The Fifth Sunday of Lent

Preached by The Very Reverend Robert Neske, Dean, at Saint Mark’s Pro-Cathedral, Hastings, March 21, 2010

John’s account of the anointing of Jesus six day before is something of a set-up for what will take place in the coming days. It is a set-up because most of the key players in the Passion are present when Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus performs this remarkable act of humility and devotion by anointing Jesus’ feet and then wiping them clean with her hair. All of which is meant to serve as a prefigurement of Jesus coming passion and death upon the cross. We need to understand that for John, Jesus’ cross and passion is the most important aspect of Jesus coming into the world; just as his subsequent resurrection will be the culmination point for God’s plan of salvation for the whole of humankind.

The incident in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in the town of Bethany which was a village about a mile and half from the city of Jerusalem has two parts; the first is the anointing of Jesus feet, while the second is that we learn something about Judas Iscariot, who up to this point in the narrative has simply been one of the twelve. It is of course Judas’ reaction to Mary’s anointing which sets the passion in motion.

It was the custom in those days when inviting people to dinner to provide water and toweling so that people could wash their feet. You will recall that in that part of the world people ate while reclining on couches so as an act of courtesy to the host and to one’s neighbor you washed your feet upon entering the dining area. Anointing someone’s feet with perfumed oil was unheard of, unless you were preparing a body for burial. So Mary’s actions were indeed something out of the ordinary and prefigure Jesus death.

It is the evening of the sixth day before the Passover, which would begin on the coming Friday, so it was Saturday after the end of the Jewish Sabbath. The next day would be Palm Sunday, when Jesus and the twelve would be going into the Holy City and our Lord would cleanse the Temple. All of the elements of the passion are coming together and there can only be one outcome, and that is Jesus death. Mary’s actions are meant to underscore the reader of John’s Gospel that Jesus hour is approaching.

“Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair.” In some ways it is curious that Mary used nard to anoint our Lord, because nard was not one of the traditional ointments or spices used to anoint the dead in preparation for the grave. Nard was more associated with a wedding and a funeral. You see nard was a very expensive ointment that came from India. In the Old Testament it is mentioned in the Song of Solomon as a perfume giving fragrance to the king’s couch; it is also listed as one of the fragrances used to symbolically praise the bride. To anoint Jesus feet while he reclined at dinner would indeed be to give fragrance to the king’s couch.

Significantly, though not surprisingly, the scent of the nard fills the room. John would have us understand that everyone in the house will be touched and affected by Jesus death; just as they touched by the scent of the ointment. If anyone needed proof that Mary’s actions are meant to prefigure Jesus death they need only see that she has loosened her hair to wipe his feet and dry them.

A pious and modest woman in Jesus day did not loosen her hair in public; women kept their hair bound and covered lest they create a scandal. The only time a woman unbound her hair was in the presence of her husband alone or when in mourning. Her actions then are of a woman in grief for a loved one. Of course there were some people in the room that night, who missed the significance of Mary’s action and thought the whole incident scandalous and improper, not the least of whom was Judas Iscariot.

One of the hardest things for the early Church to understand was Jesus betrayal by Judas. It was incomprehensible to them that one who had been with Jesus throughout his ministry, who had been present for his teaching, who had witnessed his miracles, could be led to betray him for money. For many of us the worst thing that one person can do to another is betray someone. It doesn’t matter what form that betrayal takes, whether the betrayal of a friend or the betrayal of one’s trust, marital infidelity, treason against one’s country, it really doesn’t matter what form it takes, it is simply the worst thing another can do – it why we used to hang traitors and why we probably still should, especially those who betray friend or country for money. Luke’s explanation for Judas betrayal was very simple, he saw Judas as the tool of Satan; John however had a more common-place explanation; Judas was a thief.

Judas looked upon Mary’s action and saw a complete waste of a very expensive ointment, one which could have been sold and given the poor is the rational provided not that he cared one wit about the poor, but that was the point it was a waste, both to anoint Jesus feet; the feet of one who was not dead and would get up and walk and get them dusty once more, and no doubt clean them any number of times before he is arrested, so yes it was a waste. In the same way it was also a waste of effort if nothing else for Mary to anoint his feet and then dry them with her hair – not the best thing to dry anything with truth be told, still each action was nothing less than an act of love; an offering of herself to her Lord.

But then again, for those who measure all things and every action by the standards of the world, then much of what we do as Christians is a waste. A waste of time, a waste of money and effort, a waste of our lives if you listen to some people, but then they don’t get it, they will never get it. They will mock and deride and dismiss and diminish the good actions of the Church as hypocrisy and revel in the Church’s failures because we are so very fallible, but still they will never get it., they will never understand that it takes courage to have faith and even more courage to act upon our faith and in accordance with the demands of our faith, yet this is the life to which we have been called, a life of faith and hope and love, wherein more than anything else we need to be faithful lest we betray Christ like Judas.