Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Pastor Roy Hemmerling shares a powerful story in a devotional book called Daily Readings from Spiritual Classics.

It was Christmas Eve morning in Korea.  A missionary debated whether or not he should visit a young pregnant woman who lived the next village over.  She was single--had no family.  He knew her due date was approaching.  He decided to make the quick trip--just 5 miles away—even though he didn’t really have time.

His visit was short; he had Christmas Eve services to perform in his own village, after all.  But he was glad he’d gone.  The visit had meant a great deal to her.  Her spirit seemed lifted.  She was sure the baby would be born in a day or two and asked him to return as soon as he could.  He assured her he would.  And then he left, just as a light snow began to fall.  He’d heard that there might be a storm.

In the middle of the night her labor pains began.  Being young and afraid, the woman decided to try to walk to the home of the missionary.  As the light snowfall turned into a storm, she found shelter underneath an old bridge, where she gave birth to a son.  The next morning the missionary rushed to see how the woman was, but his car broke down.  So he got out and walked.  As he continued his journey on foot he heard a faint cry as he crossed the bridge.  Scrambling below he found a baby wrapped in his mother’s clothes and the frozen, naked mother beside the child. 

We can’t begin to imagine the pain, fear and suffering that that mother endured for the sake of her son.  The night must have been brutal.  But when we hear the story we know that there was no other way.  Her love was so great that she did whatever was necessary to save his life—even if it meant losing her own.  It’s a story of extravagant love—you could say, a sacred love--not a practical act, but a sacrifice that led to new life.

The Gospel reading today is another story of extravagant love. In it’s telling we’re given a glimpse of a sacred moment.  The scene is the last event before Jesus enters Jerusalem on the day we now call Palm Sunday—an event that will have our attention next week. 

Things are heating up for Jesus.  The situation is intense.  The few verses proceeding today’s story reveal that the authorities have made a decision.  Jesus needs to be killed.  He’s performed many signs.  More and more people are believing what he says.  He’s creating a movement.  Pilate will not tolerate the threat.  If Jesus isn’t arrested and killed, hundreds of others will be.  Jesus has got to go. 

Jesus knows this so the gospel writer tells us he no longer travels in the open.  Jesus does make his way to Bethany—accepting an invitation to dinner from his dear friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  Good medicine for Jesus, I imagine, to be surrounded by love when his suffering and death is imminent.  The dinner was their humble way of showing deep gratitude for what Jesus had done for them.  Raising Lazarus from the dead affirmed their faith.  They had received the gift of new life.  There was no room for doubt.  Jesus was the Messiah—sent by God to reveal God’s great plan for the world:  to be healed, to be made whole.

The focus of the story is on Mary who does four remarkable things, told by John in one short verse. 

First, she loosens her hair in a room full of men.  An honorable woman would never do this.  Then she pours expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet--strange behavior in light of her earlier confession that Jesus was Lord.  Had she poured it on his head that would have made sense—a practice reserved for kings.  But Mary anointed his feet which was an act reserved for the dead. Then she touches him—a single woman rubbing a single man’s feet.  This was an act of complete devotion, a sign of intimacy-- not at all appropriate.  Finally, she wipes the perfume off with her hair—such bizarre behavior it can’t be explained.  She’s breaking all the rules.  Her behavior is over the top.  Excessive.  Not at all practical.

Which Judas is quick to point out.  “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for a whole lot of money and given to the poor?”  Who of us can argue with that?  It would be the Christian thing to do. 

But Jesus rejects Judas’ critique.  “Leave her alone,” he says.  “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.”  Which seems a bizarre thing for him to say.  Jesus, chief advocate for the poor, dismissing them?

But Jesus isn’t dismissing the poor.  He’s referencing Old Testament scripture that would have been familiar to all the ears in the room. (Deut 15:11) Jesus’ words acknowledge that caring for those in need is woven into the very fabric of what it means to be God’s people.  Jesus is naming the reality:  the poor will always be present until all creation is made whole.  But Jesus’ time on earth will come to an end—and soon. 

Jesus is directing us to a different dimension of thinking.  There’s more going on than what first meets the eye. 

First, Mary’s gesture shows she’s giving her life to Jesus.  She was overwhelmed by gratitude for raising her brother from the dead.  She’s responding to Jesus’ great love by showing him complete devotion.

Professor Craig Koester offers a number of comments about foot washing in the first century that help us to better understand the radical nature of Mary’s action.  He writes:

Foot washing was a routine matter of cleanliness, and the use of oil or ointment on one’s feet was soothing for those who wore sandals.  When guests arrived…the host usually provided a basin and water for the guests to wash their own feet. Before sharing the meal….A slave was virtually the only one who could be expected to wash and anoint someone else’s feet.  Washing or anointing the feet of another person remained identified with slavery…those who voluntarily washed someone else’s feet showed they were devoted enough to act as that person’s slave.

Mary’s response to Jesus’ gift of life is to offer him her own life.  Her response to his love is complete devotion.  She will serve him…now and always…even after his death which leads us to something else going on in the text.

Mary is acting as a prophet.  Her action reveals a truth.  When she anoints Jesus’ feet she’s pointing to his death.  The use of precious perfume may be extravagant and impractical but it pales in comparison to the extravagance of what Jesus is about to do. God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son!  It’s not a practical act.  It’s excessive, over the top—but that is who God is—as revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is about complete self-giving.  Mary is simply enacting what Jesus is doing.   Theologian Gail O’Day writes in one commentary:  “if in the raising of Lazarus, Jesus is fully revealed, then in Mary’s anointing of Jesus, faithful discipleship is fully revealed.” 

And in case we don’t get it?  Jesus shows us again. 

The next time Jesus gathers his disciples for a meal it’s the last time.  Its’ during this meal when Jesus stands up, takes off his outer robe, ties a towel around his waist, kneels at the feet of his disciples and washes his feet.  When he’s finished he gives a new commandment:  Love one another, as I have loved you.

This is what it means to live life in Christ.  Love one another as we have already been loved.  Care for each other.  Pray for one another.  Serve the neighbor in need—not just because it’s the good and right thing to do but also because in our act of serving God’s plan for the world is revealed:  to be healed, to be made whole.  In our act of serving we show our devotion to what God is up to in the world.

We are pilgrim people.  We’re on a journey but our bold claim made in faith is that we do not walk alone.  God is with us whether or not we recognize the Holy in our midst. We look to Jesus and like Mary, we are grateful for the gift of God’s immense love and for the gift of life.  Mary’s story serves to inspire us all--to respond to God’s love with humble acts of a servant’s love for God and love for others.

As we do, we enter into the reality of extravagant love, sacred love—not something practical, but a sacrifice that leads to new life.  This is what makes the story about the Korean mother with which I began so powerful. 

After the missionary buried the mother, he took the infant home and raised him as his own. Eventually he adopted the little boy but the missionary never let the mother’s story die.  Every year on Christmas Day they would visit the grave of the brave mother.  On the boy’s 12th birthday, as they came upon the grave, the boy asked the missionary to remain at a distance.  The missionary watched as the boy took off his clothes and sat in the snow of his mother’s grave.  It was then that the child cried out, “Mother, were you colder than this for me?”  His response to her great love was to enter into the pain his mother had endured. There was no doubt, he lived because of her extravagant love. 

The same is true for me and you.  Your life is a gift.  A great sacrifice was made so that you might know the depth of God’s love.  You’ve done nothing to earn it.  You can do nothing to lose it.  It’s excessive, over the top, extravagant.  But this is who God chooses to be.  The 12 year old Korean son responded with compassion.  Mary--with complete devotion.  And you?

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