A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 16

Chapter 16 – Anger

 

Anger. There sure is a lot of anger in the world today. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but it feels like people are getting angrier as time marches on. Does anyone else feel that?

 

Certainly, there are reasons to be angry. God tasked us as human beings to care for the world and we have practically destroyed it. We fill the air with pollution. We kill each other, whether through war or murder. We allow people to starve by claiming there isn’t enough food in the world for everyone. We look the other way as the number of people without a permanent address increase daily. Looking around at what we have done to ourselves, we should be angry. Anger is what stirs action. Anger is what brings forth passion.

 

But the anger that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 5:21-22 is not the anger that propels forward social justice matters. No, it is the anger that breeds contempt for another person. There is nothing wrong with feeling angry. It is a natural human emotion, and one that if you push down and hide away only gets worse. But when anger festers, or when you choose to be angry at someone indefinitely, making the decision not to talk things through and work pat the anger, that’s when it might turn to contempt.

 

As Dallas Willard says, “The intent and the effect of contempt is always to exclude someone, push them away, leave them out and isolated…Contemptuous actions and attitudes are a knife in the heart that permanently harms and mutilates peoples’ souls.” (p. 95-96) I have experienced a lot of instances throughout my life where I was excluded from events. Whether on purpose or not, I’ll never know. But there are two times in particular that have stuck in my mind for a very long time and will likely remain there as part of my core memories. (Cue characters from Inside Out.)

 

I had a group of high school friends who went our separate ways after high school but continued to meet up at least once a year, usually because our one friend who had moved to Australia had come to visit their family back here in Canada. One year, I was scrolling Facebook and saw a post where all of them had gotten together, but no one had invited me. I’ll never know what happened and I never got the courage to ask.

 

At one time, I was part of a pipes and drums band where I thought we were all friends. I guess I wasn’t actually considered a friend because they literally planned a Barbecue weekend with me sitting at the table where the host asked each person individually to come, except for me. Again, I don’t know the reasons for this, although I have my guesses.

 

Was there anger involved in these stories? I don’t know. But there was certainly contempt which led to exclusion isolation, and a permanent harm to my soul. This is what Jesus calls us to avoid. Rather than be angry with our siblings in Christ, talk things through. Maybe there was an injustice done that can be rectified. Maybe there were feelings hurt that could be mended with an apology. But to hold a person in anger and contempt leads to harm and the ending of friendships.

The Revelation to John: An Introduction: A Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter

May only truth be spoken, and truth received. Amen.

Angels blowing trumpets! Monsters rising from the deep! Lakes of fire and rivers of blood! So much colour! So much noise! The imagery found within the pages of the Book of Revelation is extraordinary but also so very confusing. Revelation is probably the strangest book in the New Testament, the hardest to understand, and creates an incredible polarization – you either love it or hate it. Why? Because it has beautiful writing that is quite appealing to the imagination, but it also talks about the end of the world. So, after all of the celebrations of Easter Sunday, why on earth would the lectionary give us 6 weeks of Revelation? Well, because despite it all, Revelation is a book full of hope!

 

Over the next few weeks, we are going to explore the Book of Revelation but as is typical with our Sunday lectionary, we will only be reading sporadic chunks. So, I recommend that you go home and read the book in its entirety.

 

I want to start by pointing out couple of misreadings of the title of the book. Unbeknownst to the everyday reader, the title of the book has gotten twisted up over time and has become “The Book of Revelations of John.” There are two errors here. First, it is the Book of Revelation, singular, not the Book of Revelations, plural. This is an important difference because the entire book, no matter how full it is, refers to a single Revelation – that earth and heaven met in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Second, the book is often erroneously called the Revelation of John when, in fact, it is the Revelation to John. The first verse of Revelation says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place, and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.” It is clear here that God revealed something about Jesus Christ and the future of the world to John and then the second verse tells us that John was tasked in testifying to what he heard from God.

 

Revelation can be read in a few ways. Overall, it appears to be written as an extended letter. The book opens and closes like a letter and, in verse 4, it says that John is addressing this letter to the 7 churches in Asia. Then, throughout the first 3 chapters, there are specific addresses to each of the individual churches. Revelation is also presented as a prophecy. As with other prophets of the time, John pulls on earlier scripture and brings them forward to flow to and from Jesus Christ. The content of Revelation, with regards to prophecy, is a series of colourful warnings about what will happen once God’s purposes are fulfilled. Finally, Revelation is first and foremost apocalyptic literature.

 

Apocalyptic literature is defined as a genre of heavily symbolic literature that displays distinctive literary characteristics and claims to unveil the truth about the world as viewed from an apocalyptic perspective, with the main themes being the end of the world, the defeat of evil, and the vindication of the righteous. When we think apocalypse, we might picture movies like The Day After Tomorrow, 28 Days Later, or Independence Day. Movies where the entire world might come to an end if the heroes don’t save the day. Or a movie like Hunger Games where the world is depicted post-war and looks completely different than what we know the world to be today. But the apocalyptic literature found in the Book of Revelation is quite different than those movies.

 

In Greek, the language in which Revelation would have been written, the word apokalypsis means revelation or unveiling. It is the origin of the English word apocalypse and while the term is commonly used to describe a catastrophic event or the end of the world, its literal meaning refers to a revelation of hidden knowledge or a vision of the future. So, when we’re talking about apocalyptic literature in the time that Revelation was produced, the goal of the writer would have been to reveal or to pull back the veil and tell the truth about events going on or visions from a seer. According to Mark Powell,

“The Book of Revelation seeks to pull back a veil and show Christians the truth about God and the truth about the world in which they live. Accordingly, the message of the book is both negative and positive, an oracle of doom infused with a promise of hope.”

 

It’s for this reason that when we read the Book of Revelation, we must shift our focus from the events surrounding the end of the world to the hope that is found in the meeting of heaven and earth in Jesus Christ, our Messiah.

 

Returning to the introduction to Revelation, to John’s letter to the 7 churches in Asia, you can see that John is pointing us to Jesus Christ, to the one who is “the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” John is reminding these communities, communities who are suffering under the Roman Empire that continues to wreak violence and destruction, communities who are losing hope that their world will witness the promises made by God through Jesus, John reminds them that Jesus died on the cross in order to make them all “priests serving God” and that Jesus will return to defeat the evil and injustice of the empire.

 

John tells the churches that Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection are the promise that God has always been and always will be with us. But more than that, John reminds his people that no matter what, God’s authority, not Rome’s, is ultimate. God is the “Alpha and the Omega.” God is the one “who is and who was and who is to come.” God is “the Almighty.” God is in charge of the world and God will have the last word.

 

And therein lies the hope of Revelation. That the work of Easter is not yet done. Easter is not a one-and-done kind of event, but part of a continual unfolding of God’s redemptive work bringing all of creation into the kingdom of justice and peace. Here, on the second Sunday of Easter, we don’t simply say that Christ is risen. We say there is more coming down the pike. We say:

“God loves us.

God has already freed us from our sin, and we know there is still brokenness aplenty in this beautiful Easter world.

God will come back, with the clouds, to finish the work Easter unleashed.”

 

Amen.

Resources

pulpitfiction.com

"Feasting on the Word" edited by David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor

"Revelation for Everyone" by N T Wright

"Introducing the New Testament" by Mark Allan Powell

Pastor Michael Kurtz

A Review of the Book "Misery" by Stephen King

Title: Misery

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc

Year: 1987

351 pages

From the Back: Bestselling novelist Paul Sheldon has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes, and she is dismayed to discover Paul's plans to kill off Misery Chastain, the heroine of his beloved series. Annie is more than a rabid reader - she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. She is also his captor, imprisoning him in her isolated house, where no one knows he is.

    Annie wants Paul to write his greatest work - just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an axe. And then there's the blowtorch.

Personal Thoughts: This wasn't one of the better Stephen King books I've read so far. It was pretty dull and slow. There were no really tense or dark moments as there have been in previous novels. It was an easy read and didn't take me long to finish the book, but the quality that I found in previous writings just wasn't there. Perhaps it was just because I knew the story already, having seen the movie, but in a rare occurrence on my part, I would opine that the movie was better than the book.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 15

Chapter 15 – The Greater Righteousness

 

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:20)

 

Jesus didn’t come to erase the law; he came to enhance it. Societal laws exist for good reason. It makes sense to not steal, to not murder, to honours your elders, etc. Jesus doesn’t deny this, he wouldn’t deny this. As a Jewish man, he would have been well-versed in Jewish law.

 

What Jesus teaches is for us to move beyond the surface level laws, and to look at our motivation for not breaking the commandments set by God. Yes, you shouldn’t steal, but are you no stealing in order to stay out of trouble, or are you not stealing because it would harm your neighbour? Same with resisting killing another person – is the fear of jail stopping you, or is it love?

 

The teaching of Christ is this: “Love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and they neighbour as thyself.” (91) If you follow this teaching, then following external laws should be easy and assumed. If you follow this teaching, then your motivation for how you live your life is based on love, not self-protection.

 

I think churches as a whole need to remind themselves of the teachings of Jesus. There is a lot of self-preservation going on – trying to protect buildings, traditions, reputation, image, and the list could go on. With attendance dwindling, churches are looking inward instead of outward, forgetting that they are there for the community, not just for themselves.

 

Now more than ever, Jesus’ call to love God and love the neighbour needs to be our priority. Our righteousness will shine through by protecting our neighbour, lifting up the oppressed, and fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves.

 

This is what Jesus has taught us to do.

We Told You So!: A Sermon for Easter Sunday

Photo by Brett Jordan on pexels.com

May only truth be spoken, and truth received. Amen.

The women in our text today, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others, were broken-hearted, confused and their spirits were in turmoil. They were still reeling from the events that had taken place over the last few days. Their time with Jesus seemed all too brief. Not only did it end much too soon, but it ended in a way for which none of them were prepared. While it was true that they had heard him refer to his death at various times, none of them expected things to come crashing down the way they did. None of them truly believed what Jesus had been telling them all this time.

 

At the beginning of the week, when he had entered Jerusalem, the whole town had been moved by his presence. People stripped palms from the trees and threw down their cloaks to cushion the steps of the donkey upon which he rode. They rejoiced greatly as they sang glad hosannas to his name. They gave so much praise that some of the religious leaders wanted him to quiet the crowd. Just one week ago, today, these women had come for Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Now they are draped in their garments of mourning, and with tear-stained eyes and with trembling hands they carry bottles of ointment to anoint his dead body. They have come in the dark to the tomb where they expect to find his dead, cold and partially decayed body. They still couldn’t believe it – Jesus was dead! The man who everyone thought was going to save them from the Romans was crucified like a lowly criminal!

 

Now here we are on the first day of the week, at first light, and the women are headed to finish the work on preparing Jesus body because, by Jewish law, they weren’t able to do so on the Sabbath. Boy, were they ever surprised to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty! The women went to the tomb expecting to finish the burial process and were surprised to find the tomb empty. But how can that be? Dead people stay dead…don’t they?

 

But their Lord was not in the tomb, because he had risen just as he had said he would, just as he told them all throughout his ministry. Jesus had told them that he would be handed over to sinners, crucified, and then rise again on the third day. He told them so, and now these women, standing in the empty tomb, remembered his words. And they ran. They ran straight back to the rest of the disciples to proclaim the Good News – Jesus has risen from the dead! These women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others, instantly went from disciples to evangelists.

 

Except for one thing…no one believed them. Luke wrote, “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” You could easily slough it off and say, “well, in that time, women weren’t considered credible sources.” But how often are the words of women cast aside simply because they are women, even today? Despite these women being the first proclaimers of the Good News, there are still denominations and countries that feel women are not fit to be preachers. So, Peter and the other men declare their disbelief in the women’s statements and Peter runs to the tomb to see things with his own eyes. And he reports back that he found things exactly as Mary, Mary Magdelene, and the other women said it would be. Can’t you picture at least one of them, hands on hips, staring the men down, and thinking, or even saying, “We told you so!”

 

The women, carrying their precious spices and ointments to minister to the body of Jesus, didn’t expect resurrection. Peter, running to the tomb after the women’s declaration that Jesus’ body wasn’t there, didn’t expect resurrection. And I’m sure none of them had a clue as to what was going on. The resurrection is hard to believe. It was surprising, despite Jesus’ constant warnings, and it was beyond anything that the people could believe or imagine. The resurrection is hard to believe and hard to understand, so let’s not pretend we have a clue as to what really happened that day.

 

We may not understand it, but the resurrection is everything to us, as Christians. Without the resurrection of Jesus, he was just another prophet, martyred for stirring up the public and standing by what he claimed, despite knowing he’d be killed for his words. Jesus’ resurrection changed everything; it turned the world on its head. The New Testament offers no account of the act of the resurrection of Jesus. We have reports of the empty tomb, and in the weeks to come, during the weeks of Easter season, we will hear the stories of encounters with the risen Christ. But we have no stories, no account, no evidence of the actual resurrection event. No one was in the tomb with Jesus to see what actually happened.

 

This is where our faith comes into play – is it true even if no one saw it happen? If the resurrection of Jesus is not true, Paul says to the Corinthians, “we are of all people most to be pitied.” If the resurrection of Jesus is not true, then we are doomed to very short and pointless lives, and to be defeated by the suffering that we continue to see all around us, to be defeated by death itself.

 

What could we possibly use to measure the impact that the resurrection of Jesus has had upon the world – the ways in which forgiveness, joy, reconciliation, self-giving love and charity have wrought miracles and abundance on the face of this earth in the time since we have first heard that Jesus is risen from the dead? How does this surprising and inexplicable event continue to change the world?

 

The moment God raised Jesus from the dead, the world was turned inside out. and we say that it is no less true today than it was on the first day; it is no less miraculous today than it was on the first day – no less shocking, no less joyful, no less important, no less life-changing and meaningful. The power of the resurrection is that it turned terrified followers hiding out in fear into bold witnesses then, and it still does today. When a group of people are no longer afraid of death, whether it's because they have nothing left to lose or because they believe in the movement or because they believe that death is not the end, those people are the most dangerous of all to societal status quo. Those are the people who affect change. Those are the people who fight for justice and peace.

 

Resurrection people are willing to speak truth to power, to live their lives authentically and loudly, even in the face of hate. And every time we get a hint of the resurrection, the empire loses a bit of power, the world gains a bit more courage, and we start to bring about the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven. The women told us so, now it’s time to tell others. This is not the time to stay quiet.

 

Alleluia! Jesus is risen!

Jesus is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Resources

pulpitfiction.com

episcopalchurch.org

"Luke for Everyone" by NT Wright

Bishops Susan Johnson (ELCIC) and Anne Germond (ACC)

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 14

Chapter 14 – The Law

 

Erroneously, the Christian New Testament is sometimes thought to be a replacement to the Hebrew Scriptures. The arrival of Jesus and the work he did in his ministry has been claimed to supposedly cancel out everything that happened prior to his arrival. Almost as if God wasn’t satisfied with how things were playing out, so God sent Jesus to put a stop to everything and get everyone on the right path.

 

Well, that last statement might have some truth to it. God sent Jesus to fulfill the law, but not it in the way most people think. First let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is not Christian. Jesus was Jewish, through and through. Matthew makes that especially clear in the genealogy of Jesus found at the beginning of his gospel. Therefore, Jesus would have grown up Jewish, including learning the Torah and all the laws found therein. So, what does it really mean when it’s said that Jesus fulfilled the law of the Torah?

 

In this week’s chapter, Addison Hodges Hart attempts to answer that very question. She states, “It would seem that he means that the Torah becomes ‘complete’ when it goes into the hearts and lives of his hearers and changes them from the inside out.” (p. 87) Jesus’ fulfillment of the law is to get people to move beyond the literal and deep into the meaning and purpose behind the law. Jesus wants us to focus on the motivation behind the law and bring forth action. In Jesus, the Law is fulfilled when people do the commandments not just think about them.

 

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ call to action. It is his way of teaching that the law is fulfilled not just by him, but by all of us. The law is fulfilled by the opening of our hearts to the deeper meaning behind the law and to put it all into practice. There is nothing being cancelled only expanded. If only we would open our hearts to Jesus.

A Review of the Book "Bringer of Dust" by J.M. Miro

Title: Bringer of Dust

Author: J.M Miro

Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada Limited

Year: 2024

598 pages

From the Back:

With the orsine destroyed, Cairndale lies in ruins, and Marlowe has vanished. His only hope of rescue lies in a fabled second orsine - long-hidden, thought lost - which might not even exist.

    But when a body is discovered in the shadow of Cairndale, a body wreathed in the corrupted dust of the drughr, Charlie and the Talents realize there is even more at stake than they'd feared. For a new drughr has arisen, ferocious, horned, seemingly able to move in their world at will - and it is not alone. A malevolent figure, known only as the Abbess, desires the dust for her own ends. And deep in the world of the dead, a terrible evil stirs - an evil which the corrupted dust just might hold the secret to reviving, or destroying forever.

    So the dark journey begun in Ordinary Monsters surges forward, from the sinister underworld of the London exiles, to the mysteries of a sunlit villa in nineteenth-century Sicily, to the deep catacombs hidden under Paris. Against bone witches, mud glyphics, and a house of twilight that exists in a netherworld all its own, the Talents must work together if they are to have any hope of staving off the world of the dead, and saving their long-lost friend.

Personal Thoughts: Bringer of Dust was a fun book to read. I almost always like it when authors have multiple storylines going because I find the back and forth keeps me moving along in the book. Sometimes it doesn't work and gets confusing or annoying but that wasn't the case here. At some points I was trying to figure out how it was all going to fit together, but Miro came through with an ending that was both enjoyable and satisfying.

    You can see on the cover that this is the second book of a trilogy, however the third book isn't yet published. I'm not too worried about is though. Where I felt that Ordinary Monsters ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, Bringer of Dust did not. So while I would definitely like to read the third book once it's published, this isn't one of those times where I wished I had waited until all the books existed before reading the series.

A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 13

Chapter 13 – Salt and Light

 

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matt 5:13-14)

 

For me as clergy, examining this verse from my theological perspective, I take that statement to mean Jesus is passing us the torch, telling us to pick up where he left off in caring for God’s creation. Jesus is our light, then, now, and forever, and we are to follow him faithfully. God named Jesus the light of the world, and now Jesus is naming us the light of the world.

 

For me as a transgender person, looking at the same statement from a personal point of view, Jesus is telling me to be a light to others, to be a beacon to those out there wondering if they can be transgender and still keep their Christian faith. My call to follow Jesus is one of transparency, of being completely open and honest about myself as a way to make the unknown familiar and to create a stepping stone to reconciliation.

 

For too long, the church as a whole has asked those of us who are transgender and non-binary to put our lights under a bowl, to keep ourselves hidden away as if we were a dirty secret. My hope is that if I put my light on its stand and let it shine, then others will gain the courage to put their light on its stand as well. It’s as Charles E Moore says, “[Jesus’s] concern is not that his followers get more involved in the world, but that they don’t become like the world and lose their true identity. He wants his followers to remain true to who they are…Be who you are, wherever you are, no matter what.” (p. 75-76)

 

I pray that, one day, differences will be celebrated instead of tolerated, and that no one will feel the slam of the church door in their face. We are all God’s creation, and we deserve to be seen.

Unexpected Love: A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Photo by Fulvio Ciccolo on Unsplash

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, for you are our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Jesus has been on an emotional roller coaster these last few days. He finds out that his best friend is dying and arrives four days too late. He is overcome with grief and screams loud enough to wake the dead, literally. Even for God’s son that must have been taxing on Jesus’ body and spirit.

 

After performing this miracle, Jesus knew that his time of being relatively under the radar of the Romans was coming to an end.

 

A huge crowd has gathered at Bethany to see Jesus and Lazarus and the Romans are not liking it one bit. The chief priests begin to ploy Jesus’ death. Jesus has traded his life for the life of his friend.

 

By raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus has graduated from a slight nuisance to a serious threat. His days are numbered and he knows it. When he arrives at his friends’ house in Bethany, they can see it on his face.

 

As with the last time Jesus was in Bethany, Martha waited on him while Mary sat at his side. Jesus was happy to eat and drink in the company of friends, likely trying to forget about what is to come, even if only for a moment.

 

Emotionally and physically spent, Jesus takes solace in the company of his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They care for him, shutting out the world for this one night at least.

 

Then something beautiful happened. Something so unexpected and so special that it has become one of our most beloved stories.

It happened right before the Passover, in this lovely little house that is a safe place for Jesus.

 

Mary takes a pound of expensive perfume that would cost a years’ wages, lets her hair fall, and begins to wash the feet of Jesus. She is weeping, kissing Jesus’ feet, anointing his feet with the perfume as a gesture of deepest love, and drying his feet with her long hair.

 

In the middle of this tender and emotional scene, a spoilsport by the name of Judas, the keeper of the money purse, the man who sold Jesus to the Pharisees for 30 pieces of silver, grumbles that the gesture being made by Mary is a waste of money and the perfume should have been sold and given to the poor.

 

Jesus defends Mary by declaring that she is to be left alone because she is anointing him for his burial.

 

Isn’t that a beautiful story? Many of the actions in this short little story are unexpected.

 

It was unexpected that someone would use such a costly amount of perfume to clean someone’s feet.

 

It was unexpected that Jesus would dampen the mood by talking about his death.

 

And it was unexpected that he would engage in an argument over dinner with one of his disciples.

 

At the centre of it is Mary. From a previous story, we remember that Mary was complimented by Jesus for sitting at his feet and listening to him. After her brother had died, she was the one who ran out to Jesus and wept at his feet.

 

Mary was the listener, the emotional one, and the sensitive soul.

 

The way that Mary cares for Jesus in this story is quite unexpected in many ways. As everyone in the room watches her, she does four remarkable things in a row.

 

In a radical departure from appropriate custom, she let her hair down, her hair that had been tightly braided around her head. Women’s loose hair was perceived as being sensual by men in Galilean culture, as it is still true in some segments of present-day society.

 

Then she pours perfume on Jesus’ feet, a product usually reserved for anointing kings and new priests and then only on their head. And this wasn’t just any old perfume. No, this was perfume worth 300 denarii, valued at 300 days of labour. It was expensive.

 

Mary’s gesture with her expensive perfume appears as an exaggerated expression of hospitality.  At formal dinner parties, when guests reclined at table, and feet which had walked through the filthy streets were not hidden under the table, a slave would wash their feet; only, this household had no slave to do it.

 

In that time and place, it was taboo for a man to be touched by a woman. Normally a woman would only touch her husband and children, and only in private. But here Mary rubs Jesus’ feet in front of everyone. She doesn’t have a slave, so she did the job herself.

 

She wipes the perfume off with her hair, an inexplicable and bizarre act that was also a most loving and tender gesture, so intimate that it made everyone in the room feel uncomfortable.

 

Why does she do all of this? We know that Mary loves Jesus but was she so moved that she would make all sorts of cultural faux-pas?

 

Well, yes, in fact, she does love him that much. Mary’s act of devotion is such an ‘in the moment’ act of utter devotion.

 

As a household with connections to Jerusalem, Mary would have had inside information as to what was about to happen to Jesus, that plans were underway to arrest and execute him.

 

She would also know that crucifixion would be the method of choice by the Romans as their intention is to kill belief in Jesus as well as any further movement by his followers.

 

And she would be fully aware that this form of death does not allow for a proper burial with proper anointing of the body. Often the bodies of the crucified were left on the cross for the birds and animals to eat the flesh, with the remains later thrown into a pit.

 

Mary knew that Jesus was destined for something of singular significance, and she took it upon herself to prepare his body for it in the most extravagant way.

 

It is Jesus alone that Mary attends to, and she takes it up a notch by anointing instead of washing — and not his head or his body, but his feet.

 

Any act of anointing (of the head or the body) acknowledges and affirms something about the person being anointed.

 

Feet, in Hebrew culture, were the body’s means of taking action, of proceeding with intent; thus, in anointing Jesus’ feet, Mary open-heartedly affirms Jesus’ campaign.

 

Judas, by contrast, has serious doubts about Jesus’ campaign, and cannot imagine why it should be affirmed in such a categorical way.

 

But Jesus knew why. Mary was anointing Jesus for his burial.

 

Everything around Mary in this story is full of significance. Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, strongly argued against what Mary was doing for Jesus.

 

The flask of nard was from the funeral for Lazarus.

 

A freshly vacated tomb still smelling of burial spices was out in the yard waiting for a new occupant.

 

Mary could have anointed Jesus’ head and proclaimed him a king. He was already known as the king of the Jews after all.

 

But instead she fell at Jesus’ feet as if she knew something that others didn’t. She knew he was about to die so she dropped to her knees and poured perfume on his feet.  Only dead men had their feet anointed. To Jesus, this was a sign from God that his time was up.

 

Jesus traded his life for that of Lazarus and Mary was anointing him for his burial.

 

In contrast to Judas’ disloyalty and dishonesty, Mary overrides cultural norms to show a shocking intimacy of loyalty, trust, and love towards Jesus.

 

And Jesus defends her actions, declaring that her special affection for him was good and appropriate, no matter what Judas or anyone else had to say about it.

 

Jesus loved what Mary did for him. Not because she anointed his feet with expensive perfume or dried his feet with her hair, but because all of these simple gestures were symbols that she truly loved Jesus in a deep way.

 

For Jesus, women are more than sexual objects and child-rearing machines. That’s why Jesus does not have a problem with being touched by women, seeing them with their hair down, with women talking to men or being active with their bodies and alive in their senses. In short, in the Reign of God women are equal at the intellectual level, at the salary level, and at all levels.                          

 

We all know that God works in mysterious ways. God also loves to do the unexpected with, for, and through unexpected people.

 

Sarah wasn’t expected to have children and yet founded a dynasty.

 

Moses wasn’t expected to lead the Israelites to freedom.

 

The shepherd boy David was never expected to be king.

 

People expected the Messiah to look like King David. Instead, they got a carpenter born to a young virgin.

 

The crowds who followed Jesus expected him to throw out the Romans. Instead, the Romans crucified Jesus.

 

Jesus’ followers thought his death meant the end when really it was only the beginning.

 

So, who’s next? Who is the next unexpected person God will work through?

 

Is it me? Is it you? Look to your left and right. Is it one of them?

 

God is about to use any one of us at any time for anything.

 

Maybe your neighbor needs some extra care or a listening ear. Or maybe a child needs help resisting peer pressure at school.

 

We won’t know until it happens. All we know is that God is regularly in the business of surprising us with where God shows up, whom God uses, and what God accomplishes.

 

Sarah was chosen and she said yes.

 

Moses was chosen and he said yes.

 

David was chosen and he said yes.

 

Mary was chosen and she said yes.

 

If you are chosen, what will be your answer?

 

The circumstances surrounding and the events occurring during Mary’s anointment of Jesus is symbolic and yet unexpected.

 

As we approach Good Friday, Jesus’ death is foreshadowed by his anointing by Mary, the sister of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead.

 

Mary may have been the only disciple in the room who truly comprehended what was to come in the next days. As she anoints his feet, clearly she is foreshadowing what custom would soon entail.

 

While Mary saved that pound of pure nard for the day of Jesus' burial, she anointed him while he was still alive. Mary anointed Jesus for continued love and service. And for sacrifice.

           

As she lovingly prepares him for death, then finally for burial, she grieves openly and shares in his suffering.

 

Jesus traded his life for that of his best friend, Lazarus. And it was Lazarus’ sister who anoints Jesus for his burial.

 

Judas is uncomfortable with Mary’s display of devotion. Where Mary gives, Judas hoards. Where Mary sacrifices financially, Judas seeks self-benefit.

 

And yet, what Judas critiques as waste is, in fact, the greatest gift that Mary can give. Not expensive perfume or money but the offering of her very life, stripped of all masks, given in service to Christ.

 

Can we say we could be as Mary? Can we give everything we have to God? Can we be God’s unexpected person through which God accomplishes awesome things?

 

Only you can answer that for yourself.

 

Amen.

Resources

pulpitfiction.com

katebowler.com