In ancient history, and certainly back in the First Century of the Common Era when Jesus was alive, sometimes peoples’ heads were anointed with oil. This was done as a sign of royalty or as a gesture of healing. But anointing their feet! It was unheard of! Nobody did that except, perhaps, to prepare a corpse for burial.
But Mary does it. The prayerful sister of Lazarus and Martha anoints Jesus’ feet with fine, fragrant oil. Then she does something else a respectable women like herself just wouldn’t do…She takes down her hair and wipes his feet. So the oil on his feet becomes also the oil in her hair, and they’re bound up with one another in a new, fragrant way. It’s a lavish, extravagant act of hospitality, love and gratitude. Perhaps Mary did it because Jesus had recently brought Lazarus back to life from death. Or maybe she and his other close friends knew that the end for Jesus was probably near. Whatever her motives, the anointing of his feet was a way Mary honored Jesus’ presence among them and a way of expressing deep love and appreciation. It’s something Mary did with wild abandon…Not thinking of how it looked or knowing exactly what it meant…She just did it! And Jesus responded with appreciation and prophetic understanding, “She has prepared my body for burial.” And so this anointing of Jesus’ feet links hospitality, love and gratitude with suffering, death and new life.
This anointing story in the Gospel of John falls just after Jesus raises Lazarus and just before Jesus enters Jerusalem for that final, terrible week of his passion. The word of Jesus’ raising Lazarus had gotten out quickly to the authorities.and it may have been what finally did him in…The last straw. The Gospel of John makes it pretty clear: There was some cause and effect between Lazarus coming out of the tomb, and Jesus having to go into a tomb. In that, Life is given, not only to Lazarus, but to the whole world. . .To you and me. Consciously or unconsciously, Mary had anointed Jesus’ body for burial. In doing that, she helps prepare us for the dramatic journey of Holy Week, which we’ll begin next Sunday.
Today, however, I want us to focus on this tender anointing. To think of the times in our lives when Jesus is among us—In prayer. In worship. In silence. In the form of some beloved person…perhaps a little child, or a very old, frail person, or a dear friend, or a lover. These are precious beings who, life teaches us over and over again, may not always be with us. I know many of us have learned this personally over this last year with the loss of a relative or friend.
So what do we do when we have LOVE incarnate NOW in our very midst? Do we honor it with lavish, extravagant hospitality…Seemingly wasting costly, sweet oil just to soothe and pamper? But, what would “costly oil” be for us today in the 21st Century? (Probably not nard!)
(BTW I have some nard. It’s a pungent, odd, sweet smelling stuff. And I’ll put it on my hands today as I pass the Peace… so you can see how its fragrance fills the room.)
If for us today, it’s not costly nard, I wonder what would be an equivalent that we might “waste” in response to the presence of LOVE in our midst? Perhaps the thing in our busy, wealthy culture we value most and the thing that seems most scarce to us—is TIME. Can we lavish TIME on God and on those people who are most important to us? Or do we squander it on the many other things that will always be there demanding our attention?
[In his popular book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes of the difference between things that are urgent (like the phone ringing) and things that are important (like time with God or loved ones). He stresses the value of determining what’s not important, and ruthlessly letting go of those things; then determining what is important, and spending the bulk of our time doing those.]
So, what might we do today that’s like the odd thing Mary did for Jesus by anointing his feet with sweet oil and then wiping them with her hair? Remember what she did was unexpected, uncalled for, out of order and socially inappropriate; yet it clearly conveyed hospitality, deep affection and gratitude. It embodied Mary’s priorities.
Are there times or ways we might abandon our conventional selves because we are so filled with love and thanksgiving? Are there times we can just let the phone ring because we’re in the middle of an important conversation with a little child? Mary models this for us. It’s something God probably longs for us to do. ‘Something our souls long to do. What is the wild abandon you could express in response to the presence of LOVE in your life? How could you show true gratitude?
The late Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote, “(Humankind) will not die for lack of information, but it may perish for lack of appreciation.” (1965 Who is Man?)
It’s the appreciation for the miracle of Life and Love Heschel is talking about. How can we anoint the feet of Life and Love in our day? If we do find ways, they will no doubt be different for each of us in their particulars. But in order to prepare for the events of Holy Week, in order to prepare for Jesus (an innocent man) to suffer and die the most terrible death for our sakes, in order to prepare to receive the wonderful Good News of the empty tomb and risen Christ (Which is, after all, the POINT of Jesus’ passion), and in order to live our lives in the Hope of sharing in Jesus’ resurrection, we must prepare “the body for burial” in our own ways.
In a sense I think this is what we’ve been doing as we five churches have shared Lent together in this 6-wk Season of Common Worship. We’ve celebrated the LOVE and LIFE that’s right before us—Anointed it lavishly with the best we have, bringing the rich gifts and graces from all our churches to participate in making something new—together. It’s unconventional. Unexpected. And we’ve done it joyfully, because we have the advantage of knowing the rest of the story: The tomb is empty: LOVE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH OR HATRED OR VIOLENCE!
We can celebrate LOVE and LIFE now! It’s not too late, and it will make the rest of the story of Holy Week and Easter much, much sweeter as it unfolds.
Amen.
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