, or even a cork. There was only one way to open it—snap off the top. It was a single-use dispenser. There was no way to use just a bit, no way to save some for later. So, Mary used it, pouring it—all twelve ounces of it—over Jesus’ feet and hair.
We’re actually not told exactly why Mary did it. Was it love for her Lord? Was it gratitude for the resurrection and healing of her brother Lazarus? Was it an act of worship? We can’t know for sure. We just know what she did ... and we know what the disciples thought about it.
John’s Gospel singles out the reaction of Judas, but Matthew lets us know that this time, at least, Judas was speaking for all twelve disciples. They were shocked. They simply could not believe what they were seeing. This was way over the top. Sitting and listening while her sister worked was one thing, but this was different. This was just wrong!
We could justifiably ask, what was so wrong about the disciples’ reasoning? You can’t reject the force of the argument just because it comes from the mouth of Judas. Jesus himself had taught the lesson well— deny yourself, avoid the foolish indulgences of this world, scorn its deceitful vanities, focus on the needs of others, pay attention to the poor and to the social outcasts. So, why not take that luxury, that obscenely, embarrassingly expensive jar of pure nard, and sell it so that the money could be used for something important—something like helping homeless people, or reaching out to people who had lost everything in a sudden disaster? Why not use such a valuable resource for a good, God- pleasing purpose like doing evangelism work or building a church for a remote village that has no church? How could they justify merely pouring it out in one fleeting moment – even if it was to honour Jesus? Come on—there are other ways to honour that don’t come with such an absurd price tag. They were the compassionate conservatives. Mary was the wasteful liberal. Mary surely was a misguided fool at best, and a wasteful thief at worst, taking food from the mouths of starving babies to fuel her extravagant demonstration of affection!
The truth is though, we are just like the disciples, we like to play it safe. We like to do what is controlled and reasonable and frugal and careful and responsible. So, we give what we think is reasonable—and consider that a great feat. We covet and hoard our time and exercise our right to relaxation time, this may be good in moderation, but are we reasonable about our rights? Does this mean a few extra hours of meditation in front of the TV? Some extra communing – with nature? Playing it safe leaves Jesus unimpressed.
You know, I can’t think of a single time in the entire Scriptural record where anyone was ever commended or praised by God for playing it safe. Every time someone tried to play it safe, it ended with a rebuke from God. It was not that way for Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David, and Elijah. They were praised for taking a risk on what God said to them. The faithless servant who buried his single talent was rebuked! The rich fool who had every future plan perfectly covered and retirement all worked out was condemned. God is not impressed with a play-it-safe attitude.
So, the conservative, play-it-safe disciples missed the point entirely. Here in Bethany, they we left wanting. And then, in a few days in the Garden, when Jesus was arrested, they again did the safe, responsible thing, and they fulfilled Jesus prophecy in our text; “You will all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ They ran and hid from impending danger.
At Golgotha, only John mustered the courage to make a brief appearance —the rest were nowhere to be found. Of course not, it was dangerous to be there ... better to play it safe, right? The disciples were wrong. Mary was right.
Mary was 100% right! She was completely vindicated. Jesus did not play the role of mediator. Jesus did nothing to try to pacify both sides in this confrontation. He didn’t throw even a dry bone to the disciples and their calls for “be smart, play-it-safe” ministry. He did not even gently remind Mary of the importance of keeping things in balance, and the need to avoid extremes. No, it was not an issue of neglecting the poor. Jesus’ ministry proves his love and concern for them, and it was not an issue of making choices between competing goods. It was simple. It was an issue of a broken container and now could only be used completely with nothing held back.
You see in Jesus’ eyes the vessel that was broken, the vessel that won the praise of Jesus was Mary herself. The broken alabaster container was only a symbol of a much more significant breaking that had already happened. In her love for Jesus, and in her singular desire to serve and honour him, Mary was holding nothing back. Like the broken jar that had to be completely spent once it was broken, so Mary could keep back not one thing in her devotion. She did not give herself halfway. She did not give part. She did not do what was safe, or even reasonable. That’s what love does. It’s gives all of itself.
Isn’t that the way God has loved you and me? God so loved the world that he stopped short of sending his Son? No. God so loved the world that He sent one of the millions of angels He could afford to give up? No. God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son. Jesus told His disciples that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for your friends; and Jesus proved that...by laying down his own life. He was broken and His whole life was poured out on that cross. He didn’t hold back a little life. He didn’t just merely faint. No! like that alabaster jar he was broken and his whole life was poured out. Not just for his friends, but for the whole world.
He poured His entire redeeming blood over us head to foot, covering us in the fragrant aroma of His perfection. He gave himself completely for all the times you and I hold back loving God with our whole heart, soul and mind. He gave himself extravagantly for every time you and I try to play it safe. That’s why He is our Saviour. That’s why He is our substitute before God. He did what we don’t do, for what we find excuses not to do.
So, what’s that mean for us? It seems to me that the lesson is at once obvious but so painfully demanding we want to try to avoid it. Jesus doesn’t want us to be play-it-safe disciples. He wants us to be broken jars that can’t hold anything back. So, does this mean that you need to go out and spend $40,000 on a bottle of perfume, and then go looking for a likely candidate who could use anointing? Probably not. But it does mean that perhaps it is time now to pull out the stops and to knock down the safety barriers and to go all - out in faith in the way we serve God.
I’m not sure that Mary fully realised what she was doing that evening in Bethany; but she got it right. Jesus took that broken vessel, that object of ridicule, and restored it as a wonderful example of love and devotion for all time.
Stepping out unreservedly in faith means that we never know with what or where our Lord and Saviour will challenge us, but we can be certain that He who Phil 2 “found in human form, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” has given all that He had that we may have salvation and eternal life, and will keep His promise Matt 28 “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” As we go forth into this Holy Week let us stand with Jesus through His trials and suffering; let us mourn at His death and on Easter Sunday let us rejoice in His victory over death that he has won for us into eternity. Amen
The peace and love of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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